100 Things Meme

1. My sister made me do this meme.
   
2. She saw it at Brightstar’s place (I’ve seen it at Russian Violets, Polyopia and I think somewhere else, too) and obviously wants me to be cool like Brightstar is.
   
3. Not much chance there.
   
4. I mean, Brightstar’s got a hamster.
   
5. I can’t compete with that.
   
6. I did grow up with a lot of animals though.
   
7. We had dogs and cats and chickens, and ducks (multi-colored, too), and a lamb and a couple of horses, and hamsters and gerbils (maybe?) and fish and I think that’s it.
   
8. I think a have a part of a memory of one of my parents killing a chicken.
   
9. It could have just been a story.
   
10. I wonder how much of my memories are simply stories that everyone tells a lot.
    
11. I have a brother and a sister.
    
12. I tried really hard to be my brother for a long time.
    
13. Sometimes I still do.
    
14. I always saw my sister as the coolest rockingest wild child – I mean, she at one point started to learn the bass so she could be in a band!
    
15. Then again, she played the violin too.
    
16. I played the cornet. Badly.
    
17. My best friend played the trombone. I thought he was so cool when he threw his trombone in its case down a hill. I thought he was a rebel.
    
18. Now that I think about it, I thought everyone was cooler than I was when I was growing up.
    
19. I’m definitely not cool now, but I’m very ok about that.
    
20. I listened to all sorts of gloomy music in high school.
    
21. I was moody.
    
22. I was deep.
    
23. I was angst-ridden.
    
24. I wonder if I would have been a goth if I went through high school now.
    
25. I was in theatre for a long time.
    
26. Even musical theatre
    
27. I played in Brigadoon in a community theatre
    
28. I also played Frank-n-Furter, but only one night.
    
29. Yes, I wore a bustier.
    
30. My roommate was very sad. It never fit her the same way again.
    
31. I can still sing almost all of the Rocky Horror Picture Show – even a lot of the stuff that you’re supposed to scream at the screen.
    
32. The funny thing is that with all these music quizzes, I don’t really consider music to be a big part of my life. I listen to a lot of music, and I enjoy having it around, but I’ve never really been obsessed about it.
    
33. I tried to be obsessed with Cyndi Lauper, but I think that was probably just the stirrings of puberty. I still think she’s hot.
    
34. I would completely fail all of my music quizzes.
    
35. I would fail some of the quizzes I give to students.
    
36. I really love being a TA, even if it does sap away every minute of my life.
    
37. I think I’m good at it too.
    
38. I wonder if being good at teaching matters much.
    
39. I don’t know if I’m a good researcher.
    
40. I think researching matters a lot.
    
41. I’m lousy at schmoozing.
    
42. I think schmoozing matters a lot.
    
43. There are very few people I really dislike.
    
44. There are even fewer people that I really love.
    
45. The first girl I seriously crushed on broke my heart.
    
46. It wasn’t her fault.
    
47. She just wasn’t that into me.
    
48. She actually used me as a back-up for when her other beaus fell through.
    
49. Not that I’m still bitter or anything.
    
50. She’s married now.
    
51. Every woman I’ve ever dated except the most recent one married within a year of us breaking up.
    
52. I broke up with the most recent girlfriend a couple of months ago – Give her some time.
    
53. I seriously don’t have time for a significant other right now.
    
54. That’s probably just an excuse.
    
55. I can legitimize anything.
    
56. I’m not too keen on where I live, even though everyone else seems to love it.
    
57. It’s nice and all, but it’s not me.
    
58. I worry that I’ll get into a PhD program in a place like this.
    
59. I worry that I’ll eventually get a job at a place like this.
    
60. I worry that I won’t get into a PhD program.
    
61. I think I will though.
    
62. I struggle with my ego.
    
63. I’m smart, but I know damn well that I’m not supposed to think that I’m smart.
    
64. I can read very quickly.
    
65. I am woefully underread in my field, but I have read a whole lot of crap.
    
66. I used to love Piers Anthony – he writes sci-fi for pubescent kids. You know, by all reckoning, just another fluff-book, but each one would have a really racy scene in it.
    
67. I would bring big books to high school with me to try to impress people. I remember bringing Anna Karenina to school and conspicuously reading it between classes. I think the teachers were impressed, but I can’t imagine anyone else cared. I remember near nothing of Anna Karenina.
    
68. In junior high, I asked the English teacher whether Melville really thought about all the symbolism and crap in Moby Dick before he wrote it or whether maybe people later just said that’s what was in there so now we all believe it.
    
69. She said Melville planned it all out beforehand.
    
70. I’m still not convinced.
    
71. I’m a cynical twit.
    
72. I’m an incurable optimist.
    
73. I laugh a lot.
    
74. I’m always smiling and almost always happy.
    
75. That scares a lot of people.
    
76. It’s also a problem.
    
77. When I left the army, I was leaving a place where I had worked for about 2 years. On my last day, one of the other folks who had been there a really long time gave a little speech and said that I was never angry and always easy to work with.
78. It was funny because in my speech a couple of minutes before, I mentioned how much I hated the job.
    
79. My supervisor, who was a really good guy, took me aside and asked if it was true that I hated the place, and I said yes. He looked shocked, but then we had a good talk about how horribly the place was run. It was nice to get it all off my chest, but it didn’t help me any.
80. I feel good about being able to do difficult things.
    
81. I feel good about being able to do things others can’t.
    
82. I’ve run a marathon.
    
83. I carry a really heavy backpack.
    
84. I giggle when people try to pick it up without knowing how heavy it is.
    
85. I need everything in that backpack.
    
86. Any time I take something out and leave it in the office or at home, I find that I need it.
    
87. I gave up caffeine a couple of months ago.
88. I didn’t really give it up. I went about a month without any caffeine at all, then I started back up again, but I drink a lot less than I did. I’m down to about one or two diet cokes per week.
    
89. I don’t drink coffee.
    
90. I do drink Frappachinos.
    
91. I dislike Starbucks, but the other coffee shop’s versions of the Frappachino suck.
    
92. I eat too much candy.
    
93. I like to think that running will balance out the candy.
    
94. I know it doesn’t.
    
95. I’ve got great legs.
    
96. In high school, I got an award for having the best butt. It was in the Drama Club, though, so I’m not sure how much that counts. I know the competition wasn’t that great. I think they just didn’t have any other award to give me.
    
97. I’ve got a belly.
    
98. I feel like I’m trying to impress or amuse you all out there in the internets.
    
99. but I am doing this blog for me.
    
100. I hope that perhaps we can all enjoy it.