This was inspired by Cybertoad. I haven’t read much on the blog, but the 100 things reminded me of all kinds of things I hadn’t thought about.

1. A book I really enjoy is I’m In Charge of Celebrations. It’s poetry, art, and confessional all in one.

2. My favorite artist varies by the year. I’m a Durer fan. I love DaVinci’s pen and ink drawings and always have.

3. Pen and ink are my favorite medium in art, even though I adore bright colors.

4. My favorite poets are Edgar Guest, whose poems are homilies, and Longfellow.

5. I love ballads.

6. I was born on Saturday. “Saturday’s child works hard for a living.”

7. I love irises and yellow roses, especially mixed. One of my friends from ACU used to give me those every year for my birthday. And then, a week or two later, I’d give her some.

8. I have always considered myself an extrovert, but I no longer hang out with a lot of people nor do I have any close friends here–where I have lived the longest of my life. (Except my husband- he’s still my friend here.)

9. In high school my close friends were Leslie Nusbaum, Joann Valentino, and Karen Biserni. The last time I spoke to any of them I was 19 and Leslie was pregnant and living in New Mexico. (Big change from New York.)

10. In junior high I had several close friends. The only one whose name I still remember is Joe D’Amico. But there was a Bill. And another guy. I carried their pictures with me until my purse was stolen when I was 20.

11. In junior high I briefly considered showing a guy at my school (He was Greek, but I don’t remember his name.) my breasts so he would quit saying they were fake. Looking back on it, that was probably his plan. Thankfully the insanity was momentary. I’ve had lots of more permanent insanity. Perhaps Harry Stephanopolous?

12. I love loud old windy clocks that have chimes. And despite the fact that I wake up easily (I have sleep apnea.) I never hear the clocks chiming in the nighttime.

13. If I got on Extreme Makeover I’d want my teeth brightened and my eyelids lifted and maybe my nose shortened. (Noses continue to grow over time, so eventually we’ll all rival Cyrano.)

14. Cyrano de Bergerac is my favorite play.

15. Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank was what the class I student taught for read in tenth grade advanced English. The teacher had the reading days all planned out so that they read this certain section in class. You knew when the kids got to that page because there would be silence, then a student would turn a page, read, and gasp. It happened over and over again in the class. It’s because the book began a list of those cities who were bombed in this apocalyptic war with the US. You turn the page and there was Abilene, the name of the city we lived in. It was shocking.

16. I love silk and taffeta best of all the fabrics for clothes. I like chenille best in furniture, although leather is probably a close second.

17. Songs I haven’t heard in over 20 years still drift through my head. Most recently it’s “Lucky Penny,” which was popular on the C&W circuit in 75 or 76 when I was in jr. high. “Oh, Penny, you’ve been lucky for me.”

18. One of my favorite songs when I was 21 was “Geneva.” I don’t know who sang it but the radio station only had about 400 songs and that was one of them, so you heard it over and over. I really liked it and would love to have a copy of it. — I decided I’d be brilliant and go to iTunes and look it up. Forget that. It’s not a Mac place, despite Apple owning it. I can’t figure out how to do anything there. There’s not even a “Do this now” list for dummies. No intuition, no instructions. Guess I’ll have to ask my hubby the geek. Blast that gets old!

19. My favorite dress was a lavendar hand me down in fifth grade that had tight sleeves till after the elbow and then flared out in a wide band. It was so ultrafeminine.

20. My favorite number is 3.

21. Of all the places I have lived, New York state was my favorite. Geneva, Switzerland is beautiful though.

22. I don’t like to wear shorts because I don’t like to show my legs.

23. I would rather be cold than hot.

24. I am not particularly fond of any kind of barbeque. Texans barbeque beef. Others (like NC) barbeque pork.

25. If I had to name a favorite meat, it would be beef. I prefer burgers over other things. My two favorite restaurants of all time are Nolan’s in Corpus Christi (which is now closed) and Towne Crier in Abilene (at which I haven’t eaten in eleven years). The meat is good. And Towne Crier has wonderful rolls. In college I would eat a whole basket of them by myself.

