100 Things About Me

Here is a list of things all about me. I have been working on this list for quite some time. It was very hard to write. It's hard to come up with things about yourself, and I challenge you, my readers and fellow bloggers to come up with a similar list. During these past 10 years of my life a lot of people have come and gone, and I don't necessarily build relationships or friendships easily. This list is an attempt to let you get to know me better. I hope you like it and that you learn something new about me! So, here it is.....

001. I love to travel. Travel shows are an emotional roller coaster for me. I get all excited about where they are and want to go immediately. Then I get all depressed because if I ever get to go, it won't be tomorrow.
002. I would love to live abroad sometime. I really really hope that I get to, even if it's just for a year.
003. Chocolate is my drug of choice.
004. I love lists.
005. I have a tattoo of a blackbird that I drew. I feel like "Blackbird" by the Beatles, is my theme song.
006. My favorite flowers are red roses. I don't care if it's cliche....I think it's cliche to think flowers are cliche.
007. Growing up, I wore a headgear and had a green retainer.
008. I have never broken a bone.
009. I have had two knee surgeries. The first one was when I was 17 and then almost exactly a year later. Neither of these knee injuries were sports related.
010. I have been to 49 out of 50 states. I'll add Alaska to the list eventually, unless I decide that it is just too far North.
011. I have been to 4 Community Colleges. It's taken me awhile to figure out what degree I wanted to get.
012. In December I'll have my Associate of Applied Science in Nursing, but I'm not sure what I want to do when I grow up.
013. I love Volkswagens. I have driven three: a Rabbit, a GTI, and a Cabrio Convertible.
014. I am the oldest child and grandchild in my family. I get blamed for being a bad example, a lot.
015. I have moved 12 times since I moved out of my parents house when I was 18.
016. I tried out for basketball when I was 15. I got cut. I also sprained both my ankles.
017. I bought my first house when I was 23. I was pretty proud of myself.
018. I love the beach. I miss it.
019. I love the rain. I miss it.
020. I love summer in Seattle. I miss it.
021. I know how to sew.
022. I am extremely organized.
023. I can be a total slob, but I always know where everything is!
024. I have a mild case of OCD. The volume has to be on an even number, things have to be eaten a certain way, clothes hung in the closet according to color...etc.
025. I am tall. I am the shortest one in my family.
026. I bruise easily.
027. I love music, especially live music.
028. I was in band for 10 years. I played the flute. I always wished I had played something cooler like the trombone.
029. My all time favorite band is The Beatles. I really love them.
030. I took piano lessons when I was younger and can't wait to buy my own piano someday.
031. My favorite song to play on the piano is "Canon in D."
032. I love Chai Tea Lattes, and Valencia Mochas. I don't really like regular coffee, and it's not because I used to be a Barista.
033. If I could only have one dessert for the rest of my life, it would be the Chocolate Raspberry Torte from the B&O in Seattle. It is my favorite of ALL time.
034. I am first aid and CPR certified.
035. I have had 12 jobs since I was 16 and have worked for some major companies, including Starbucks, Gap Inc. and Kinkos, also, the Olive Garden. I hated most of those jobs.
036. I am a perfectionist. If it's not perfect, I will do it again. If I know I can't do it perfectly, I won't do it at all.
037. I buy in bulk. I love Costco.
038. I am addicted to the internet. I can't remember what life was like without it.
039. I was in a play when I was a teenager. I won the Best Actress award.
040. I think I'm hilarious. Not too many people agree with me.
041. When I was a little girl I loved to read, draw, and ride my bike. I never do those things now.
042. I love, LOVE cookies. I relate to Cookie Monster.
043. I pride myself on my excellent handwriting.
044. I can't eat anything spicy. My eyes water, my nose runs, and I feel like I'm going to die.
045. I believe in Karma.
046. I believe in Love. I'm a sucker for love.
047. I have worked hard to give up some very bad habits, including: biting my nails, popping my knuckles, and smoking. I'm working on giving up soap operas.
048. I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth pulled.
049. I almost flunked out of high school, but I didn't because of some very loving people.
050. I tend to start messages with "Yo", call people "Dude" and sign messages with "Later". I hate it when people sign with "Take Care."
051. When I was in kindergarten I wet my pants because I didn't want to miss the story my teacher was reading and I couldn't undo my purple corduroy overalls.
052. I have developed seasonal allergies since moving to Tucson.
053. I'm a Democrat. This fact really bothers my Republican parents and grandparents.
054. I have seen every single episode of Sex and the City multiple times. It's a great show. One of my favorites of all time. If I love a show, I will eventually see every single episode, probably more than once.
055. I rarely wear makeup because I don't like all the attention I get when I do.
056. I rarely do my hair because I don't like all the attention I get when I do.
057. I love to sleep. I love to nap. I can't get enough sleep.
058. I will beat you and everyone you know in Chinese Checkers. I am the master.
059. I am also really good at that game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon."
060. I love cold weather, mostly because I love sweaters and sitting by a warm fireplace, ooh and piling on tons of blankets.
061. I can curl my tongue.
062. I love hats but I feel embarrassed wearing them because I feel like I stick out and look ridiculous.
063. I love to sing, especially when I'm driving.
064. I love to whistle. This usually drives others around me crazy.
065. I will clean everything in the whole entire house (I'm talking deep cleaning and organizing) and do all your laundry, if you clean the toilet. I HATE cleaning the toilet more than anything. Ooh and the shower too, can't stand it.
066. I'm an excellent test taker.
067. I like my steak medium rare and grilled by Ben.
068. I can never use cliches or anecdotes because I always butcher the saying.
069. I'm a very forgiving and trusting person, probably to my own detriment.
070. I'm scared of heights...I get sweaty palms just thinking about heights.
071. I'm not that great at cooking (because I never have time to do it), but everything I bake is pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself.
072. I love to dance, especially at concerts. I usually embarrass everyone around me (Ben), but I don't care because I LOVE to dance.
073. I don't really know how to swim. I just didn't want to do my bobs in swimming lessons.
074. I got picked on a lot in school, for being quiet, for being tall, for being poor, for being really innocent and naive and mostly for having a boy haircut.
075. I'm a pretty emotional person. I cry at everything. I can't help it. I'm a feeler. I'm also a talker.
076. The only pets I've ever had were goldfish and birds. I don't think they really count as pets because you can't pet them.
077. I love camping. Mostly because I love the gear. I love pocket knives, first aid kits, and mess kits, compass's, sleeping bags and tents and waterproof matches. I was raised by boyscouts.
078. I have been boy crazy ever since I can remember knowing what a boy was.
079. I can pick things up with my feet. I have monkey toes.
080. I was born in the year of the monkey.
081. I have a bad back. I was in two accidents where my car was totaled and they totally jacked up my back.
082. I was fifteen when I had my first boyfriend. Our relationship consisted of passing notes and making out in his car. It lasted two, maybe three months tops.
083. I have dyed my hair black, red, and blonde. I wish it were naturally red instead of poop brown.
084. I never drink POP. I hate it when people say Soda.
085. I love Converse and Doc Martens and Birkenstocks. I also love bell bottoms, tie-dye and peace signs, what?
086. When I took the ACT I was totally distracted because I had pulled an all-nighter, I was thinking about how to break up with my boyfriend and I was sick. I still got a higher score than people who thought they were smarter than me....including my siblings. This makes me very happy.
087. I am often misunderstood....they say most geniuses are misunderstood.
088. I'm a pretty open person, maybe too open sometimes. I can scare people with my stories.
089. When I want something, I go for it and don't look back. I can be pretty determined.
090. I'll try anything once. I'm not scared. I have a long list of things I want to try. I can't wait to go skydiving and bungee jumping and to have a baby.
091. I hate clutter. I just can't concentrate or relax with clutter everywhere.
092. I am a sucker for museums. Especially when I'm traveling, I have to go to ALL the museums. This probably started with Marsh's Museum in Long Beach.
093. I hate doing tedious things over and over and OVER again. This is why I'm doing Laser Hair Removal. Also, I don't like being hairy.
094. I like to go all out for special occasions and to spoil people that I love. This is probably why I'll never be a multi-millionaire.
095. I like to make things from scratch and love things that are homemade, as long as they are perfect. I also buy organic whenever possible. Basically, I'm all about quality. Basically, I'm a snob.
096. I'm attracted to talent and intelligence. My boyfriend is a genius and has major skills.
097. I love to swing.
098. My favorite possession is Grandma Tisso's black antique phone. She used to let me play office with it.
099. My Grandpa Chalmer named me Mable Brown.
100. I'm not a writer. I've never kept a journal and I HATE writing papers. This blog isn't easy for me to write. This list was not easy for me to write.

