1. 1.I grew up just outside Boston, and still miss it every day. There is no other city like it.
  2. 2.I’ve got three siblings: one 25-year-old sister, a 15-year-old brother and a 3-year-old sister who was adopted from China.
  3. 3.I am a die-hard Red Sox fan. Seriously. Get in my way and I’ll kick your ass. Or, y’know, stab you with a dpn. My father taught me well.
  4. 4.I remember exactly where I was when I heard the O.J. verdict. I’m not proud of this.
  5. 5.I also remember where I was when Princess Diana died - I was dating a boy from Ireland at the time, and he was devastated.
  6. 6.College, at Northwestern, was truly the time of my life. There were very hard days, but I wouldn’t trade any of them.
  7. 7.I believe the universe tends to unfold as it should.
  8. 8.I majored in Poetry. Yes, snicker. I don’t regret it.
  9. 9.My favorite poem is Ulysses by Tennyson.
  10. 10. One of my best memories in college was taking a class called “Swedish Film” with an alcoholic who passed out on the desk during the movie screenings, and gave me an “A” even though I didn’t show up for the final exam. See? How could those not be the best days of my life?
  11. 11. My favorite movie is “The Neverending Story.” Yes, really.
  12. 12. My second wedding anniversary is in April 2007.
  13. 13. My husband is absolutely perfect for me. And cute. You’ve gotta have cute.
  14. 14. I am still not used to my new last name - feels like I’m playing house or something.
  15. 15. I have five tattoos. I want more.
  16. 16. I took up knitting just over a year ago.
  17. 17. I went from misshapen scarf to obsessed very quickly.
  18. 18. I can be extremely sarcastic, and I have no patience for the easily offended.
  19. 19. I adore puns and stupid jokes.
  20. 20. One of my favorite jokes: “A woman walks out of Logan Airport in Boston and gets into a cab. She tells the cabbie, ‘Take me to someplace I can get scrod.’ The cabbie replies, ‘Wow. I’ve never heard it in the pluperfect subjunctive before.’”
  21. 21. See. Told you.
  22. 22. I am a complete grammar nerd. I get excited when someone uses “whom” correctly, and my skin crawls when someone answers “How are you doing?” with “Good.”
  23. 23. Yep. Total dork.
  24. 24. I have an unhealthy addiction to Diet Coke. Like six cans a day. I know, I know.
  25. 25. I learned to play the piano when I was 2 years old.
  26. 26. I sing, too. And I write my own music.
  27. 27. I have started to give up on my rock star dream recently. I have done ok for myself, music-wise, but the business is full of terrible people, and it’s just not for me.
  28. 28. It hurts me to think about this.
  29. 29. The greatest comparison I could receive, musically, would be to Tom Waits. My idol.
  30. 30. I secretly harbor the rock star dream, even though I’m now looking into getting an MBA.
  31. 31. Don’t tell anyone.
  32. 32. I have actually spent time studying two-letter words for Scrabble games.
  33. 33. Yep. Total dork.
  34. 34. I can flip my tongue upside down in both directions. Apparently this is uncommon.
  35. 35. I still watch cartoons.
  36. 36. Going to China (with my dad and stepmother to adopt my baby sister) changed me completely. They’ve got something right over there. It’s astounding.
  37. 37. I try everything twice. I believe very strongly in that.
  38. 38. My golden retriever is fat. He’s on a diet, poor thing. He used to sneak my other dog’s food when we weren’t looking (though I think he’s fat because my husband used to feed him calamari. What do you think?).
  39. 39. I was a championship water-skier when I was 15.
  40. 40. I haven’t been on water-skis in over 10 years - no boat.
  41. 41. I was raised Jewish, and though I now consider myself an agnostic, there are some aspects of the culture that just stay with you.
  42. 42. The most surprising moment in my life came when I was in Austria in 1998. I went to visit Mauthausen, a WWII concentration camp. Being Jewish, stories of the Holocaust had been drilled into my head for many many years, and I felt as though I were immune, or at least indifferent. I walked through the gates of the camp and found myself weeping - no, sobbing - almost immediately.
  43. 43. There are days when I am ashamed to be human.
  44. 44. There are also days when I am incredibly proud of this race, though they are getting fewer and farther between with every passing year. I don’t mean to be a pessimist, but it’s true.
  45. 45. I truly believe, from the bottom of my soul, that people are mostly good.
  46. 46. I have been called naive for this belief. I don’t care.
  47. 47. I still pick my nose when no one is looking. I wonder if this is common.
  48. 48. I have a very intense, secret crush on Angelina Jolie.
  49. 49. I hate the word “moist.” It sounds so disgusting.
  50. 50. If I could do anything for a year right now I would move to Tuscany and live on an olive farm .
  51. 51. I have no idea how to grow olives. Or even if they grow on trees or bushes or just... you know... appear.
  52. 52. I have just given myself an irrational fear of an olive appearing out of nowhere. I hope it’s not in my nose.
  53. 53. I lean very far to the left.
  54. 54. I have always been a fantastic speller.
  55. 55. My husband discovered recently that I have an insanely good sense of hearing. He was trying to whisper about my Christmas present. On another floor in my house. I heard him. Hee.
