100 Things About Me Meme

Well, I just realized that yesterday was my 200th post! I have to make a bit of a deal about this because I totally missed my 100th post. There is a sort of lose blogger tradition of doing the “100 things about me” meme for your 100th post. Since I blew that, I’ll do it for my 200th (or actually my 201!)

First off, for those of you who are not familiar, a Meme is defined on the blogosphere as :

“an idea, project, statement or even a question that is posted by one blog and responded to by other blogs. Although the term encompasses much of the natural flow of communication in the Blogosphere, there are active bloggers and blog sites that are dedicated to the creation of memes on a regular basis.”

The term was coined by Richard Dawkins in the book “The Selfish Gene” his definition (scroll down to Meme) was

“a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation.” “Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation. …”

So, here goes!

1. I’m one of 5 children
2. I grew up in Eddington Maine
3. I have dark brown hair, fair skin, and hazel/green eyes.
4. I’m 5’2” and about 10 lbs over weight (although I don’t look it too much)
5. I’ve been married for 7 years
6. I have 2 children, Princess (5) and Buddy (3)
7. I attended the University of Maine at Orono and graduated with honors and suma cum laude with a BA in Psychology. Good thing I was in ROTC and had a job waiting for me-what do you do with a degree in psychology?
8. I was an Army officer for 11 years
9. I got my Masters of Business with a concentration in Logistics while in the Army. It only took me 8 years 🙂 (hey, I was working too ya know!)
10. I’ve lived in Maine, Maryland, Germany, Bosnia, Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky, Virginia (again), and NY
11. I love to travel
12. I have traveled to: Canada, England, Italy, Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Poland, The Former Chez Republic (ie Prauge), France, Japan, China, Tiawan, Malaysia, India, Turkey, Ukraine, Siberia, Greece, Egypt, Morocco and Bosnia/Herzogovina. But I’ve never been to Mexico, which seems funny because it’s pretty close to a lot of places I’ve visited in the US..
13. I would like to visit each state in the US at least once.
14. I circumnavigated the globe in college on a ship called the SS Universe with a program called “Semester at Sea”.
15. Growing up red was my favorite color. I once bought red shoes because I knew they would go with most of my outfits.
16. Green is now my favorite color, although I seem to be wearing a lot more brown, orange and pink than I used to.
17. We own 6 cars (3 antiques/classic), 3 motorcycles, a golf cart and a riding lawn mower (DH likes things with motors). That’s 11 things with motors for 2 drivers. . . We also have a pull behind camper and a small utility trailer.
18. I used to have my left ear double pierced.
19. I played the flute in band.
20. I’m an Alto, but if necessary can sing tenor through soprano.
21 I like country music, even the old corny stuff.
22. I hate doing laundry. Actually, doing it is ok, folding it and putting it away rots.
23. The only two foods I can think of that I actually hate (as in won’t eat at all) are anchovies and black licorice.
24. I’ve eaten a chicken heart while visiting Taiwan.
25. As a child I used to get violently carsick.
26. I once got my hand slammed in a car door as a child. It hurt, a lot. Luckily it was winter so my mom stuck my hand in a snowbank.
27. I climbed on a pyramid at Giza and watched the sun rise over Cairo. Just so you know, there are big signs all over the pyramids that say “it is forbidden to climb on pyramids” . . . .
28. I’ve never done any drugs except alcohol.
29. I always wanted a sno-cone machine and a easy bake oven as a kid, I never got one but DH bought me an easy bake oven Christmas ornament last year.
30. I’m Episcopalian. And no, that isn’t just “Catholic Lite”.
31. I’m a lay reader and chalice bearer at church. I’d sing in the choir too except I’m trying not to over commit myself.
32. I try to pray every night, but probably only do about 4 out of 7 days.
33. I prefer Diet Coke to Diet Pepsi, but like the vanilla and lime ones best 🙂
34. The most useful class I ever took in High school was typing.
35. I talk. A lot. And I get faster and faster the more excited I get about a topic.
36. I’m an actress. (non-professional)
37. I love to dance.
38. I’m a knitter.
39. I love sappy movies.
40. I never watch horror movies-freaks me out too much.
41. I love to read, I probably read an entire book about every 3 days. I love reading youth fiction. Dh teases me about it.
42. My first love for reading was sci fi & fantasy (leaning more heavily to fantasy)
Piers Anthony was my favorite author all through high school and jr. high, but I also loved Anne McCaffery and David Eddings.
43. I will get so into what I am reading that I can’t even hear people talking to me. I once started bawling in a doctors office while reading of a favorite character dying (Master Harper Robinton in the Dragon Riders of Pern).
44. I think “The Princess Bride” is one of the best movies of all time.
45. I used to love watching British comedies on PBS late at night on Fridays. I remember watching them and waiting for my oldest sister to come home from her dates (I’m sure she LOVED that. . . .)
46. I still haven’t been able to get my dh to sit through an entire showing of “The Holy Grail”.
47. I paid so many overdue fines to the Bangor Public Library growing up that my family used to tease and say I had personally funded the new addition they put on.
48. My father is a doctor, my mother a nurse, one brother is a doctor, a sister is a nurse and my mother in law is a nurse. I’m just surrounded by health care professionals. . . .
49. We moved to dh’s hometown about a year and a half ago and I love it, it is like living in Mayberry.
50. I love my coffee and drink it with creamer (medium light) and splenda. I probably drink about 3 cups of half-caf coffee a day.
51. My hair is short and I like to wear long dangly earrings.
52. I’ve fired a rifle, shotgun, M16A2, 9mm pistol and an M2 50 cal machine gun. I’m a decent shot, usually scoring “sharpshooter”.
53. I root for Tony Stewart in the 20 car.
54. I met DH in the Army in Germany.
55. I still keep in contact with 4 friends from college, 2 of those I’ve known since highschool, and 1 of those I’ve known since gradeschool.
56. I get teary eyed at ballgames etc when they play the national anthem.
