Below is another list inspired by Amanda. It was really hard to write, because I, unsurprisingly, have far more than 100 things to say about myself.
To start, here are some things from Amanda's list that I have to echo. My comments are in parentheses.
____
13. Don’t play too rough with me. I bruise like a peach. (Mostly I bruise myself from leaning with my elbow on my leg or bumping into things.)
29. I want a job where I feel like I am making a difference in people’s lives.
33. I use ellipses way too much. (-- and dashes.)
34. I hate shopping for pants because I am so freakin’ short. (For me, it's tall.)
48. I am the most sensitive/emotional person that I know. Sometimes this makes my life harder than it needs to be.
53. I am in love with Gilmore Girls and seriously sobbed my eyes out when the last show aired.
61. I still harbor ill feelings towards my high school archenemy. (For me, it's college.)
62. I sometimes wonder if I am a hypochondriac. (But really, I just have a profoundly bad immune system.)
64. Litterbugs enrage me.
70. I have no rhythm.
71. I drink red wine and wheat beer. (For me, it's white wine.)
72. I never turn down chocolate.
76. I am always cold. (I wear a scarf most of the year... even with a tank top. It works somehow.)
82. I have horrible posture.
83. I am trying to live greener.
84. I am scared of pretty much everything. ("Everything" would be an overstatement, but I get worked up with nerves/panic over a far-more-than-normal number of things.)
86. Iron and Wine’s “The Trapeze Swinger” is the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard. (I listen to it when I need to weep.) I cried when I heard it live. (I cried when I heard "Upward Over the Mountain" live.)
88. I could sleep for days. I never feel rested.
89. I’ve never stolen anything... Unless you count pirating music and personal wireless Internet connections.
91. Sometimes I wake up feeling like I was just talking to God. (I never feel like I was just talking to God, but I wish I did.)
99. I have short stubby legs like a daschund. (I have very unusually long legs.)
____
100 Things About Me
1. I've been 26 for 5 months, but this year has been so tough that I haven't mentally celebrated my birthday yet. I may end up skipping from 25 to 27 without ever hitting 26.
2. I have 2 cats named after the muppets, Beaker and Bunsen. I dreamt that I gave birth to them and treat them like I did.
3. I have a big Big Idea list. And far too many dreams for how much time and energy I have.
4. My favorite dessert is tartufo.
5. I'm somewhat of a ham.
6. I was always a model student.
7. In 4th grade, I was racing my dad in the swimming pool and accidentally swam into the wall with my eyes closed. I broke my front tooth in half and wasn't able to have it capped (due to my braces) until 8th grade. So I spent 4 years with a half of a front tooth, and now, if you look closely, you can still see the line between my real tooth and the bonding.
8. I do a lot of things that other people are too embarrassed to do: go to restaurants alone, ask people out, talk to strangers, dance in front of crowds, have difficult conversations. It's not that I'm immune -- it's just that I do it anyway.
9. I try very hard to do things despite being afraid or uncomfortable. This is at least in part because there are so many things that I am abnormally afraid/uncomfortable with. I can't stand the idea of being limited by my own brain, though it is a constant struggle.
10. One of the best things that anyone ever taught me about myself was that I can be quite funny.
11. I have been in love 3 times in my life.
12. I'm 5'11" and 135-140 lbs, which puts me just at the bottom edge of normal weight... but, growing up, I was extremely abnormally (but naturally) skinny -- so much so that it was what I was known for. When I was a senior in high school, I was 5'10" and 104 lbs! I'm still adjusting to not being known as the skinny girl, though I look far, far better now than I did growing up.
13. Because I was so thin and tall, I was always told that I should be a model. I secretly loved that idea but didn't really take it seriously. When I was in college, I was scouted on the street by Wilhelmina, but I didn't follow through with it for various reasons. When I moved to NYC 5 years later, I sent them my pictures, but they never called me back. Now I really regret missing the opportunity. It's one of a few real regrets that I have.
