100 Random Things About Me

1. I’m a Newfoundlander but no longer have a Newfie accent.
2. I have three tattoos and want more.
3. I once saw a group of baby skunks and their mother crossing a street in downtown Vancouver near my apartment.
4. I’ve lived in three Canadian provinces and three American states.
5. I got my hair shaved into a Chelsea haircut when I was sixteen, and my hair was only about a half inch long in my high school graduation photo.
6. My favorite colors are green, blue and brown.
7. I hate turnips.
8. I was president of the puppetry club in junior high.
9. I used to write plays when I was a teenager.
10. When I was three, I used to be able to sing the lyrics to ‘Heaven’s Just a Sin Away’
11. I’ve been white-water rafting once in Norway and fell in the river twice.
12. I’m afraid of heights.
13. Someday I want to skydive.
14. I first got drunk when I was 16.
15. I used to work in a gay nightclub.
16. I once participated in a guided meditation to discover my totem animal.
17. It was a fox, who said “It suits you, don’t you think?”
18. I sucked my thumb at night until I was eleven.
19. I can quote from memory the first 18 lines of the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, in the original language, from a course I took on Chaucer in college where reciting those lines was the requirement to get in.
20. I have one half-sister, three half-brothers, one step-sister and one step-brother.
21. I love snakes, and would have one for a pet if my husband would let me (he won’t – he hates them).
22. I have two black cats.
23. I saw the Northern Lights once when I was a child.
24. I’ve drunk glacier water at the base of a glacier.
25. The first and only time I’ve ridden a rollercoaster was with my brother in Santa Cruz, on an old wooden one right on the boardwalk. The rollercoaster is called the Big Dipper and is a National Historic Landmark.
26. I got caught up in the Vancouver Stanley Cup riot of 1994, when the Vancouver Canucks lost to the NY Rangers, but I managed to avoid the tear gas.
27. My feet turned in when I was young and I had to wear corrective ‘bar boots’ to bed for a year when I was about eight or nine.
28. I got my first haircut when I was three and still have the ponytail that was cut.
29. I’ve never had a broken bone.
30. I’ve eaten reindeer and seal.
31. I love trying new things, just for the experience.
32. I was 24 when my mother died; she was 48.
33. My eye color changes from blue to green.
34. I’m very shy but I try my best to hide it.
35. I get bored easily.
36. I pride myself on my spelling ability.
37. I am horrible at math.
38. I am a night owl.
39. I think napping is a much under-rated activity.
40. I love cake.
41. And chocolate.
42. The one and only time I was tested for allergies, it said I was allergic to feathers and dust.
43. I have skinny dipped in mixed company.
44. My favorite caffeinated beverage is a Café Mocha.
45. My major in university was English.
46. I miss living by the ocean.
47. I can read in the car and not get carsick.
48. When I was a teenager, I had a lot of penpals, about 30.
49. I still keep in contact with one, Giuseppe from Italy, and we even met once when he visited the US.
50. Clowns scare me.
51. I can drive a stick shift.
52. I fall a lot and usually have at least one bruise somewhere on my body.
53. I didn’t learn to ride a bike until I was 9 years old – it was on a 10-speed.
54. My knees still bear the scars of learning to ride.
55. I went through a period in my 20s when I was a vegetarian.
56. I own a couple tarot decks but don’t use them much anymore.
57. I am a Sagittarius.
58. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.
59. If I could travel for the majority of the rest of my life, I would. I have no qualms about living out of a suitcase (or backpack).
60. I had several imaginary friends growing up, who were characters from books or movies.
61. I’ve had a fascination with Vlad Dracula since first discovering a book about him in my school library when I was 9 years old.
62. I’ve also had as long an interest in Anne Boleyn.
63. Someday I want to write a book.
64. I love thunderstorms and summer storms are one thing I love about living in the South.
65. I love walking in the woods after it’s rained.
66. I’ve been told that my eyes and the looks I give can be quite expressive, and not always in a good way.
67. I worry too much about what people think.
68. I love British sitcoms.
69. I have danced around a maypole and under a full moon.
70. I feel homesick quite often.
71. I don’t keep in touch with my family as often as I think about them.
72. I have a strong aversion to baths and have never used the garden tub in our bathroom.
73. I wish I liked baths.
74. I would rather be cold than hot.
75. I love to go camping.
76. I don’t mind getting dirty.
77. I love playing board and card games.
78. I once saw Prince Charles and Princess Diana when I was on a Girl Guide outing and they were touring Canada.
79. I watched a lot of horror movies with my Dad when I was just a kid, a lot of them really bad, b-movie type horror movies. (Blue Sunshine or Black Christmas, anyone?)
80. I got caught trying to shave off my eyebrows when I was three.
81. A stranger once put me in a cab and paid for my fare home when I fell while walking drunk and alone at night in downtown Vancouver. I sometimes wonder about that person, his kindness and how lucky I was that night.
82. I wish I could play a musical instrument.
83. And be fluent in another language.
84. And sing.
85. I was accepted into law school but knew it wasn’t what I wanted so I didn’t go.
86. When I was growing up, I wanted to be an archaeologist.
87. My favorite chocolate bars are Aeros and Crunchies.
88. After-Eight mints remind me of Christmas.
89. I love Indian food.
90. I sometimes get scared looking into mirrors or walking up stairs in the dark.
91. I have never seen The Sound of Music or It’s a Wonderful Life.
92. I hate bugs, but have come to have a grudging acceptance of spiders, since they eat other bugs.
93. Sometimes I miss living in the city.
94. But I love living in the country and seeing deer, rabbits and other animals in my yard.
95. I have had three legal surnames.
96. I don’t really like talking on the phone.
97. I find whistling irritating.
98. I used to smoke for several years, but didn’t have any problem when I finally decided to quit.
99. Right now I’m thinking about all those things about me I chose not to include in this list.
100. I’m glad this list is only 100 things, and not 101.