The Last Lecture

Randy Pausch, who died today, was an incredible person and I'm so glad I got to see his lecture online and to see his interviews on t.v. His lecture really inspired me and I hope you will watch it or read it. I love when he said, "I mean I don't know how to not have fun. I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day I have left. Because there's no other way to play it." What an amazing outlook!

The Sharpies!

This weekend I took a little trip to Utah to see my friends the Sharps. Paul got married on Saturday and it was a good chance to see the whole (mostly) family at once. For those of you that don't know, I kind of grew up with this family and I love them very much so I couldn't pass this opportunity up. I can't really remember life without the Sharps! I was in classes with all the older girls at church and school up through highschool, where Janae became one of my best friends. It's been about 5 years since I last got to see the Sharps and so much has changed! Almost all the kids are married now so it was really great to meet all their spouses! And my favorite thing was meeting Baby Danielle! I can't believe that Janae's a mom, but I love it! Danielle is totally adorable! It was so great being able to catch up with Janae and I loved being able to talk with Carol, Claire and Linda! I'm so glad I got to meet John, Jeremy, Steve, ooh, and Jen and Steve too! I'm really happy I got to go to Paul's wedding! I can't wait to see you all again!

Procrastination

Most of you know that I am a huge procrastinator. If I don't want to do something that I absolutely HAVE to do, I will put it off until the last minute. This includes studying. Yes, I want to be a nurse, do I actually want to study for my tests? The answer is no. Now, don't freak out....I know my limits. I know when I need to buckle down and when I can get by with the minimal amount of preparation. I'm just a little burned out from this whole school and work thing nearly every single day of my life!