26. I prefer dogs over cats. People over either.

27. I have an atrocious accent when I speak with my family from West Texas. This includes those who have moved away and lost their accents.

28. My most recent normal TV series favorites were Andromeda and Farscape. Both were cancelled. Bummer. Update: I didn’t finish this list, until much later. My new favorite TV series is Bones.

29. I also watched Conquest. Also cancelled.

30. I still watch a bunch of HGTV shows, but most of them I only watch the first two or three minutes and the last two or three minutes. These shows include Decorating Cents, Design on a Dime.

31. I watch the first two sections of Decorating Cents all the way through. I love those. But then I delete the show before the last third, because I don’t care for unique ways to re-use old forks or whatever. I’m not into shabby chic, which is what that is, or country. So I skip it.

32. I watch the second two-thirds of House Hunters.

33. The HGTV show that I actually watch all the way through is Sensible Chic. Update: Now I don’t watch this at all and haven’t in over a year.

34. There’s a remodel show on the Travel channel that I used to like, but then it became clear that they were doing a $50,000 remodel on every show and that’s not going to help me. If I had $50,000 I’d redo the siding on our house, get the AC system fixed, and redo the fireplace. I wouldn’t spend all of it on those things, but I surely wouldn’t spend all of it on one travel themed room.

35. If I could change only one thing about my house with a wish, I would make the ceilings one foot taller in the main house on both floors. (That would require a total remodel, which I’m never going to do. The other stuff I can probably eventually get around to.)

36. My favorite time of the day is the morning when I’m awake and cuddled up next to my husband.

37. My least favorite time of day is 5:30-6 when the boys are hungry and arguing and my husband isn’t home yet.

38. My favorite fruit pie is apple, followed closely by cherry. Cherry would win except that often apple has caramel on it and I love caramel.

39. I like my house and hope I stay well enough to live in it all my life. I realize we might move, but I like my house and it is plenty big. Of course, for only two of us, once the boys are gone, it might be too big.

40. I prefer Doritos original to all other chips. I used to prefer Fritos and potato chips.

41. Mexican and Italian are my favorite cuisines. (American versions, though.)

42. I would rather go without than pay a lot for something, even if I want it.

43. The most I have ever spent for a meal is $100 and I don’t even remember what I ate. I know it was in Houston somewhere.

44. I don’t like risks, not in life and not in eating.

45. If I had more money than I knew what to do with, I would buy huge swathes of land with trees and not build anything on them.

46. I’d rather go hiking in the mountains than sit on the beach and burn.

47. I love the color of emeralds and amethysts. I also like blue topaz, which seems to be a more “in” jewel these days.

48. I prefer silver to gold.

49. I prefer ink to pencil, when I am using it.

50. I prefer black ink to blue ink.

51. I wish I knew how to dance well.

52. I read quickly. I have read as many as 27 books in one day.

53. I write quickly, as well. I am presently writing soldiers from AnySoldier.Com. I write as many as three letters in one day, when a lot is going on.

54. My hair has been red for the last 16.5 years. It will probably stay that way until I decide to show my silver. Update: Started in 2003 but… Apparently I am finishing this this over a year later because it has now been 18 years.

55. I like to walk more than I like to ride a bike. I like to swim the least of these three exercises.

56. I like science fiction and fantasy equally well. But, in my opinion, it is much easier to find a romance novel that’s worth a quick read than either of those. I like happily ever after endings. I like the characters to be mostly good. That’s definitely romance more than spec fiction.

57. In second grade we were allowed to spend $2 on our Christmas presents for school. We drew names. Lots of kids spent more, but I only had $2. I bought a paper doll set, but I wasn’t sure it was a good gift because the dolls were white and the girl who received them was black.

58. In second grade I had a friend with violet eyes.

59. In second grade I loved HR Puffenstuff. I watched TV at my next door neighbor’s house. We didn’t have a TV.

60. I got sent to the principal in first grade. I wouldn’t play a game on the playground and got in an argument with a girl who said I was cheating in the game.

