100 Things, Part 3

Yet more things about me.

51. I love my blue background. I decided to switch it up for a bit because I got a few emails complaining about how hard it was to read the white print on the blue background with all the yellow accents, but I'm sorry, I can't do it. I love my blue background. It's me. I hope you'll all stick around but if you really must go, I wish you a long and happy life.

52. I hate the Sabres slug and have since the very first time I laid eyes on it. I know a lot of people have come around to it but I refuse. I will refuse until the day I die. It's been two years and I still haven't purchased anything for myself bearing the slug. I've bought things for other people - if that's what makes them happy, may God be with them - and I have a couple of things that have been given to me but that's it. A Jochen Hecht jersey tee was almost my undoing - I was so pleasantly shocked to discover they even made them! - but fortunately I didn't have any money at the time. (I'm a little worried about the new third jerseys. It makes me nervous that Larry Quinn isn't just saying, "Oh, yeah, we're bringing back the vintage thirds from a couple of years ago." They're going to mess with the beautiful vintage, aren't they?) (If anyone happens to come across one of those car flags with the old logo on it, please let me know!)

53. Mark and I share a car. I usually drive to work and he takes the bus. Originally this was out of necessity but now it's a little more of a choice. Every once in a while we have to kind of juggle to get us both where we need to but for the most part it's pretty manageable.

54. When our last car died - worst car ever, Honda - we went without a car for almost two years. We were fortunate that we both work right on a bus route and we lived in an area where most of the necessities - grocery store, drug store, library, a couple of restaurants - were in fairly easy walking or biking distance. Some things were definitely inconvenient though - try carrying a few days worth of groceries home on your handlebars - so we had to rely a lot more on the kindness of others. The buses also don't run all the way out to our end of town on the weekends so we spent a lot of time at home which even made a homebody like me a little stir crazy after a while.

55. I've always wanted a pick-up truck. My mom used to tell me girls don't drive pick-up trucks which made me wonder if she realized what state we lived in.

56. I have a pretty high tolerance for pain and have been told that by various doctors, dentists, and oral surgeons but two things will undo me completely: neck pain and earaches. If I sleep on my neck wrong and I get that annoying crick or a pulled muscle, I'm miserable. And if I get an earache, forget it, I'm done. I'm like a toddler just grabbing at my ear and whimpering until the pain stops.

57. I think the following things and people are overrated: The Sopranos, Brad Pitt, Derek Jeter, Humphrey Bogart, Gone With the Wind, the Dave Matthews Band, Imagine, concept albums, and Slap Shot.

58. I think the following things and people are underrated: How I Met Your Mother, Hanson, Robert Mitchum, Sue Grafton novels, Roy Oswalt, Breaking Away, The Karate Kid, and Billy Joel.

59. My favorite word is "discombobulated." I appreciate that it sounds like what it means. I'm also a big fan of "fisticuffs," which probably goes back to a childhood love of pulp westerns and reruns of Bonanza. I don't like "comely" and "homely." I get them mixed up because I like the way homely sounds more even though it's the one that's more negative. Home is a good thing therefore homely should be a good thing.

60. I've kept a journal since the third grade. I don't write now as regularly as I did when I was younger but I do occasionally pull it out and jot something down. I doubt anyone other than me will ever find them particularly interesting but I love having them all.

61. Pro wrestling is as fake as fake gets but I do think pro wrestlers are amazing athletes. Most of them are a little crazy and lots of them are probably 'roided up but still very impressive. It's been a few years now since I watched any kind of wrestling on a regular basis but my favorites were HBK and Chris Jericho.

62. I can't watch NASCAR on TV but I once got dragged to Talladega against my will by my aunt and uncle and you know what? It was totally awesome. I don't following racing at all but I would go again in a heartbeat.

63. When I need to chill out for a couple of minutes, I cue up My Rifle, My Pony, and Me on my iPod. I find it very soothing. Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson both have warm, comforting voices and both are deeply embedded in my childhood. (Overrated: High Noon, Underrated: Rio Bravo)

64. You might have noticed that my taste often runs to things before my time. My mom was really strict about our entertainment choices when we were young so we watched a lot of old movies and TV and listened to a lot of old music. As we got older she was great about letting us making more choices for ourselves but it was too late, that stuff was in my blood. I either totally miss things that are big with my generation or I come around to them long after the fact. (I don't know if you've heard of this band Nirvana but I think they're going places...)

65. The glaring exception to that was the New Kids on the Block. I was into them hardcore with Donnie being my favorite. (Yes, I recorded their Today Show appearances and downloaded their new song, no, I'm not going to any of their reunion shows.)

66. My favorite smell in the world is fresh Play-Doh.

67. I'm not a huge fan of dumb humor but the one thing that absolutely never fails to make me laugh is the drinking problem gag in Airplane!

68. Give me widescreen or give me death. When I worked at Blockbuster, customers who complained about "those little black bars" got a full lecture, complete with sketches.

69. I almost always have music on in the background. Before I got married I even had the radio or a CD on repeat playing while I slept. And I'm a singer. A terrible singer but a singer. I sing in the shower, I sing in the car, I sing in the classroom, I sing on the treadmill, I sing on my bike, I sing while I blog. I'm that fan behind you who sings along with every single clip of music played at a sporting event. You can't hear me but I'm singing right now. ("He's tradin' in his Chevy for a Cadillac-ac-ac-ac-ac-ac...")

70. If I were on American Idol my big number would be Queen's Somebody to Love.

71. I love sleeping during rainy weather and thunderstorms. I open the windows so I can get the full effect.

72. I'm still upset Firefly was canceled so soon.

73. My favorite board game is Scattergories. I do enjoy a good battle of Trivial Pursuit as well.

74. In Trivial Pursuit I rock at Entertainment, get by pretty well in Sports & Leisure and Arts & Literature (better on the literature side of the category), do so-so in History, and suck hard in Science & Nature and Geography. Especially Geography.

75. I'm a lousy sport when it comes to video games. I'm not very good at them and I will throw the controller, yell at the TV, or just give up all together. When I know I'm screwing up a song in Guitar Hero I just start mashing random buttons while slamming the strum bar over and over. I'm terrible.