50 things about me...

1. I would give everything I have to a friend or family member who needed it.

2. I would NEVER accept, or even consider asking for the same in return.

3. I don't think anyone knows the real me. That includes me.

4. If I could have one hour back in my life, I would spend it talking to my dad. About everything. And I would hold his hand the whole time.

5. I believe in things a lot of people roll their eyes at... like "signs", guardian angels, spirits, "The Secret" and an innate good in people.

6. My husband bought me a sweeeet coral pink Nintendo DS last night (now we all have one--DSes, that is. Mine is the only pink one...), and I am totally addicted to it already.

7. When I grow up, I want to be a Private Investigator.

8. My guilty pleasures in life include "South Park", "Dog the Bounty Hunter" and celebrity gossip.

9. I think I was black in a past life.

10. Despite usually saying the opposite, I have a strong desire to have another baby.

11. I would definitely consider adopting an older child.

12. In a perfect world, I would be living in Costa Rica or Belize, or on a Caribbean island somewhere (probably St. Maarten... it's a short commute to Saba) working to preserve our coral reefs and eating spiced bread, cheese and mangoes for breakfast.

13. There are very few male celebrities I find attractive... Dwayne Johnson and Howie Long top my rather short list, with Jason Statham and Channing Tatum pulling up the rear.

14. I have she-crushes on Shakira and Sara Ramirez.

15. I was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, and moved to Silver Spring, Maryland when I was fourteen.

16. I spent every summer of my life in New Jersey, trading time between Plainfield and Long Beach Island, until I graduated high school. I lived in New Jersey for about a year when Collin was 4.

17. I have lived in Florida for ten years now. I will NOT move north. Only south from here, baby...

18. I no longer have any connection to my dad's side of the family. I think I'm finally ok with that. They're all strange anyway. What bothers me is to know that my dad would not be ok with it.

19. I have a little brother who lives in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife.

20. My sister-in-law is of Indian descent. She and my brother were married in a civil ceremony last year. We are going to their Hindu wedding this August. It will be my first experience wearing a sari. I am most looking forward to the henna party.

21. I listen to (and love) all kinds of music. Jimmy Buffett and Bob Marley are perennial favorites, with 80's/early 90's dance and hip hop always a good alternative. I listen to a lot of classic rock and 80's metal, too. When I'm alone in the car and thinking things out, I either turn the radio off, or switch to the country station. I have listened to country music my whole life and always find comfort in it.

22. My first concert was Willie Nelson. I was in the fourth grade at the time and couldn't understand why my mom wouldn't let me wear my t-shirt from the show to school the next day, just because it smelled a little weird. I now know that smell was all the doobie smoke in the air that penetrated the cotton fibers of my kick-ass baseball jersey style tee, with Willie's goofy face on the front and all the tour dates and cities listed on the back. I wore the shit out of that shirt.

23. I love live concerts. I have seen Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Genesis, U2, the Beastie Boys, the Eagles, Jimmy Buffett, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, Montgomery Gentry, Leon Redbone, and NSYNC all up close and in person. I also saw Katrina and the Waves, but come on... how could I put them in the same list as the Eagles?

24. I will never spend another cent again on Montgomery Gentry, or their music.

25. I do not shop at Walmart. Gross abuses of eminent domain laws, exploitation of their suppliers, their racist, sexist and ageist hiring practices, and the general assumption that Satan himself has to be behind their ridiculously low prices all factored into my boycott decision.

26. I get quiet and keep to myself when I am overwhelmed.

27. I hate pickles on a sandwich, coffee, olives, black licorice and beets.

28. I am in love with Pottery Barn sheets and won't buy anything else for my bed.

29. I am afraid of heights but love to fly.

30. I want to get my nose pierced on the left side. I have personal as well as aesthetic reasons for this desire. Once pierced I plan to wear a very small ball or diamond stud.

