A Facebook Intrusion

I've been tagged a number of times lately in friends' Facebook notes requesting 25 random things about myself. Now that I have amassed a set that's benign enough and random enough, I figured I'd post them both on Facebook and on here. So here we go.

25 Random Things About Me

1. Matea and I moved to Vermont in ’03 (it’ll be 6 years in May!). We had our civil union at long last in March of ’04. Now it’s time to expand our family.
2. I’ve never been more disappointed than when I saw both friends and strangers vehemently (or, worse, casually) supporting Prop 8. I’m certain that one day you’ll come to be just as disappointed in yourselves and your judgment.
3. I’m a pretty slow reader, which didn’t help when I was reading hundreds of texts for my MA in English. My obsessive underlining and marginalia didn’t speed things up, either.
4. My Myers-Briggs score: ENTJ (I was borderline E, and if I were more honest, I might be a solid I.)
5. I read thousands of useless facts. I also love Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy. I also research everything. I wouldn’t buy an electric pencil sharpener without reading a couple hundred reviews of it first.
6. I take a spreadsheet on every vacation. It includes an itinerary with the name of venue, contact info, description, and address. GPS systems have increased my enjoyment of road trip vacations ten-fold. I like to know what I’m doing and how to get there (plus, when you’re with Matea, you don’t mess around when looking for the outlet center)! Spontaneity happens along the way.
7. I have been vegetarian for about 5 years now. The choice was based on ethical, environmental, and health-related reasons. I found that attempting veganism was too socially isolating, so I relented (happily) and decided to stick with small amounts of cheese and eggs.
8. I have a love/hate relationship with writing. I feel compelled to do it, but writing a story takes me to a strange place mentally, so that I’m almost completely disengaged with everyone else in my life. Lately, the choice has been to disengage with the writing.
9. My favorite thing to do is watch movies. I think my record is somewhere around 8 movies in one day. When the production studio’s intro plays, I am completely engulfed. I really love a good documentary, too. As far as television goes, I’m quite amused by The Office, 30 Rock, The Daily Show, and Boston Legal.
10. In high school, I had a rainbow of hair colors, wore grungy clothes, and ran around the halls pretending that bees were attacking me. Today, I’m unbelievably normal. I still miss my puke-yellow jacket, though.
11. In elementary school, my friend Leslie and I used to make audio tapes of ourselves doing radio shows, commercials (don’t squeeze the Charmin), etc. I remember once I was Rue McClanahan and she was Betty White, for some reason. …Another of my childhood friends wrote about a rock fight in her 25 Things. I had one once, too, and threw a sizeable rock directly into the mouth of my neighbor Jason. It knocked out a couple of his teeth, and his mother was NOT happy. Similarly, I accidentally broke another friend’s foot in third grade. Sorry again, Shawna.
12. I have never had a broken bone, despite the fact that I played every sport I could from third to tenth grade. I used to have a true passion for softball. In high school, I also played basketball and volleyball.
13. In our dorm at Clemson, when we still ate meat, Matea and I used to cook frozen chicken fingers in our (illegal) toaster. We took the smoke detector down so it wouldn’t go off. We’re lucky we’re alive.
14. I am confidently agnostic, proudly Unitarian Universalist.
15. Why did we have to wear that weird beanie in Girl Scouts?
16. I sucked my thumb until I was 9, with no ill effects on my teeth. I do have a tiny dimple on my thumb now, though. Also when I was 9, I was in the play “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” at the community theater in Greenwood. Also, my teacher Ms. Daniels made us give her back massages during class. She was a somewhat robust woman, and we called the flanks of her back her “waterbeds.” I shudder to think about it now. I also remember her constantly yelling at us to “ferme les bouches” and “stop bitching!”
17. My second year of grad school was one of the best times of my life.
18. I have been passing back and forth a half-eaten piece of pizza crust (now shellacked) via different creative vessels (inter-office envelope, the toilet of a pop-up book, a voodoo doll’s bag, a pure-sugar Easter egg, etc) with my friend and co-worker Mary for about 2-3 years now. The crust in still, unbelievably, in pristine condition.
19. I am definitely no video game freak, but I do have a great affinity for the game “Rock Band.” I fancy myself a pretty awesome drummer. Haha.
20. I often find myself in stressful situations in my dreams, and many of them are action dreams, like I’m literally a ninja fighting against someone, or I’m being chased by someone trying to kill me. Some mornings I feel exhausted by the traumatic experience I’ve had.
21. I absolutely love my two pugs. Laney is 9 now, and Milo is 14; they have trained me well.
22. I really do try to live according to my principles, and I think I do a pretty good job at it.
23. I might get a history major one day. How will this help me? It won’t, but I can get it for free while I work at UVM. …Nevermind. That would be a huge waste of time.
24. When Matea turned 20, I got Papa John’s to make her a pizza with pepperonis arranged into a 2 and a 0. They mostly just looked randomly-placed, and I had to point the pattern out to her before we ate it. That same year, my Mom turned 40, and I did my best to make her a birthday cake (where were you, Matea?). It tasted like corn bread covered in icing. Thanks for eating it anyway, Mom. I’ve stopped attempting food-based birthday surprises.
25. I have a blog called “Places I’ve Gone Barefoot.” I haven’t been posting that often, but I hope to be more diligent about that. http://www.placesivegonebarefoot.blogspot.com/