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January 30, 2005
100 Things About Me
I have read 100 things about a lot of bloggers, but I have never taken the time to sit down and write one hundred things about me - until tonight!
1. I was adopted by wonderful parents - they brought me home from the hospital when I was only 3 days old, and adopted me on my first birthday.
2. I am a Catholic, and even though I don't go to church to often - I'm still a Catholic!
3. I love critters. When I was 4, I found a turtle that had been run over - I made my mom give me a band-aid so I could protect the crack in his shell - eventually, his shell grew back and he lived!
4. I attended a nursery school called Pegnita (now, apparently Camp Pegnita - VodkaPundit himself attended it!)
5. My first kiss was at Pegnita - a little boy named David Hamilton (later the keyboard player for a '70's group named Pavlov's Dog) would jump out of the Pegnita bus and run to my door and escort me back to the bus every morning. One day, he just hugged me and gave me a little boy kiss. His father was my pediatrician.
6. My dad worked very hard and ended up being a vice-president for Falstaff Brewing Corporation back in the 60s and early 70s.
7. I showed long haired dachshunds when I was 13. Dog shows are pretty interesting.
8. I wanted to be a veterinarian, but way back when I started college (1971), I was told that women were just never picked by the few universities that offered Veterinary Medicine programs.
9. I was a virgin until I was 19 and a sophomore in college.
10. I graduated from St. Joseph's Academy High School - but I only went there for 2 years - before that, I went to Villa Duchesne - from kindergarten through 10th Grade.
11. I have loved horses my entire life.
12. My dad took me to my riding lessons at St. Louis Country Club every Saturday morning for many, many years. My trainer's name was Lillian Lewis.
Dad and Mr. Lewis would drink a six-pack of Falstaff while I was taking my lesson.
13. I was forced to go to Fleur De Lis dance classes and dinner dances in high school - yuch.
14. I turned down the 'opportunity' to make my debut in the Fleur de Lis Ball when I was a freshman at Rockhurst College.
15. My family was the second family to join Forest Hills Country Club. We had the reception for my first wedding there. We have not yet had a real reception for my second wedding - and my second one is a much happier one.
16. My best friend in high school was Nettie Harris. I have not heard from her or seen her for many years.
17. I was an artsy nerd in high school and college.
18. I paint in oils (paintings, not walls!)
19. I love playing with dirt - clay - I have a potters wheel and a kiln.
20. I have never fired up my kiln because I'm a chickenshit.
21. I really like crafty things.
22. I can crochet anything from a doily to an afghan.
23. I can't knit much of anything.
24. I used to be a pretty good seamstress.
25. Back when Andy was a baby and we were broke, I had a lot of garage sales to help make ends meet.
26. I will never again have a garage sale - if I don't want something, I will give it away.
27. I love Kosher food.
28. I love beef - rare!
29. I'm a pretty good cook. Andy likes to come home from college just to get decent food.
30. I am a tomboy. I don't do makeup, I like to wear bluejeans and a teeshirt and if someone doesn't like the way I look naturally, fuck'em!
31. I love kitty cats and puppy dogs - and I miss them when I am traveling.
32. John is the love of my life - and I miss him when I'm traveling!
33. I am a little absent-minded. Well, OK, a lot absent-minded - I have no idea where my car keys are 80 % of the time.
34. I am in awe of the brilliance that is John, my husband - this guy is so smart it is a little scary!
35. I have a wonderful job - challenging but rewarding.
36. I took the LSAT when I was 40 - because I had put my ex-husband through law school and I was going thru the divorce thing - and I was in the 98th percentile - not bad for a stay-at-home mom.
37. I went from making $17,000 a year 11 years ago as a house cleaner to making over $70,000 a year now as a technical consultant. The American Dream is alive, folks. Oh, my, is it alive!
38. I think of my mom and dad every day of my life, even though they are both dead.
39. I am not really fond of airplanes.
40. I have to fly on them anyway!
41. I do like the airbus planes that Frontier has. They have little TV screens in front of each seat, and they are comfortable.
42. I love to go for drives through the country, exploring.
43. I could watch the birds at my feeders for hours - and so can our cats.
44. I am very analytical and I probably would have been a great CIA Analyst. Too bad it's too late to look into doing that!
45. When I was a social worker, I had a little old guy come to his front door with his weenie hanging out.
46. When I managed a convenience store, I had a guy plop a bunch of girlie magazines on the counter - and then his penis.
47. I also got flashed a lot.
48. Laughing usually deflates the flasher. If that doesn't do it, picking up a heavy 18 inch long wrench and threatening him with it will not only deflate a flasher's manhood, but cause it to fold in on itself and hide.
49. I am not as brave as I once was. I don't go careening through the woods on my horse anymore. I wish I was that brave again - it was fun.
