completely unoriginal

about a month ago, kt had a little celebration for reaching her 100th post with a 100-things-about-me list. i thought that was a fun idea, and checked my post count to see how close i was to that milestone. actually, it was just around the corner - so i decided to steal her idea and started prepping my own list to be used as my 100th post.

let me start out by saying that this task was surprisingly challenging. maybe i'm a really boring person, or maybe i just have a particularly shitty memory. either way, i was stumped for a few days and hence the delay in posting. not that there was anyone perched on the edge of their seats or anything.

anyway, here it is... way more info than you ever wanted...

1. i am right-handed.
2. my middle name is jessamyn; i was named for author jessamyn west - my mother never read any of her books, but liked the unusual name.
3. i married my high school sweetheart. my husband is truly my best friend, and i am his. we're very lucky.
4. i have a bachelor's degree in english.
5. i've worn glasses since 4th grade. i got contacts in high school and now split my time in glasses and contacts pretty evenly.
6. i am barefoot any time i can be and refuse to wear real shoes from may until september.
7. i graduated in the top ten of my high school class and in the top three percent of my college class.
8. i keep a subscription to rolling stone magazine. every issue goes right from the mailbox to my car and is my "on the go" reading, used for free minutes when i'm stuck waiting in the car for whatever reason - or when i pull into the driveway and both kids are asleep and i'm just not quite ready to wake them up yet.
9. i have a phobia of being home alone after dark - even when my husband is home, i often wake up so scared that i make him get up and walk through the entire house to check for "monsters."
10. i labored and gave birth to my second child without any pain medication. i wish i'd been brave enough to go for it with my first, too.
11. i breastfed both of my children until they were over 18 months old.
12. we use cloth diapers. if you have a baby in diapers - seriously look into it. we're so glad we made the switch.
13. i have never broken a bone.
14. my favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla bean.
15. i can't stand to eat meat with any tinge of pink - it has to be fully cooked or i'll microwave it the rest of the way. that said, i rarely eat meat anyhow.
16. i sing ridiculous narrations of daily life on a regular basis - all the time, whether my kids are paying attention or not.
17. i love sweater weather - october in maine is probably the most perfect time and place ever.
18. i did a lot of community theater in middle school and high school.
19. i played clarinet for 5 years in school.
20. i have one tattoo - a butterfly the size of a kiwi on the small of my back.
21. i have plans to add to that tattoo with some vines and two tiny butterflies to represent each of my kiddos.
22. i love getting mail - real, physical main in the mailbox.
23. i am a strong swimmer and love the water.
24. i read a lot. i'm always part-way through several different books at any given time.
25. i enjoy jigsaw puzzles. i don't mind if that makes me seem like an eighty-year-old man.
26. i almost never make my bed, unless i think company might see it.
27. i love christmas and get giddy like a little kid for the entire month (or two) before. i love the music, the smells, everything.
28. i prefer the generic powdered macaroni and cheese over the "fancier" kinds - although homemade is always best.
29. i sing along when i listen to music - and i know the words to an insane number of songs.
30. i got married at twenty, and i don't think we were too young, but i do think we were just different than most people.
31. that being said, i do wish we'd been more comfortable in our youth and dared to have a wedding that was more "us" and less tradition.
32. i still laugh when i remember the "its log!" song from ren and stimpy.
33. listening to ani difranco makes me want to be a better person. that's lame, but its true. lots of music makes big impressions on me.
34. i'm really not a pet person. i like animals and can appreciate others' pets, but i just don't have the urge to have my own.
35. i love candles and the atmosphere (and smell!) they bring to my home.
36. i still enjoy coloring books.
37. i am a stay-at-home mom, which is something i never imagined for myself, but wouldn't trade for the world.
38. i can't wink - at least not without looking like a stroke victim.
39. i sunburn ridiculously easy.
40. i hate wearing heels.
41. i can't whistle.
42. i enjoy physical hands-on projects, particularly outdoors. since buying our house, we've built a shed, finished three rooms and a bathroom (although we hired someone to do the drywall) upstairs, built a fence around our side yard, and built an elaborate playhouse for the kiddos. we're far from being carpenters, but we enjoy doing the work ourselves and we learn a little bit more with each project.
43. i never snuck out of my own house as a teenager, but my best friend and i left her house in the middle of the night countless times when we were in middle school.
44. my parents divorced when i was very young - i have no memories of a time when we were together as a family.
45. even so, my parents were a great example of responsible co-parents and remained friends and worked together to raise me.
46. i usually have pretty horrific penmanship because i write too quickly.
47. my ears are pierced twice in each ear. i wear two sets of small simple hoops and very rarely change my earrings, lest they attract attention and little hands.
48. when i get agitated or over-excited, i tend to swear more. particularly the word "fuck." i just love how versatile that word is.
