100 Things About Me

It seems to be the tradition on most blogs to post 100 things about yourself for your 100th post. It has taken me from March to December to make it to 100 posts... but here goes. here are 100 interesting (and not so interesting) things about me:

1. I have lived in Alabama my entire life.
2. I was born on January 9, 1979.
3. I lived in the same house from the time I was born until I went to college. My parents still live there.
4. I have a miniature labradoodle named Brun (pronounced Brew-n).
5. Brun was born in Missouri and came from Missouri Doodles outside of St. Louis.
http://www.missouridoodles.com/
6. Brun was born on December 16, 2005 and came to live with me on March 17, 2006.
7. Before I got Brun, I had a wonderful standard labradoodle named Winston.
8. Winston was born on August 14, 2003 and died on February 21, 2006.
9. Winston was one of the greatest dogs to ever live. No matter how much I love Brun, I miss Winston every day.
10. I have an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering.
11. In college I was in a co-ed professional Engineering fraternity called Theta Tau. While it was a little more social than some professional fraternities, it was one of the best things I did to help me get through college. I made a lot of great friends through that organization.
12. In the past I have typically had more male friends than female friends. I probably have more female friends at this point in my life than I have ever had before.
13. I have a Masters in Business Administration.
14. I never planned to live in the town where I currently live. In fact I declared in a graduate school class that I would not live there. You can see how well that worked out for me.
15. My job title is Assistant Research Engineer. As best I can tell, that means I do a little bit of everything.
16. I have naturally curly hair. It used to be naturally blonde but now I pay for the blonde. :-)
17. I wear a size 10.5 shoe. Trust me, that is not an easy size to find.
18. I am five feet seven and a half inches tall.
19. Even though I am almost 5’ 8”, I like to wear high heel shoes.
20. I have no sense of smell.
21. I have never been married and I have no children (unless you count Winston and Brun… which I do).
22. I love to sing.
23. I love to take pictures.
24. I only sleep about 5 or 6 hours per night. I find sleep to be a waste of time. :-)
25. As a general rule, I prefer TV programs to movies. I love my HD Plasma TV.
26. I don’t like to shop but I like to shop at outlets.
27. My favorite restaurant is a local Alabama restaurant called “The Fish Market.”
28. I have to travel a lot for work. A lot of my travel for work is to my hometown.
29. I do not like to travel for work if I have to go somewhere other than my hometown.
30. I take my pillow with me everywhere when I travel. If I can’t take my pillow, I take a pillowcase from home and the sleep sack that Leslie got me for Christmas last year.
31. The only countries I have ever visited are Canada and Australia.
32. One day I would like to visit Scotland, Ireland, Italy (particularly the island of Capri) and go back to Australia.
33. I have been to 30 out of the 50 states, including the biggest and smallest states.
34. My favorite cities to visit are New York City, Washington DC and Chicago (so far).
35. I am a huge NASCAR fan. In fact, I love pretty much any motorsport.
36. I love to camp.
37. Christmas is my favorite Holiday. I love to decorate for the season. It borders on tacky at my house at that time of year. :-)
38. My first car was a Saturn… it was a stick shift.
39. I love driving a stick shift.
40. I did not get my driver’s license until I was 17 because I didn’t want it.
41. I don’t like to read. My attention span doesn’t usually tolerate it.
42. I come from a family of Civil Engineers. My grandfather, uncle, mom and dad all have degrees in Civil Engineering.
43. I have one brother named Warren (we call him Wren) who is 21 months younger than me.
44. Everyone thought that Wren and I were twins when we were growing up.
45. Wren has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and supposedly will have a Master’s degree in it eventually.
46. I tried to take flying lessons a few years ago but I kept getting sick so I had to quit.
47. I don’t sit still very well… I need to be doing something most of the time.
48. I know how to smock
49. I know how to knit.
50. I have a semi-professional embroidery machine and am trying to get a small in home business going on the side.
51. I am an extremely picky eater.
