Sunday, January 18, 2009

25 Things You Don't Know About Me

I've avoided writing one of these... but I've been tagged several times now and my reluctance is being overshadowed by my guilt for not responding. Damn you fellow bloggers!

The reason I struggle is that I think I live my life fairly transparently. I'm a bit of an over-sharer to tell you the truth. I can always be counted on to say something that will result in at least one "oh no, she did NOT just say..."

I've been trying to curb that little habit.

So, off we go:

1. I've suntanned topless.
2. I've been kicked out of a country.
3. As a teenager I once got so drunk I peed the bed. "oh no, she did NOT just say..."
4. I've NEVER been that drunk again.
5. Except when Jim was pouring.
6. I do not have a drinking problem. Really. And I'm not bragging about being drunk either. I think stupidity can happen once a decade...
7. Six was kind of a cheater one, so is this. In keeping with this theme, I've never, ever cheated on a test.
8. I cannot stand to be late. For anything. Both my kids were born late. The little turds.
9. In the past week I've watched Transformers over ten times. I just like the movie and I have to have background noise, even when I'm sleeping and hacking on the couch.
10. There are days that I understand WHY someone could hit a child. It takes every ounce of effort to not smack one of mine.
11. Just after I wrote that, my daughter had a melt down. I did not smack her, don't worry.
12. I am a horrible housekeeper. I regularly have more laundry lying in front of the washing machine than I do in my closets. I think that's the only way I have room for all the clothes.
13. The only way I know to do things is by jumping in over my head.
14. I have two compression fractures in my back. Or had, I think they fuse or something. I don't have any pain.
15. I'm running my first 10k in March and I haven't been running in over a month. (see: jumps in over head)
16. I love writing and I hate writing, all at the same time. I love to hate or I hate to love. It makes me crazy and I can't NOT do it.
17. I did not cheat on my first boyfriend, but I wanted to. And that's why I broke up with him. And then I didn't do anything with anyone... I don't deal well with guilt.
18. My daughter is SO MUCH like me that I worry for her future. She's destined to make her life more difficult than it needs to be.
19. My second cousin, Keith, is very, very different from me. He's here on the left...
20. Many days I can go until 3 pm and only drink coffee.... it's not healthy at all and I'm trying to change that.
21. My biggest, most favourite "splurge" is an afternoon nap.
22. I suspect that I have ADHD-I. But then again, so does every other writing mother I think... I'm to afraid to get tested because I don't want to use it as an excuse. I just want to will myself to do better job at being organized and staying focused.
23. I think people that volunteer or give money to help animals are chickens. I think it's much more brave and compassionate to volunteer to help out the homeless or drug addicts or any other fallible human being. It's easy to love a puppy. Not so easy to hold the hand of a drug addict and say, "I care".
24. I can be very judgmental. I'm working on that.
25. I worry that I will end up alone and that all my friends and family will eventually leave me.

So, that's the list! Now... who to tag...

(On Facebook I did a second list, which I thought was much better.)

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

1. I cry very easily. I cry when I’m happy, sad, frustrated, excited or angry. I cry every Sunday at Church because the music is always so beautiful.

2. I refuse to take the Lord's name in vain, but I will say the f-word when angry.

3. I think that the hardest job on the planet is being a GOOD MOTHER. You can be a mom with a uterus and a few too many shots of tequila, but to be a good mother is very, very hard and I’m never sure I’m actually doing it.

4. One of my biggest faults is that I’m convinced everyone else is happier than me, having more fun and doing more important things with their lives. I’ve always been afraid to be left behind.

5. I’m a huge procrastinator. I think it has something to do with part of my creative process as a writer, but that doesn’t explain why I fill the sink up with water and leave the dishes in there overnight. Procrastination makes me furious. I once bought a present for a friend and kept meaning to send it to her. And then she died. I can’t forgive myself for that.

6. I wish I were a kinder mother and person. Some of my employees nicknamed me The General. I’m also the disciplinarian at home.

7. I didn’t think I was a Type-A person until I said that to a friend and she laughed her butt off at me.

8. I have high expectations for people, but they are never as high as the ones I have for myself. I worry that I’ll accomplish something big and never be able to enjoy it. I think we should enjoy our successes.

9. I am inherently lazy. My biggest guilty pleasure is an afternoon nap. I would never finish anything without an external deadline.

10. Thank the good Lord that I have an internal editor because if I said have the things that were in my head … I’m sure I would be institutionalized.

11. I sort of cheated and wrote one of these already and then all my friends wrote theirs and I needed a second draft.

12. My parents used to live in a tent in the Northwest Territories. Or maybe the Yukon. I can’t remember (cause I wasn’t there).

13. I’ve lived in Canada, Barbados and Austria. But I’ve lived in Calgary, Alberta since 1988 and have lived in over 30 houses in this city alone. I finally bought a house last fall and I’m not moving for a good long time.

14. I almost joined the Army. I had applied for a job overseas and gone for an interview with the Armed Forces… I was 18 and couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do so I decided whichever job called me first would be the one I’d do. The job overseas called.

15. I met my husband while I was overseas because I got kicked out of the country I was working in (Austria) for not having a work visa. We went on a roadtrip to Italy and that’s where I met Randy. I loved him the moment I saw him.

16. Years later I read one of the letters I sent to him after I went back to work in Austria and I know why he ran screaming way.

17. I didn’t marry him until 9 years, another marriage and one child later. God Bless The Broken Road by Rascal Flatts is our song.

18. I loved him for a long time and always wanted to be an Army Wife. And then when I married him (we eloped), he wasn’t in the army any more. Oh well, I’d take him over the army any day.

19. My mother calls my daughter “payback”. During the writing of these 25 things she has puked, thrown a temper tantrum, been sweet as an angel and now I’ve walked her back to her bed for the seventh time. Payback is a youknowhat, that’s for sure.

20. I think Obama is very attractive. I thought Clinton was a Pervy McPervyton the first moment I saw him. Canada has never had an attractive Prime Minister.

21. Of course, I’ve always found American men more attractive than Canadian ones. Canadian accents are never attractive.

22. My favorite movie of all time is Transformers. I cried in the theatre when they captured Bumblebee.

23. It’s been well over a year since I rode a horse and I’m afraid that I’ll never own one again.

24. I loved school. I would love to go back to school full-time. But I have no idea what I’d take. I’ve alternated between: veterinarian, war correspondent, journalist, photographer, nurse, doctor, teacher and politician. But the only thing I know how to do well is write.

25. I am absolutely addicted to buying books. I have close to 1000 and many I haven’t read yet.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome list! I completely share your views on so many things.
penelopeellasusan.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

blog while on Facebook. I am a blogging Mama and I aspire to write my novel someday. I also happened to write blog a couple days ago about my 25 Random Things lists!! Too funny!!
Your list was wonderful to read. Refreshing honesty!I can sympathize with the laundry piles for sure! I had to laugh at the drinking story, even though I know its not funny because I have to be careful with drinking ever since college when I woke up in the hospital and couldn't remember how I got there, ugh! I look forward to reading more!

Bethany said...

I just found your blog. I am very much like you, except...I am always late, and three of my kids were early.
Thanks for your honesty.