A meme making the rounds at Facebook that I finally succumbed to: 25 random things about me.
1. When I was a wee small person, I used to sit next to my Dad and read the Sunday paper with him. When I moved to the Washington D.C. area one of the things I was most tickled about was having THE WASHINGTON POST (the POST! ZOMG!) as my local paper. I have since lost all respect for the Post and that really kinda’ bums me out.
2. I still don’t think I’ve quite come to terms with the fact that I’ll never be able to read all the good books, or listen to all the good music.
3. Even though I survived an entire pregnancy (You know how some women love being pregnant? I haaaated it. I am way too old for that craziness!) and have a beloved 7-month-old son, I think that part of me will always feel a part of the child-free tribe. This is no slight on my son, who is fantastic.
4. Most of the new parent cliches apply to me, although I try not to rave about my kid overly much. I do think he is incredibly good-looking and we’re pretty sure he’s a genius. Or, he will be, once he learns how to stop drooling.
5. I have an incredibly eclectic collection of friends on Facebook that includes people from, literally, my entire life and almost every aspect of it. This constrains what I say on FB–but only a little bit. As the late great Molly Ivins said: “The USA requires a considerable tolerance for diversity and a fondness for dissent. The full-throated roar of a free people exercising their constitutional right to free speech can be a little deafening. But [...] this is the country with Enough Room.”
6. I love social networking thing-a-ma-bobs, although there are now many, many I’ve never heard of, much less tried. I love, love, love the Internet just as much now as I did when I first discovered email.
7. I am still good buddies, ‘lo these decades later, with one of the first people I ever spoke to on a MUD. She came to my wedding and assured my mother I would have a kid even though my husband and I had no such crazy plans.
8. For my husband’s 35th birthday, I had our local state delegate call and wish him a happy birthday (a service the delegate offers through his office). At first, my husband thought that it was just a huge privacy violation on the politician’s part! One time when I was traveling on my husband’s birthday, I sent out a blast email to a bunch of girlfriends and asked them all to call or email and wish him happy birthday.
9. I can hold on to guilt and embarrassment for a long, long time. I am still embarrassed about things that happened in elementary school and I can be almost paralyzed by guilt even over things that are not wholly or even mostly my fault. I still manage to be a mostly functional carbon unit, even so.
10. I generally enjoy live a cappella music, but, with only a few exceptions, am very irritated by recorded a cappella. My husband has sung bass for several a cappella groups over the years and we have a lot of recorded a cappella in our iTunes library.
11. My job allows me to hang around with a lot of very, very, very smart and knowledgeable people. Just this week two people I’m working with on a project were referred to as “legendary” in a California newspaper. This makes me simultaneously humbler and more impatient in my every day life.
12. I am the oldest daughter of an oldest daughter of an oldest daughter and really thought, after I got pregnant, that I wanted a daughter. Now I don’t know WHAT I was thinking and am very glad TLG is a boy.
13. I am also the oldest grandchild on both sides of my family and have approximately 30 first-cousins (I lost track after awhile). TLG has 2 first cousins, one of whom passed away. He has several ~cousins, though (children of close friends who are TLG’s ~Aunts and ~Uncles).
14. I started making quilts a few years back. I really enjoy it and usually design my own rather than follow a pattern. I decided I was spending too much time with abstractions and bits and bytes and needed a hobby that was ultimately about atoms. I wish I had more time to cook for similar reasons. I used to cook a fair bit and have lots of cookbooks – I expect that TLG will inspire more cooking from me over time.
15. I have one younger sister and no brothers. I always wanted an older brother too. Now I have several adopted older brothers as well as 2 older brothers-in-law.
16. Really, my kid is incredibly handsome – have I mentioned that? If genetics holds, he’ll probably need braces and glasses, but otherwise, a stunner.
17. I do not wear and have never had a diamond engagement ring. My husband and I agreed together that for us it was a waste of resources fraught with gendered socio-cultural baggage. We spent a bit more on our platinum & gold wedding rings instead. I love them. They were hand-engraved by an artist at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia.
18. My MB type is INTJ. That’s pretty accurate. I am amused by the evil MBTI description: “While it requires the driving will to conquer of an ENTJ to imagine the Death Star and the evil genius of an ENTP to invent its devastating weapons systems, the skill and technical prowess of the INTJ is what makes the whole thing work.”
19. Some day I want to henna my hair – I just haven’t dared yet. Maybe for that mumble-tieth birthday that’s fast approaching. I wonder if TLG will like it.
20. I really lament that, even with my friends who are local, it’s very hard to get together in person for a cup of tea. The DC Metro area is pretty sprawling and all of our schedules are completely crazy. I miss my friends who are not in VA-DC-MD even more. If you are in the area, stop by for a visit!
21. I really, really want to move to a different house and neighborhood. I’ve found the perfect house at least 3 times. But I have no idea when that will happen. The housing market here is still kind of insane and the economy just imploded, so, hmm, I guess we’ll stay put for a little while! Nevertheless, I browse homesdatabase.com pretty regularly.
22. In true generation-X-geek-style, I really love meta-humor and ironic self-awareness. Somewhat related: my husband makes me laugh pretty much every single day.
23. There are many people I’ve interacted with solely online that I would love to sit with and buy a drink for. I try to remember to tell such people that so that if they’re ever in town, it might happen.
24. The list of projects and ToDos I have for myself at home may as well be infinite. And I keep coming up with new ideas and things to add to the list. It’s a real problem.
25. I don’t tend to tag other people to do these things, but if you feel inspired, feel free. I finally succumbed to the peer pressure, after all!