14. I actually have terrible posture, and I don't photograph well.
15. I think that the best 3 things ever made -- above all movies, books, music, etc -- are the following podcasts: This American Life, Pop!Tech, TED.
16. I prefer to be barefoot or in flops, for various reasons. I once got in trouble at work for letting a consultant see me without my shoes on... now I try to make sure that I work with people who judge my work by my work and not by my working style.
17. I hate the concept of "professional attire" and all of the justifications made for judging people by their appearance. Unless your appearance is directly related to your product, simple good hygiene is about as far as the rules should extend.
18. I detest the word "inappropriate" and people who use it.
19. I dislike the word "boss" -- I prefer to say "the project manager" or "the director" or such things.
20. I am easily disgruntled by disrespectful authority figures. But as much as I bitch, I'm actually a huge goodie-two-shoes and strongly desire praise.
21. I'm majorly influenced by others' opinions -- real or imagined -- and most of my inner drama is caused by the clashing of my own feelings/beliefs/abilities with that of others'.
22. I'm slowly learning to distinguish between the opinions of others & myself that should be listened to and those that should not.
23. Altzheimer's is the most devastating thing I can imagine. Unfortunately, I'm extremely predisposed to it. I pray for a cure regularly.
24. I went to my prom by myself.
25. I sometimes have panic attacks. Particularly when I'm exhausted and can't go to sleep, when I'm on planes, and when I'm away from home.
26. I hate feeling stuck.
27. The only way I can get pants long enough is to buy extra-extra long and hem them. But that's extremely expensive, so I rarely wear pants that are long enough. I find it extremely uncomfortable.
28. I am cautious about buying things that will go out of style and prefer things that are very flexible. Thus, very plain clothing and home-decor. Refinishable, reconstructable, characterless furniture. Some small, replacable pieces of flair here and there.
29. I almost always am wearing: jeans, flops/sneakers, 3 shirts in different solid colors (tank, short sleeve, and a long sleeve that is on me, my waist, or in my bag), and a scarf. Regardless of season.
30. I am a true jack-of-all-trades. Music is one of a few things that I have less than no talent for... and, for all of the arts I dabble in, I believe that it is THE highest, most important, most powerful art form.
31. I have always wished that I could dance, act, and sing. Again, less than no talent. But I do it anyway (to the dismay of many), and I believe that that is one of my best qualities as a person: ability / willingness to enjoy things that I love despite embarrassment.
32. I am both very big picture and very detail-oriented at the same time. And I'm very anal about both.
33. I was the first person in my family to go out of the country.
34. I love to watch supernatural horror movies, but I can't handle the really twisted psychological ones.
35. Saving Private Ryan didn't even make me wince, but I can't watch a scared, confused, or hurt animal. Not even a cartoon one.
36. I adore Halloween and all darkly romantic, gothic, and creepy things.
37. About 5 years ago, I had a bad experience in which I felt as though I died. I continue to feel like the person that I was before is gone and that I'm a new person now. Some people say that I just grew up, but I can't stand that explanation.
38. The old me loved (too) deeply, (too) readily, and (too) consistently. The old me was blessed with a great sense of wonder.
39. I am over $150,000 in student loan debt. I talk about it almost nonstop, to the discomfort of other people, but I still think it was the right (or only) decision for me. However unjust it is to fall so far through the financial aid loopholes in this country.
40. I have a notably large smile.
41. I am intrigued by Nostradamus and apocalypse theories.
42. I studied abroad at the London School of Economics. It was my 2nd time ever on a plane and my 1st time away from Pittsburgh for more than a week. It didn't go very well.
43. My second trip abroad -- a 6-week backpacking trip to Europe-- was the best experience of my life. London, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Rome, Florence, Vienna, Prague, Munich, Milan, Barcelona, Paris, London.
