100 things about me

1. I once appeared on The Uncle Al Show.
2. I got to be in the cookie jar where I think I was the only kid in the history of the show to eat only one Mama's cookie!
3. I am now a mama myself--a mother of three boys.
4. I am a librarian.
5. I am an English teacher who may return to that position soon, for more reasons than one.
6. I have a brother who is 16 years younger than I am and he's my only sibling; on top of that, we found out one month and one day before he got here that he was coming in the first place.
7. I consider myself a writer and some day I'm going to write a doozy.
8. I sat next to my husband in high school band--he played bari sax while I played oboe--and I was convinced he hated my guts. For some reason that bothered me even then.
9. I now have two nieces from China.
10. We have a chocolate lab named Goober.
11. If I had it to do over again, I probably would have gone to college at CBC and studied music like Dr. Koplow encouraged me to do, but that wouldn't have worked very well because Dr. Koplow was at NKU. If I'd gone to CBC originally, I never would have met the man, so I guess music just wasn't meant to be.
12. And I still would have had my three boys; I just would have added one girl--I think.
13. I played drums in marching band.
14. I once did a flip over my tri-toms when I played drums in marching band, and no, it wasn't planned. I came out without a scratch and without a lot of my original dignity.
15. I am afraid of flying, but I'm going to Puerto Rico this summer with a bunch of teenagers.
16. I hate heat and humidity, but I'm going to Puerto Rico this summer with a bunch of teenagers.
17. If this Puerto Rico thing works like I hope, I want to find more mission trips to do.
18. I play piano.
19. I used to play clarinet and guitar.
20. My all-time favorite musician is Rich Mullins. (Why can't I write like that?)
21. My all-time favorite philosopher is probably Rich Mullins, too, but I know a couple who rank right up there with him.
22. I believe Elvis IS dead.
23. I believe JFK and Hitler are, too.
24. I LOVE to read, but I don't get to do it as much as I wish I did.
25. I won the same library grant twice. That ain't easy to do.
26. My favorite fiction books are Christy and Jane Eyre.
27. I like mountains more than I do the ocean.
28. People who sit in the teachers' lounge and make fun of kids and their families really annoy me.
29. I love to laugh.
30. I'm ever-so-slowly turning gray, which really gets my goat. My grandmother was well into her 80s when she died and she didn't have much gray at all.
31. My husband is a lot more patient with me than I am with him, bless his heart.
32. I'm too laid back to be a woman.
33. I love teenagers--at least most of them.
34. The day my mother-in-law died, I thought I would, too.
35. The day my cousin died, I wasn't much better than that.
36. I was my mother's mother's only grandchild for sixteen years and she spoiled me horribly.
37. I never knew my mother's father or her brother, either, but visiting their graves chokes me up more than visiting the graves of anyone I did know.
38. Mom's father was a Quaker.
39. Dad's great-grandmother was German.
40. Somewhere in the mix is Scotch-Irish and Native American.
41. Need I say anything about my temper? (The Quaker may be closer, but it lost out on that deal.)
42. Brian's grandmother was probably my favorite person ever.
43. Of the about 15 of us who hung out together in high school, only six (maybe 7; I've lost contact with one) of us are married and only 5 of those six have children. Two of the six married each other. Two (maybe four) are gay and one was, at one time at least, a lesbian. Go figure.
44. My biggest fear is losing a child.
45. My second-biggest fear is losing my husband.
46. I HATE RATS AND MICE!
47. I saw Elvis in concert once. I had long hair and my grandma fixed it in finger-curls for the concert.
48. I went to the Bob Braun Show a couple years after I went to Uncle Al. I don't remember a thing about who was there that day, but I remember he was one of the nicest men I ever met.
49. I can usually catch sales like you can't believe.
50. My son attends a Bible college in Louisville, and I can't stand that town.
51. The worst things about teaching are PDs and meetings.
52. It's funny how, when I quit watching TV, the whole world became more beautiful.
53. I'm not incredibly talented or smart, but I am diverse. I guess that's something to be said about having no real strengths.
54. If I can get on a plane to go to Puerto Rico, I want to get on a plane to go to Great Britain one day.
55. I hate the way some folks turn teenagers or older people or little people or other people, in general, into service projects.