52. I eat in order. I eat all of one item on my plate before I move on to another item. I save my favorite item for last.
53. I take Flintstone vitamins instead of adult vitamins.
54. I do not like Cheeseburgers but I love cheese.
55. The only pie that I like is homemade apple pie… preferably made of apples from the trees at my parent’s house.
56. I love watching Barrett Jackson auctions on TV. One day I would love to go to a Barrett Jackson auction and buy a car.
57. A hotel qualifies as a good hotel to me if it has Speed TV included in the channel lineup.
58. I hate sleeping in hotel rooms… I usually do not sleep very soundly.
59. I think that men who are prematurely grey or partially grey (like Anderson Cooper and Taylor Hicks) are extremely gorgeous.
60. I have painted toenails throughout the year but rarely paint my fingernails.
61. I wore braces for a year and a half in middle school. I now have very straight teeth.
62. I love to make lists.
63. I took piano lessons from second grade through seventh grade.
64. Even though I was fairly successful at fooling my teacher, I did not practice like I was supposed to.
65. I played the flute in band for a few years in elementary and middle school. I was never very good.
66. In middle school and High School I was in the following musicals: Oklahoma!, Sound of Music, West Side Story and Guys & Dolls.
67. I had a solo in West Side Story. I sang “Somewhere.” On the first night of the production, a young child from the audience got away from their parents and ran across the stage during my performance. I had trouble not laughing.
68. I was the editor of my high school newspaper.
69. I was in the chorus in high school.
70. I was also in chorus in college my freshman year.
71. My favorite high school extracurricular activity was Science Olympiad.
72. My favorite elementary school teacher was probably my 4th grade teacher Mrs. Atkinson.
73. My favorite teacher in high school was Miss McConnell who was my Biology teacher in 10th and 12th grade… once for regular Biology and once for AP Biology.
74. My favorite teacher in Middle School was probably Mr. Hayes who was my 9th Grade Physical Science teacher.
75. I hated Middle School.
76. I really didn’t like High School either.
77. I loved College.
78. I went to private elementary, middle and high school. I got a great education.
79. I lived with my grandmother for 2.5 years when I was in college. She unfortunately passed away Christmas 1999.
80. I do not like meeting new people or making new friends.
81. I could probably be described as verging on anti-social when it comes to most social situations.
82. I used to be deathly afraid of speaking in public but I have gotten over it since I started working.
83. I could probably live the rest of my life only eating bread, nuts, cheese and coke. I would be malnourished but I would enjoy it. :-)
84. I have been described as a perfectionist and OCD about some things.
85. If I don’t like the way you put dishes in my dishwasher, I will take them out and put them in the way that I want.
86. When I am purchasing something at the store, I almost never take the front or the first item. I don’t know why but I will move it aside and get the second one instead.
87. When I get gas the total dollar amount must end in an even nickel amount. For example, if I have 30.01, I will get $0.04 more worth of gas to make it $30.05.
88. I don’t like change – and by that I mean things becoming different, not pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.
89. When I go to a particular restaurant, I almost always order the same thing.
90. My perfect Sunday afternoon consists of takeout Chinese food, a NASCAR race and a nap.
91. I order the same thing so much at my local Chinese restaurant (almost once a week when I am in town) that they know who I am and what I want when I call without me even telling them.
92. I once tried out for Teen Jeopardy. I did not make it past the first round.
93. I get told fairly often that I look like Drew Barrymore. I can see it but I don’t think the resemblance is that great.
94. I like a wide variety of music. Some of my absolute favorites are The Beach Boys, Barenaked Ladies, Kenny Chesney and the fabulously amazing Harry Connick Jr.
95. I try to forget bad memories but at the same time I worry that I will forget the good memories.
96. I love God.
97. I love my family.
98. I love my friends.
99. I love my dogs.
100. I love my life.
101. I am thankful every day for the fact that I have been blessed beyond measure.