44. I wish I could marry all of my friends and live all together forever. I still am not sure why that can't happen aside from lack of imagination.
45. I have a strong distaste for arbitrary social norms.
46. I flunked my driver's test repeatedly when I was 16. All due entirely to nerves.
47. I struggle a lot with guilt. Often concerning my sleep schedule.
48. I am essentially an entirely open book. It doesn't make me uncomfortable, but it sometimes makes other people uncomfortable. Ask me anything.
49. I would go to school forever if I could.
50. I still USUALLY believe that I can do anything in the world if I want to. I hope to hold on to that feeling as long as possible.
51. When I was 6, I was feeding carrots to the horses and ponies at the stable where my sister rode. The ponies started fighting over my carrot and began to kick each other. I got kicked over on my face in the mud and a horse walked across my back to take the carrot. He stepped just a few inches below my neck, which would have likely broken and caused death or permanent damage. Instead, I survived without even a broken back -- just a frantic trip to the emergency room and 3 weeks of bed rest.
52. I have a whole hell of a lot of thoroughly-vetted opinions but love to be influenced by people who know more than me. I love to debate with people who are well-reasoned and can't stand talking to people who aren't.
53. I am highly-critical but have flexible standards.
54. In my mind, you don't have to be rational -- you just can't be irrational.
55. I am most productive between the hours of 10pm and 2am.
56. Absolutely nothing makes me happier than being with my friends.
57. I want to teach college someday.
58. I am ill-or-injured to the point of minor-or-major disruption more than half of the days of the year. Mostly minor, though.
59. I grew up in a tiny suburb of Pittsburgh called Pleasant Hills. The firehouse rings its alarm at 6pm everyday, and nothing ever happens there. Except for a lot of fundamentalist propaganda and ingrained bigotry.
60. My dad grew up in the same town as me. His brother married the girl next door, and my mom's parents moved nearby when I was little. So, growing up, I had 2 sets of grandparents and my cousins' grandparents all within 2 blocks of my house.
61. The town that I grew up in was so full of bigotry, propaganda, ignorance, and irrationality disguised as Christianity, that I became an atheist in rebellion. Once I got out of there, I settled into a healthy agnosticism, but with a quick temper and hightened skepticism for the religious that I'll probably never lose.
62. I have a very thorough and strong set of ethics based in social responsiblity.
63. Beyond that, I think that it's hard to know much for sure, so I choose to believe what I wish to be true: That all life is connected by a single unifying force running through. That people are basically good. That the natural balance of things is tipped, even slightly, away from suffering and towards peace.
64. I'm very idealistic. Unapologetically so.
65. I believe that there are things far worse than death.
66. I have only ever been able to touch my toes once. After several weeks of regular yoga class attendance.
67. I am so interested in everything that my specialties have gotten broader and broader to the point that I seem to know a little bit about everything and how to do a little bit of everything. It has its pros and cons.
68. I love Pittsburgh and will defend it to the death.
69. I have strong, negative feelings about Hootie and the Blowfish.
70. I have no idea how to talk to little kids or the elderly. I'm afraid that children's parents will think I'm bad at dealing with their kids... and I can't seem to help but talk to very old people like they are children. And then I feel horrible and scared.
71. I have worked 1-3 part-time jobs while going to school full-time or worked full-time while going to school part-time or some other combination thereof since I was 15 years-old. Up until 6 months ago, when I left school and have been unemployed ever since. Now I am a housewife by circumstance, but not by choice.
72. It never occurred to me that I could be an architect until I saw it on a college application, even though I spent my childhood drawing dream houses, setting up play-cities, and designing preferrable school buildings.
73. I am terribly vain and, perhaps, a bit overly-introspective
74. I love, love, love word games.
75. I started journaling officially when I was about 16, with a set of rules that included "No ripping out or crossing out pages" and "No being embarrassed of what I think, write, or say." I have over 15 volumes of journal to this day... but talking regularly to friends, boyfriends, and therapists has ruined my need/ability to write for many years now.