50. I got married to my first husband right out of college.
51. I put him through law school.
52. We had Andy - the best thing either of us have ever done for the betterment of the world.
53. Got divorced when I was 40.
54. I once cleaned houses - hard to believe if you were to look at my house right now! Ask Beth Maudlin!
55. I used to work in a call center at Sprint - trying to sell long distance and 800 numbers to businesses who called in.
56. One of my customers bought 2 or 3 800 numbers a week. I think he was maybe a little crazy.
57. He wanted 800 numbers that spelled out dirty words.
58. I didn't care - I needed the darn sales, I'm not a great salesperson, and I had to stay in that job for one year before I could transfer to another part of Sprint.
59. I put up with Sprint managers whose behavior was absolutely beyond the pale.
60. Ditto with managers at Birch Telecom - unbelievable the way they thought they could bully people around.
61. I work for a company that has much nicer managers now.
62. I was in management years ago - it sucks, I'll never do it again!
63. I might be just a little hard to get along with.
64. I hate talking on the phone to people - probably because I do a lot of it at work, if you call me and just want to gab, chances are I will tune you out - not on purpose, I just don't like talking on the phone to anyone!
65. I'm not a great friend - I like people, but I'm too lazy to call them up and say let's get together. I'm probably afraid of being rejected.
66. I am something of a snob, I've been told. I don't really believe that, but if John thinks I am a snob, there must be something to it.
67. I was never in the 'in-crowd' in High School or College. I am and was a nerd - only then, I was called a bookworm.
68. If I could live in the backwoods somewhere with all my critters, John and Andy and my hobbies, I'd rarely leave the house. I am really a homebody.
69. But I still love to travel.
70. I love to cook, but I rarely follow all the directions in a recipe - I like to add my own touches.
71. I am painfully shy.
72. First guy who broke my heart in high school was Chris Meyer. He dropped me for one of my best friends - Laurie Lamberton. I still hold that grudge!
73. I hold grudges for a very long time. Years and years. I still have a grudge against Ann James because she told me that her mother said adopted children were unwanted and wicked - when I was in Second Grade.
74. When I was a teenager, my girlfriends and I had a tee pee war with the group of guys we hung out with. Mimi Horning, Maryanne Pernoud, Laurie Lamberton, Melinda (whose last name I have forgotten) would tee pee the houses of Jim Coates, Sean (last name forgotten) and a few other boys - but only after they had tee peed our houses. Not one of us ever got caught.
75. I was in the Army Reserve back in the '70s. But they had a drawdown and I was drawn down. I should have fought it, but I didn't know any better.
76. I am a terrible procrastinator - but the hypnosis tapes are helping!
77. Well, they help if I get around to listening to them!
78. Andy, my son, is the pride of my life. I am very proud of him.
79. I'm also proud of August, Andy's best friend.
80. I need to bake some brownies and send them to both of them (they are at different universities).
81. I suspect that Andy has a girlfriend named Lu, but I don't know for sure. He always mentions her.
82. John is hung like a horse.
83. Anti-anxiety drugs are wonderful for those of us who can barely get through the day without them.
84. If I won the lottery, oh would John and I have fun! Quit the jobs, travel, pay off our bills, our sisters' bills and make sure all nephews and nieces go to college.
85. I really need to hire a maid.
86. Did I mention how much I love John?
87. I love to read science fiction and fantasy books.
88. If anyone has some suggestions for #87, please let me know - I'm about out of authors that I like!
89. I like to make stuff out of stained glass.
90. But I never have time to make the stuff - maybe someday, when I retire.
91. If I ever retire!
92. Leavenworth, Kansas is a very nice place to live - but don't tell anyone, I don't really want a bunch of people moving here!
93. I like exclamation points!
94. When I travel, I forget to pack underpants so often that I have to go and buy some almost every trip - now I probably have 90 pairs of panties.
95. The good thing about that is I don't have to do laundry as often.
96. I should buy John 90 pairs of underpants so I don't have to wash his as often!
97. I doubt that John or I can find 2 pairs of socks that match. It's unbelievable - we probably have 100 or more pairs of socks between us, and nothing matches - nothing!!
98. Some days, I just want to hang out on the couch and read a book - and that's all.
99. Whenever I do the above, I spend the next 3 days feeling guilty about wasting a day.
100. My life is incredibly wonderful. I look at other people and I think about how fortunate I have been - how God has watched over me through thick and thin. I've been poor and now I'm rich (well, I'm rich to me, anyway - don't belong to a country club or anything, but I am richer than probably 99.9% of the rest of the people on earth). I have everything I ever dreamed of (except for a clean house on 100 acres!). Only in the United States of America can someone work hard and get what he/she wants.
Posted by Beth at January 30, 2005 02:17 PM