JingJing's Junket

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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

100 Things About Me 1-40

I have been painfully absent for a while, as many of you know. To get back in the swing of things and taking an idea from both Scott and Jeff, I think I'm gonna post 100 things about me you may not know. Please forgive my indulgence, but here goes:

1. When I was a little girl, I had a pair of white, blue and silver pom-poms. I thought for sure I would be a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader when I grew up. I think living in Waco is as close as I have ever gotten to that goal.

2. My friends and I used to dress up my little brother to look like a girl. Wig, makeup and high heeled shoes. For years, one of our neighbors thought the Steele family had two daughters.

3. I have overcome the fear of diving into a swimming pool. I used to think that my body would somehow defy the laws of physics and that regardless of the depth of water, I would hit the bottom of the pool rendering me paralyzed.

4. My real dad used to take me to the "Country Music Hall" in Tuckerman, Arkansas and let me sing with the band. I only remember doing it once or twice. I sang, "Delta Dawn" and "Kiss an Angel Good Morning".

5. I am the only person in my family to have graduated from college.

6. I don't like to wearing white shoes-regardless if it is before or after Memorial Day. I'm convinced they make my already large feet look even bigger.

7. When I lived in Nashville, on Tuesday nights I would go out with girlfriends, staying out too late, drinking too much beer, playing pool and singing karaoke. I miss that.

8. I wish I hadn't spent so much in church during my teen age years.

9. I should have taken that modeling job for a Brazilian bathing suit catalog, back when I really had no business thinking I was fat.

10. My first car was one that Scott and I shared before we got married. A blue 1987 Chrysler LeBaron. It was a great car! We bought it from the Cadillac dealership on Covington Pike in Memphis, TN. We couldn't have bought it without help from Rann, the salesperson, or the dealership being willing to write to the note for us. $113/month.

11. I have recurring dreams about tornadoes.

12. I married my best friend the summer before my sophomore year in college.

13. I have a nasty habit of finding myself interested in a project and then losing interest just as quickly. I used to have boxes of different craft materials in order to tap into my creative genius, but then lose the desire once it got old or difficult. I am working on that.

14. I like lots of different music. Country, R&B, Folk, Classical, Indie, etc. So long as lyrics aren't hateful or misogynistic, I can usually bear to listen to most anything.

15. Peaches have to be my favorite fruit. You cant beat a perfectly ripe peach. The texture, the taste, the scent, even the color! If peaches made sounds, I would probably like that, too.

16. I like to fall asleep to the TV cartoon, "Family Guy". It is trashy and non-PC. Funny as hell. I love to quote it. I love to talk with other folks who watch it. It is usually snarky and has a biting social commentary. It is also decidedly low brow with fart and booger jokes. Family Guy is the perfect intersection between smart and stupid for me. Pull my finger.

17. When Brittany and Tiffany were little, they only liked to watch one thing on the TV. The classic movie, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. For an entire summer, that movie showed on our VCR 3 times a day. Jason and I memorized the entire dialogue. Twenty years later, we can pick up at any point in the screenplay and quote Pee Wee and his friends. I know you are, but what am I?

18. Dad didn't like us watching "The Brady Bunch". He said it was, "too wholesome". I'm still not sure what that means exactly.

19. My paternal grandmother taught me how to read before I went to Kindergarten.

20. My first book was, "Gus and the Firefly". I have it in my bookshelf.

21. I learned how to fillet a fish when I was about 6 or so. Grandma taught me that, too.

22. The smell of honeysuckle will always take me to a red dirt road in Arkansas, playing around with Keith and Scottie Williams.

23. I have never broken a bone that needed setting.

24. I have broken my tailbone. Twice.

25. When I was younger, I thought I wanted 3 kids or so. Now I'm not sure.

26. Of the cars we've owned, my favorite was the 1994 Nissan Maxima. I miss that car.

27. Like most graduates of REHS, I am confident in saying I can spell "pharaoh" without looking it up.

28. I think I can call myself a Texan now. But don't tell any native Texans I said that.

29. I tried memorizing Edgar Allen Poe's entire poem, "The Raven" for an 8th grade English class project. I failed miserably. But I still can remember the meter and rhythm of the first two stanzas.

30. I was in the "Little Miss BlueJay" Pageant when I was 5 or 6. All the other little girls had big frou frou dresses. Mine was pink cotton and very plain. I wore brown sandals and socks underneath it. The winner's name was Jennifer Something-or-Another. All I heard was "Jennifer" and my heart leaped within my chest. For all of one and a half seconds, I thought I had won. That memory still makes me a little bit sad.

31. I have 3 younger sisters and a younger brother.

32. Red roses are pretty, but I tend to prefer the yellow ones with red tinges instead.

33. I still have all the love letters Scott wrote me while we were dating.

34. I really like Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream. But sometimes, I really really like Godiva's Chocolate with Raspberry Truffles.

35. Once when I was about 9 or so, I put broken glass wedges under all eight tires of a bratty girl's parents vehicles. She invited me to her birthday party. I went. Then at school she denied that I had come or that I had even been invited. (I wasn't cool enough) I was so hurt and humiliated. I decided to teach her a lesson. I don't know that it taught her a lesson, but somehow I felt better at the time. I never got caught. I used to feel bad about it, but have since forgiven myself for such criminal behavior.

36. I had mononucleosis when I was in 3rd grade. I missed about 2 months of school and lost a lot of weight. All I really remember was eating Root Beer popsicles and being teased about having the "kissing disease".

37. When I was about 7 or 8, I tried to be hospitable to some of my parents' friends and poured beer into a glass with ice. I was teased mercilessly for that one, too. Dad decided it was time to teach me the proper way to pour a beer into a chilled mug. But at least I learned a valuable skill at a young age.

38. I used to think I had ugly feet. I still do, but now I recognize that everyone does, too.

39. At any given time, I have about 4 books that I am in the middle of reading.

40. When I started college, my college career track was toward being a pastoral counselor.