five and twenty

For those of you who are facebook friends with me, this list is old news. For those of you who do not care to enter the seedy online world of social networking, the current Facebook trend is to post a note listing 25 things about yourself and then tag 25 of your (nearest and dearest) Facebook friends so they will do they same.

As someone who would eagerly complete any sort of online/email survey before settling down to do "real work," I was happy to oblige.

1. When I use my married name, I occasionally find that people are inexplicably unashamed to exclaim, “Oh! Like the Mighty Ducks! I love that movie!” I usually respond with a blank stare, followed by, “I’m not familiar with that. But it is the last name of Virginia Woolf’s first stepfather.”
2. I like to think of myself as decisive, but I am not really decisive at all. I constantly second-guess myself. It is a terrible habit.
3. My dogs are ill-behaved, largely as a result of my lax parenting. I can only hope it will be different with my human children.
4. I love planning parties but I hate planning vacations.
5. I have a jagged burn scar on my left bicep that I like to think makes me look sort of like a superhero.
6. I used to think I was a cat person but I’ve gone to the dogs. And cats make my eyes itch.
7. Most 19th century American literature makes me cringe. There are exceptions, but they are few.
8. If I worked in a different profession, I would wear Uggs. Also leggings. As someone who teaches college students, I feel these are off-limits.
9. I like where I live, but I also feel a nagging sense of inferiority to those who live on either coast.
10. If I had more money, I would blow it on buying clothes.
11. I used to have really cute feet until I started working out on a regular basis. The increasing not-cuteness of my feet (calluses, etc.) has been an unexpected and disappointing side effect of my general health and well-being.
12. I think it’s cool when people have a personal therapist.
13. When I was a kid, my brother and I would spend hours organizing and alphabetizing his baseball cards. I still know a lot about baseball players in the late '80s and early '90s.
14. I am fascinated by the Duggar family.
15. I believe in keeping secrets.
16. I am in love with my tiny two bedroom one bathroom house and I wish we would never have to move.
17. I fret. I’m a huge fretter. But I don’t bite my nails.
18. I sometimes really miss community and high school and college theater.
19. Being married has turned me into a clean freak. Also maybe having two dogs means that "cleaning" is more of a "constant battle against dog hair."
20. I don’t like to talk to people on the phone unless we are close friends/family. Talking to strangers or slight acquaintances on the phone makes me seriously uncomfortable and I always feel a huge sense of relief when I hang up and I’ve managed to not make an ass of myself.
21. I love office supplies. New pens and notebooks. I crave them.
22. I sometimes think I would have liked to live in Victorian England but then I remember that I can’t draw or sing or play the piano. Without these life skills, I would have been destined to be a Gissing-style spinster.
23. I am a vegetarian who doesn’t like mushrooms, which sometimes makes my life complicated. When my friends and family go out of their way to accomodate me, it makes me feel loved.
24. I am teaching myself to sew. Somewhat successfully.
25. I wouldn’t have traded growing up in a small town for anything. But I also don’t think I’ll ever live in a small town again.

Here are 10 Bonus things about me just for my loyal blog readers:
* I pay the extra dollar for cage-free eggs. It helps ease the creeped out feeling I get if I think too much about eating eggs.
* When D laughs so hard that he goes silent and his face is all crinkly from grinning, I think it is the cutest thing ever and I especially love it if I'm the one who has made him laugh.
* I don't like hot showers and I can't usually tolerate hot tubs. Both the temperature and the vague sense that one can contract STDs in hot tubs. (Is that even true? I don't know).
* Eating beef and pork makes me break out in hives.
* I am shy.
* I worry too much about what other people think and I always want them to think I'm cool.
* I think babies are the cutest when they are so fat they have rubber-band wrists.
* I am trying to keep my New Year's Resolution to do more cooking, and I am sort of enjoying it. This shocks me.
* Nothing pisses me off more than someone who is patronizing me.
* After this summer, I will have been a bridesmaid 6 times, and I have the dresses (and matching pumps) to prove it: apple red, lavender, champagne, chocolate brown, plum, and sweet orange.