So, this last weekend instead of taking the time to review all my notes, and do some reading in preparation for my test on Monday, I really waited until Sunday evening to prepare. Don't worry, I got a great grade on my test (especially considering how little I studied)! The purpose of this post is not to tell you how well I did on my Nursing test it's to tell you what I did over the weekend while I was busy procrastinating!

I love procrastinating in so many different ways....hitting the snooze button, watching soap operas, surfing the internet, and ordering pizza are my favorites. Sometimes though, when I have a seriously good chunk of time to waste and some important studying to do (hence the need to procrastinate) I like to start projects....or finish old projects.

This weekend I managed to start AND finish a project. It was awesome! I made some throw pillows! I have sewn lots of things in my life and used fabric for many projects, but I have never made pillows before. It took me a little while to get it going, but then I really cranked them out. I made 2 square pillows, a rectangle one, and 2 bolsters. The bolsters were the ones that ate up the majority of my Saturday (I also cleaned and did laundry...another favorite procrastination tactic I love! I know I have homework, but I need to dust!) So, as far as procrastination goes, I think I had a pretty productive weekend! What do you think of my pillows?

Ben's Birthday!

Well, Ben's now officially just as old as me! Did you all know that I'm dating a younger man? It was Ben's 28th birthday yesterday and we had a fun night. We went and got some quick dinner at Bisonwhiches before we went to an old movie at The Loft. They play lots of independent and cult classics and charge just a couple bucks. Ben and I sat in a pretty comfy red couch and saw a pretty horrible movie. It was so horrible that it was hilarious. It was a fun night. I think we're going to go back again for "Mondo Monday." This is the giant birthday "card" I gave Ben. I'm very proud of it!

Happy Independence Day....a day late!

I hope everyone had a good Fourth of July! Mine was pretty good. I started the day off by watching a couple episodes of "The Revolution", a series about the American Revolution on the History Channel. There was a marathon so I DVRed the rest of the episodes to watch later. I turned the t.v. on and it just happened to be on the history channel and I got sucked in to the show.

When I was thirteen my first big trip away from home by myself was the eighth grade trip to Washington D.C. When I was 22, my sister and I went on a giant road trip across the country and I went back again to a lot of historical sights and monuments. I love Mt. Vernon and Jamestown and Williamsburg, and all the monuments in D.C. I hope to go back again sometime. I'm really glad I found this series, because even though I am somewhat interested in history, I don't know a lot of the facts. Before I go back to the east coast, I'm going to have to read up on my American History. I'm also going to add "John Adams," the miniseries to my Netflix queue. I heard it's excellent.

Anyways, Ben and I went over to his old roommate Paul's house around three for a barbeque. Ben made some awesome beer-can chicken and Paul's wife Kendra made maybe the best fruit salad I've ever had. EVER. Seriously, it was good. It was apples, mangoes, mandarin oranges, and strawberries, with torn mint leaves and a rosemary infused simple syrup. I'm going to have to try and make it sometime. Ben and I also brought one of those little seedless watermelons, which was also sooo good. After the BBQ, Ben and I drove towards "A" Mountain to see Tucson's fireworks and Ben took some pretty good shots!

Labor and Delivery

Yesterday was my second OB clinical and I got to see seven births! One was a cesarean and the other were vaginal. I got to work with the "Trans Nurse" who basically comes in at the last minute and works on the baby and transports them either to the nursery or right back to the mom. It was actually pretty fun. We would go into the room just as the Mom was starting to push and as soon as the baby was born the doctor would hand the nurse the baby and we'd start working on it under the warmer. Each time the Trans Nurse would say, "Happy Birthday!" And I thought, "Whoa, that's crazy...it IS their ACTUAL birthday!" We would wipe the baby down, measure and weigh it, put the Erythromycin in it's eyes and I got to give a few of the babies their first shot! I also got to hand some of the babies to their mom for the first time, which was pretty cool.

At some point during my day I took a baby up to the nursery and hung out up there for a little while. I fed and burped and changed a couple babies. I also held one for a little while, while it was sleeping. I can understand why people want to be OB nurses. It just felt good to hold the baby. I didn't think the baby was particularly cute or anything, it just felt happy. Maybe someday if I ever have kids I'd consider working in Labor and Delivery.

If it were always happy births and just holding babies it would be great. But even yesterday, I was freaked out when a little tiny baby was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck FOUR times and because of the meconium had to be intubated. Luckily everything was okay with the baby, but it was scary there for a minute! That particular baby as soon as she pinked up was so perfect and beautiful and her parents named her Guilliana Gabrielle. I thought that was a pretty name.

One thing I learned was the difference between a natural birth and an epidural. Hello, prolapsed rectum! That was pretty much all it took for me to become a believer. That poor mom was actually planning on getting an epidural but got to the hospital too late. The mom's who had an epidural were so much happier and in way less pain. Oh, and also the more babies the mom had already had, the quicker their babies were born....and with rounder heads. All in all it was a pretty educational day.