100 Things

Here it is. One hundred things about me I have not previously said on the blog (jen,also - I borrowed three or four of yours) from Monday, April 12, 2004.

1. I play solitaire a lot. The old way, with real cards. I find that the more balanced my state of mind, the more often I 'win'.
2. I brush my teeth in the shower, not in the sink.
3. 98% of my best friends are men. There are good reasons for this.
4. When I drink too much, I am a flirty and over-confident drunk.
5. I cry - against my will - when I'm really angry.
6. During the two years I golfed, I had a 7 handicap. One day, for many reasons, I refused to play any longer. Since then, in ten years, I played only once, to raise money for breast cancer. But I switched and played right-handed instead of left.
7. I tend to procrastinate under the belief that I function better under pressure.
8. I'm not afraid of dying, but I am absolutely terrified of getting old.
9. I will do everything in my power to keep the promises I make.
10. After 12 years, I am eating alone and my dinner plates are no longer cleaned of food particles after dinner. Although sometimes it was annoying, it was never a burden and the lack of having to share will never be a relief.
11. No one believes I can cook. But I can and I do it well.
12. If I could be anything else, I would be a dolphin.
13. I used to cross-stitch, but I don't anymore. I noticed last week my brother has one I made for him in 1987 in his study.
14. I am at my happiest with a good book and will read all night to finish the really good ones, even if it's a 'school night'.
15. I like to drive long distances alone but I no longer like to drive short distances.
16. My favorite thing about flying is take-off.
17. I've always hated being a Jennifer. I would rather be an Alex. Once, for a while, because of a job, I was.
18. I used to become very attached to people. I no longer do.
19. But there are some people I will miss getting to know better. Always.
20. The decorations in my house are not particulary serious or grown up. There is a 6 foot blow up alligator named Angus who normally lives under the bed. Right now, he has a hole and I need to fill the bathtub up to fix it, but I always forget.
21. I used to think, being alone, that I needed a career. Now, I'm happy with 'just a job'.
22. I've always wanted to live in a treehouse.
23. I wrote a lot of bad poems as a teenager. You will never see them.
24. I did, however, send one or two a week overseas to my friend Rob when he was in the Gulf War. He still has them all.
25. One, about smoking, is used by the Canadian Military in their stop smoking program. I wrote it when I was 16. It embarrases me.
26. The best gift I ever had was a birthday gift in the early 90's, when my friend Todd took one of those poems from Rob and wrote music for it, then played it for me on his guitar.
27. I believe in alternative medicine. I wish our health care system did too.
28. I believe that music is one of the most important things on the planet.
29. I believe in faeries.
30. I used to want to be a vampire so that I would never grow old.
31. My second toe is longer than my big toe.
32. The only record I still own is a 45 of 867-5309 by Tommy Tutone. It sits on a shelf under the TV.
33. I once had a friend nicknamed CB (confined to barracks) who used to sing it everytime I walked into my neigborhood bar.
34. My friends tell me I am too trusting. I don't think it's as big a flaw as they make it sound. Or rather, it shouldn't be a flaw in this world at all.
35. Above my bed on a shelf is a small teddy bear that a beautiful homeless boy named Nate gave me.
36. I once had a pet rat named 'Mondale'. He and Lacey were buddies. I think she missed him as much as I do.
37. He died of bone cancer. They thought it was an external tumor they could remove until they opened him up.
38. When they told me Lacey had external tumors, even if her heart would have survived the surgery, I was too afraid the same thing would happen.
39. It makes me irrationally angry when people are late to meet me.
40. I am never late for anything, except work.
41. I am a bit of a psychic sponge and will pick up the mood of those around me, even if I don't want to.
42. On the other side of the coin, I can influence the mood of a group, if I want to.
43. My favorite ice cream is maple walnut.
44. I still can't believe that this year I'll be 35. It just doesn't seem right.
45. There is nothing about my life so far that I would change.
46. But I wish a couple of those things would come around again so that my decisions could change the course of the rest of my life.
