101 things

1. I am, apparently, a copycat.
   
2. I used to be a pretty consistent blogger, but not so much since we moved.
   
3. I used to live in the high plains of West Texas.
   
4. Before that I lived in the rolling hills of the Midwest.
   
5. Before that I lived in the shadow of the everlasting hills.
   
6. Before that I lived in the Carolina piedmont.
   
7. Before that it was those everlasting hills again.
   
8. I currently live in the mountain West.
   
9. I'm not sure if these mountains are everlasting, though.
   
10. I'm obviously trying to pad this list so as not to get too personal, lol.
    
11. Which is kind of not the point of a list like this.
    
12. Oh well.
    
13. I do not have triskaidekaphobia.
    
14. I do have other phobias, however:
    
15. Spiders, bugs, and pretty much anything that crawls (excluding babies, of course).
    
16. Unenclosed heights freak me out.
    
17. I have an aversion to telephones.
    
18. Aversions are not the same as phobias (I am not afraid of the telephone), but I believe they are in the same class in the DSM-IV.
    
19. So pretty much I'm crazy.
    
20. How's that for self disclosure?
    
21. Our old house in TX had an open floor plan, so I could work on the computer and watch the girls play at the same time.
    
22. Our new house has "an office," which means the computer is in the ghetto.
    
23. I mean, the basement.
    
24. Which is why I'm not on as much as I used to be, and why I blog less.
    
25. Plus I'm tired.
    
26. And lazy.
    
27. I can't wait for Spring.
    
28. Apparently I'm a Democrat (probably for my support of public arts programs), but I think Libertarians are way cooler.
    
29. I used to be 29 once.
    
30. I got old somehow. I teach Sunday School to a bunch of kids who were not even born the year I graduated from high school.
    
31. They may have been a glimmer in someone's eye that year, but that's about it.
    
32. I have grey hairs and wrinkles and bags under my eyes.
    
33. Of course that last part is purely genetic bad luck, and not necessarily a function of age, but still.
    
34. Hey, at least DH is older. His recent birthday has pushed him that much closer to 40.
    
35. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.
    
36. I don't think he cares, though.
    
37. He's 36 to my soon-to-be 32. Cradle robber.
    
38. DH runs marathons, but his knees are bad and I worry they will fall off.
    
39. I occasionally think about maybe getting Dance Dance Revolution so that I will exercise.
    
40. But then after thinking about it, I call it good and relax again.
    
41. It's kind of like The Music Man: Supplement actual practice (or in my case fitness) with the imaginary kind! Wheee!
    
42. My children, on the other hand, are very high energy.
    
43. I have two lovely daughters, Uno and Dos.
    
44. Joe Bob v3.2 is on the way, and I think it's been long enough now that I can say so without fear of taking it back.
    
45. Yes, that was the official general announcement. Just to make sure you were paying attention.
    
46. Dude, I'm not even half way done with this list yet!
    
47. Seriously, 101 things? Isn't that asking a bit much?
    
48. All right, here's one: I love trains.
    
49. The summer I turned 16, I rode around Europe on trains: Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Austria.
    
50. We derailed in Spain: I think the train hit a cow. Nobody was hurt. (Except probably the cow.)
    
51. For years after I got back, I wrote poems about trains.
    
52. I used to take the train home from college: Up to DC, over to Chicago, across and down to the shadow of the everlasting hills on the California Zephyr.
    
53. On one of those trips I met a boy -- a college student from South Carolina -- named Sudip Mandakhashar. I could have the last name wrong. We both had a long layover in Chicago, so he hung out with me and paid my way up to the top of the Sears Tower (a $6 admission, I think, which was a lot for this struggling student).
    
54. I never gave him my address, but he later tracked me down (I must have named my school) and sent me a letter with an enclosed drawing of a glamorous blonde. I think it was supposed to be me, lol. Looked nothing like me, but I was flattered anyway.
    
55. I'm pretty sure that's the only time I've been hit on. (I had to do the hitting when it came to DH.)
    
56. My roommate teased me for MONTHS after that letter came. Years, actually. She'd probably tease me right now if she thought about it.
    
57. It occurs to me now that maybe it wasn't so smart to hang out with a stranger in a strange city (although he turned out to be quite sweet).
    
