I Never

• Wake up without hitting the snooze button at least twice
• Sleep with socks on
• Use 2-in-1 Shampoo & Conditioner
• Drive behind a logging truck
• Get on an airplane without patting the outside it three times (by the door when you walk on)
• Have run out of gas
• Eat lobster
• Watch TV without doing something else
• Know when to use who or whom
• Drive in the outside lane when I'm on a bridge
• Have watched an episode of The Simpsons
• Can keep my purse free from junk
• Go anywhere without my camera
• Have or plan on removing the innards of a chicken or turkey
• Go to sleep without kissing Spencer goodnight

You Have a Question, I Have an Answer and More

In honor of my 28th birthday: I give you a list of the most random 28 things about me that I've never written about before. Since I think I've blogged about most aspects of my life on here, making this list was really hard, I had to dig deep for some of them, ha! Ya'll know almost everything about me, hence the randomness of the list, but I think I managed to do it!

1. I am very claustrophobic. It started when I was on a ride at a theme park and when it was over, both my seat and shoulder harnesses wouldn't open. There was some "mechanical difficulty" and I couldn't get out. To make matters worse, in trying to free me, the ride operators accidentally pushed down on my shoulder hardness too hard- just enough to make it click down a notch and get stuck there, and it very hard for me to breath. The whole incident only lasted around five minutes, but it was long enough to make me forever claustrophobic.
2. Oddly enough, I still love all roller coasters and theme park rides, I'm not afraid to ride anything. But put me in a small elevator, or a large one with a lot of people, and I break out in a sweat- mentally preparing my escape route should something happen.
3. In high school and college I would always wear my glasses when I wanted to be taken seriously at things like Model UN Conferences, job interviews, meetings with professors, traffic court, and whenever I had to give a speech or presentation. (It worked like a charm)
4. I can do a very impressive British accent. During one Model UN conference, I pretended I was from England for four entire days! My team was the UK delegation and my accent ( coupled with an extensive background story, complete with British pop culture, common idioms, and slang) gave us a huge edge over the competition. I never dropped the accent, even when we were in the hotel room, because I didn't want to get out of the habit. And let me tell you, it was HARD to stop talking that way when the conference was over. I thought my friends and family were going to kill me.
5. I get very car sick driving in the mountains, but nowhere else. Well, unless the person driving is an accelerate-break kind of driver, and then I'm a mess.
6. I've never had stitches.
   
7. Although I did have staples for my c-section, but that's it.
8. I'm allergic to almost every antibiotic in existence. One very bad reaction when I was a kid landed me in the hospital on IV steroids. I have to be really, really sick for the doctors to prescribe me one because they don't want me to build up an immunity to the only ones I can take.
   
9. I love to drive. Long road trips all by myself, listening to my iPod, NPR, or an audio book is how I like it.
10. I can still walk on my hands across a room.
11. I had (have) my high school's record for the sit-n-reach. I can also put both legs behind my head.
12. During my teenage rebellious years I pierced my own ears when my parents wouldn't let me get a second earring hole. Once I saw how much I liked the second one, I got brave and did a third and fourth one in my left ear a few months later. I eventually let those close up, but I still have the second holes. And none of them ever became infected!
13. I was grounded for that incident for a LOOONG time.
14. I met James Brown on a trip to New York while eating dessert at the Plaza Hotel. He wore a gold lamé suit and was so nice, he even took pictures with us.
15. I don't like ice cream. I'll eat it on some things, but I never crave it. And when I do eat it, it's only vanilla.
16. I would love to live a small town, with twinkle lights on the trees, and little local shops you can walk to- where there's an actual community instead of suburban sprawl. Let me know if you know where one of these towns exists, please!
17. I love crossword puzzles but I hate sudoku,
18. I know all the of the US Presidents in the order of their terms. When I can't sleep I go through them all.
19. If that doesn't work I name the US states and their capitals by order of their entrance into the Union. Then I do it alphabetically.
20. After watching two of my grandparents suffer from Alzheimer's, I'm terrified of it happening to me. That's why I do many crossword puzzles and mental activities that exercises the brain.
21. My favorite one to do, and the most difficult, is to turn one hand clock-wise while also turning the opposite foot counter-clockwise. So right hand turns right and left foot turns left- and then you switch them. It took me awhile to be able to do it!
22. I am a firm believer in high thread count sheets. They are a little costly, but they last forever and get better with age. I never buy anything less than 500, but I prefer 800. It's the one real luxury I allow myself these days.
23. I didn't have curly hair until I was around 8 or 9 years old. Before that it was stick straight and would NOT even hold a curl. I could sleep in rollers all night long (which I did many times) with loads of hair spray, and within two hours it would be straight again. Then it just changed, becoming a frizzy mess first, then wavy-ish, and finally curly.
24. And then after all those years of wanting naturally curly hair, it happened; which of course meant I wanted straight hair again. I shudder to think of all the money and hours I spent over the years on straightening products and hair straightners- trying to tame my super thick, very stubborn hair into submission, before finally embracing the curls.
25. I've gotten 3 speeding tickets, the last of which was my senior year of college.
    