76. I was very quiet before I started journaling. Then, I never shut up.
77. I'm either really competitive or else I can't bring myself to care, depending on the situation.
78. I am a humanist, an environmentalist, a feminist, and am very liberal. And I can back it up.
79. I saw some blatant sexism while I was growing up, but I didn't realize until after college that the tools and concepts we use to think, argue, create, govern, etc, in this society are subtly but decidedly masculine in nature. And now I realize how far we still have to go on that front.
80. I love architecture but can't stand most architects.
81. I can sleep anywhere, anytime. And usually with my mouth open.
82. I fully believe that hell exists on earth. It may exist in an afterlife, too, but I've never met a religious person who has the foggiest notion of what hell really is. And I can promise you that landing in it has absolutely nothing to do with whether you believe in Jesus Christ.
83. My morals indicate that I should be a strong vegetarian, but I simply am too weak-willed on the issue to uphold it. I willingly acknowledge my hyposcrisy and apologize profusely to the animals. I actively fear that I'll be forced to suffer a thousand painful deaths as retribution in the afterlife.
84. I give a very high percentage of my income to charity. But I'm also very poor.
85. There's nothing like a good head massage.
86. I have wanted not-to-be-alive two times in my life. I wanted not-to-be-dead, too, though.
87. I swam competitively for 7 years even though my school district didn't have a pool. I won all of the "hardest worker" awards, but I wasn't the fastest. Still, I was the first person from my school district to qualify for the city championships in swimming. Later, when I had fellow swimmers, our relay came in 7th.
88. My events were the 500 Free and the 100 Back. I had to swim "exhibition" during another school district's swim meets for my first 3 years of high school, which meant that I had to swim my events alone, during the intermission.
89. I went to school board meetings for years to get a pool built at our school. My parents, with others, formed a nonprofit to build a community pool & fitness center. They had architectural plans and several million dollars raised, but due to a lot of politics, it was never built.
90. During my junior year of high school, I got up at 4:30 in the morning to commute to one host high school for secret morning swim practice, had classes at my high school, commuted 20 minutes to a different host high school for approved afternoon swim practice, and then went back to my high school for theatre practice. Came home around 11 and did homework and went to bed. I have no idea how I survived that.
91. During my senior year of high school, our school board rented us pool space at yet another high school. We formed a team with about 4 experienced swimmers, close to 30 novice freshman girls, and a handful of boys. I was the captain, and my girls' team beat my old host team in our first ever meet... and we went on to win our conference championships with an unbeaten record.
92. My swim team ballooned to 80+ kids in the few years after I graduated -- the largest sports team at my school by far -- but the school district refused to build them a pool and eventually cut funding for the team.
93. I am absolutely crazily against cigarette smoking. I essentially lose all respect for people when I see them smoke, even casually. But, yes, I have tried a few puffs before.
94. One of the few universal truths that I know is that nothing is permanent. I simultaneously am comforted and discomforted by that.
95. I swear like a truckdriver.
96. I don't believe that there's anything wrong at all with swear words, but words that are derogatory towards groups of people are heinous in my book.
97. When I was little and my mom would take us to the playground, I was so afraid that she'd make us leave before I had gotten to try out each piece of equipment that I'd immediately run around as fast as I could and try each thing once. Then I'd spend the rest of the time playing with my favorite things. This pretty much mirrors my adult life.
98. I never saw my grandfather not-smiling.
99. I worry a whole lot about people and animals suffering.
100. My favorite color is yellow.
To start, here are some things from Amanda's list that I have to echo. My comments are in parentheses.
____
13. Don’t play too rough with me. I bruise like a peach. (Mostly I bruise myself from leaning with my elbow on my leg or bumping into things.)
