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100 Things

Probably 99 more than you wanted to know

If you find it boring, stop reading — I’ll understand.

  1. First and foremost, I’m a Christian — a sinner saved by the grace of God through the sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ.
  2. I’ve been Catholic, Baptist and Methodist, though I believe I have always had a Methodist heart. Though based on the Bible, my beliefs can be summed up by The Apostles’ Creed, the words to the hymn Amazing Grace and Matthew 25:40.
  3. I am the mom of two girls, ages 20 and 23 and I’m 53 years old. And darned proud of it.
  4. I grew up in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
  5. I graduated from high school in 1977. In 1976, a tornado destroyed my high school.
  6. I taught myself to play the B-flat clarinet and made All-State band my senior year in high school.
  7. My Dad’s nickname for me was “Tik,” though we disagreed on the correct spelling (he said “Tick”).
  8. I am a better speller than my dad was — in fact I’m a better speller than almost anyone. Too bad you can’t make a living by spelling.
  9. The first computer we owned was a Gateway PC, which ran Windows 95. My then-eight-year-old daughter had to tell me how to turn it on.
  10. I have long since switched to Mac and will never, ever go back.
  11. I have seven nieces and six nephews.
  12. I took piano lessons for 12 years; for my senior recital I played Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, a favorite of my dad’s. (I kinda messed up in the middle.)
  13. I had a chain made of gum wrappers that I worked on for well over a year in high school. It was probably about 30 feet long. My mother has since thrown it away.
  14. I was once hit by a foul ball during batting practice at a St. Louis Cardinal baseball game. Later, in the second inning, I caught a pop foul.
  15. I am obsessed with cold weather and nearly always know the temperature in International Falls, Minnesota.
  16. My first child weighed 10 lbs, 11 oz. She slept through the night her first night home.
  17. My water broke with my second child immediately after I had served dessert to friends who had come for dinner. The party was over.
  18. In high school I was an excellent tumbler — my girls didn’t believe me until they saw a photo of me in mid-back layout.
  19. Many of my best creative ideas come to me while I’m lying on my bed with a pillow (loosely) over my face.
  20. I’m extremely claustrophobic — I can’t even sit on the inside of a restaurant booth.
  21. I once met Katie Couric in a restaurant in New York City. (She was very nice.)
  22. My husband Jim & I dated in high school; he was two years behind me and I drove on all of our dates. He dumped me before he got his driver’s license.
  23. We have a yellow Labrador named Molly, a German Shepherd-Beagle mix named Charlie, a Rat Terrier mix named Layla and what we think is a teacup Chihuahua named Gracie.
  24. I know all four stanzas of the hymn, A Mighty Fortress is our God by memory.
  25. I still remember my Arkansas driver’s license number; I haven’t had an Arkansas driver’s license since 1981.
  26. When I was in the first grade, we moved into my childhood home, which was built in 1902. My mother sold it after my father’s death in 1993.
  27. When I was in the sixth grade, I had a perfect record on all of my spelling tests for the entire year. Again — what can a person do with superior spelling ability?
  28. My husband and I were robbed at gunpoint one week after we were married. Jim, facing a shotgun, tried to beg the robber to let him keep his wedding ring. The robber declined.
  29. I was on a basketball team once, but gave up the sport when I repeatedly tried to make a goal for the opposing team (I didn’t realize it was the wrong goal — I thought the roar of the crowd was because I had become a basketball star).
  30. I was editor of an 80-page magazine (four issues), as a one-year volunteer assignment. I had no previous editorial training. It probably showed.
  31. In college I was a member of Chi Omega Fraternity.
  32. I am absolutely incapable of dealing with anything that involves numbers. I’m not even sure if there really are 100 things here …
  33. I have a masters degree in audiology and 18 graduate hours in speech pathology, but haven’t practiced audiology since 1994 and never practiced speech pathology.
  34. I was born with my dad’s nose — I hated it and he paid for my rhinoplasty when I graduated with my masters degree in 1984. My kids like to call it my “fake nose.”
  35. As of January 2012, I’m a 14-year breast cancer survivor. More about that here.
  36. My favorite musicians of all time are Simon & Garfunkel. I started listening to them when I was 12 years old.
  37. My favorite song of all time is Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel.
  38. On June 14, 2001, I got to hear Art Garfunkel sing Bridge Over Troubled Water in person while I sat 10 feet away. I cried like a baby. He wore jeans. Art Garfunkel nearly always wears jeans.
  39. I really don’t care about college sports, except I did cheer for Ole Miss while my oldest daughter was a student. I love my daughter, but I’m now over football in any form.
  40. I’ve lived in Memphis since 1981 and I have never been to Graceland.
  41. I love crossword puzzles and can usually work the Thursday New York Times puzzles without cheating. From Friday on, it’s cheat city.
  42. In August of 2004, my oldest daughter and I skidded across three lanes of traffic, did a 180, landed in a ditch and nearly totaled my then-new Yukon XL. We both walked away with no significant injuries.
  43. I love the water, and am particularly obsessed with the ocean. See It’s the Freakin’ Ocean
  44. I once chewed out a cashier at K-Mart, then felt so terrible afterwards that I went back to the store to apologize and brought her flowers.
  45. I once chewed out a cashier at Wal-Mart, only to find when I got to my car that I had blue dye all over my mouth from the gumball I had bought from the gum machine immediately before I chewed out the cashier.
  46. I have not chewed out any cashier at any store since.
  47. I was in the band in college; I was the highest-seated non-music-major in the B-flat clarinet section.
  48. I have a creative personality, and often have many projects and interests at once.
