Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Random Tuesday Thoughts

For those of you on FaceBook, you probably know about the current obsession going around-- "25 Random Things About Me". I'm posting mine here. :)

randomtuesday

1. I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up. Well, besides being a mom (which I always wanted to do). I've been a retail store assistant manager, a bookseller, a custom picture framer, salesperson, inventory specialist, entrepreneur, technical team manager, McDonald's peon... and am currently filling the role of Computer Geek. If I ever went back to school, I'd go to law school.

2. I love to do anything connected with art, and especially photography. But I never took photography in high school. Go figure.

3. I've never been drunk. Never had the desire to, especially after watching everyone else get hammered around me. They all looked idiotic.

4. I taught myself how to read at age 4 by watching "The Electric Company" and "Sesame Street".

5. I was nominated for Homecoming Queen my senior year. But it wasn't because I was popular.

6. I have 7 children: 4 of my own, 3 step. All girls. I had my first daughter when I was 19, and last daughter when I was 26.

7. My favorite foods are fruits and veggies. Really.

8. I want a tattooed ankle bracelet because I *always* break any ankle bracelet I wear. And I lovelovelove ankle bracelets. It's the only jewelry I truly adore wearing.

9. I've lived in 6 different states: Washington, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah. Least favorite: New Mexico and Nevada. Favorite: Arizona and Montana.

10. I am self-taught on computers. It was a hobby that developed into my current career. I pretty much slept through one of my Associate degrees (Networking Administration), and my Bachelor's Degree (Computer Science), but I figured I ought to get that All Important Piece Of Paper.

11. I am a terrible housekeeper. If I were rich enough to afford a maid, she'd be a live-in like Alice was on Brady Bunch.

12. And I hate deciding what to cook for dinner. We have a lot of "fend for yourself" meals at our house.

13. I am fluent in American Sign Language. I was an interpreter during college. Now, it's been so long since I really used it, I suck. Now I'm trying to learn Spanish.

14. I've had 4 surgeries, all done by a neurosurgeon. This means I no longer have the first rib on each side of my ribcage, and that my back is fused at L5-S1 (from which the hardware has now been removed).

15. My favorite vacation is going camping. Really. I love to be out in nature, breathing the fresh air, and enjoying the quiet beauty around me. Other vacations are fun, sure, but they don't give me the total relaxation that camping does.

16. I can cook in a dutch oven over a fire. And it tastes good, too. :)

17. I keep a small toy collection on my bookshelf at work. I have a Bumble, Yakko, Brain, Snoopy, Beaker, a Cootie, Bambi, the Peter Pan Crocodile, Marvin the Martian, Sebastian, Felix the Cat, and Astro Boy (among others).

18. I am a pile organizer. My stuff is always in piles. I know where everything is in my piles. If you move my piles, or if I actually clean and put things away, I can't find anything for days and days.

19. I have (mostly) straight teeth, no braces. People ask me all the time if I had braces as a teen. Nope, just good genetics. Only one of my daughters has inherited this.

20. When I was 15, I ate breakfast with George Takei (Mr. Sulu from Star Trek). He was so nice, and has the FUNNIEST laugh you've ever heard. I impressed my kids with this fact, but told in a different manner... "I ate breakfast with Hiro's father." (from "Heroes")

21. I can speed-read. I could read so fast in 6th grade that the teacher once told me that I was lying (when I reported words read in a timed read), and that I couldn't possibly have read that fast.

22. I could only type 35wpm in high school, but can type about 70wpm now. 10 years ago, I was typing 90+wpm. I give all the credit for my speed increase to AOL Chat Rooms.

23. I wrote my first computer program when I was 11. As a true measure of my geekiness, I taught myself to program from a book that came with my TI-99/4A. I was very bored one summer. And it was a "Star Trek" program. (I'm hopeless, I know.) (But I made it play the "Star Trek" theme!) But it never occurred to me that I could do computer stuff for a living back then.

24. I painted a mural in my high school cafeteria/commons area my senior year. I saw it again 11 years later when I visited the school. I haven't been back for 10 years, so I have no idea if it is still there or not.

25. I'm really good at tongue twisters. My kids are always trying to come up with something that will trip me up, but it's only happened rarely. The favorite one they like me to say? "Jacket Packet". (Say that one 10 times super fast!)

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I lovelovelove your random thoughts. I tried to do it myself but my brain thinks...'they know that already, god you are a boring woman.' Me, not you, lord no.

I have two frogs and a christmas teddy on my big box thingy with all the wires coming out of it. I never had a teddybear...ah!!!

I speak French and some Spanish badly on purpose because it makes JP and no.one and only son laugh like loons. And I paint on everything, left a twenty by tenfoot mural of Mexican arts and crafts on a wall in a house we once had-the new owners papered over it the Philistines.

Froggy said...

"Jacket Packet" LOL! I sound like a train. I can't wait to try that on people. So fun!

Joe said...

But how painful would it be if you got the tattooed ankle bracelet and then broke it?

AS Amber said...

I want a tattoo, too! In fact I went to get one about a year and a half ago at that "Happy Valley Tattoo" joint in AF...yeah, I ended up with a disorderly conduct ticket instead. Still haven't gotten that tattoo.

Grant said...

I've had the same experience with education. I learned nothing in college I hadn't already taught myself about computers. I just had to get the piece of paper so corporate America would pay me to do the things I could have been doing all along.

Casey said...

I'm dying that you had to tell them it was Hiro's father. Ha!

I'm a speed reader too. Sometimes, I'll read a post, go away for a minute and then come back to comment so people believe that I actually read it.

That's a lot of girls.

Keely said...

lol! I'm a speed reader as well. I had teachers that wouldn't believe me, either.

Although these days I"m not as quick since I get interrupted a lot.

If you can teach yourself to program, you can teach yourself photography! Get to it! ;)

Happy Tuesday!

steenky bee said...

I so LOVED the Electric Company! Remember "Hey you guys!!" That show reminds me of afternoons after school at my Grandma's house!

♥ Boomer ♥ said...

I have read several of these lists of 25 ... but yours absolutely tops them all, hands down, no vote needed. You are so interesting. I'm actually impressed! ;-)

My hat is off! Did you see my curtsy?

Michelle Fluttering Butterflies said...

I love your list. I always seem to do my lists when I'm horribly depressed. Maybe writing my own makes me depressed, I hadn't thought of that.

I've never been drunk either. And I thought the name sounded familiar but it wasn't until you said 'Hiro's father' that I figured it out! I tried law school while I was still trying to work out what I wanted to be when I grow up, but it didn't last.

Saz said...

great great list...I may do this....may!!