61. When I was in first grade we made popcorn strings for Christmas. The teacher said that we could take a handful to eat. I reached in with both hands. After everyone had gotten popcorn, she offered seconds to those who had only gotten a single handful. I felt so bad. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with getting two handfuls.

62. I threw a fit because my 12th birthday cake, which should have been perfect based on all the books we’d been reading in school about how important the 12th birthday is, had yellow yucca plants not yellow roses on it.

63. When I was in second grade, my best friend had strawberry blonde hair, more red than gold, and wore her hair in ringlets.

64. When I was in fifth grade I planned a surprise birthday party for a friend and forgot that we had a Campfire Girls’ meeting. All the girls came to the party not to the meeting. The leader was a bit upset about it.

65. When I was in sixth grade I would stand in the middle of a five lane road with a long bamboo stick and stop traffic so little kids could cross.

66. I thought it was funny at the time to try to get kisses from the cute guys. (Sexual harassment now. I’m glad I’m not a kid now.)

67. I saw a tornado touch down in my neighborhood when I was in fourth grade.

68. I slept through a tornado that hit the house I was sleeping in when I was seven or eight. I was okay, though the windows blew out in the living room and the weeping willow was destroyed.

69. My favorite color is royal blue. When I was 12 my favorite color was royal purple. I love all jewel tones.

70. I went to Spring Elementary for K and 1st and maybe part of 2nd.
I went to 2nd, 3rd, and part of 4th in Tyler.
I went to 4th, 5th, and part of 6th in Corpus Christi.
I went to 6th, 7th, and 8th in Charlotte, NC.
I went to 9th and 10th in New York.
Then I went to college. I went to college at Univ of SE Louisiana and Abilene Christian.

71. I took a Portuguese class at UT in the summer as an audit. They showed a porn show in Portuguese, from Brazil, as part of the class.

72. For my eleventh birthday I got an olive green record player from JC Penney’s or Sears and a Johnny Cash and Johnny Horton album. I also got two 45s, “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to” and “The Ballad of the Green Berets.”

73. I got a bike for my eleventh Christmas. It was a ten speed. I rode it halfway around the block and fell into a batch of cactus. It took hours to get the spines out of me.

74. In fifth grade I was mad about my spelling test and tore it up. The teacher decided that wasn’t appropriate and collected everyone’s spelling tests. And mine was untorn so I could turn it in. How did that happen? I don’t know. But I am glad.

75. I like reggae music, but don’t listen to it much because it doesn’t have its own channel.

76. I also like bagpipes music. I was thrilled that my high school graduation was piped.

77. One of my favorite movies of all times is The Princess Bride. I’ve read the book, too.

78. I am a big Star Trek fan, but never liked the prequel series, The Enterprise.

79. If I had to be a Star Trek person, I would be Deanna Troi. My second choice would be Dr. Beverly Crusher.

80. My favorite captain is Picard. Janeway is my second favorite.

81. I am a big Tom Hanks fan, as much as I am a fan of anyone.

82. I like action movies the best. (last updated 6/03/2005)

83. I like fresh bread better than dessert.

84. I am a fan of enthusiasm.

85. I am not a fan of whiners. (Even when I whine.)

86. I like Christmas music to listen to better than anything else.

87. I like to know the names of trees and flowers, even though I am not a gardener.

88. I talk to trees.

89. I usually get my Christmas shopping done early.

90. I like paranormal romances.

91. My hair is actually 3/4s silver.

92. I dislike grading.

93. I rejoice when a student learns something.

94. I no longer score as an extrovert on the Myers-Briggs.

95. I love hazelnuts in chocolate, but not on their own.

96. My tastebuds are a guarantee something will quit being made. I loved Josta. Gone. I loved some 7-Up. Gone. I loved Ice Botanicals. Gone. I loved Cailler milk chocolate hazelnut spread. Gone.

97. I really like Coke Zero. (Buy it up quick!)

98. I don’t like seafood.

99. I have eaten catfish once and liked it, but have never eaten it again.

100. I like to eat the same foods often, but not everyday. (finished 12/13/08)