26. But I've never successfully been convicted of speeding. I appealed my way out of one and for the other two I found legal technicalities to argue my way out it. For one of them I requested the police officer's radar calibration records and it turned out he hadn't calibrated it at the beginning of his shift. I probably wouldn't have gone to such great lengths if it weren't for the fact that my mom said she'd take me off of their car insurance if I ever got a speeding ticket on my record.
27. I have never found a four leaf clover.
28. And finally... When I first watched The Wizard of Oz (age 4) I became terrified of becoming a "dwarve," ( a dwarf, or little person) as I called it. I thought I would stop growing and be like the Munchkins. For at least a year, every night, I'd make my mom promise me that I wouldn't stop growing , that I wouldn't be like the Munchkins.

Whew, I am tired- if you made it through that list I'm pretty impressed. I've been thinking about doing a question and answer post for a long time now. So if this lengthy list of Katie Randomness didn't answer your question for/about me, please ask in the comments! I'll answer all your questions in a post later on this week. Since there are some things I just don't write about on this blog, if I don't feel comfortable with a public answer, I'll send it to you in an email. So feel free to ask all those questions you've been wanting to know :)

First Day is OVER

Okay, I promised a report, but I just got home a few minutes ago (9:30pm) and I'm exhausted. I'll leave you with these tidbits until I can tell you more about how it was.

• I was the 5th oldest person in the class
• The overwhelming majority of the class was born in 1990
• There were 31 females and 4 males
• Of those 31 females, 6 had things written on their butts
• One of our assignments is to interview our grandparents. I don't have any grandparents that are still alive.
• One of the girls in the class is friends with my 17 year old brother.
• The professor mentioned Watergate, confused glances all around me

But it was good to get my brain working again and I really liked the guy teaching the class. I think I'm going to learn a lot, if I can just get over this being really old complex I've seemed to develop. haha! It was so nice to see Spencer when I got home. She was still awake and now she's asleep in my arms. Happy.

May Day

Sometime I forget what I've written on here and I have to do a search on my own blog! Does anyone else ever have to do that? I've started noticing that there are some really big things that I've never written about and then inane facts that I've devoted two or three posts to- weird.

Getting to the point now, when I was eight years old, we moved from Richmond, VA to Rochester, MN. My dad was accepted as a year long Fellow at the Mayo Clinic (he got to meet Ronald Reagan when he had his famous brain surgery there). After completion of the program he would then be a practicing neurologist. My parents decided since it was only a year, and separation of the family wasn't an option, to rent our house out to a family member while we moved to Minnesota.