58. I've done other not-so-smart things, of course: At ~14 I once accepted a ride from a stranger in lieu of waiting for a city bus that was 40+ minutes late.
    
59. I don't know if that's technically hitchhiking, as I didn't have my thumb out; he offered, so I said sure.
    
60. And I did ask him, "How do I know you're not a rapist or murderer?" before getting in his truck. He replied, "How do I know you're not?"
    
61. So I shrugged and got in. I was tired of waiting for that bus.
    
62. Now, of course, I am HORRIFIED by that lapse in judgment.
    
63. If my daughters ever try anything that stupid, they will be grounded for the rest of their lives.
    
64. Hum-dee-dum.... Let's see. What else?
    
65. I guess I take back #55. "Creepy Rob" very obviously sought after my affections when I was a Midwestern girl -- but I'm pretty sure that's only because I was the freshest meat and everyone else had already turned him down.
    
66. So I've been hit on twice. Once made me feel ridiculous and flattered all at the same time; once just made me feel creepy-crawly.
    
67. I've always been socially awkward around boys, lol.
    
68. Truth be told, I'm just socially awkward generally, but boys had always seemed like an entirely different species until I met DH.
    
69. He still made me very nervous, of course, because I liked him and hoped I wouldn't make him feel creepy-crawly.
    
70. I used to write out and practice conversation items before I saw him so I wouldn't get tongue-tied or stupid in his presence.
    
71. But I always felt like I understood where he was coming from, and that he understood me. He didn't seem ... foreign, like all the other boys did.
    
72. That's nice.
    
73. And I don't have to role play talking with him anymore, lol.
    
74. We will have been married 6 years this July.
    
75. We got married in the summer of 2001.
    
76. I wasn't personally affected by 9/11, but whenever I see a date that is earlier than that, I reflexively think, "Hey, they don't know yet what's going to happen...."
    
77. Every time. Especially when I see that a person died before 9/11/2001. I think, "They never knew what the world came to."
    
78. That's kind of morbid, isn't it?
    
79. And weird that it's such a dividing line for me.
    
80. I did work for an airline at the time....
    
81. I was a secretary at TWA. We knew we were about to be acquired by American Airlines, one of the airlines involved, but we didn't feel like part of the AA family yet.
    
82. Still. I'm sure working for an airline has nothing to do with the way it hit me. I'm guessing most every American felt the same way (except those personally touched by the tragedy, who must have felt 10x worse).
    
83. I've had lots of random jobs over the years.
    
84. I was a webmaster once. Pretty much my only qualification for the job was that I knew HTML, lol. Pretty pathetic. It was 1997.
    
85. That was the most stressful job I've ever had because I was painfully aware of my inadequacy, and I lived in fear that soon my bosses would discover it too.
    
86. I quit and moved away before that happened, though.
    
87. I was a wedding photographer exactly once. That proved too stressy, too. You've only got one chance to get their blissful happy day memories right -- no, better than right; perfect! -- and besides, weddings bring out the CRAZIES in certain family members.
    
88. I've tried micro stock photography and have made exactly $8.25 so far at Crestock. Yay me!
    
89. They don't pay out until you get to ~$100 though, lol.
    
90. I worked for patent attorneys once! I think that counts as my most interesting job. And I worked with really great people, too.
    
91. That makes a HUGE difference in job satisfaction, I've found.
    
92. That and actually being qualified for what you get paid good money to do. ;-)
    
93. Hey, I just checked the attorneys' web site and discovered my old boss made partner! Yay him!
    
94. Let's see.... Almost done with the list....
    
95. My oldest daughter is giving another talk in church this weekend.
    
96. She's going to discuss ways in which she can be like Jesus: She can be a good example, be nice to people, forgive and try to do better when she makes bad choices, and help people who are sick or hurt or sad.
    
97. "Or dead!" (See: Lazarus, etc.) I told her she couldn't really help out with that one.
    
98. I'm trying to draw pictures of each of those things so that she can then color them and use them as a visual aid (aide? I'm never sure).
    
99. I don't draw very well. Dangit.
    
100. Oooh! Triple digits! Just one more list item to go!
     
101. Your final RCH factoid: It took me eleven days to make this list, lol. But I did it just for you.

~RCH~