57. I had a soldier die in my company when I was a commander and had to write his parents (they have someone else do the notification) and do the eulogy. That was hard.
58. I’m a sucker for pretty packaging. Those shiny gift sets they sell at Christmas really do me in-but I resist!!!
59. I hate how they rush the holidays. I refuse to listen to Christmas Carols until after Thanksgiving.
60. I make my Grandma’s awesome Thanksgiving stuffing with Italian sausage in it. Yum.
61. I’m a pretty good cook and like to try new recipes. I know how to use a boiling water canner and want to learn how to use a pressure canner.
62. It makes me mad when people don’t show proper respect for the flag-would it kill you to stand respectfully? I guess it’s the service member in me.
63. I make Christmas baskets for the family each year with candied orange peels, peppermint bark and watermelon pickles in them.
64. I really want to learn how to play the guitar. I took lessons for a few months but then my eczema on my hands acted up, when it got better I just haven’t had time to practice.
65. I’ve been knitting DH a sweater for his birthday for over 5 months now, and only have about a foot left on each sleeve. I love DH, and I love how the sweater looks but I’m sick of knitting it. I’m going to be glad to be done!!
66. Lately I’ve been researching the value of going organic (for health reasons) and am trying to weigh the added cost against the possible benefits.
67. I’m frugal (but you knew that)
68. I splurged the other day and bought myself a thin 2 tone diamond $125 dollar ring to wear instead of my wedding band (which is actually my wedding band, engagement ring and anniversary band welded together) when my eczema acts up.
69. I have way more clothes than I will ever wear, but 99% of them were bought at the thrift store.
70. I let my kids jump on the couch-they just have to take their shoes off. They are also allowed to stand on the coffee table and make forts from the sofa cushions.
71. I love craftsman style furniture and architecture, but live in a boring (on the exterior anyway) boxy 1970’s raised ranch.
72. I’m one of the movers and shakers locally trying to start a professional regional theatre in my hometown. I’ve been putting about 12 hours of work a week into it.
73. I think it is a wonderful thing for children to believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny as long as possible. After all, you have all the rest of your life without magic, lets make the wonder last as long as possible.
74. I don’t read the newspaper or watch the news-life is depressing enough and I’ve never been able to get too into politics.
75. I’d rather read a book than watch tv. Most of the time after the kids go to bed I just leave the tv off, unless
76. I’m watching all of the Little House on the Prairie episodes in order (from Netflix) and working on my Knitting in the evenings.
77. I was a total Whovian in the 80’s (Tom Baker rulz!) and was so excited that the new Dr. Who was showing on SciFi channel this year that I was literally bouncing up and down on the couch through the theme music every week-I’m now watching the ones I missed on NetFlix.
78. I’ve seen Les Miserables and 1776 on broadway. I would love to see Wicked and Avenue Q.
79. I love to eat out (unfrugal as that is, luckily with kids I don’t get much chance) and love to eat all sorts of international food. (ie Korean, Japanese, Indian, etc)
80. I like a good historical romance by folks like Amanda Quick, Johnanna Lindsey, etc.
81. I was scared of something grabbing my ankles from under the bed until I was past 20 years old. I used to jump into the bed from a foot away.
82. When I was in college, I used to refuse to look in the mirrors when I went into the bathrooms in the middle of the night, because how freaked out would you be if something else was looking back at you?
83. I try to be happy about the little things, because if you are then you can always find something to be happy about.
84. I used to love to climb trees as a child.
85. I’m a piler. Things are in piles all over the house. Clothes, paperwork, craft projects. It drives DH nuts but he’s pretty good about it.
86. I half wish magic were true, but if it was all the creepy and bad stuff would be true to, so the other half of me is glad it isn’t.
87. I’m trying, the older I get, to concentrate on quality of life and lifestyle rather than social position or things. I think that as a country we’ve gotten away from that.
88. I’m a jack of all trades, master of none. I just have too many interests-I want to learn a little about everything. I often think that if I were born in an earlier time where I didn’t have as many options I would have been able to pick one thing to be passionate about.
89. I’ve realized recently that you can’t have it all-the idea that a woman can do it all is a faulty bill of goods we were sold by the women’s liberation movement. When you try to do it all you wind up not doing any of it very well. Sometimes you have to give something up for the present (like career fulfillment) to do something you feel is important (like raising your kids) well.
90. I’m glad I’m not single. Having to date again would be a pain.
91. I’ve parasailed.
92. I had a slot to go to airborne school (ie to parachute out of planes) but came down with a violent stomach flu. Since I’m not fond of heights I decided that it was God’s way of telling me not to do it and have never tried, or planned to try it again.
93. I would never ever ever bungee jump.
94. I don’t like rollercoasters.
95. I’ve tried to read the entire bible, but got stuck in Leviticus. The “who begat who” thing just killed me. Someday I mean to buy one of those “bible in a year” things and try again.
96. My dad used to cut my hair when I was a child. In a bowl cut. Enough said.
97. I have vivid memories of playing with my older sister’s Charlie’s Angels dolls.
98. I spent a lot of one summer when I was about 10 making a fake “journal” that was supposedly from a girl who used to live in our house, and I was going to plant it in the barn and try to convince my younger sisters and brother that it was real. A lot of the beginning consisted of poems I copied out of the Lord of the Rings. I never did get around to going through with it though. (but I have the journal somewhere)
99. I write poetry, but only when I’m really sad, troubled or full of angst, so I haven’t written any in over 10 years. Some of it is good, but a lot of it from high school is pretty contrived.
100. This is the first Blog meme I’ve ever done.