Monday, July 27, 2009

100 (More) Things, Part 1

So now that I'm mostly recovered from the flu, non-swine variety, I find myself really, really wanting to blog but there is nothing Sabres-related going on. I cannot find anything even slightly interesting to say about the little signings. I can't even work up much feeling one way or the other about Drew Stafford and his lack of a contract. Whatever.

But like I said, I want to write something so I thought I'd tackle a topic I find endlessly interesting. Me! Heh. Last summer I wrote a series of posts called "100 Things About Me." I can't promise that I'm going to make it all the way to 100 this time since this is really just a time-killer. We'll see.

1. I never wear a watch. I don't even own one. I hate the way they feel. I am almost always slightly late. It's possible that these two things are related.

2. I own two dresses and one pair of dress shoes. According to a Facebook quiz, I'm 0% girlie. That seems pretty accurate. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not even sure one of the two dresses still fits.

3. I've had seven teeth pulled, none of them wisdom teeth. Take care of your teeth, kids.

4. I have a dimple in the back of each shoulder. In related news, my second toes are longer than my big toes.

5. If I had to marry a movie character it would be Bert from Mary Poppins.

6. If I had to marry an animated movie character it would be Beast from Beauty and the Beast. But only in beast form. I found him a lot less appealing once he transformed to human form. Not sure what that says about me.

7. If I could live in any imaginary world it be the Shire in Lord of the Rings. Beautiful surroundings, bare feet, and many, many meals a day? Sign me up. Every time I read those books or see the movies, I wish I was a hobbit.

8. Forget Frodo, I believe Sam is the real hero of Lord of the Rings. I will not be convinced otherwise.

9. I have my library card number memorized.

10. When I recently filled out a meme that said to list the first 15 books that came to mind, here are the ones I said: The Outsiders, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Westing Game, The Great Brain, Little House on the Prairie, A False Spring, The Boys of Summer, On Writing, The Stand, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Matilda, The BFG, Home Ice: Reflections on Backyard Rinks and Frozen Ponds, and The Lords of Discipline. I think it's interesting that so many of them are books I read at a young age. I can't swear that these are the best books I've ever read - though some of them definitely are - but I can look at almost all of them and tell you exactly when I read them and why they made an impression.

11. Five movies that really make me cry no matter how many times I see them: Field of Dreams, The Lion King, The Lord of the Rings (let's think of it as one big movie), Dead Poet's Society, and The Shawshank Redemption. Sports movies, dead fathers, teacher/student relationships, themes of hope all get me. Here's a more specific breakdown: Field of Dreams gets me when Ray asks his dad if there's a heaven, he replies with "Oh, yeah. It's the place where dreams come true," and Ray looks around at his house and his wife and daughter and says, "Maybe this is heaven." The Lion King is, of course, all about Mufasa's death. When Simba runs up to his body, tries to wake him up, yells, "Somebody! Anybody!" and then tucks himself under Mufasa's big paw... Well, heck, I'm almost crying just thinking about it. In Fellowship of the Ring it's the scene at the end between Frodo at Sam ("I made a promise, Mr. Frodo. A promise! Don't you leave him, Samwise Gamgee. And I don't mean to. I don't mean to") in The Two Towers it's Aragorn assuring a very young solider, "There is always hope,", and in The Return of the King it's pretty much the entire last half hour or so but especially Sam and Frodo reminiscing about the Shire and Aragorn's, "My friends, you bow for no one." In The Shawshank Redemption it's Red's monologue about hope that ends the movie.

Whew. Got a little long-winded there.

12. I could easily make a whole different list of movies that make me cry because I cry really easily.

13. My five favorite non-musical sounds are trains, typewriters, a can of pop fizzing open, one of my students really laughing, and film rolling through a projector.

14. I once read a book in which someone asked a friend who worked in a school very similar to mine how she goes on every day, working with kids in such dire circumstances. She responded with, "If we can't defeat despair, sometimes we can interrupt it." I write that at the top of my desk calendar at work every month to make me feel better on the really hopeless days.

15. I've never gotten a speeding ticket.

16. The only ticket I have gotten was for driving with a broken headlight.

17. We've gotten an increasing number of kids with PDD/Asperger's in the last few years. I've done a lot of extra reading on my own and I find autism and how to teach those kids endlessly fascinating.

18. The one thing I do really hate about Twitter is any and all "Let's get Topic X on the Trending Topics list!" tweets. Hey, I'll talk about that topic if I want to, all right? Don't push me.

