100 Totally Random Things I Bet You Didn't Know

Lynnette started it ;) I'd love to know 100 things about you, so let me know if you join in the fun!

I didn't think I could come up with 100 things about me, but here goes...

1. I did not speak a word of English when my family moved here from Austria - I was ten years old, we moved on a Thursday, and on Monday they dropped me off at public school (turns out that's a really good way to learn a language).



2. Law school made me less of a reader.

3. I love Happy Cola candy.

4. I have always loved going to church and as a kid went with my neighbor, because my family didn't go every Sunday.

5. I have driven Interstate 40 all the way across the country - from where it starts in North Carolina to where it ends in California - by myself.

6. I am severely scared of the dentist and very, very rarely go.

7. I didn't like living in Denver.

8. I decided to go to law school after watching Legally Blonde (really).



9. I love to cook.

10. I wanted a pet chimp when I was a kid, and really resented that my parents wouldn't let me have one.

11. I have a degree in microbiology and a minor in Russian History (doesn't get much more random than that, huh?).



12. I love being pregnant.



13. I feel guilty for not teaching my kids German.

14. I hate crunchy bugs.

15. I have asthma.

16. I moved from home at age 16 and became an emancipated minor.



17. I have very vivid dreams and sometimes have to think about whether something really happened or whether I dreamed it.

18. I miss my gall bladder.

19. I remember the day I memorized the Lord's Prayer (in German) and it was one my proudest moments. I also remember the day I memorized it again in English.

20. I would love to live out in the country and be almost completely self-sufficient, but live a life far, far from that.

21. When I was three and my brother was born, I threatened to throw him out of the window.



22. I really, really love my brother now.



23. I still believe that my cat Annabelle ran away and is living happily somewhere in the woods.



24. I have sewn dura surrounding a person's brain and helped stitch up a carotid artery.



25. I just sew superhero capes and pillows now.

26. I love riding horses.



19. I don't regret my traumatic teen years or the things I did, because I learned so much and I have been forgiven.

20. I was terrified of fire as a child and had nightmares of our house burning down almost every night.

21. I hate my hair.



22. Licorce is just about the only food I don't like.

23. I once backpacked in a wilderness area and didn't see or hear another human being for three days, and it was nice.

24. I love everything about my husband, even the things I complain about.



25. I made my alegebra teacher cry in seventh grade, because I just didn't get it.

26. I really miss breastfeeding and it makes me sad that I probably will never get the chance to do it again.

27. I am the world's worst liar.

28. If I had been a man, I would have been a neurosurgeon.



29. I like to sleep in a really cold room with heavy covers.

30. I hate Clomid and would rather dig my eyeballs out with a spoon than ever take it again.

31. I skipped the 5th grade and sometimes feel like I missed some important stuff.

32. Thirty-two is my favorite number.

33. I'm a hotel snob.

34. I saw an angel when I was seven.

35. I miss snow every winter.

36. I pick up the speech patterns, sayings, and accents of people around me without meaning to.

37. I often stare at, kiss, stroke, and hold my children after they go to bed.

38. I don't understand why our laundry situation got so out of control after we had the second baby.

39. I have a hard time remembering numbers.

40. I'm conflicted about being a working mom, but mostly wish I didn't have to be.



41. I clean when I'm stressed out or upset.

42. I have awesome memories of wandering around the countryside with my best friend when I was a little girl.

43. I sat on stage with the Grateful Dead while they performed in Oakland, CA.



44. Flowers make me happy, especially the wild daisies that grow in northern Arkansas - they were my wedding flowers and remind me of my wedding every year when they bloom around mid-May.



45. I prefer small, old houses (in case you hadn't figured that out).

46. I was the only one in my family brave enough to kayak with my dad.

47. I didn't like living in Big Sur, California, but I love visiting my mom there now.

48. I am not into any of the TV shows on these days, and I feel left out sometimes when I hear people talking about them.

49. I once missed the school bus in second grade and hitch-hiked home. And I actually thought it was a good idea, because I was saving my dad from having to pick me up.

50. I love brussel sprouts (do you feel a featured veggie coming up?)

51. I don't miss Facebook.

52. I didn't start drinking coffee until I was studying for the bar exam, and now I'm hooked.

53. I love riding my bike and wish I had some flat land nearby so I could just GO and not struggle up these horrid hills.

54. I wrote a country report on Czechoslovakia for school, and the day before I had to give my report, Czechoslovakia ceased to exist.

55. My husband was an archeologist for ten years.

56. I am conflicted about blogging.

57. I can't imagine ever letting my girls spend the night at a friend's house.

58. The day we learned about political parties at school, I came home and told my (very liberal) father that I was a Republican.

59. I hate seeing all the "keeping up with the Joneses" amongst my friends.

60. I cry a lot every Christmas Eve during Silent Night in church.

61. I always stay up later than I mean to.

62. I still remember my phone number from when I was six years old: 33965 (in Germany).

63. I need to work harder on putting my family before others.

64. When I was ten, my best friend and I designed an enclosed glass structure for our families to move into when the killer bees came to California.

65. I kind of want to live in the 1940's.

67. I'm a decent shot with a handgun.

68. I cry when I don't eat for a long time.

69. Other than in church or when my blood sugar drops, I don't really cry easily.

70. I was in love with John Corbett's character, Chris, on Northern Exposure.

71. My first car was a 1974 VW Beetle that I bought with $500 I saved from working while in high school.

72. I'm a very forgiving person, and once I forgive something I literally forget it.

73. I love how my children smell.

74. I can sit and watch a river for hours.

75. My mother almost died right after she gave birth to me.

76. I love the farmer's market.



77. I make lists.

78. I regret not getting my pilot's license before having kids.

79. I wish women felt more at ease discussing certain topics with each other, like sexual abuse, infertility and miscarriage. I am always amazed at what so many of us have in common, and how much healing comes from knowing we're not alone, yet still we don't talk about it.

80. There's not much I won't talk about. I always got in trouble for talking in class when I was a kid.

81. I think if we had more balanced seasons, Arkansas would be perfect.

82. I was completely ambidextrous as a kid.



83. I am named after Vladimir Nabokov's wife.

84. I became totally addicted to the Stephanie Plum novels last fall and read all 14 in two months. I used to read Faulkner.

85. I have never gotten tired walking on flat ground.

86. I'm a dog person.



87. I took fencing lessons in high school.



88. Sitting under a Christmas tree makes me completely happy.

89. I don't like sharing my car with my family...I want a clean car that's all my own.

90. My grandfather taught me to scuba dive in a hotel swimming pool in Hungary.

91. I find polishing silver very rewarding. My mother hates it, so whenever I go visit her, I polish her silver.

92. I want to pause my life sometimes, because right now is good.

93. My favorite class in college was biochemistry, even though it was at 7 am.

94. I worry that my grandmother will die this year, while my father is in Europe, and I will have to take care of her arrangements and I have no idea what to do.

95. I love fabric stores.

96. I really want to visit Alaska.

97. I am picky about grammar. I was the research editor of my law review (the one who made sure punctuation marks in citations were correct) and I loved it.

98. I wish people focused more on finding common ground than on finding differences.

99. I worry about becoming prideful blogging (I say this while starting 100 sentences with the word "I").

100. I dread the day my children realize I can't sing.