25 Random Things

Thia Karen has a post on 25 Random Things. You know, 25 things you may not know about her. A lot of her friends have posted on this, too, and some of them are so funny. Who would have thought booger picking in the car would make the list~?! So, this is an all out nothing held back kind of thing. I am having trouble writing this, it may take me a few days.

1. I hate to look in a mirror. Remember in Sex and the City when Charlotte said she would spend hours looking in a mirror, finding all the wrinkles and picking at things? I cannot even begin to imagine that. Looking in the magnification side of a mirror is like a horror movie. Whose damn pores are those? It looks like the surface of the moon.

2. I spell words to myself and then break them up into syllables and into groups of letters. This made me a fabulous speller in school. It is hard to spell a word wrong when you have been playing with it in your head. Although now I rely heavily on Spellchecker on my computer. I mean who really knows how to spell transependymal edema?

3. I love getting funny e-mails from my friends, but I really do not like the chain letter ones. I am sure I have the worst luck coming my way because I delete them or never pass them on (unless they are funny). Wait, is that my phone ringing? Is it fortune calling saying I have won a million bucks?

4. I cannot figure out my favorite color. When I was younger my favorite color was orange because my favorite stuffed animal was orange. (My mother tried to throw it away once.) You know those darn e-mails where you answer questions about yourself and they give you an analysis? One of the questions is inevitably what is your favorite color. Well, what mood am I in at that moment? Sometimes my favorite color is black, sometimes it is green. I like blue but I do not like walls painted blue. Not sure why.

5. I love to laugh. A lot. Does laughing release endorphins or something? I went to a performance once where my oldest daughter was dancing in the Nutcracker. I was sitting in the audience with family and friends. After the play, my daughter said she knew I was there to watch because she could hear me laughing from backstage~!

6. When I am super mad, I clean. I mean raving mad, sputtering mad, the kind of mad where you can barely contain yourself, but I love cleaning house when I am this mad. I scrub and scrub and scrub and pretty soon I feel better, or at least I am less dangerous to those I love. I really dislike popping off to people but I am quick to apologize.

7. I used to think I was going to be 5 feet 10 inches tall when I was younger. I got my all my height when I was around 10 years old. I towered over everybody. There are pictures of me with all the kids in the neighborhood and I am taller than everyone, even if they are my age. But, fate is a weird thing, because now I am short~! Go figure. I only made it to 5 feet 3 inches, well, if I strain and reach, I am that tall. I am probably closer to 5 feet 2-3/4 inches.

8. I took a grammar class in college and did so well the teacher asked me to be a tutor for the subject. I could diagram a sentence like no one else. Unfortunately, all that knowledge leaked out of my head a long time ago. I always wonder if the knowledge is there but it is filed away in a strange folder in my head and have no way to retrieve it? Ummm, I wonder.

9. My friends mean the world to me. Without them, I would be curled up into a ball in the fetal position right about now. As it is, I have the makings of being a hermit. I work at home, so I work in my pajamas. Do you realize there are times when I do not get out of my PJs for 2 days or so~?! But they make me laugh and because of them I try not to dwell on my fears. Which brings me to #10.

10. Fear. After being married for 25 years and now being alone, I am afraid. Will I be able to work until I drop? There is no way I can retire, ever. Will I have a job in a year? In a month? I am self employed in a business that is probably going the way of the dodo bird. I would love to go back to school, but realistically, who on earth hires somebody over the age 50? Will I meet a man who I fall in love with? Or will I be alone?

11. I think I like to travel. I have been to Spain, France, and Italy. Loved Spain, not so much France, and Italy was fascinating but the people, well, not so much. It did not help that I was traveling with about 90 teenagers, so that may have had something to do with the glares we would get. What can I say? We were so obviously American it was painful. Vatican City is so worth going to. St. Peter's Basilica is incredible. The size of it was overwhelming and the history is incredible.

12. I love science fiction~! Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Orson Scott Card, Joe Haldeman.... I could go on and on. I love science writers, too. I have books on chaos theory, fractals, quantum physics, molecular biology, anthropology.... 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of my favorite movies.

