I decided to follow the lead of a few bloggers I read regularly and enthrall you with a list of 100 things about me. Fasten your seat belts! Here we GO!
1. I was born on March 15, 1971 in Williamsburg, Virginia. Yes, I'm THAT old. (And I feel about twelve.)
2. I grew up on the water in a very rural Virginia town. Crap, county. It wasn't big enough to be a town.
3. I was a huge tomboy.
4. Other names my mother thought of naming me are: Lee Ann, Jessica, Jennifer. I'm glad she chose Leslie. If I had to choose another name, it would be Vivian. Not sure why.
5. I live 25 minutes from where I grew up. I moved around a lot between '87 and '92.
6. Although I adore summer, I have incredibly low heat tolerance.
7. When I was little, I wanted to be a veterinarian and soon realized that where animals were concerned, I wasn't tough enough for that line of work.
8. I also wanted to be - gulp! - a mortician. (Also known as a funeral director or an undertaker.) (Have I lost what few readers I had?)
9. My great uncle owned the local funeral home and he used to let me play at his desk. The place always had tons of flowers and although I knew there were dead people there, it was a long time before I realized just what was ACTUALLY done to them.
10. I still have no fear of dead bodies as a result of my extensive amount of time at the funeral home. For a while I entertained the thought of going to school to become a forensic pathologist. Yes, doing autopsies. (Anyone still reading?)
11. I did end up going to nursing school. I worked in a hospital and two nursing homes. I like dead people better than crazy, sick people. And God, did my feet hurt at the end of the day!
12. In high school I was a pretty good artist and beat my art teacher in a few local art competitions. Sketching was my thing.
13. I still want to paint sometimes, but I feel my creativity is waning the older I get.
14. I have a somewhat strained relationship with my mother. She drives me INSANE!
15. Longevity is a trait in my family. My maternal great-grandfather lived to be 102 and my paternal grandmother lived to be 101. (Yes, I said my grandmother. My father is 88. He is 25 years older than my mother.)
16. My mother and father divorced shortly after I was born. I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen him. He's a very, very, bat shit crazy person eccentric retired attorney.
17. "People in the South don't ask IF you have crazy people in your family, they just ask which side they're on." That pretty much sums it up!
18. I grew up with tons of animals. Cats, dogs, birds, rabbits, fish and a horse named Tassie.
19. My grandmother lived across the horse pasture from us. I could successfully navigate my way across the pasture, through two sections of electric fence and NOT step in horse crap in the dark of night.
20. My great-grandfather built the first house on the island where I grew up almost 150 years ago. All our relatives built houses on that land near that first house. My childhood home is there too.
21. In middle school, I had a best friend named Lesley.
22. Even though I was raised on the Chesapeake Bay, I have a very limited tolerance for seafood.
23. My favorite food is anything with cheese, pasta or bread.
24. My favorite drink is.........chocolate milk!
25. My favorite grown-up drink is a bourbon and Coke.
26. I also have a Coca-Cola addiction and I periodically have to wean myself off of it. I'm a Coke binge drinker! (High-test Coke too. None of that diet stuff.)
27. Other than Coke, I don't really have a sweet-tooth. Give me a burger over sweets any day. (Chocolate milk, I'll take that though.)
28. Speaking of sweets, I have a bit of OCD and that causes me to be really paranoid about my teeth. I am obsessed with dental hygiene.
29. I've had 1 & 1/2 cavities in my life so far.
30. I also had braces on for 3 & 1/2 years. That was effing miserable.
31. My teeth STILL aren't perfect.
32. I adore plants. All different kinds. Orchids are my passion.
33. I love tropical fish too. Up until a year ago, I had two large fish tanks: one with fresh water tropical fish and the other with ryukins and orandas. (That's those fat, fantail goldfish in case anyone was wondering.) I gave away and sold off my fish and stored my tanks in the attic due to space/time limitations. I hope to start up another tank soon.
34. I am very good at trivia and trivia games. Particularly movie trivia.
35. I am also addicted to movies.
36. And popcorn. Buttered.
37. I cannot leave the house without sunglasses on.
38. I am "scary" pale. But oddly enough, my skin will tan before it burns.
39. Because my face is an odd shape, I have a hard time finding sunglasses. Up until last year when I hit the mother lode and found not one, but two pairs that I liked, I had managed to hold onto the same two pair of sunglasses for almost ten years. Those have since been retired.
40. The entire left side of my body is slightly larger than the right. Example: my left foot is a half size larger and the fingers on my left hand are a half size larger.
41. Which makes sense that I am left-handed.
42. I can move my little toes all by themselves.
43. I hate mornings.
44. Because I hate waking up.
45. Sleep: it's a hobby.
46. If I go too long without adequate sleep, my stomach will turn to knots.
47. I adore books and I am what my mother considers a book snob: I prefer to buy the books I read rather than get them from a library. I generally do not go to the library.
48. I am not easily scared, but I am easily startled.
49. I took piano lessons for much of my childhood and remember only Fur Elise and "Alone" by Heart.
50. I like most music, but cannot deal with country or "gangsta rap".
51. My favorite composer is Vivaldi.
52. I met Gene Simmons of Kiss. He was very scary. I don't find him so scary now that I've watched his show on A&E.
53. I used to go to lots of rock concerts and had very big hair in the late 80's.
54. I love to dance and wish that there were non-smoking dance clubs nearby. But, alas, we are in tobacco country.
55. I once took belly dancing lessons. I was pretty good at it. I am very good at shaking my ass.
56. I can't stand listening to someone eat if I'm not eating. It grosses me out.
57. I hate it when I hear someone talk that either whistles the "s" sound or sounds as if they have a mouth full of food.