47. There's not many foods I won't eat. In fact, right now, I can't think of one.
48. I'm more of a 'quantity' vs 'quality' sort of girl when it comes to eating.
49. I'm tone deaf. I wish I could sing. Not being able to leaves me feeling a little empty.
50. If you tickle the bottoms of my feet, I will cry and then throw up. No one believes this until I throw up on them.
51. My first car was a Datsun 210.
52. I have a birthmark at the hairline on the back of my neck. So do my sister and brother. Coincidence? I think not.
53. I prefer toilet paper to roll off the top.
54. I am left-handed.
55. The number one song the week I was born was "Spinning Wheel" by Blood, Sweat and Tears. I have no idea what it sounds like.
56. Number 26 was "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" which I loved, until they made a Gap commercial (or something) out of it.
57. Seven days after I was born - Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. During that month - Sharon Tate was murdered by the Mansons, the Concorde flew for the first time and Britain introduced the 50p coin.
58. I want to skydive but I have no desire to bungee jump.
59. I know how to kayak.
60. I've climbed a moutain.
61. I want to kiss a dolphin.
62. I've been in a locker room with a football team after a game.
63. I never had a barbie doll when I was little.
64. Nor an E-Z bake oven.
65. I preferred climbing trees and pretending I was a hobo with a kerchief of food and a stick.
66. I spent 8 months when I was six or seven dragging around a rubber alligator on a string.
67. My parents lost me once in a mall in Port Angeles.
68. I used to have a horse.
69. I've eaten chickens in the evening that I've plucked in the afternoon.
70. Not many things frighten me. As a pedestrian - drivers do. And big spiders.
71. Mosquitos don't seem to like the way I taste.
72. I'm allergic to penicillin and codeine.
73. When I was 12 I chose the boy I would give my virginity to. When I was 14 I did it. It was the first bad choice among many when it comes to men.
74. I loathe passive people.
75. I've been a smoker for 23 years.
76. I've always hated my nose.
77. I was once a trophy girl at the local Speedway in my hometown.
78. I have been cow-tipping as a teenager.
79. I refuse to pre-judge people based on other people's opinions. There is always an agenda and I'm my own person.
80. I like board games.
81. I once had a perfect hand in cribbage.
82. The very first time I got drunk was on tequila. It took me 14 years before I touched it again. Now it's one of my favorite things.
83. When I worked as the BC Fresh Water Fishing Licencing tech I helped the police track down a serial killer from the US who was living in BC.
84. When I was 12, I went to see the Jackson's Victory Tour. It remains one of the top three concerts I have ever seen.
85. Pink Floyd was one of the others.
86. I miss the forests but I do not miss the ocean.
87. My mom and I used to take the dogs to the lake late every night when I was a teenager and I used to swim naked in the moonlight while Mom sat on the beach.
88. Years later, I lost my father's wedding ring in that same lake. Strangely enough, I was skinny-dipping.
89. I still have the stiletto boots Scott bought me in high school. They're back in style now.
90. I own two pairs of cowboy boots. I used to wear them all the time, until I moved to 'Cowtown'.
91. I have never been engaged, pregnant or married.
92. I cannot whistle with my fingers in my mouth.
93. 'Shadowland' by Peter Straub is one of my all-time favorite books.
94. My third real boyfriend used to beat me. Once, he tried to kill me by jamming a shotgun down my throat. That was when I left. A couple of weeks later, he shot himself.
95. Sadly, he survived. But he has never dated anyone other than people named "Jennifer", even before me.
96. Once, years later, I asked him why he beat me. He said it was because he knew that he could never control me because my heart was free and that was the only thing he could think to do.
97. He is the only man who's ever hit me. I would kill the next one who did.
98. Even though I lived beside the ocean for 26 years, I only swam in it once. Someone dared me too.
99. I can't get moving in the morning without a shower. I cannot go to bed without having a bath.
100. This was way harder than I thought it would be and I should be doing the work I brought home.