So there you have it. Somehow I ended up with 101... oh well.

The Meme About Me

So Leslie tagged me for The Meme About Me.

What were you doing 10 years ago? May 1997: I graduated high school on May 19, 1997 and a couple of days later I headed to Disney World with some friends from church. As soon as I got back from that trip I went to Wrightsville Beach, NC with my family.

What were you doing 1 year ago? May 2006: I was on a cruise to Alaska with my parents and about 20 other people that we knew from church. One year ago tonight I was texting Leslie from Alaska to find out who won American Idol.

Five snacks you enjoy: nuts (peanuts, walnuts, almonds, pretty much all of them), Double Stuff Oreos, M&Ms, popcorn, cokes (I know this is a drink but I tend to make it a snack)

Five songs that you know all the lyrics: "If I Had $1,000,000" - Barenaked Ladies, "Old Blue Chair" - Kenny Chesney, "Someone Like You" - Jekyll & Hyde, "California Girls" (and pretty much every other Beach Boys song), "We Are in Love" - Harry Connick Jr.

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire: buy my dream house (or at least a bigger house), start a doggie day care where Leslie and I could work so we could ditch our current jobs, figure out something to buy for my parents... maybe an RV so they could travel, take my family and friends on a big trip, donate the rest to organizations doing good things for animals

Five bad habits: Not answering personal e-mails, not listening for comprehension when other people are talking to me, checking my e-mail too much on my pda, staying up watching tv when I am already tired, not using my elliptical trainer as much as I should

Five things you like doing: spending time with Brun being lazy around the house, watching Nascar, embroidering with my new embroidery machine, whatever other craft project is my latest craze, napping on Sunday afternoon

Five things you would never wear again: I have learned to never say never but I will say probably my prom dress (although I wore it not that long ago), my cap and gown, pantyhose (I think I have managed to not wear these for over a year... so maybe I can keep it up), blue eye shadow, high waisted pants

Five favorite toys: my embroidery machine, my Tivo (even the fake DVR TiVo wanna be), my flat screen HDTV, my cameras, my phones

This was harder than I thought!

I'm not going to tag anyone else but let me know if you play along so I can read the answers.

7 Things About Me

Amberly tagged me for this meme where you write seven facts or habits about yourself. My goal is to list seven things that Amberly and Leslie don't already know about me. My guess is that Leslie knows most (if not all) of these and Amberly knows the majority of them... but oh well... here goes:

1. When I eat, I eat in order. I eat all of one thing on my plate and then move to the next item. I try to save the best for last... whether that is the entree or a side item. I do this with almost every meal that I eat.
   
2. I have no sense of smell. No one knows why... they did CAT scans of my head but never figured anything out. This doesn't really bother me most of the time and Amberly's husband thinks it is awesome trait to have... no guy's dirty laundry or bathroom habits or any baby's poopie diapers will ever bother me.
   
3. The first concert I ever went to was Matchbox 20 at Oak Mountain in Birmingham. I think I was in the 10th or 11th grade. I had gone to lots of outdoor concert/festivals before that time, but this was the first time I went to a "real" concert. I went with a bunch of kids from church when you could still sit on the lawn.
   
4. When I was in the first grade I went to my school's Halloween Carnival. I had a yellow fairy princess dress that my mom made... complete with tall, pointy hat and a wand with an aluminum foil covered star on the end. I don't remember if I was embarrassed or didn't like the costume or what but I did NOT want to participate in the costume contest. My parents forced me to enter and I won first prize. Looking back on it now, the costume was awesome!
   
5. I only drink two types of drinks... water and Coke (and a Pepsi if there is no other option). I do NOT drink the diet versions... only the real thing. My favorite water is Aquafina and there are some types of bottled water that I won't drink. As for coke... I prefer fountain cokes poured over "good" ice. And by "good" ice I mean the ice pellets like they have at Sonic.
   
6. To this day, if I am flipping through the TV with nothing in particular to watch I will stop on any episode of Full House and watch it. I have seen every episode MULTIPLE times (I can even quote some of them) but this does not stop me.
   
7. I still take Flinstones vitamins. I have tried taking adult vitamins but they make my stomach hurt and I don't like them. Because of this I end up not taking them... so I stick with the children's vitamins... at least I usually remember to take that.

Most of the people that I would tag for this have already been tagged... but feel free to play along if you would like. Let me know if you play so I can learn more about you too.