31. I am totally obsessed with tattoos, but I do not have any of my own.

32. When I get my first tattoo, it will be on the back of my neck. I want the Chinese symbol for double happiness, but you can bet I will check, and recheck, the artwork so I don't end up here. I want the symbol done in the style shown on the first frame of this artist's gallery, so that it looks like true Chinese brushwork calligraphy.

33. My second tattoo will be on the back of my right shoulder. It will be an image of Kwan Yin, the Buddhist goddess of mercy and compassion, done in all white ink. You can see a similar tattoo here, at the top left.

34. I am married and will be celebrating my fifth wedding anniversary this fall.

35. I have a fifteen year old son who I adore beyond all words. He is home schooled because I grew very sick of the public school system that emphasized FCAT scores above actual learning. I want nothing more for him than complete and total happiness and unbridled success. He has a much better opportunity for those things now than he would have in the public school system. He is also free to be who he wants to be, not who kids he would be forced to spend eight hours a day with want him to be. Some would say I'm sheltering him, or am over-protective. They would probably be correct. I make no apologies for protecting my son from drugs, school violence, and a culture that glorifies promiscuous sexual activity.

36. If you're good at math, and hopefully even if you're not, simple addition/subtraction skills probably led you to the conclusion that chances are good my husband is not my son's biological father. Good deduction. My son's father lives in New Jersey, and Collin visits him twice a year. We met in college. We were never married to each other but are both married now.

37. Are you really still reading this stuff? I want to see the Northern Lights before I die. This will be my one, and only, willing foray into arctic conditions.

38. I would rather drown than freeze to death. That given, I'd rather drink at a Tiki bar somewhere sunny than drown or freeze...

39. I still consider my best friend from high school one of my best friends... but it's been about two and a half years since we last spoke.

40. I have always felt more comfortable with my guy friends than I have with most of my girl friends.

41. I almost instantly regret the comments I leave on other people's blogs. I always thought I was a pretty decent sentiment-expresser, but when I re-read the blog comments I leave, I immediately begin to feel like the dorky girl at school who never quite got it right when she'd try to talk to the cool kids.

42. I don't go to sleep until about 4:00am. I don't wake up, unless I have to, until sometime between 10 and 11.

43. I frequently change the time posts on my blog entries in a feeble attempt to hide #42.

44. I am really ready for a vacation. There's a cruise out of Puerto Rico that has my name all over it. A different island every day... mmmmmmmmmmm.

45. My entire house is decorated based on eastern feng shui principles. Some people consider feng shui a load of crap. All I can say is I have seen amazing changes in our lives since incorporating feng shui into our living space. I hired a consultant specializing in the Compass School (luopan) to map our floorplan and make recommendations. I have added to her ideas using many of Lillian Too's interpretations.

46. I have lost 40 pounds since July. Most people ask if I've done something different with my hair.

47. I am really craving Chinese food right now. I used to eat Chinese food two or three times a week. Then I found a roach in my lo mein. COOKED in my lo mein. It had the sauce on it and everything. It was twirled into the noodles, looking out at me from the end of my fork. At the time I'd already eaten most of my dinner... without bothering to look at it before shovelling it in my mouth. Don't worry. If there were any others in my food, they came back up in a matter of seconds. It took me a good eight years before I even thought about Chinese food again. Hmmm. My craving seems to have dissipated.

48. I worked for eight years in law enforcement. During that time I was Intern Coordinator for a major metropolitan police department, a 911 call-taker and dispatcher, a desk officer, and crime analyst. I have also been a bouncer, pre-school teacher, nail technician and PR/marketing specialist. I sold home alarm systems for a while, too.

49. I love reading conspiracy theories. There are some I think have more merit than others. I do think our government is capable of things we can't even begin to imagine. Tattoos, piercings, feng shui, spirits and conspiracy theory stuff aside, I really am a pretty sane person. I promise.

50. The things about me that are not on this list are probably all the things anyone would really want to know. Sorry.

**Thanks to AbbaGirl for introducing me to this concept... I'm glad I only had to come up with 50!! If you read this whole post, you probably are, too.