56. I cry over greeting cards and commercials.
57. I can drink iced tea by the gallon.
58. I don't drink, but I don't mind if others do--just as long as they don't get sloshed.
59. Nothing makes me angrier than knowing others drink or smoke or whatever while their families are doing without because of it.
60. The only thing I don't like about my house is that I can't see sunrises or sunsets. If I could find a place that would allow me to do that, I'd sell this one in a heartbeat.
61. Two of my more-embarrassing moments are already chronicled in previous blogs. I won't tell anyone my most-embarrassing. Not even Brian.
62. The most annoying things in the world are sales calls. I've put my name on no-call lists, but I still get calls for school.
63. I censor school materials.
64. Some of the funniest moments we've ever had have come courtesy of Brennan, our quietest child.
65. I get tired of Christians holding non-Christians to their Christian standards. That's as logical as expecting someone who only understand Spanish to immediately understand English.
66. I've never been so scared as I was on three separate occasions, and these are in chronological order: a) when Brian lost his finger; b) when Bart was diagnosed with diabetes, and c) when I got a call from my mom where she said, "Get over here now; we have to take your dad to the hospital!" and she hung up.
67. I've never been so close to beating anyone as I was my parents as I was when I arrived at their house after that phone call to find both of them sitting calmly in chairs, reading the paper. I'd arrived in 10 minutes. The trip normally takes approximately 20. I'd prayed all the way. Guess I'd flown, too.
68. The only time I've ever screamed at God was that day when I was begging him not to take Dad yet.
69. The day that Bart left his glasses on the car for the second time while he was playing outside was the only time I've screamed at any of my kids with someone else present--and that's because, for the second time, I drove off with them still on there. He was a junior in high school at that time. It was all my fault that it happened, according to him.
70. I have so many good thoughts that I've decided I must write down later, only to have forgotten the thoughts by the time I remember to write them down.
71. I'm none too thrilled about conventional church just because it's all so premeditated and no one really gets to care about each other or about God.
72. I'm the weird one of my family on both sides. Don't know why. I'm not a black sheep; I just hear a different drummer.
73. I like challenges. If I don't have challenges, I get really bored. Few challenge me.
74. I grew up in the same house where my mom and dad live now, and they've lived there for 42 years--since they were married.
75. I've never seen Titanic or Steel Magnolias, and I don't feel as though I've lost that much, but maybe I'm wrong.
76. I've never read a lot of the stuff I'm supposed to have read (Pride and Prejudice, Cry, the Beloved Country, Brave New World), but I've read a lot of stuff few others have (Christy, Jane Eyre, A Country Doctor).
77. I'm addicted to ice cream.
78. My butt proves it.
79. I hate basketball--especially KENTUCKY basketball. I think it's too much of a god here to be given any real consideration.
80. I love spoonerisms and Freudian slips.
81. Everyone at school knows better than to say that I'm not a real teacher; if one doesn't, s/he learns quickly. =)
82. Our schools are doing our teens of today more of a disservice than even parents imagine.
83. I like algebra in a sadistic kind of way.
84. Many of the folks I see on a daily basis get more uptight about the candy machine stealing their money than they do about a kid who is wasting his potential.
85. I don't belong to KEA or AFT and I hope I never do.
86. Some teachers are the biggest whiners I have ever run across.
87. My favorite colors are blue and the rosy/dusty/mauvey reds.
88. If I could, I'd wear jeans, sweats, and t-shirts all the time--and no shoes!
89. I plan to learn to quilt this year.
90. I plan to learn to paint a little, too.
91. I plan to learn the hammered dulcimer sometime in the not-too-distant future.
92. If I could afford to, I might quit my job at the drop of a hat, but I'm not sure.
93. I hate cliches, but I can't help using them, it seems.
94. I have never had a real birthday party, and now I'm not so sure I want one. Brian tried last year for my 40th, but it was awful. I'm still not over it.
95. I snore.
96. I scratch my head when I write and sometimes when I read.
97. I cheer for the underdog--always.
98. I think entertainers are, by-and-large, stupid, overpaid egomaniacs who couldn't hold a real job if they tried. (Why can't they all be like John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Bob Hope? Shoot, why can't they all be like Mel Gibson! Oh, yeah!)
99. I don't, to this day, understand how anyone in his right mind could vote for Bill Clinton. (Sorry to those who voted for him who may stumble across this, but I don't!)
100. I have come to realize that humans are incapable of unconditional love, but it seems dogs do it quite nicely.