29. I want a job where I feel like I am making a difference in people’s lives.
33. I use ellipses way too much. (-- and dashes.)
34. I hate shopping for pants because I am so freakin’ short. (For me, it's tall.)
48. I am the most sensitive/emotional person that I know. Sometimes this makes my life harder than it needs to be.
53. I am in love with Gilmore Girls and seriously sobbed my eyes out when the last show aired.
61. I still harbor ill feelings towards my high school archenemy. (For me, it's college.)
62. I sometimes wonder if I am a hypochondriac. (But really, I just have a profoundly bad immune system.)
64. Litterbugs enrage me.
70. I have no rhythm.
71. I drink red wine and wheat beer. (For me, it's white wine.)
72. I never turn down chocolate.
76. I am always cold. (I wear a scarf most of the year... even with a tank top. It works somehow.)
82. I have horrible posture.
83. I am trying to live greener.
84. I am scared of pretty much everything. ("Everything" would be an overstatement, but I get worked up with nerves/panic over a far-more-than-normal number of things.)
86. Iron and Wine’s “The Trapeze Swinger” is the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard. (I listen to it when I need to weep.) I cried when I heard it live. (I cried when I heard "Upward Over the Mountain" live.)
88. I could sleep for days. I never feel rested.
89. I’ve never stolen anything... Unless you count pirating music and personal wireless Internet connections.
91. Sometimes I wake up feeling like I was just talking to God. (I never feel like I was just talking to God, but I wish I did.)
99. I have short stubby legs like a daschund. (I have very unusually long legs.)
____
100 Things About Me
1. I've been 26 for 5 months, but this year has been so tough that I haven't mentally celebrated my birthday yet. I may end up skipping from 25 to 27 without ever hitting 26.
2. I have 2 cats named after the muppets, Beaker and Bunsen. I dreamt that I gave birth to them and treat them like I did.
3. I have a big Big Idea list. And far too many dreams for how much time and energy I have.
4. My favorite dessert is tartufo.
5. I'm somewhat of a ham.
6. I was always a model student.
7. In 4th grade, I was racing my dad in the swimming pool and accidentally swam into the wall with my eyes closed. I broke my front tooth in half and wasn't able to have it capped (due to my braces) until 8th grade. So I spent 4 years with a half of a front tooth, and now, if you look closely, you can still see the line between my real tooth and the bonding.
8. I do a lot of things that other people are too embarrassed to do: go to restaurants alone, ask people out, talk to strangers, dance in front of crowds, have difficult conversations. It's not that I'm immune -- it's just that I do it anyway.
9. I try very hard to do things despite being afraid or uncomfortable. This is at least in part because there are so many things that I am abnormally afraid/uncomfortable with. I can't stand the idea of being limited by my own brain, though it is a constant struggle.
10. One of the best things that anyone ever taught me about myself was that I can be quite funny.
11. I have been in love 3 times in my life.
12. I'm 5'11" and 135-140 lbs, which puts me just at the bottom edge of normal weight... but, growing up, I was extremely abnormally (but naturally) skinny -- so much so that it was what I was known for. When I was a senior in high school, I was 5'10" and 104 lbs! I'm still adjusting to not being known as the skinny girl, though I look far, far better now than I did growing up.
13. Because I was so thin and tall, I was always told that I should be a model. I secretly loved that idea but didn't really take it seriously. When I was in college, I was scouted on the street by Wilhelmina, but I didn't follow through with it for various reasons. When I moved to NYC 5 years later, I sent them my pictures, but they never called me back. Now I really regret missing the opportunity. It's one of a few real regrets that I have.
14. I actually have terrible posture, and I don't photograph well.
15. I think that the best 3 things ever made -- above all movies, books, music, etc -- are the following podcasts: This American Life, Pop!Tech, TED.
16. I prefer to be barefoot or in flops, for various reasons. I once got in trouble at work for letting a consultant see me without my shoes on... now I try to make sure that I work with people who judge my work by my work and not by my working style.