It wasn't one of those sad and tragic moves, because I knew all along we would be coming back to the same town and the same house, but it was the first time I had ever been away from my MeMa and PaPa, so I was a little down in the dumps. I loved living in Minnesota and it's one of the happiest times of my life. It was so different than Virginia, and not just the weather. It was flat as could be, where Virginia was very hilly, there were sidewalks everywhere, a park right across the street from my house, and it stayed light out until 10pm (in the summer). Fun Fact: Rochester has 100 parks in 40 sq/miles- roughly 3.1 parks per sq/mile!

Minnesota was also very different socio-politically speaking as well. They were light years ahead of Virginia in terms of environmental preservation. It was also the first time I learned that not everyone voted for George Bush, the first one. There were also many more programs for children, like cooking, sewing, arts and crafts, jewelry making, music, eco-adventures, and theater. It was just much more of a communal, out doorsy place- kids only stayed inside and at home if they were sick.

Me. The Mississippi. Minnesota.

They were also very celebratory of holidays that had nothing to do with Christianity- like Halloween, the Winter Solstice, Earth Day, and May Day. Of course I had heard of May Day, it was the first of May, and to some semi-strict southerners- the first day you are allowed to wear the color white from the waist down.** But in Minnesota they made a very big deal about it, learning all the history and lore of it (the 2nd grade version) during school. The fun part came next!

Old timey celebration of May Day!

I had just gotten home from school, and during the next hour our door bell was rung about 10-15 times. Each time I went to answer the door no one would be there, but on the stoop would be a present! Some were little flowers in cups, baked goods, candy, and baskets filled with fun things like ribbons, flower seeds, and pretty garden rocks. It was so exciting and something that we just didn't do in Virginia.

An example of one that is cute and simple. But they can be very elaborate and ornate as well.

Of course I wanted to participate in this fun activity of leaving presents on my neighbors porches, ringing the doorbell, and then running to hide! It seemed that half the fun was in not getting caught, which happened when spying little eyes would peek out of the curtains to wait for the next goody bag. Unfortunately for me, my mom and I weren't at all prepared for this, and we didn't have any of the typical "gifts" that people gave on May Day.

I was not about to let this deter me, and I went about making gifts and putting them in brown paper lunch bags. I could see the look of slight horror on my mom's face, as she watched me put things like dandelions, left over Easter candy, rocks from underneath the deck, pens, pencils, and balloons into my bags. But she didn't say anything as I created the worlds most ugly and useless hodgepodge (if that) May Day gift bags.

I didn't have a lot of time to collect my treasures and assemble them, but I worked quickly and soon had 7 bags. I then ran out of the house, skulking down the sidewalk so that I could "drop and dash" my presents without getting caught. Unfortunately, when I started, most kids were finishing up and they were already gathered outside showing off and playing with their new treats. It was then that I learned that my bags were not up to snuff, when I got caught by my best friend and she was like "um, thanks?"

I decided my bags were just too special to be given out to my friends, they didn't "get them." So I went about putting them on the stoops of the older neighbors (the ones who I thought probably didn't get any baskets and the ones who had no children. This proved to be A LOT harder than I thought, everyone except two couples on my street (that's where I was allowed to go) had kids that I knew.

Now I guess you'd have to be in my brain to understand why I did what I did next. Can you guess?

Yes, I left multiple, ugly, brown paper May Day bags filled with junk on their doorsteps. But it gets worse! I know what you're thinking "how could that possibly be?" In my infinite, eight year old wisdom, I decided that I would ring the door bell after I put each individual bag on their porch,

s-t-r-e-e-e-e-t-c-h-i-n-g

out their fun! I didn't even go back and forth between the two houses to space it out. I put one bag on the stairs, rang the bell, and then hid by the side of the house. When the elderly lady toddled to the door and picked up her treats, I would wait about 30 more seconds after she shut the door before I left another one and rang the bell all over again.

I did this three times.
To two different houses.

Looking back I know they were probably thinking it was some teenager pranking them by leaving them crap and then ringing their doorbell over and over again. I didn't even try to disguise the fact that all of them were from me! When I think about it, even today, my face turns a lovely crimson color. But on May 1, 1990, I was completely oblivious to any embarrassment, and I thought it was the greatest day!