19. I hate using abbreviations or shortcuts of any kind when twittering but I've found that I will eliminate extra spaces between words without too much problem. I'll also lose commas. My comma usage varies widely depending on mood anyway. I'll use "u," "ur," and "fave" if I absolutely have to. I will not, under any circumstances, use "luv" or eliminate apostrophes.

20. When I was a kid, I used to tell people that Rickey Henderson was my uncle. He isn't.

21. I love taking personality tests. I always come up as INFP on Myers-Briggs tests which means, in a nutshell, that I'm a dreamy, slightly introverted, idealist. Famous INFP's include William Shakespeare, Mister Rogers, and Mary, the mother of Jesus so I feel I'm in good company. Yeah, don't ask me how they managed to test Mary.

22. My current favorite non-hockey blog is Fake Neal Huntington. Huntington is the GM of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Fake Neal is so funny, I'm just going to pretend he's Real Neal. I've almost started a fake Bucky Gleason Twitter a few times, but I don't think I can make it entertaining enough.

23. My favorite celebrity couple is Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany. Honorable mention to Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins.

24. I've never had a TV in my bedroom.

25. A few months ago, a friend posted the video below on her Facebook. I bookmarked it and on really bad days, I watch it, and I'm not gonna lie, I'm sure Mr. Rogers is talking directly to me.

9 comments:

Caroline said...

But only in beast form. I found him a lot less appealing once he transformed to human form. Not sure what that says about me.

I'm glad I'm not the only one! Whenever I watched the movie when I was a kid, I would always get disappointed when he transformed back to a prince.

Caroline said...

Oh and I'm an INFP too, by the way! :)

S.A.M. said...

Heather, it's so easy to see why we're friends:

I liked the Beast better as the Beast too. ;) It's good to note that we are not alone, as Caroline feels the same way. Excellent.

We already disscussed the enjoyability of The Westing Game and The Count of Monte Cristo- and I also loved Mathilda(I was Ms Trunchbull in a theatre production of Mathilda in 1998- it was excellent and fun!) and Home Ice... is on my hockey shelf and is definitely a favorite. :)

Bert from Mary Poppins? An excellent choice. He's so much fun. I saw Mary Poppins on Broadway back in March and the actor who played Bert was amazing. He wasn't Dick Van Dyke of course, but he did a great job of playing tribute to DVD, while keeping his own spin on such a legendary character. I was enthralled and I think I'm still in love. hahaha

I, too, love the sound of trains, and I have one of my library cards memorized (I have library cards for 3 different libraries- which means I can check out books just about anywhere in WNY. haha) I also remember my old Dayton OH library card number.

Thanks for sharing so much of yourself, again! I love reading about you! :)

Eleanor said...

I'm so glad to hear you have your library card memorized! I do too! I get really bizarre looks from all my coworkers, though, when I get surprised that they don't have theirs memorized. ::shakes head sadly:: Us cool kids with the mad memorization skillz will just have to stick together.

Lee Andrew said...

I thought about it for an hour and couldn't think of a movie character I would want to marry. I need to watch some more old movies. Female characters today are almost all unbearable.

Animated character would easily be Belle. I get mad when Disney lumps her in with the other Disney princesses. In Beauty and the Beast there is a song about how she isn't just another pretty dumb bimbo but then they go and include her with the others.

Unknown said...

I am almost always slightly late.

You're not late, you just run on "Heather time." That's all it is.

karen said...

The beast is not a good looking prince - not that he's ugly, or anything, he just gives off icky bad-touching vibes.

Chris and I also have our library card memorized...and it's a good thing, because Chris hasn't been able to find his card for three months.

I'm with you on crying at movies. Chris calls it "movie-stupid" and won't get near a theatre without a stack of tissues. There's also a box of Kleenex strategically placed next to my favorite spot on the couch at home (not that I cry at TV shows, or anything).

Erin said...

It's such a good feeling to know that we're all life-long friends with Mr. Rogers. I love him so much!

TheSharpie said...

I can't stand wearing anything around my wrist. When I needed to wear a watch at camp I worked at I just attached it to a belt loop.

I just finished re-reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I LOVE the last line when Sam returns to the Shire after Frodo leaves Middle Earth. That's how I felt when I got back from basic training and how I know I feel when I get back from here.

I should finish the "100 things" list I started once. I should also update my blog but there's more important things to do over here.