17. I hate the concept of "professional attire" and all of the justifications made for judging people by their appearance. Unless your appearance is directly related to your product, simple good hygiene is about as far as the rules should extend.
18. I detest the word "inappropriate" and people who use it.
19. I dislike the word "boss" -- I prefer to say "the project manager" or "the director" or such things.
20. I am easily disgruntled by disrespectful authority figures. But as much as I bitch, I'm actually a huge goodie-two-shoes and strongly desire praise.
21. I'm majorly influenced by others' opinions -- real or imagined -- and most of my inner drama is caused by the clashing of my own feelings/beliefs/abilities with that of others'.
22. I'm slowly learning to distinguish between the opinions of others & myself that should be listened to and those that should not.
23. Altzheimer's is the most devastating thing I can imagine. Unfortunately, I'm extremely predisposed to it. I pray for a cure regularly.
24. I went to my prom by myself.
25. I sometimes have panic attacks. Particularly when I'm exhausted and can't go to sleep, when I'm on planes, and when I'm away from home.
26. I hate feeling stuck.
27. The only way I can get pants long enough is to buy extra-extra long and hem them. But that's extremely expensive, so I rarely wear pants that are long enough. I find it extremely uncomfortable.
28. I am cautious about buying things that will go out of style and prefer things that are very flexible. Thus, very plain clothing and home-decor. Refinishable, reconstructable, characterless furniture. Some small, replacable pieces of flair here and there.
29. I almost always am wearing: jeans, flops/sneakers, 3 shirts in different solid colors (tank, short sleeve, and a long sleeve that is on me, my waist, or in my bag), and a scarf. Regardless of season.
30. I am a true jack-of-all-trades. Music is one of a few things that I have less than no talent for... and, for all of the arts I dabble in, I believe that it is THE highest, most important, most powerful art form.
31. I have always wished that I could dance, act, and sing. Again, less than no talent. But I do it anyway (to the dismay of many), and I believe that that is one of my best qualities as a person: ability / willingness to enjoy things that I love despite embarrassment.
32. I am both very big picture and very detail-oriented at the same time. And I'm very anal about both.
33. I was the first person in my family to go out of the country.
34. I love to watch supernatural horror movies, but I can't handle the really twisted psychological ones.
35. Saving Private Ryan didn't even make me wince, but I can't watch a scared, confused, or hurt animal. Not even a cartoon one.
36. I adore Halloween and all darkly romantic, gothic, and creepy things.
37. About 5 years ago, I had a bad experience in which I felt as though I died. I continue to feel like the person that I was before is gone and that I'm a new person now. Some people say that I just grew up, but I can't stand that explanation.
38. The old me loved (too) deeply, (too) readily, and (too) consistently. The old me was blessed with a great sense of wonder.
39. I am over $150,000 in student loan debt. I talk about it almost nonstop, to the discomfort of other people, but I still think it was the right (or only) decision for me. However unjust it is to fall so far through the financial aid loopholes in this country.
40. I have a notably large smile.
41. I am intrigued by Nostradamus and apocalypse theories.
42. I studied abroad at the London School of Economics. It was my 2nd time ever on a plane and my 1st time away from Pittsburgh for more than a week. It didn't go very well.
43. My second trip abroad -- a 6-week backpacking trip to Europe-- was the best experience of my life. London, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Rome, Florence, Vienna, Prague, Munich, Milan, Barcelona, Paris, London.
44. I wish I could marry all of my friends and live all together forever. I still am not sure why that can't happen aside from lack of imagination.
45. I have a strong distaste for arbitrary social norms.
46. I flunked my driver's test repeatedly when I was 16. All due entirely to nerves.
47. I struggle a lot with guilt. Often concerning my sleep schedule.
48. I am essentially an entirely open book. It doesn't make me uncomfortable, but it sometimes makes other people uncomfortable. Ask me anything.
49. I would go to school forever if I could.
50. I still USUALLY believe that I can do anything in the world if I want to. I hope to hold on to that feeling as long as possible.