The following May, when we were back in Virginia, I tried telling all of my friends about making baskets and leaving them on doorsteps for your neighbors, but they all thought I was crazy. I didn't care, I was prepared, and I made fairly cute (for a 9yr old) bags. I only made a few because my mom didn't think people would get it here in VA. And she was correct.

After leaving my first basket on my neighbor's porch, I ran back home to get the next one. In that one minute interval, the neighbor had already telephoned my mom, asking her if I was the rude kid who rang her door bell and left. My mother told her that I was, but I had left something for her on her stoop, which she apparently hadn't seen. Well, that didn't matter to her, it was very rude and disrespectful to ring a door bell and then run away.

After a quick, but futile, attempt to explain May Day to my neighbor, I ended up apologizing and that put an end to my celebration. SAD.

But I never forgot that May Day and I think about it each time the calendar rolls around to the end of April. I also still get really mad when I think about my mean neighbor who killed my dreams of bringing May Baskets to Richmond, Virginia (as I phrased it when I was nine). 

Ahh, youth.

So do any of you celebrate the first of May with goody bags for neighbors or did when you were a child? I think it's such a nice festivity that doesn't get a lot of attention. Maybe that will be my next (really first) entrepreneurial move, making and selling May Baskets for the world! (I'm only have kidding)


**Not strict on wearing white from the waist down- Easter, semi-strict- May Day, very strict- Memorial Day. But there's a hard line drawn in the sand that white ends on Labor Day. "Winter White" is not allowed by the very strict at all, only during the Holiday season for the semi-strict, and from the day after Thanksgiving until the end of February for the not strict.

William & Mary Weekend

The Princeton Review once said of William and Mary, my alma mater, that it's "where fun goes to die." And I don't know why, but for some reason that makes me really proud! With the exception of Spencer, graduating from W&M is my most proud accomplishment.

Kappas on Graduation Day 2004

Just received my Diploma, which was written entirely in Latin!  

William and Mary diplomas are written in Latin because we are BIG on tradition and that's how it was done back in 1693.  In the Colonial days of yore, English was still considered "vulgar" and "common;" Latin was the language of the scholars.  It all goes back to the real days of Roman yore, when Latin was the language that united all the learned folk throughout Europe.  Diplomas were written in Latin, the common language of all the educated elite,  as a means of ensuring that your qualified status would be recognized no matter where you were.  

Here are a few fast W&M facts:

• Founded in 1693, it's the Nation's 2nd oldest University
• Located in historic Williamsburg, VA
• Ranked #32 out of all the colleges and universities, public and private
• Ranked #3 out all public colleges and universities
• Ranked #1 in Best Value Colleges
• Ranked #1 for Best Small Colleges and Universities
• The average GPA of an accepted applicant is 4.0
• The average SAT 25%-75% score is 1250-1450
• The average Writing SAT score is 620-710
• They accept only 30% of all their applicants
• Home of the first Honor Code- and let me tell you, it's strict!
• Undergraduate Enrollment is 5,850
• Average GPA of a graduating senior- 2.7 (mine was 3.2)
• Founder of the first Honors Society, Phi Beta Kappa
• Famous Graduates include, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Tyler, Henry Clay, John Marshall, John Stewart, Glenn Close, Mike Tomlin, Bill Lawrence (Scrubs creator and writer), Perry Ellis, and Michael K. Powell

W&M gets a lot of flack for having geeky students who spend Friday nights in the library. You would spend a lot of nights in the library, too, if you were told on day one that "C is the new A." And while I spent many a Friday night studying, I also had the best college experience I could've ever hoped to have. I made the best friends, both from my freshman hall and my sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma. I learned so much while being there and I got to meet (meaning I spoke to them and they spoke back to me) fascinating people, including Henry Kissenger and Margaret Thatcher.