13. One of my favorite authors is Ayn Rand, but another is Robert Fulghum. They are incredibly different but I would take one book from each author to go with me to a desert island.

14. I love long hair on men~! I mean I am a sucker for it. The clean cut look is nice but, well, not my cup of tea. Picture Brad Pitt in "Legends of the Fall" or Hugh Jackman in "Van Helsing". (Hugh Jackman in anything is good.) Sigh. Men always cut their hair when they get older though.

15. I am a Ranger girl, not a Joe Morelli girl. In the Janet Evanovich series with Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter, she has two male characters who jockey for position with Stephanie and everyone always wonders who she will end up with. I would definitely run away in a heart beat with Ranger.

16. I have a new found love for certain kinds of music. I have rediscovered Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Stabbing Westward, Fatboy Slim, H.I.M. I tried like mad to get someone to go with me to see Nine Inch Nails in September, but sadly, there were no takers. My iTunes library is now over 7,000 songs, but I still do not own an iPod. I do not like reggae music. Not at all. Not even a little. Maybe if you got me stoned I might, but who needs an over 50 year old smoking pot? Weeds is funny on TV but who wants to turn Temecula into Acrestic?

17. I am hopeless about keeping up with pop culture. I do not watch that much TV. I have NEVER seen Gray's Anatomy, CSI, X-Files, Desperate Housewives, E.R., etc., etc. You get the idea. I like to discover a show after it has been on a while so I can buy the DVD and then watch it without commercials or having to wait week after week for the next episode. I do own Lost, Heroes, Gilmore Girls, Buffy, Angel, Sex and the City on DVD.

18. I deliberately turned off the answering machine to my home phone so I did not have to listen to messages. Is that bad? If you know me well enough, you have my cell number, otherwise I probably do not want to hear it. I hate ringing phones but I love to get text messages. Weird.

19. I like reading books on being a tightwad. America's Cheapest Family is a great book, The Ultimate Cheapskate is funny, and the Tightwad Gazette was a hoot. I do like to spend money, but I do not like shopping, especially for myself. Claim Jumpers, Barnes and Noble, Target, they get all my money. Oh, and Costco, of course.

20. I wish I was better at first impressions. I always think I am right about someone but I usually end up being wrong. My daughter says that when I start dating (yikes!), she has to help me pick a guy out or at least meet him right away just to make sure I am not being a dummy about it. As if. What guy wants to meet the teenager right away? Although when we were playing on Match.com, she spotted a teacher she used to have and he was weird to say the least.

21. Am I the only one whose lips are always dry and cracked? I buy Blistex all the time and now I have a jar of vaseline on my desk because it is cheaper and works better. Hey, maybe that tightwad stuff is rubbing off~!

22. I love the smell of orange blossoms in the spring. We used to live behind an orange grove when we lived in Moreno Valley and that smell was the best. We used to drive back and forth to Norton AFB and there were so many orange groves when you cut through Redlands, and the bonus was getting to see all the old Victorian homes.

23. I like driving aimlessly. Just wandering around. Drive to Julian for apple pie or to Idyllwild and all the fun shops up there. San Diego is a favorite place to explore. Coronado Island, Old Town, Gaslamp District, Point Loma, La Jolla, the Zoo. I am learning my around there since I have 2 brothers who live there.

24. I like going to Vegas, but I do not gamble a lot. The only game I play is roulette and that is only fun if everyone is playing so we monopolize the table. It is truly a fairly mindless game but it can be fun. The last time I went, I did not even do that though. I like the pools and spending all day lying around and swimming. It is strange to be drunk before noon. I like the shows, the pretty hotels, the people watching, the dueling piano bar at Napoleons in Paris, Paris, Thunder Down Under, eating and drinking~!

25. I love being a grandma but I am not so good at it. Any pointers out there?? My grandson is the cutest!! Even his grumpy aunt thinks he is the best and she does not like little kids or babies. Of course, I would never trust Teddy Bear with a baby anyway, so it is probably a good thing she does not like kids yet~!

I did it~! Hope you like them.