51. When I was 6, I was feeding carrots to the horses and ponies at the stable where my sister rode. The ponies started fighting over my carrot and began to kick each other. I got kicked over on my face in the mud and a horse walked across my back to take the carrot. He stepped just a few inches below my neck, which would have likely broken and caused death or permanent damage. Instead, I survived without even a broken back -- just a frantic trip to the emergency room and 3 weeks of bed rest.
52. I have a whole hell of a lot of thoroughly-vetted opinions but love to be influenced by people who know more than me. I love to debate with people who are well-reasoned and can't stand talking to people who aren't.
53. I am highly-critical but have flexible standards.
54. In my mind, you don't have to be rational -- you just can't be irrational.
55. I am most productive between the hours of 10pm and 2am.
56. Absolutely nothing makes me happier than being with my friends.
57. I want to teach college someday.
58. I am ill-or-injured to the point of minor-or-major disruption more than half of the days of the year. Mostly minor, though.
59. I grew up in a tiny suburb of Pittsburgh called Pleasant Hills. The firehouse rings its alarm at 6pm everyday, and nothing ever happens there. Except for a lot of fundamentalist propaganda and ingrained bigotry.
60. My dad grew up in the same town as me. His brother married the girl next door, and my mom's parents moved nearby when I was little. So, growing up, I had 2 sets of grandparents and my cousins' grandparents all within 2 blocks of my house.
61. The town that I grew up in was so full of bigotry, propaganda, ignorance, and irrationality disguised as Christianity, that I became an atheist in rebellion. Once I got out of there, I settled into a healthy agnosticism, but with a quick temper and hightened skepticism for the religious that I'll probably never lose.
62. I have a very thorough and strong set of ethics based in social responsiblity.
63. Beyond that, I think that it's hard to know much for sure, so I choose to believe what I wish to be true: That all life is connected by a single unifying force running through. That people are basically good. That the natural balance of things is tipped, even slightly, away from suffering and towards peace.
64. I'm very idealistic. Unapologetically so.
65. I believe that there are things far worse than death.
66. I have only ever been able to touch my toes once. After several weeks of regular yoga class attendance.
67. I am so interested in everything that my specialties have gotten broader and broader to the point that I seem to know a little bit about everything and how to do a little bit of everything. It has its pros and cons.
68. I love Pittsburgh and will defend it to the death.
69. I have strong, negative feelings about Hootie and the Blowfish.
70. I have no idea how to talk to little kids or the elderly. I'm afraid that children's parents will think I'm bad at dealing with their kids... and I can't seem to help but talk to very old people like they are children. And then I feel horrible and scared.
71. I have worked 1-3 part-time jobs while going to school full-time or worked full-time while going to school part-time or some other combination thereof since I was 15 years-old. Up until 6 months ago, when I left school and have been unemployed ever since. Now I am a housewife by circumstance, but not by choice.
72. It never occurred to me that I could be an architect until I saw it on a college application, even though I spent my childhood drawing dream houses, setting up play-cities, and designing preferrable school buildings.
73. I am terribly vain and, perhaps, a bit overly-introspective
74. I love, love, love word games.
75. I started journaling officially when I was about 16, with a set of rules that included "No ripping out or crossing out pages" and "No being embarrassed of what I think, write, or say." I have over 15 volumes of journal to this day... but talking regularly to friends, boyfriends, and therapists has ruined my need/ability to write for many years now.
76. I was very quiet before I started journaling. Then, I never shut up.
77. I'm either really competitive or else I can't bring myself to care, depending on the situation.
78. I am a humanist, an environmentalist, a feminist, and am very liberal. And I can back it up.
79. I saw some blatant sexism while I was growing up, but I didn't realize until after college that the tools and concepts we use to think, argue, create, govern, etc, in this society are subtly but decidedly masculine in nature. And now I realize how far we still have to go on that front.
