quaking aspen

1. My birthday is sometimes the autumnal equinox.
2. I have dark blonde hair and blue eyes.
3. I’m 5’6” but usually feel short.
4. I live in bare feet and sandals.
5. I recently started wearing makeup now and then.
6. As a rule, I tend to ignore my appearance.
7. I’m the oldest of four: two brothers and a sister.
8. I wish it was easier for me to get up early in the morning: I’m a night owl who wants to be a morning lark.
9. I am an introvert who sometimes pretends to be an extrovert.
10. I have filled 28 spiral notebooks with journaling/writing ideas/etc. since 1998.
11. I’ve wanted to be a writer since 5^th grade.
12. I’m blissfully married, and I stay at home with my two small children.
13. I met my husband on a blind date (set up by my cousins).
14. I love talking with my kids; I just can’t wait to see what they’ll say or do next.
15. I’ve lived in four countries (Canada, Germany, Israel, U.S.), and in four states (Arizona, Missouri, Virginia, Washington).
16. But I’ve lived in 23 different houses/apartments.
17. 13 of those were before college.
18. I don’t know where I want to live when I grow up.
19. I was an English major.
20. I never changed my major, nor my intentions for it, not once.
21. And no, I do not want to teach, thankyouverymuch.
22. I have always been more earnest than witty.
23. I love reading poetry, well, some poetry. I love reading anything, though I haven’t been doing as much as usual of late.
24. I wish I could draw. And watercolor. I love watercolor paintings.
25. I like to eat Oreos and Brie cheese.
26. Yes, together.
27. I have never: drunk alcohol, smoked, done hard drugs.
28. I don’t like getting water on my face, or in my eyes.
29. So no, I really don’t care for swimming.
30. I’m not very athletic – all my hobbies involve sitting.
31. Except I think I really like yoga.
32. In high school I was pretty kickbutt at floor hockey goalie.
33. High school was a fairly miserable time.
34. But the end of sixth grade was worse, when I had no friends and people mocked me for my lack of athletic ability.
35. Some favorite movies: Toy Story, Serenity, Phenomenon, Notting Hill, Sense & Sensibility, Runaway Bride, The Incredibles.
36. I haven’t watched TV regularly since early high school.
37. But sometimes I watch TV series on DVD: Bewitched, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Lost.
38. Our family rule: we don’t buy a movie until we’ve seen it.
39. I don’t think I ever want a TV in my bedroom. And my kids will certainly never have one in theirs!
40. I was Robin Hood as a kid.
41. I don’t tan, I burn.
42. I played Suzuki violin as a three year old, and also in 5^th grade for a little while.
43. I took about 18 months of piano lessons.
44. I know maybe five songs on the piano that I play pretty well.
45. But no, I don’t “play.”
46. I have a lap harp, which I mostly neglect.
47. I like harp because even when you’re a raw beginner, you can still make pretty sounds come out. (Not like violin.)
48. I also have a wooden pennywhistle. I’m very proud of having taught myself to play (tolerably well).
49. I prefer acoustic music.
50. I love a cappella.
51. I also sing: usually soprano, but sometimes alto. I sang a lot in college; I’d like to be in a real choir again.
52. I used to wear contacts, but now I wear glasses.
53. I prefer to work in the background.
54. Though I used to secretly wish I could be a star stage actor.
55. I love music, but I don’t own an mp3 player.
56. Nor do I buy many CDs.
57. But I listen to the radio. Mostly my likes depend on the song, some appeal to me, some don’t, but I like most classical, country, celtic/folk/bluegrass, and acoustic rock. I really love early music (Palestrina, chant, Monteverdi, Bach, etc).
58. I don’t have a cell phone either.
59. I crochet and knit. (More crochet than knit.)
60. I am newly obsessed with amigurumi; I like making toys generally.
61. I love knitting on double pointed needles; I’ve never knitted a pair of socks, but I should really try it.
62. My hobbies/interests tend to go in cycles: for example, I’ll get really into knitting for a while, finish the project (if I’m lucky) while the momentum lasts, then not touch a needle for months.
63. Except for writing and scrapbooking: those I want to do all the time.
64. I always wanted to collect music boxes. But only if I like the song in them. A lot. They should be melancholy and/or haunting.
65. I was way obsessed with purple in high school. (Really, it was a running in-joke with my friends.)
66. Right now I like sage green and sunshine yellow and cornflower blue. And white.
67. Foreign languages I have studied: German, French, Latin, Spanish, Old English (aka Anglo-Saxon), Hebrew, and Irish Gaelic. And American Sign Language.
68. I am, sadly, not fluent in any of these (though I was pretty good at German as a kid).
69. And when I try to think of a word in one language, my brain runs through it in every other language first.
70. If I ever have to get a “real job” (outside my home), I’d like it to be sign language interpreter. This will take a bit more schooling.
71. I’m saving my pennies (literally; and my nickels, dimes, quarters, dollar bills, and fives, tens, twenties when I can squeeze it) for a Nikon D50 digital SLR camera. In an old peach jar, so I can see some progress.
72. I am easily amused by simple things.
73. I also laugh ridiculously easily.
74. Some favorite authors: Robin McKinley, Cynthia Voigt, Orson Scott Card, Peter S. Beagle, Shannon Hale, Octavia Butler, Natalie Goldberg, J.K. Rowling, Carol Lynn Pearson, Joss Whedon, Anne Lamott, Madeleine L’Engle.
75. I hope to someday meet some of my favorite authors; and hopefully have an actual conversation, not babble like an idiot.
76. I like to have a reason to interact with people; if we don’t at the very least have something in common I turn very shy and awkward.
77. I like root beer, but usually avoid soda.
78. Computer/video games I have been obsessed with: various MUDs, JewelQuest, Dungeon Siege, Tetris, Spider, Freecell, Minesweeper, Oregon Trail, Super Smash Bros.
79. I used to play the card game SET way too much.
80. I have no pets currently, but will probably eventually have a cat. Maybe a dog. We’ll see.
81. I think of myself as easygoing, but I am really a closet perfectionist.
82. I own many books. But I love the library. And I reread books constantly.
83. I’m very fond of children’s/young adult novels, particularly fantasy.
84. I’ve kept an online journal/blog on and off since my half birthday, in March of 2000.
85. I spent the summer of 1999 in Ireland and Great Britain. Great trip.
86. I greatly preferred animal toys to dolls as a child. (So does my daughter now.)
87. I love folk- and contra-dancing.
88. I wear a silver, celtic-knot type toe ring on my right second toe that I never take off.
89. I have a way-too-high tolerance for clutter.
90. I tend to be a packrat, but especially with stuffed animals and paper items.
91. I really adore beanie babies (though not in a super-crazy collector way), mainly because of the wide range of animals they make: exotic and not-so.
92. I liked to climb trees as a kid.
93. I was homeschooled through 3^rd grade.
94. I won an Easter coloring contest when I was really little, like five or six. I think the judges thought it was very creative of me to color it all in florescent crayons. Really, they were just the first things that came to hand.
95. I adore musicals. And old black and white movies. They make me laugh, but charm me at the same time.
96. I am a Christmas tree ornament junkie.
97. I am not discriminating enough – not willing to shut off my options by saying: I like this and not this. I most often just like it all.
98. I’m a freak, weirdo, strange one, etc. who passes rather well for normal.
99. But boy do I attract the freaks. Unfortunately not always the cool ones.
100. I may use my middle name, Jeanne, as part of my publishing name. I like it and I never get to use it because the rest of my name is so long.

Posted by falwyn on Friday, August 25, 2006 at 3:17 PM | Permalink