100 Things

This is a popular thing for bloggers to do, so here are 100 things about me that you may or may not know and may or may not want to know.

1. When I first got to college, I swore up and down I'd never teach.
2. I also said I'd never learn Spanish.
3. I have a really bad sweet tooth.
4. I stress-bake. The night before I left for my study abroad in France, I baked a chocolate cake. My parents were perplexed.
5. I have had seven roommates in my life. I still speak to all of them.
6. I was so addicted to Solitaire in college that I finally deleted it off my computer.
7. I have a very sensitive nose; most smells bother me.
8. I rarely recognize the people in my dreams.
9. I was a hostess at Friendly's for three weeks.
10. I firmly believe that I have no hair color. It's sort of light brown but it used to be blonde. I think it's brownish greyish blondish.
11. My feet are very narrow.
12. I play piano and violin, a constant source of simultaneous stress and relief.
13. I had braces in elementary school.
14. I have a slight case of scoliosis which naturally is worsened when I gain weight.
15. I totalled my parents' car when I was 19. "Dad, a really bad thing happened..."
16. I really should have been a child of the 70's.
17. I am not a party girl.
18. I'm a closet Trekkie. Now not closet, but yes. Within two minutes of any TNG episode, I can tell you which one it is. I wish DS9 didn't go to pot after the first couple of seasons. Voyager could have been better, and the most recent edition was painful. I hear there's a new TNG movie in the works...
19. For my high school graduation, my aunt offered me a trip to visit her in New York City, complete with a Broadway show. We saw "Mamma Mia" and she was understandably confused.
20. The same aunt also came to visit me in France when I studied abroad. She came for a weekend. We saw some WWII sites and the Bayeux tapestry in Normandy, not Paris. Her friends were understandably confused.
21. The group of people I hung out with in high school are super-over-achievers. "We're AP" was our motto.
22. I still do the finger trick to remember left and right.
23. However I am phenomenal with maps.
24. It would take a lot of convincing and ideal conditions for me to try Tequila again.
25. My favorite summer memories include Cape Cod, Harbormess, and grilling outside.
26. If she can shovel out the snow, my mother will still grill. We have run out of propane on more than one wintery evening as a result.
27. I'm very high-strung.
28. Horror movies make me cry more than scare me.
29. My dad apparently wanted to name me Gina.
30. My grandmother went sky-diving for her 83rd birthday.
31. I have twin brothers. They are very very smart men.
32. I have never babysat.
33. I love blankets and own quite a few in about three different places.
34. My favorite colors are pink and yellow. In college, I did four loads of laundry: permanent press, darks, whites, and yellow.
35. When I have children, I already have the girls' names picked out but I have no idea what to name the boys.
36. I am 5'6". I've always been disappointed that I didn't end up taller.
37. My favorite artists are Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish, Marc Chagall and Raoul Dufy.
38. I was not raised with organized religion.
39. All of my Catholic knowledge has been derived from religious art.
40. I love (and miss!) the Food Network, the Travel Channel, and the History Channel.
41. I find Cary Grant very attractive. He also strongly resembles my grandfather.
42. I can be very inflexible.
43. New York Times crossword puzzles are the best.
44. I never played sports as a kid, but I was always at my brothers' games and usually had an administrative role.
45. I'm terrible at chess.
46. My brothers tried to teach me how to play pitch and gave up about thirty minutes through because I was so abysmal.
47. I have traveled extensively throughout New York State as part of my mother's personal quest to learn more about it for her fourth grade social studies curriculum.
48. I was eliminated from a spelling bee for misspelling "pennant."
49. My mother is a very good seamstress and has made some of the best Halloween costumes ever.
50. My brothers and I were Legomaniacs and created an entire city. It was incredible.
51. I went to my first symphony concert when I was seven and my first rock concert when I was 12.
52. I am not an animal person.
53. My boyfriend wants a cat.
54. I've told him: it's me or the cat.
55. He's a smart man.
56. When I was in high school, I diagnosed myself with pica. I eat paper, wood, and rubber. This is apparently linked to a neurophysiological deficiency.
57. Which makes sense, as I am often emotionally and physically constipated.
58. I hate cutting my nails. Even when I was a kid and my mom would cut them, I put up such a fuss.
59. When I was in elementary school, I wanted to be a cartographer.
60. I memorized the state capitals when I was in third grade, and my classmates would quiz me at lunch.
61. I got glasses in third grade to match my best friend's. When she got a new style, I did too. And then she got contacts.
62. I can't even do eye drops.
63. I love stand-up comedy.
64. My parents are really smart. They're also funny people.
65. When I was 10, I got a wart on my left knee. It's still there.
66. I grind my teeth at night.
67. I have a naturally low body temperature. But I'm rarely cold.
68. I rarely get sick, and when I do, it's usually not for more than a few days.
69. I HATE rain.
70. I know enough Italian to buy stamps and gelato. (Is any more really necessary?)
71. I had no idea that my high school classmates had parties with beer until I got to college.
72. My brothers throw awesome parties.
73. Everyone in my immediate family with a college degree is a teacher.
74. I'm really bossy.
75. Places outside of Europe I want to visit: Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand, India, an African safari, Argentina, Mexico, Hawaii, the Dominican Republic, Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, aaand basically the entire US.
76. I like Yuengling, dry red wines, Bailey's, and Irish whiskey.
77. An important thing that living abroad has helped me to realize is that I don't really like being away from my home.
78. Most of the computers in my family have names: George, Henry, Frederick, Dwight, Ralph, and Cosette. It helps keep track of them.
79. I can count the number of days I was absent from school on two hands.
80. I also didn't skip classes in college for the first two years.
81. My first kiss was when I was nineteen.
82. For about a year in high school, I was really into astrology.
83. The first place I go in a bookstore is to the dictionaries.
84. Cleaning bathrooms is really therapeutic.
85. I didn't wear nail polish until I was nineteen, and then only on my toes.
86. I have adorable toes.
87. Yellow roses make me very happy.
88. I enjoy grocery shopping.
89. Despite nearly 2000 pictures, I am not such a good photographer.
90. I am fifteen months older than my brothers. Because I was so young, my parents didn't actually tell me outright that I was going to be a big sister. So my mom "gave" them to me as a present when we went to pick her up at the hospital.
91. They're still mine.
92. McDonald's is my weakness.
93. My dream car is an automatic Peugeot 206 imported to the States. Hey, it's a dream.
94. I handwrite all first drafts. Typing is only for revisions and final drafts. Lesson plans are always handwritten because let's face it - everything in that changes within the first five minutes of a class.
95. I don't have a very good memory. One of my best posts from my college years blogs was about a two-hour period on a Thursday morning I could not remember at all.
96. Which is odd considering my trilingual vocabulary.
97. I do not appreciate most interior design things, like highly stylized rooms and houses, TV shows, and stores.
98. When I graduated high school, my French teacher gave me a stuffed animal fox so I would always have a friend. It's supposed to be the fox from the book The Little Prince. Most people mistake it for a beaver because it's pretty much two-dimensional.
99. I love used book sales because sometimes you can find a book in another language.
100. I am really going to miss grenadine syrup for two Euros when I go back to the States.