  49. I am a night owl; it is impossible for me to fall asleep before midnight unless I am ill or particularly exhausted. (This served me well as a mother of teenagers.)
  50. I hate horror movies.
  51. I tried to teach myself the guitar, but had to quit because of tendinitis in my left shoulder.
  52. I was born in Elizabethtown, Kentucky in November 1958.
  53. I have known three of my great-grandparents. My children knew four of theirs.
  54. I was in Kindergarten when JFK was assassinated. It was naptime and the teacher had the TV on; none of us really understood what was happening.
  55. I would rather drive eight hours than fly one. I like to see where I’m going.
  56. In college, my sorority sisters and I would plan our class schedules around soap operas. Remember, there were no VCRs, no TiVo in the late 70s. If you missed it, you just missed it.
  57. My first car was a red 1970 Volkswagen Kharmann Ghia. If you ran the air conditioner, it would stall at stoplights.
  58. My CB radio handle in high school was “Graham Cracker.”
  59. I love licorice. Except licorice ice cream is disgusting.
  60. Though I love to cook, I don’t really like much of what I make. Fortunately my husband and kids do, so it works out ok.
  61. I am fascinated by snakes, but terrified of them in real life.
  62. My friends and I once tried to shovel snow into the street so we could have an extra snow day.
  63. I watched the first moon landing from a cabin on Lake Hamilton, near Hot Springs, Arkansas.
  64. I am great at text messaging; I could actually probably type these 100 things pretty easily with my two thumbs.
  65. I almost quit my graduate audiology program to go to medical school; I realized there would be math and science involved and that was that.
  66. I love clothes; if I were thin and rich I would be very well-dressed.
  67. Though I have tried and tried, I do not like coffee.
  68. I don’t like beer either. And, yes, I have tried a very cold beer on a very hot day and I still don’t like it.
  69. I love a nice oaky, buttery chardonnay, a big cabernet and my sister’s margaritas.
  70. I am known by my kids, their friends and my nephews for my wild boat driving while they are on the inner tube.
  71. I love popcorn with cajun seasoning.
  72. Some of my favorite gifts from my husband are: RAM, a hard drive, software, a G4 minitower (back in the day) and a MacBook Pro. Yes, I am a geek.
  73. I once drove 30 minutes on I-240 in Memphis with my masters thesis on the back of my dad’s Corvette. When I got home, it was miraculously still there. I nearly fainted.
  74. I have always wanted to go to International Falls, Minnesota in January.
  75. Sending my girls off to college was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done; nevertheless, I’m having a great time rediscovering my own interests.
  76. My sister’s sons call me Dodo. They made it up and I love it.
  77. I love to read the dictionary.
  78. I spent nearly two years as an outside sales representative for a hearing aid manufacturer — I covered Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and parts of Georgia and Louisiana. I became engaged to Jim and quit because of the travel (3 weeks/month).
  79. I probably should have been left-handed. My mother made me switch when I was a baby. I think that explains a lot.
  80. I could spend hours (and a fortune!) in Wal-Mart. Or Target.
  81. I somehow managed to earn a masters degree without ever taking a foreign language.
  82. I once flew from Newark, New Jersey, to Atlanta and on to Memphis without a boarding pass. I lost it in the restroom immediately before boarding the plane. A guy in line behind me held up two boarding passes and pretended I was with him to get me to Atlanta. From Atlanta to Memphis, I just went to the ticket counter and cried. Yes, it was a long time ago.
  83. In high school, my friends and I placed a toilet on a friend’s front porch as a prank. It was about as wild as I got in high school.
  84. My first alcoholic beverage was pink lemonade from Sonic mixed with Bacardi rum.
  85. I am generally outgoing but find it difficult to introduce myself to strangers.
  86. I don’t really like meat that much but am not a vegetarian.
  87. My favorite TV shows are House, Grey’s Anatomy, Frasier,  Judge Judy and Project Runway, to name a few. Yeah, I know I watch too much TV.
  88. When I’m in the car alone I listen to AM talk radio or podcasts on my iPod.
  89. I’m addicted to Twitter; my first tweet was sometime in June of 2007 — way before Oprah, Ashton or nearly anyone else except hardcore geeks.
  90. We have lived in our current house for 20 years. It’s the only home our youngest daughter has ever known.
  91. I hope my next house will be a zero lot line with hardwood floors or a cool downtown loft. I’m tired of my yard and I’m tired of carpet.
  92. I don’t like movies that much but August Rush and The Devil Wears Prada are probably my favorites.
  93. Of all the jobs I’ve held, stay-at-home mom has been the most rewarding.
  94. I once spent two weeks in New Jersey. Central Jersey is a beautiful place, but they laughed at my accent everywhere I went. One grocery clerk asked if we still had outhouses in Tennessee. Sadly, she was not kidding, which proves that people in New Jersey are no smarter than Tennesseans.
  95. I can beat Evil level 3 in Snood. For the uninitiated, it’s a highly-addictive computer game. Click here to see what the fuss is about.
  96. I never remember living outside the South. I did live in St. Louis for a few years when I was an infant, but don’t remember it.
  97. Though I used to be an obsessive clothes horse, the older I get, the less I like to dress up. I wish the whole world would adopt jeans as the wardrobe standard for everything.
  98. My oldest daughter and I spent 12 hours in line to buy iPhones on the first day. We had a great time, got cool t-shirts and we love our phones.
  99. Three weeks after I got my iPhone, I dropped it in the toilet. I know what you’re thinking — I promise it’s not as disgusting as it sounds — it slipped out of the pocket of my jeans during the flush. I told my sad story at the Genius Bar at our Apple store and they gave me a brand new phone.
  100. It was harder than I thought to come up with 100 things about myself.