Statue of Lord Botetourt. You always rub his shoe before a big test or final.

So why am I telling you all this today? Because I'm going there tomorrow!! It's been over two years since I've been back and tomorrow I'm going with my sorority sisters, Alexis and Brandi. I can't tell you how excited I am. My mom is watching the kiddo for the night while we play around the 'Burg. The weather is supposed to be sunny and in the 70's, a perfect Williamsburg day.

Graduation, Lexie, Brandi, Me

I plan on taking many, many pictures of my old stomping ground, so be prepared. Do ya'll have any fun weekend plans?

TMI - But Not Too Much

When I was pregnant with Spencer, I worked part-time at a day care. It was probably the worst thing I could have done, because I got very sick during my 8th month. Consequently, Spencer was in distress, and she was born a month early. But that's not what this is about.


While I was working there, 8 months pregnant, one of the teachers stopped to ask me for something. She pulled me to the corner and whispered "Do you have a tampon on hand?"


I cocked my head to the side and looked at her like "huh?" did you really just ask me that? She saw the look on my face and said "Or a pad, either one." I couldn't believe I was going to have to explain this to a teacher.

I said, "Um, I'm pregnant. You don't get your period when you're pregnant." She looked down at my huge protruding belly, saying "Oh yeah, that's right... [pause] so you don't have an old one at the bottom of your purse, or anything?"

At this point I almost felt badly for her, as she was obviously in some serious need of a tampon. But I said, "No, I took them all out. They depressed me." I guess she finally got the picture, because she stopped asking me, but she gave the me weirdest look.

What kind of weirdo finds tampons depressing? ME! Each time I saw one, I remembered the day I thought I was going to need it- but nothing came. Every day after that I anxiously awaited the arrival of cramps, crankiness, etc., and that tampon just sat there, mocking me.

I remembered that my parents hated me, I had no clue how I was going to finance a child, and that I had no idea what I was going to do with a baby. Kind of stupid that a feminine product could jolt me like that, when all I had to do was look down and see my stomach, but it did.

These days I have a love love relationship with my time of the month. I don't curse it, or complain, or dread it's arrival. I'm sure this will change one day, when I want to have another baby- if I want to have another one, that is, but it will be PLANNED! I'll look forward to throwing away the Tampax, instead of crying my eyes out as I threw each one away.

I regret not enjoying my pregnancy, especially since Spencer has brought me so much joy. I didn't anticipate the overwhelming love I was going to feel for her when I was so wrapped up feeling sorry for myself. I wish I could have treasured it instead of being consumed by hopelessness. And I take full responsibility for it- I let other people dictate my happiness, or lack thereof, instead of focusing on the little Mango inside of me (I called her Mango until she was born).

For the most part, I try to block out those 8 months of my life, but sometimes I'll see something that will remind me of them. And now, 20 months removed from the situation, I can laugh at a lot of it. Today, as I bought a box of feminine products, was the first time I remembered that teacher asking me for a tampon. And in the middle of the store, I started laughing out loud.

I'm hoping that will continue to happen- that I'll start to remember the good parts about Spencer's eight months inside of me, instead of trying to forget the entire thing. So what about you, Internet, has anyone ever asked you a really stupid question? What did you say?

Everything Comes in 3's

So I roped into doing this meme, ahem Hayley, and I found it surprisingly difficult to do. In some cases I had a hard time narrowing things down to three and others, I couldn't think of anything. So here it is!

