100 Things, The Big Finale

I've posted three things pretty close together this weekend so make sure you don't miss Heather and Mark's trip to Bills training camp and a friendly debate about Derek Jeter.

Last time! (Thank goodness. This got pretty difficult around 70 or so.)

76. I hate shoes and I never wear them unless necessary. It's not unusual for me to carry my shoes or flip-flops to the car, drive barefoot, and then put them on when I get wherever I'm going. I own one pair of sneakers, one pair of dress shoes, one pair of boots, and one pair of $5 flip-flops.


77. I don't mind going to the movies or out to dinner by myself. In fact, I kind of enjoy it.

78. I'm a slob. Messes pile up around me and it never ever gets to the point where it bothers me. I would happily live in squalor. Fortunately for me, I married a neat freak who actually enjoys cleaning.

79. I'm a Christian and not in name only. I grew up Southern Baptist and am still Protestant. I would say that I'm committed but I have my moments. I'm not a crazy fanatic though, I promise, and there are definitely areas where I veer a little from the stereotypical Christian belief. We won't get into those here however.

80. I didn't really get Seinfeld when it was in first-run but now I think it's pretty genius. We watch at least one episode a day here, sometimes two. George is hands-down my favorite character. (Overrated: Kramer, Underrated: Puddy. Yeah, that's right.) It's way too hard to pick my favorite episode or moment but for those of you looking to kill some time, here are some of my favorites: Car Reservations, The Magic Loogie, Opposite George, George's Answering Machine and It's Not You, It's Me. I can't find a clip of it but I'm also fond of the one where George naps under his desk just for the following exchange:

George: Jerry, I'm trapped under my desk. Steinbrenner is in the room. You got to help me.
Jerry: Who is this?

Seifeld's delivery on that line kills me every time. It also cracks me up that when Jerry calls in his bomb threat, he asks for Fitted Hat Day.

81. I can't straighten my right arm all the way. Many years ago I chipped a bone in my elbow while playing tennis (I flipped over the net which I'm sure was quite comical if you weren't me). I was uninsured at the time so I kind of flaked out on the physical therapy.

82. I think fans who taunt Dany Heatley with "murderer" or other remarks about his accident are no class assholes. I won't say anything to them and it might be someone I like 99% of the time but in that moment? I definitely think less of them.

83. It bothers me that my iPod uses articles like "the" and "a" in certain menus and not in others. There should be some consistency. It also bothers me when people don't alphabetize their blogrolls correctly. The Willful Caboose and the Goose's Roost should be under W and G respectively, not T. I'm not going to quit reading anyone's blog over it or anything but I do take note.

84. I have a pillow named Mr. Squish. Mr. Squish is, to borrow a phrase, older than the trees. He's a feather pillow and has no discernible shape anymore. He's just a blob. But I love Mr. Squish and he goes everywhere with me. Road trips, plane trips, any and all trips. Any time I sleep away from home, Mr. Squish is there.

85. I own a life-size cutout of Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

Obi-Wan and I enjoy a Star Wars marathon, 2005

86. I love road trips. I do like that flying cuts down on the length of time required for a trip but I'd still rather pile in a car, crank up some tunes and hit the road. I think this partly goes back to my childhood because we never flew anywhere when I was a kid. I didn't take my first plane ride until my senior year of high school.

87. We also always stayed in the cheapest motel we could find. This is also evidently deeply ingrained in me. When we went to Ottawa for the draft Pookie and Schnookie were in charge of booking the hotel and they gave us all the prices so it's not like I didn't know it was a nice place. But I'm so used to free breakfast being a little box of cereal, a stale doughnut and warm orange juice that the first morning of the trip I wandered down to the lobby in my pajamas, unshowered and in bare feet to grab some food. I then discovered that free breakfast was actually a really nice hot buffet at a little sit-down restaurant. So if you were staying at the Courtyard Marriott in Byward Market during the draft and you saw a slob in a ponytail eating breakfast by herself one morning, that was me.

88. I love potatoes in any form. If we are what we eat, that's me.

89. The last thing I do before I go to bed and the first thing I do in the morning is check my email. It's not like the hours between 11:30 or so and 6:15 are big emailing hours - though I do have a couple of fellow night owls out there who email me then - but I can't help it. I have to know immediately if someone emailed me or commented here which also comes to me via email. I also check my email first thing when I get home from work. And every ten minutes or so after that. It's a sickness. I love my email.

90. I'm going to write a book some day. Really, I am. I have a few in a box somewhere and I'm slowly working my way up from godawful to possibly publishable by someone maybe.

91. According to Google Analytics, outside of "Top Shelf" and "Heather B," the most popular search term leading here is "Bucky Gleason." I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. (I mentioned this in passing in my last Bucky-tagged entry but I sincerely love Bucky's TBN head shot. He looks so sweet and happy and then you start reading and he sounds like a cranky 78-year-old man. It's kind of awesome.)

Awwww... How sweet!

92. My job does sometimes involve physically restraining or escorting a child from an area. Take how awful that sounds and times it by 1,000 and you're in the general area. Heart-breaking every single time.

93. My favorite sound in the whole world is one of my kids really belly laughing and I am shameless in my efforts to get it out of them. Second favorite sound is whistling. I love a good whistler.

94. Growing up, the only professional sports team around was the Birmingham Barons, the AA affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. Frank Thomas was probably the best future Major Leaguer I remember seeing although most people are more impressed that I saw Michael Jordan during his brief foray into pro baseball. (Birmingham did have other teams during my lifetime there - a USFL team, a CFL team - which I didn't know existed until right this very second - an Arena Football 2 team, and even an ECHL team - but none of them exist anymore or lasted super long to begin with.)

95. The one piece of playground equipment I still can't walk by without trying it out is a good swing. (Yeah, there is a reason I work with young kids. Gives me an excuse to act like one.)

96. I keep a log of all the books I read and have for a number of years now.

97. I've always wanted a tattoo but I've never been able to decide what to get.

98. I think I have nice (blue) eyes.

99. My parents are both left-handed which statistically means that half of their kids should be left-handed as well. Only one out of four is although I remember Lee doing a lot of things with each hand when he was little before he finally settled on his right hand. I always wanted to be left-handed.

100. I have the same internet password for just about everything and people who really know me could probably figure it out eventually if they really tried. Alert readers could probably figure it out if they wanted to commit enough time to trying things out. (Please, no attempting to hack my blog.) Every once in a while I'll come across a website that requires a longer password and if that's the case, I will never, ever remember that password.

Whew! Finished!