  56. 56. I think this goes back to when I was a kid, and I had a mortal fear of fire. I would lie in bed at night straining to hear, so that if the house did catch on fire, I would know it.
  57. 57. That’s weird, isn’t it.
  58. 58. Oddly enough, this has come in handy - at my mother-in-law’s house several Christmases ago, one of the candles on her mantle set a garland on fire. I heard it from another room, and got there in time to put it out. Go me.
  59. 59. I hate the color pink.
  60. 60. I sing to my dogs, and make up words to old songs with their names in it.
  61. 61. I am sick of being scolded for using big words. They’re in the dictionary. Look ‘em up.
  62. 62. One of my favorite words is hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliaphobia.
  63. 63. It means a fear of big words. How fantastic is that?
  64. 64. I stay in most Friday and Saturday nights. The glamour of getting all dressed up and trying not to run over drunk people has faded.
  65. 65. Sometimes I feel as though I am missing out, when I stay in. Then I finish that sweater. Then I don’t feel that way anymore.
  66. 66. I am incredibly un-photogenic. Seriously, this is not a self-deprecating statement. I take fine candids, but when asked to smile my face contorts and I end up looking like a misshapen carny. No offense to carnies or anything.
  67. 67. I used to have twenty piercings. Now I have four. Am I growing up? Perish the thought.
  68. 68. I have a major Peter Pan syndrome. If I could be seven forever I would.
  69. 69. I also have a serious desire to be immortal. Call it narcissism, but I just want to be around for everything we come up with - good and bad.
  70. 70. I have a deep fear of George W. Bush. Forget talking politics - he simply scares me.
  71. 71. Anything above 75 degrees and I am miserable. Give me snow any day.
  72. 72. I really miss my dad. He lives in New Hampshire. I am a daddy’s girl, through and through.
  73. 73. My best friend in the world lives in Boston, speaking of missing people. My heart hurts whenever I think about her, and if I could give everything up and move near her I would. But, y’know, I’m all married and stuff.
  74. 74. She truly is the most beautiful person I know, my best friend. Hands down.
  75. 75. I have a weird obsession with the IMDB.
  76. 76. I am a stacker. My dishes are always clean, but my mail from three weeks ago is at the bottom of an ever-growing pile. My husband calls this messy. I call it creatively organized.
  77. 77. I’m always doing more than one thing at a time. Gemini, ADD, I’m not sure.
  78. 78. I am adopted. I don’t know my birthparents, but I would like to meet them someday. I have a beautiful life, and I’d like them to know they did a good thing, giving me up. I know I’d wonder.
  79. 79. I don’t want any kids, but my husband wants six. I was hoping we could compromise by getting a second dog. It didn’t work.
  80. 80. I knew this when I married him, and my maternal instinct has been kicking in slowly but surely. Now I can see myself having a kid, as long as I also have a nanny. They should package those together, don’t you think?
  81. 81. I am a whiskey drinker. Almost exclusively. Sometimes red wine, but most of the girly drinks just make me nauseated.
  82. 82. I have read everything Tom Robbins has written about eight times. He’s that good.
  83. 83. I don’t understand String Theory. This pisses me off.
  84. 84. My little brother (he’s fifteen) has started calling me with his girl problems.
  85. 85. This terrifies me to my very core.
  86. 86. I consider it a great personal accomplishment that I can listen to his problems and offer advice, when my gut instinct is to start screaming and then tell him not to date until he’s 30.
  87. 87. My children are going to be nuns. Or priests. I don’t care which.
  88. 88. I recently completed my first successful sweater (the other two didn’t fit).
  89. 89. I wanted to throw a party. Most people said, “wow that’s cool” and then smiled.
  90. 90. If you don’t knit, you can’t understand, I think.
  91. 91. It takes me less than five seconds to say the alphabet backwards.
  92. 92. I was a dancer - ballet, tap, jazz and modern - until I was 16. I quit when I left for boarding school. I really miss it.
  93. 93. I love how quiet Chicago becomes when it snows. It’s all muffled, and you can hear the flakes as they hit the ground. So beautiful.
  94. 94. I collect rare books, including modern signed first editions. Have you ever smelled a 200-year-old book? It’s intoxicating.
  95. 95. My most prized possession is a 1920’s library-sized dictionary I bought on eBay years ago. It’s enormous, and sits on a pedestal I bought to display it. Just looking at it makes me smile.
  96. 96. My dogs are healthy, but I cannot for the life of me keep plants alive.
  97. 97. Someday I will visit Nepal. My grandfather, who passed away in 2001, spent a lot of time there, and he called it Shangri-La. I want to see for myself.
  98. 98. I have an absolutely terrible memory.
  99. 99. There are fifteen candles on my coffee table at the moment. That’s weird, isn’t it.
  100. 100. I never make lists. Not for the grocery store, the knitting store - never. Come to think of it, I often get in trouble buying things I don’t need. Maybe lists are the way to go.
100 Things About The Mongrel
 
I have found myself reading others’ lists with great interest, so here is my contribution to the mix.
I feel as though I’m about to give a book report in front of the entire class, and I forgot my pants.
Just keep the sniggering to a minimum.
Thank god I wore my Superwoman Underoos.
 
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