Three names I go by:

• Katie
• MaaaaaMaaaaa
• Rudie Kazoodie

Three names I no longer answer to:

• Buck Wheat - what my mom called me when she was REALLY mad at me
  
• Katie "I Want" White
• Katydid

Three jobs I have had in my life:

• Beverage cart girl at a country club- the most demeaning job of my life
  
• Intern at the V-Department of Education- Special Ed.
• Mail Clerk

Three jobs I would still like to try: (but have no realistic hope of ever doing)

• Secretary of the US Dept. of Health and Human Services, haha- in my dreams
• Professional Problem Solver- I'm really great at solving other people's life problems- just not my own
• Movie critic

Three places I have lived:

• Rochester, Minnesota
• Williamsburg, VA
• Florence, Italy

Three places I have *really* loved:

• Florence, Italy
• Las Vegas
• St. Thomas

Three TV shows that I watch:

• Life
• So You Think You Can Dance
• How I Met Your Mother

Three TV shows I would still watch if they were still on:

• Alias
• Felicity
• Gilmore Girls

Three places I have been:

• Lima, Peru
• Venice, Italy
• Miami, Florida

Three places I would go to in a heartbeat:

• Tahiti
• Africa - Kenya, S.Africa - to visit, but Botswana and Mozambique to teach AIDS awareness to women
  
• An Alaskan cruise - not exactly a "place" because I don't want to go to Alaska unless it's a cruise
  

Three places I would never go back to:

• Trujillo, Peru - Looking out the hole/window by my bed, there was a family living in a house with no roof, a huge HOG, and a completely exposed toilet- that they used. Dirt roads, stray dogs, stomach parasite.
• Lake Okeechobee, FL - Don't be fooled- it's cow country in the middle of nowhere, with fire ants, no water, and no Target.
  
• Charleston, WV - I have never seen a city in the US, where the disparity between the rich and poor, attending the same school, is so great and so in your face.
  

People I e-mail regularly:

• Brandi
• Alexis
• My Mom

People I so wish would e-mail me regularly:

• Stephie
• Sara
• Sara- she gets put down twice, because she's ridiculously hard to get a hold of

Three of my favorite foods:

• Gnocchi Pesto
• Tokyo Shogun (family owned Japanese food) anything
• Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies

Three foods I know I'm supposed to like but I just don't:

• Lima (Butter) Beans
• Tomatoes
• Ice Cream - I'm weird

Three friends I think will repost: (you don't have to!)

• Maisy
• Rachel
• Katie

Three things I dread:

•  Mosquito season - I'm SO allergic and it's just bad
• Humidity - have you seen my hair? In the summer, my dad says it resembles the Wild Woman of Borneo (whoever that is) or Medusa
• Potty-Training Spencer

Three things I am looking forward to:

• Getting my hair cut- first time in 8 months!
• Being able to have a real conversation with Spencer!
• Figuring out what I want to do and starting it!

Flair

I don't consider myself to be a trendy person- I like to think that I'm classic with flair! I hate to be boring or not unique.

I dated this boy in high school who's voice was like a seducing siren calling out to me. He was in a band and was unlike anybody I had ever dated, he was what I might call "underground," finding trends instead of following them. I don't think we ever listened to the radio once because he always wanted me to hear something by an up and coming band, or his band. I would never call myself a music snob, I mean really, I went to the Spice Girls reunion concert, I've seen DMB 4 times, and I know almost all the words to the Mamma Mia soundtrack. But yeah, I'm a bit of a music snob.

Not in the way you're probably thinking, so here's what I mean. Due to my dalliance with Band Boy, I was suddenly aware of an entire world of music I didn't really know existed. (remember, religiously sheltered) I started listening to Jimmy Eat World, The Dandy Warhols, the original version of Dashboard Confessional, and Rilo Kiley in high school! No one had ever heard of them, and I loved that.

Jimmy Eat World was one of my favorite bands (the old stuff), but part of what I liked about liking them was it made me a little different than everyone else. I'm sure there were a lot of other people listening and liking that band, but I didn't know any of them. Then one day I heard Jimmy Eat World on the radio and suddenly everyone loved them. If I told someone they were one of my favortie bands, they'd get that look in their eye like I was a mainstream follower. Not that there's anything wrong with being a mainstream follower, because that was me in almost every other area.