49. i put my hair up or braid it every night before bed - i hate having it down and in my face when i'm sleeping.
50. i have a small collection of willow tree figurines even though i typically hate cutesy stuff like that. these are just so sweet - i have only the parent/family ones.
51. i like to watch the dvd commentary tracks of my favorite movies... sometimes more than once... sometimes a lot more than once.
52. i have boxes in my basement with stuff that hasn't been used once since we moved here. that was over six years ago.
53. i don't have cable. we get exactly four channels with questionable reception.
54. i have never lived alone.
55. i have had a total of 10 official job in my lifetime - the vast majority of which were in retail during high school and college.
56. i blush very easily.
57. i have never traveled outside of new england except for one school trip to quebec in sixth grade.
58. i fear alzheimers.
59. i went through fertility treatment and suffered two miscarriages before getting pregnant with my first child. it was one of the hardest, scariest times of my life, but it made the two beautiful children i have now even more precious to me.
60. i love apple picking.
61. i sleep with the radio on.
62. i buy organic when i can, but wish it weren't so much more expensive to do so.
63. i prefer buying actual cds to downloading. i like seeing the cover art, reading the liner notes, holding something physical. i also like seeing the entire collection lined up on the shelves.
64. even after a recent culling (thong song anyone?), i still have close to 500 cds in my library.
65. my left thumb is double-jointed.
66. i am the oldest of three sisters and we're each nine years apart.
67. i own every season of gilmore girls on dvd and have watched them all several times. it is hands-down one of my favorite shows ever.
68. i am married to a man who could post the previous statement in his own "100 things about me" list. and that's pretty awesome.
69. i am not a fan of scary movies. even if they're absurdly unrealistic, i get far too easily creeped out.
70. i think drowning would be the worst way to die.
71. i don't like to take medicine and usually don't unless i absolutely have to.
72. i like a lot of weighty quilts and blankets on my bed when i'm sleeping.
73. i love the smell of campfires and wood stove chimney smoke.
74. my first car was a 1991 white mercury topaz. i bought it in when i was 16 and it took me two years to pay it off. it was literally falling apart all over by the time i traded it in during college, but it was a pretty great first car.
75. i am a list-maker. i feel physically better when i'm organized and in control.
76. i'm 27 years old and still find flatulence hysterically funny.
77. i like to cook, but tend to make very simple meals on a day-to-day basis.
78. autumn is my favorite season.
79. i very rarely wear plain white socks.
80. i love pumpernickel toast.
81. i don't like to answer the phone.
82. the monster ballads mixes (i own both volumes, of course) are my 4th of july theme music. i'm not sure how the tradition developed, but its here to stay.
83. i love creating. i'm constantly trying something new - cooking, sewing, crafting, etc - if i see something i like and think i could make it myself, i figure it out.
84. i don't like to sleep with socks on.
85. i love writing with sharpie markers.
86. i have a really hard time sitting still and doing nothing. i can hardly ever just sit back and watch a movie - i have to be doing something else, too. i'm not sure if its because i feel guilty relaxing or if i'm simply too fidgety... but that's just the way it is.
87. i now love the fresh smell of the ocean, but as a kid i always thought it smelled gross.
88. i have specific organizational systems - i've even found myself re-arranging the dirty dishwasher if someone else loaded it in a different way.
89. i wear jeans almost every single day and my wardrobe is pretty simple. i do enjoy dressing up occasionally, but i'm glad i don't have to do it all the time.
90. i had chronic ear infections as a young child and as a result my hearing isn't quite perfect.
91. i have a very dry sense of humor. i think sometimes people don't understand my humor and i just feel awkward - which i guess i am.
92. i prefer warm, rich, earthy scents over anything fruity or too sweet. i love sandalwood, vanilla, any of the fall-food smells (pumpkin spice, sugar cookies, etc) and patchouli. go ahead. call me a hippie. whatever.
93. i am very opinionated - as in, i feel strongly about a variety of subjects. however, i'm very non-confrontational and don't allow myself to ever get preachy about anything, because that just doesn't help spread the message. i like to stand for something, but i don't want to be crazy either.
94. i regret not taking advantage of all the free time i had before becoming a parent. i would never trade what we have now and we are lucky enough that our life is exactly the way we chose it to be, but i do wish we'd appreciated the freedom to just come and go whenever and wherever we wanted. i don't think anyone can really understand what its like to not have that option until its gone.
95. on a related note, i have had exactly one kid-free night in over two years.
96. i love buying gifts - particularly for my family and friends i know really well. finding that perfect gift is so much fun.
97. i take a crazy amount of pictures of my kids. i have albums and albums of pictures... seriously, its like a sickness.
98. i think long car rides at night can breed the absolute best conversations.
99. i have an okay singing voice, but i have zero talent with musical instruments. i wish it were different, but believe me i've tried. its just not in the cards.
100. i try to live my life so that the world is a little bit better because i was in it. i'm no hero, but i think i'll have lived a life i can be proud of when all's said and done.