1.24.2012

Twenty-One Things

Kathy at Just Keep Running tagged me in the 21 Random Things tag, and I have been working on it for over a month. Do you know how hard it is to think of 21 random things about yourself!? That you have not already shared over the last 6 years? Yeah. It's hard.

CHILDHOOD:

{1} My mother is from Back East. My father was born and raised in California about 8 miles from where they live now. This makes for an interesting "how they met" story. The first attempt was to hook my mom up with my Uncle, but she fell for my Dad instead. My Dad liked her, even though she made gummy noodles. They got pregnant right away. Along came me. The End.

{2} That's not really the end. I grew up in the mountains, near a river. I was pretty much allowed to run free. That's the good thing about living in the boonies. I also never had (and still don't have) cable TV.

A typical summer at home
{3} The bad thing is that sometimes random people who are not so great pick you up and accidentally drop you. Yes, I was dropped on my head as a child. And I turned out FINE! a;lktjpoigugh!!

{4} I also rode the short bus to school. Since we were so far from town, the big bus couldn't come all that way, so there was a separate smaller bus that picked up the people that were really far away and then took them to a main bus stop where we would meet the big bus.

{5} I played baseball, soccer and was on ski team in High School. Ski team was the best. We had meets on Mondays, so we got out of school!

All Stars Baseball 1990
{6} In High School we had a "nutrition break" from 10 o'clock to 10:15 or something like that. I don't think I ever ate anything nutritious during this time. It was just an excuse to hang out with friends, eat nutty buddies and drink cokes. Nutrition -- schmootrition.

{7} I didn't usually bring my lunch to school. My parents would give me $2/day and I would save it up until I could buy a lot of nutty buddies. I guess I've always been a saver. You have to prioritize, man!

TWENTIES:

{8} I went to school at Sac State, where my major was Pre-Physical Therapy. I then switched to San Francisco, where they called it "Kinesiology", which I think sounds much more professional. And people don't really know what the word means, so that must be good, right?

{9} I worked at Nordstrom for 8 years. First I sold coffee, then I sold shoes, then I managed people who sold shoes (and I BOUGHT a lot of shoes). As much as the corporate BS sometimes got to me, it was a great place to work when I was in school. They worked around my schedule and paid my way through college!

{10} My first trip abroad was to France, where I worked at a grocery store for two months during the summer. You should have seen me trying to get a "price check on register 3"! Speaking French was hard, and it was even harder over the phone! They had an acronym for me to remember at the register: SBAM: Sourire (smile), Bonjour, Au Revoir, Monsieur/Madam.

{11} My favorite thing to do on my day off was to hang out at Dolores Park with a book, looking at the skyline of the city and watching the gays rub banana oil on each other. No joke.

View from Dolores Park
{12} My first apartment in San Francisco was a sublet and was shared with three other people, none of whom I had met before. We had a house cleaning schedule. Only three of us actually followed it. The fourth, who was a boy, ended up being my closest friend.

{13} I was a pescatarian for about 15 years.

{14} I used to have over 20 houseplants, which I loved. I gave them away in order to travel to Europe and I never got them back. I don't have a place for them so it's okay. They are in a good place.

NOW:

{15} I can speak Spanish. Not very well, but I can get by. Especially if the subject is food, lodging or transportation. That is what traveling does; you only learn "traveling Spanish". Actually I am better at writing and reading it than I am at speaking it.

{16} I have never had braces.

{17} If I could eat one food for the rest of my life, it might be Mexican food.

Mexican food in...Missouri
{18} I have had surgery 4 times.

{19} In the past 7 years, I have been "home" about 8 months. The rest of the time I am working somewhere else or traveling for fun somewhere else.

{20} My go to outfit used to be black on black. I had to wear suits to work every day, so it was easier. Now I am starting to embrace colors, but I think it comes from being able to dress much more casually at work. If I had to wear a suit again, I would probably be back to black again.

{21} I can't stand having fingernails. I don't bite them, but I keep them cut VERY short. I hate having them hang over my fingers. I also never paint them becuase I start chipping the paint off after a while. I guess I have a fingernail fetish.

Whew! That's Twenty-One! So, if you are bored or need something to post about, feel free to join in or add some in the comments! If you are reading this, you are tagged!

Do you have any fetishes, fingernail or otherwise? Did you ever get dropped as a kid? Do you speak a foreign language?

16 comments:

  1. Growing up in the country has its benefits and its drawbacks. Great list!

    fwiw, I did a 10 things list that I think is one of the funniest things I've ever written. http://trainingsmoker.blogspot.com/2010/03/10-random-things.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. to be at 'home' is hard-8 months is long enough..a weekend at a time. Don't you find you resort to being a teenager, in your role of the family again?

    PS- Zanzibar chutney-just tomato chutney, with sultanas, onion,s chillions and lots of spices from Zanzibar-mainly cloves and cinnamon-yum.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like short finger nails also, I sometimes paint them but get bummed at how fast the paint chips. I wish I could have longer nails but I nails are super thin.

    ReplyDelete
  4. i know, 21 things is hard, isn't it?

    This is a great list! I am the same way about finger nails. I keep mine short, and if any of them break I have to cut them all down so they are all the same length.

    I wish I knew another language! I know a little German from HS and College - but not nearly enough to say I'm fluent.

    Thanks for playing along!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I wish I spoke a foreign language! I like it when my nails are long, but they rarely are because i tend to pick at them or bite them. And they are never painted because they look terrible when I paint them (I don't have a steady hand!) and they chip so fast. And I don't think I have been dropped on my head, but one never knows!

    ReplyDelete
  6. That's so cool you speak Spanish!! My nails are awful. I try to keep them painted because it's the only way they grow. I admit to having a nail chewing habit (eep!)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mexican would be my choice too. I took spanish for 2 years but I wouldn't say I can still speak it. Kicking myself for that. It would have been helpful on my resume.

    Great list!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I so wish I could speak a foreign language too...I took 3 years of Spanish in high school and then another 2 later on in life when I was dating a Columbian...still can only kind of speak it...

    xoxo from Trinidad

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm glad you did this, I learned so much about you! I knew you traveled a lot, but wow!! Love Mexican food, too.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I had a hard time coming up with 11 random items. 21 would be really difficult! I don't have a fingernail fetish, really. I hate the feel of fake nails, though, so I keep them pretty short. I also don't mess around with nail polish. Makes me feel like my nails are suffocating, ha!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I rode the short bus too!

    And France. I love France. I was only there for three weeks, but that country made quite an impression.

    ReplyDelete
  12. oh my gosh, as i was reading your 21 things i started thinking about what i would say and well I've got nothing. lol

    anyways, I'm a new follower and i passed on a "blogger award" to you :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wow! 8 months over 7yrs. That's a lot of traveling. You must have seen most of the corners of the earth!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Great post! You have done so much in your life already. I knew you had traveled but wow that's amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  15. So now I'm kind of wishing that I could live in the mountains and let my children run free all day. But not be dropped on their heads :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Ha. Loved hearing all that, especially your Nutty Buttie's. :)

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting! I love to respond to comments, so please check back soon for my reply!