I know it sounds weird that a band becoming popular could somehow be bad, but a lot times popularity and record deals, etc., force the group to put out different, more radio-friendly type music. If you listen to early Jimmy Eat World, it is very, very different than what you've probably heard on the radio.
So it took me writing all that to get to why I'm writing this. I was watching Without a Trace the other night and the last song was by Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley! I know that RK has been getting more popular, but I've never heard them on the regular radio. Immediately I was excited for her, but then came the old familiar feeling.

Here comes the exciting part!

I DON'T CARE!

So what if I look trendy for liking a band everyone else likes? I know that I've liked them for years, why should I care that other people are now finding out about them? Funny side note, Jenny Lewis played Shelley Long's daughter in Troop Beverly Hills, one of my favorite movies from back in the day!

Oddly enough, when I fall in love with something, it becomes popular, especially baby names. I wanted to name my daughter Madison for years before it became the trendy name du jour. I was going to have two daughters, Madison and Reagan, after my two favorite presidents! What was I thinking?? Before I settled on the name Spencer, my favorite names were Harper, Harlowe, and Finley. And wouldn't you know, 6 Hollywood babies have been given those names since Spencer was born!

I like to blend in, but stand out. I don't see that changing about myself, but that doesn't mean I'm giving up on my music.  So I'm not going to abandon Jenny Lewis or Rilo Kiley, I'm going to promote them instead! Here's the song Jenny Lewis sang on Without a Trace.

	Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

And here is my favorite Rilo Kiley song, Science vs. Romance.

	Rilo Kiley - Science vs. Romance
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Besides music and baby names, I also have a large collection of crazy coats! My coat addiction is for another post, but here's me in my all time favorite!

Top 10 Superficial Things I Need to Survive Life

Spencer is not included in my list because she is ESSENTIAL to my life, as in the air I breathe. These are my superficial must haves.

1. Diet Coke- I don't drink coffee so this is how I get my morning pick me up. Without it, I would shrivel up and die of dehydration.

2. High Speed Internet- Have you ever had to go back to dial up since you went to the good stuff? Trust me, it's like someone slowly ripping a band aid off your head- torture!

3. Flip Flops- I wear them year round, once I got frost bite on two toes after I de-iced and de-snowed my car in a snow storm. Not my brightest move, I know, but in my defense, I was at someone else's house and those were the only shoes I had with me.

4. Caller ID- Because really, who wants to answer the phone if it says Unknown Caller? NOT me!

5. OnDemand- I love it. Well, the prices are a bit steep, but otherwise, it's great.

6. The Blogosphere- Wow, I really can't say enough about how much it means to me to read your blogs. It provides me with entertainment, insight, creativity, and genuine friendship. So thank you to everyone who's reading this and to everyone who I love to read about.


7. The Pillow- I went to Peru when I was 18 for a mission trip. There was no room for me to bring a pillow, and of course, none were provided, being that I slept on a mat on top of a slab of wood. . I slept on the crook of my arm every night and I am talking about some seriously sore shoulders when I woke up each morning. The upside of this was that can now successfully sleep without a pillow, but I also appreciate them A LOT more- flat, hard, soft, down, tempur-pedic, iso-cool, decorative, etc.- I love them all.

8. Pedicures- I used to get them a lot more frequently before Spencer, I think I've only had a couple since she came along. But I love them, and if I had the time and money, I would go every three weeks.

9. Anti-Aging Products- I've always been a bit of a freak about the idea of aging and wrinkles, especially since I'm fair skinned and have freckles, and I started using anti-wrinkle eye cream when I was 18. I thought it would be best if I got a jump start on it; prevention instead of correction. I'm pleased with the results, I hardly have any lines on my face, and there are none near my eyes.

10. Pull-n-Peel Twizzlers- The best "bad for you snack." It's delicious, but fat-free!

What are your favorite superficial things?