58. I like all the wall light switches going in the same direction.
59. I hate the sound of my voice and oddly, I think it sounds good inside my own head.
60. I don't like the way my wrists and forearms look in pictures.
61. I haven't had a professional haircut in almost 2 years. I have really long hair and I just trim it myself. I desperately need to change my hair and have no clue what to do with it.
62. I am fascinated by all the different types of dwarfism, conjoined twins and rare diseases. I will stop most anything I'm doing if there's going to be a program on TV about any of those topics.
63. Although I am generally fascinated by most medical oddities, I can't deal with those that involve feet. Or eyes.
64. I have a bunion on my left foot that needs to be removed. That will totally FREAK me out when it's done.
65. I like my toes but hate my ankles. I think they're too fat. I am envious of people with skinny ankles.
66. I would love to travel to Egypt. I love Egyptian history. I went with friends to Philadelphia last year and saw the "King Tut and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibit at the Franklin Institute. It was awesome. The next day we saw The Police in concert. Freaking awesome weekend.
67. I am a Christmas nut. I adore Christmas. I also adore cheesy, campy Christmas music. I also love traditional Christmas music as well, but my favorite Christmas CD is Vince Guaraldi Trio: A Charlie Brown Christmas.
68. I collect German Christmas pyramids. The hand-carved wooden ones.
69. I also collect orchids, but then you already knew that!
70. The weirdest thing I've ever collected was parrot feathers. I used to save the feathers our parrot molted. I thought one day I'd come up with some brilliant craft project to use them for. I ended up throwing them away.
71. That parrot bit me the first day we had him. One the nose. It was bad. I could have inserted nose rings if I wanted to. That's how bad it was.
72. I met my husband when I was 9 years old. He was friends with my brother in high school. I had an instant crush and swore I'd marry him one day. We moved away when I was 16 and I didn't see him for 3 years. When we saw me again after those three years, it was HIM that had the crush on me. We became good friends and soon after fell in love. We were married 3 years later. At Christmas.
73. Our wedding was very formal and my dress was very large. It snowed. PERFECT!
74. We were on our own almost 7 years before we had our first and only child.
75. Yes, ONLY. Her and the dog. That's enough for us!
76. We adore her though! She's the best! Her name is Anne Carter and she goes by "Carter". Anne Carter is a very Virginian name. The only regret I have about her name is that it's a pain to constantly have to remind people that she goes by her middle name.
77. Oh, and I have one brother. He's 5 years older. I don't see him much. He lives pretty far away.
78. My favorite show is Sex and the City. I am really jacked up about the movie coming out next month. I hope it doesn't suck.
79. My other favorite shows are: CSI, Dexter, and House.
80. My guilty pleasure is watching reruns of Golden Girls and the Nanny on Lifetime.
81. I have a bad habit of holding grudges.
82. I also have a bad habit of talking things to death. I get stuck on incidents or family conflict and like to talk about it ad nauseam with my husband. Fortunately, he does the same thing, so we mesh well there.
83. I will also do this about most any current affair topic, movie or TV show I've watched or book I've read. Not always, but a lot.
84. I talk too much.
85. When I sleep, I can't stand much light in the room at all. I don't mind a night light, but it has to be down the hall and around the corner so it's not too bright.
86. I also can't stand any noise at night. The TV is the worst.
87. According to my husband, I can "hear a mouse fart in China".
88. At night, I use three regular pillows and a body pillow. There is hardly any room for John at all!
89. Billie is not allowed in the bed. She has to sleep in her bed. She twitches in the night. Cats at the foot of the bed are allowed.
90. My sight is failing. I have always had perfect vision and now I notice that street signs at night are getting harder to read. Me is old.
91. I can put my entire fist in my mouth. Great party trick.
92. I love vintage clothing. Not to wear everyday, but just to have. I have been on an eternal search for the perfect corset.
93. I am also a big architecture buff. We will travel great distances to see old/beautiful/ historic homes. I am proud to have been asked to be a hostess at a nearby plantation for Garden Week here in Virginia.
94. I also love old cemeteries. Maybe that ties in with the dead people thing. (See numbers 8-10 above.)
95. The house I grew up in is next to a cemetery. Again, dead people. But I am related to almost all the people in the cemetery.
96. I love old houses even though the house I grew up in was a modern house. An A-frame with lots of glass on the side facing the water.
97. My favorite so far of all the houses we've visited is Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina.
98. The house we live in is a small Cape Cod style cottage. I love my house, but I want more space soon.
99. If I could move anywhere in the U.S. it would be without a doubt Savannah, Georgia.
100. (I made it to 100! WOOT!) Although I am new to the blogging world, I have met some great people so far and have really enjoyed it! I spend lots and lots of time looking for great new blogs to read.
WOW! That took the better part of my whole day here at work. Can you tell it was a slow day? I hope I didn't scare anyone off! When you get right down to it, there are some freaky things on my list. At least I can admit that, cause admitting you have a problem is the first step, right?!
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