Introspection

25 Random Things About Me

1. I am a dork. A huge, huge dork. (Or is it "nerd"? Either way...) Just about everything else in here will probably substantiate this, but I just wanted to clear that up first.

2. I'm passionate about a lot of things. Stuff either makes me happy or sad. Feeling neutral about something even makes me a little sad. Life's too short for indifference. (Of course, this is also part of why I'm probably a little overemotional for my own good. Most of the time I don't mind though.)

3. I crochet. And scrapbook. And sew. And craft jewelry. And quilt. I'm basically just a crafting addict. I look at things in stores and think, "I could make that." And then for the next 6 months my dining room table is lost under a heap of glue, yarn, fabric scraps, beads, etcetera. I like to think that this is an evolution of my art background, which it probably is to an extent, but I'm also afraid I'm just wussing out of actually having to put my artistic self to the test. After deciding I should suck it up and start doing something again, I took up ceramics. I’ve discovered that I’m not too shabby with a wheel and some clay. Once I crank out some more bowls and enough mugs for next Christmas I think I’ll switch and take something else. Next up, photography maybe?

4. Drinking and crafting are a bad combo, but I do it a lot anyway. (And then can't figure out why my stitches are all kinds of loose or the glue stick is all sloppy.) I miss my knitting club from Paris. (Did I mentioned i lived in Paris for a year in college?) They were great at both!

5. I have crazy dreams almost every night. They're usually extremely detailed, really involved epics with complicated plots. They're intense and I freaking love them. I've started writing them down in a journal because I'd hate to forget any of them. (And sharing some of them here. Because there's nothing more exciting than reading about someone else's dreams, right?)

6. I have one younger brother, who's awesome. I'm not even sure I can explain how awesome he is. He's really awesome. You'll just have to trust me. We're tight. In fact, when we were kids we decided we were psychic twins. Okay, I decided, and he was kind enough to humor me. (I was also mean enough to force him to humor me, but that's another story and in this instance he was a willing accomplice.) The three year age difference (and lack of actual psychic talent) didn't faze us in the least. We even have secret twin names. We still use them. (In fact, his secret twin name is how I identify him on this blog. I guess it’s not so secret anymore.)

7. I like watching things burn. (I blame my mom for this.) It's not a destructive thing; I'm just fascinated by flames and explosions. This makes bonfires and fireworks two of my favorite things ever. Besides looking at them, I love the smell. I love the lingering smell of campfire in my hair. Every summer, we have fireworks outside our house every single night around 9 PM. (Thank you Sea World!) After 2 years, I still run outside to watch most nights.

8. I also like bodies of water. A lot. (I blame my mom for this as well.) Living near the ocean (bay, whatever) and getting to see it every day makes me very happy.

9. Actually, I probably just have a thing for the elemental, because I'm also obsessed with sunshine and rain, lightning and thunder storms, wind, earth, trees...

10. I can't close things. Drawers, cabinets, bottles and jars... I pretty much just leave a trail of open objects in my wake. I think it's because I'm always off in my head thinking about something else, so I just don't pay much attention to what I'm doing besides the primary objective. (It's, "Get bread out of cupboard and then there's the jam and peanut butter and, oh don't forget..." Not, "Open cupboard. Get out bread. Close cupboard.") I'm trying to be better about this, but it's not easy for me.

11. I love food and cooking. I studied at the Cordon Bleu when I lived in Paris. I also gained 30 pounds, which I attribute entirely to the insanely wonderful food over there, (and which I fortunately lost again when I came back to the US).

12. I read. A lot. I have a preference for fantasy, but I'll ready just about anything that's handy. Horror, poetry, non-fiction, magazines, cereal boxes, the back of shampoo bottles...

13. (How can I only be halfway through this?) I never did the usual summer job thing. I worked at a planetarium running star shows, laser light shows, and Imax movies in high school. I designed, built, and painted sets for theater companies in college.

14. I love languages. And language in general. I speak four - English, French, Italian and Spanish - with varying degrees of fluency, and I want to learn more. (I'm working on Swedish currently.) Words fascinate me and it makes me sad that modern society is killing the English language - both the grammar and vocabulary (thus the post titles on this blog). I also speak a smattering of American Sign Language, which is frequently useful, but only with the handful of people who also know sign language.

15. I want to learn to surf this year. I'm also extremely intimidated by the idea. I figure if I keep telling people, I'll have to follow through, even if just to avoid the embarrassment of having to admit I didn't do it.

16. I care too much what other people think about me. I'm also a little neurotic and overly introspective. It's a long harbored insecurity thing. If you've ever seen pictures of me from middle school it makes sense. Of course, it's been a long time since middle school, and I'm now a reasonably attractive, successful human being. But I still struggle with it.

17. I'm fairly handy around the house. I can patch holes in walls, repair a toilet, replace doorknobs, caulk a tub, refurbish hardwood floors, paint walls, construct window seats... (Actually, I think most people could figure this stuff out if they just thought about it. Except electrical wiring. That's not a good place to start experimenting with you newfound inner-Bob Villa.)

18. I randomly memorize things. It's usually not intentional. Song lyrics live just about forever in my head after only a few listenings, but I've also memorized long poems ("The Highway Man" comes to mind) or passages of things I've read often enough (Shakespearian monologues, for example). My brother and I even learned Morse Code by accident when we were deciphering a puzzle written in it.
(** - --- *-** -** -*-- --- **- **** * *-- *- *** *- *-- * *** --- -- *.)

19. I'm your typical American melting pot of genetics: Swedish, Welsh, German, Scottish, French, and Cherokee. The Swedish is the biggest percentage (almost half), and the most dominant of the cultures I grew up with. (Skål!) Swedish cookies and alcohol are awesome. Swedish fish is scary (the meat, not the candy).

20. I love senses. How cool is it that we can see, touch, smell, hear and taste things? No, seriously, think about it. People really don't use their senses enough or take the time to enjoy what they tell us. This is probably why I'm so touchy-feely, why I almost always wear perfume, and why I love art, music, and food so much.

21. I played the piano, the violin, and took voice lessons as a kid. I didn't really keep up with it and pretty much suck at all of them now. I also did one season each of soccer, basketball, and track, plus numerous summers of tennis and sailing, and winters of skiing. Only the last two stuck.

22. Then I discovered dance. I took ballet, jazz, ballroom, modern, and lyrical, did show choir, musicals, and anything else that involved movement to music. When I went to college, there wasn't much dance program. (Besides Highland dancing, which I was lame at. My college roommate was great at it. Dancing over swords is very cool.) So I became a cheerleader. It's kind of the same thing, but with more yelling and bouncing and cartwheels. These days I only dance around the house (or alone in the copy room at work). It's not for the faint of heart. Doing arabesques in your bathroom, fouettés in your kitchen, and grand jetés in your living room is fun but dangerous. At least for me. I always end up knocking into things, which results in a lot of strange bruises. I do it anyway.

23. I have crappy fingernails. They suck. And nothing seems to be able to fix them. They don't even break. That would imply too much structural integrity. They just shred. Which is lame.

24. I still have two living grandmothers. I write them both post cards once a week. I only knew my paternal grandfather, but I knew the father of my maternal grandfather (my great-grandfather), so I never felt like I missed out too much. They're all fantastic and fascinating people who I love a lot. My parents are very cool too.

25. I'm done! Oh, wait, that probably doesn't really count... I'm extremely verbose. Although you should have figured that out for yourself by now...