5 Fast Facts About Me

1. I am an EXCELLENT spider solitaire player. Seriously, I kick butt!

2. When I was 16 I rescued 10 dogs. The first time, I found a litter of 9 puppies left on the side of the road in a box. I promptly brought them all home, much to the dismay of my parents, and found a home for each dog! The second time, I was bringing my friend home from cheerleading practice and as she got out, a puppy jumped in and started licking my face. I brought her home too. We posted fliers everywhere but no one called. We took her to the vet and he said that she had two broken ribs and showed signs of abuse. That was it for me, Josie became my dog! Although to this day, no one in my family believes that she just jumped in my car, but it's 100% true.




3. I have never, not once in my life, won anything in a raffle or giveaway.


4. I have a child and I'm not married, but I've kissed less than 10 people in my whole life.


5. I was in competitive show choir in high school, Touch of Swing, and we were the first runner up in the Showstoppers National Championship, in Orlando, Florida. It required about 15-20 hours a week, for 6 months, but I can still tap dance with the best of them!

Music Taste, or the Lack Thereof

Over the course of my life I have acquired quite an extensive CD collection. I haven't purchased one recently because of iTunes, but also because it's rare for me to like an entire album. I usually bought the CD if I liked the radio hit (in the days before Napster changed life).

Yes, I guess I could have purchased the singles rather than the entire albums, but that always seemed like a huge waste of money- two songs for $5 or 12 songs for $15? I chose option number two more often then not, unfortunately, I now have a ridiculously large collection of CD's that only have one or two songs on them that I like.


Thank goodness for iTunes and having the option to purchase only the songs you like. The only problem with that is now I never buy an entire album. I could be missing out on my new favorite song because it's not a popular download. Many of my favorite songs were not radio hits, the only reason I listened to them was I heard it when I was playing the CD (also in the days before CD burning was commonplace).


Should Have Bought the Single, NOT the Album

• Crash Test Dummies
• Spin Doctors
• Lisa Loeb
• The Proclaimers
• The Verve
• Keith Sweat
• The Cardigans

The list of my bad taste in music goes on and on and on, but that's enough embarrassment. Noting that my taste in music is somewhat questionable, I can listen to certain albums in their entirety over and over again.

I spent a summer studying in Florence, Italy and the only CD my roommate and I brought was Lost and Gone Forever, by Guster (No iPods then) We must have listened to that CD over 200 times. At night I would take one side of the head phones and she would take the other, or we would just turn the volume up REALLY loudly and listen to it from the headphones, but not on our head. More than any other album in my life, this one truly got even better with time. I never got sick of listening to it and when I play it today I am right back in Florence.

These are the CD's that I can listen to from start to finish, on repeat, for days at a time. My only rule when making this list was that I could only choose one soundtrack and one compilation/best hits. So what albums can you listen to from start to finish? Has iTunes been good for "discovering" hidden gems or has it hurt the concept of an album?

1. Guster- Lost and Gone Forever

2. Billy Joel- The Stranger

3. Sarah McLachlan- Surfacing

4. Red Hot Chili Peppers- By the Way

5. Alanis Morrisette- Jagged Little Pill
6. Weezer- The Blue Album
7. Britney Spears- Oops... I Did It Again
8. Bon Jovi- New Jersey and Slippery When Wet
9. Sublime- Sublime
10. Coldplay- A Rush of Blood to the Head

Favorite Soundtrack- Almost Famous

Runners Up:

1. Elton John- Honky Chateau

2. Carole King- Tapestry

3. ABBA- GOLD- Greatest Hits

4. Lauryn Hill- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

5. Empire Records- Soundtrack

Santa's Gmail and Other Fun Tidbits

==> I'm sure a lot of you have already seen this, but I thought it was so funny! Click the picture or the title for a better look.

==> I never realized how many page hits you had to get a on a blog in order to make money. According to Snarksmith, Daily Kos receives about 1,000,000 hits a day but only makes around $600,o00. Yes, $600,000 is A LOT of money, but not 5 million views a week. If your blog receives more realistic hits, like 10,000 a day- you will only make around $900 a year! For a very interesting read, CLICK HERE.