80. I love architecture but can't stand most architects.
81. I can sleep anywhere, anytime. And usually with my mouth open.
82. I fully believe that hell exists on earth. It may exist in an afterlife, too, but I've never met a religious person who has the foggiest notion of what hell really is. And I can promise you that landing in it has absolutely nothing to do with whether you believe in Jesus Christ.
83. My morals indicate that I should be a strong vegetarian, but I simply am too weak-willed on the issue to uphold it. I willingly acknowledge my hyposcrisy and apologize profusely to the animals. I actively fear that I'll be forced to suffer a thousand painful deaths as retribution in the afterlife.
84. I give a very high percentage of my income to charity. But I'm also very poor.
85. There's nothing like a good head massage.
86. I have wanted not-to-be-alive two times in my life. I wanted not-to-be-dead, too, though.
87. I swam competitively for 7 years even though my school district didn't have a pool. I won all of the "hardest worker" awards, but I wasn't the fastest. Still, I was the first person from my school district to qualify for the city championships in swimming. Later, when I had fellow swimmers, our relay came in 7th.
88. My events were the 500 Free and the 100 Back. I had to swim "exhibition" during another school district's swim meets for my first 3 years of high school, which meant that I had to swim my events alone, during the intermission.
89. I went to school board meetings for years to get a pool built at our school. My parents, with others, formed a nonprofit to build a community pool & fitness center. They had architectural plans and several million dollars raised, but due to a lot of politics, it was never built.
90. During my junior year of high school, I got up at 4:30 in the morning to commute to one host high school for secret morning swim practice, had classes at my high school, commuted 20 minutes to a different host high school for approved afternoon swim practice, and then went back to my high school for theatre practice. Came home around 11 and did homework and went to bed. I have no idea how I survived that.
91. During my senior year of high school, our school board rented us pool space at yet another high school. We formed a team with about 4 experienced swimmers, close to 30 novice freshman girls, and a handful of boys. I was the captain, and my girls' team beat my old host team in our first ever meet... and we went on to win our conference championships with an unbeaten record.
92. My swim team ballooned to 80+ kids in the few years after I graduated -- the largest sports team at my school by far -- but the school district refused to build them a pool and eventually cut funding for the team.
93. I am absolutely crazily against cigarette smoking. I essentially lose all respect for people when I see them smoke, even casually. But, yes, I have tried a few puffs before.
94. One of the few universal truths that I know is that nothing is permanent. I simultaneously am comforted and discomforted by that.
95. I swear like a truckdriver.
96. I don't believe that there's anything wrong at all with swear words, but words that are derogatory towards groups of people are heinous in my book.
97. When I was little and my mom would take us to the playground, I was so afraid that she'd make us leave before I had gotten to try out each piece of equipment that I'd immediately run around as fast as I could and try each thing once. Then I'd spend the rest of the time playing with my favorite things. This pretty much mirrors my adult life.
98. I never saw my grandfather not-smiling.
99. I worry a whole lot about people and animals suffering.
100. My favorite color is yellow.
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1 comments:
Hi Julia,
Sorry it took me so long to respond to this. I fell off the face of the blogosphere for a week or two.
Thank you for reading my blog and your thoughtful commentary on my 100 things list. I enjoyed reading your list and was shocked to hear about your crazy high school schedule. I was the girl who quit all extra-curricular activities (drama club, musical practice, etc.) in favor of going home to nap after school.
Also, your number 86 was very touching. I can kind of relate to that sentiment, though I never thought to put it in those words. Mostly, during the darkest time in my life I stopped worrying about dying... instead of wishing it upon myself. For most of my life I thought death was the worst thing that could happen to someone--but when things got rough for me, there was nothing left to be scared of. I suddenly didn't care. (Thank God that part of my life is over.)
I'd like to take you up on hanging out if we are ever in the same city again.
Stay in touch.
Amanda
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