I Am Meme-ing Myself with 100 Things

OK, no one "meme'd" me, but I felt like doing it, so whatever! Here it is.

1. I was born and raised in Massachusetts.
2. I went to Catholic school, K-8, complete with plaid skirt uniform.
3. I have been baptized, First Communion-ized (I just made that up), and Confirmed, but almost never go to church. I find it too boring.
   
4. I'm an only child.
5. I was born in 1978.
6. I am half Italian, half French Canadian.
7. I have been to Italy more times than I can remember (my grandmother and other relatives still live there).
8. I'm only 5 feet tall.
9. I have blue eyes and dark blond/light brown hair, which I get highlighted as my one girly, pampering thing.
10. I have run two marathons, and three half-marathons.
11. I ran cross-country, indoor and outdoor track in high school.
12. I began playing the piano at 7 and took lessons until 19, in college.
    
13. I am semi-fluent in Italian.
14. I went to an ivy league school.
15. I have a BS in Operations Research and a minor in Economics.
16. I love to paint (oil and watercolor).
17. I graduated high school 3rd in a class of around 650.
18. I have never broken a bone.
    
19. I had my appendix out at 23, and had to go into and out of surgery without friends or family around. It's a long story, but the short of it is that I didn't know I was going into surgery until about 2am. The Husband (then the Boyfriend) didn't have a cell phone, and was working 3rd shift on a barge in the LA harbor. I was in surgery at 6am and out before anyone realized I was in surgery. Except my parents, who I woke up, across the country in Massachusetts, they actually answered their phone in the middle of the night unlike my friends in California.
20. I was in a sorority in college.
21. I didn't drink or smoke the funny stuff in high school. I was a goody-two-shoes.
22. I've only smoked the wacky tabacky once, well, twice in one night. The first time I felt nothing. The second time a couple hours later it made me paranoid that I'd be permanently high and never be functional again. I haven't touched any drug since, aside from alcohol.
23. I love to sing karaoke, and I have been told I am a pretty good singer. I would agree. Ha! I am a ham. My favorite karaoke song is Nick of Time, by Bonnie Raitt. I also sing lots of Dixie Chicks.
24. I worked for the Sierra Club the summer after my freshman year of college, canvassing people, door-to-door for donations. I was promoted to a field manager during that time, managing towns and teams.
25. I took gymnastics for a couple years from age 5-7. Because my parents couldn't afford both piano and gymnastics lessons, I had to choose one. So I went with piano. Sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice.
26. At 4 years old, my parents tried to enroll me in figure skating lessons, but when I got there I found out I couldn't use my Strawberry Shortcake double-blade skates and had to use single blade skates and freaked out. I cried because I was too scared about the whole single-blade balance thing. I guess I was a cautious kid. I have never been a thrill seeker.
27. I missed winning my schools Spelling Bee competition and going to the city competition on the word "cupcake." I forget now how I messed it up, but I kicked myself for weeks after about having missed such an easy word.
    
28. I wanted to be a meteorologist until I was about 14. I pictured myself as a weather girl.
29. I used to sit on the floor and watch the Weather Channel for hours while doing homework. Talk about weird, huh? I loved me some weather.
30. I used to track hurricanes and even mailed the local TV station for a free hurricane tracking map.
31. I've been through two hurricanes, Gloria and Bob.
32. When I was 11 or 12, I can't remember exactly, we had a talent show at school and I played Clair De Lun, but I failed to memorize it (probably laziness). So I had my music sheets. Somehow they got mixed up because the last page was not where it was supposed to be and as I flipped the book, it dropped to the floor, sliding under the grand piano. Mind completely blank, I had no choice by to get up, crawl under the piano, get the sheet, finish it up, and then run of the stage and cry. I would say this is my most embarrassing moment ever.
33. My mother-in-law is a Presbyterian minister.
34. I got married at 26, by a justice of the peace (much to my MIL's dismay), though we had a ceremony and reception and all that. It just wasn't religious.
    
35. I moved to Hermosa Beach in 2000, after graduating college. Didn't know a soul in California. I am still amazed that I had the guts to do that.
36. I was a victim of the dot-com bust and have been laid off twice: first in 200 (my first real job, 6 months after I started), and second in 2002 when the local office closed and I didn't want to move to Ohio.
37. I am a software developer.
38. I bought and sold 3 houses by the age of 28, first one at 25, all by myself.
39. I have laid 800 square feet of maple hardwood, and also 1000 square feet of slate tile.
40. I love DIY projects and will do whatever I can, myself, to save money.
41. I am addicted to HGTV and the husband hates it. House Hunters is one of my favorite shows.
42. I type pretty fast, thus the address of this blog ("thunderfingers", a name give to me by a co-worker at my last job).
43. Mosquitoes love to bite me. I always have exponential more bites than everyone else.
44. I sometimes have a potty mouth. Or maybe, I frequently have a potty mouth.
45. I keep obsessive track of our finances and am quite frugal.
46. I teach yoga on the side, for fun.
47. I practice Ashtanga Yoga, First Series.
48. I always redeem my recycling because I paid it the deposit and I deserve it back, damn it!
49. I have an intermittent Diet Coke addiction.
50. I am lactose intolerant, though I can eat cheese and yogurt. Consuming ice cream and milk is risky. Fresh whipped cream is downright stupid and inconsiderate to those within 20 yards of my ass.
51. I stopped eating meat around September of 2007. I eat eggs and dairy though, and the occasional fish. Once every few months I'll eat chicken to keep my meat digesting enzymes working (just in case I ever need them in a pinch).
52. I am a bit of a wine enthusiast and am a member of two wine clubs in Temecula, CA.
53. As a kid, I had a large stuffed animal collection.
54. I am a big crier at movies. And Grey's Anatomy episodes. I try not to watch sad movies because it totally ruins my mood for days (it took my at least a week to recover from Saving Private Ryan and The Deer Hunter. Not to mention Million Dollar Baby. I can't handle it).
55. I prefer comedies when it comes to movies.
    
56. I can quote several parts of the movie Spaceballs. Other favorites include: Super Troopers, Beer Fest, The Simpsons Movie, Old School, Wedding Crashers, and the Big Lebowski
57. I had a typical Boston accent until college when I got teased by a bunch of New Yorkers. I no longer have the accent.
58. I still have the Boston accent when saying the Our Father and Hail Mary. This comes from Catholic school where those prayers were memorized by hearing it rather than memorized by reading it (since we were in Kindergarten at the time). "Ah Fathah, who aat in Heaven..." yata, yata, yata.
59. I have a Miniature Australian Shepherd who I love to pieces named Nikki.
60. I had to give up my other dog, Savannah, to another family early last year when the two started viciously fighting, resulting in surgery to sew up Nikki's 5-inch gash in her neck. They grew up together from puppyhood, but apparently, two female dogs in the same household is never a good idea. My heart hurt for months and months, and still does when I think about her. I hope she is happy with her new owners.
61. My father is a retired letter carrier of the US Postal Service.
62. My mother is a retired high school physics teacher.
63. In high school, I was conservative, even registering as an "independent" when I turned 18.
64. My father thought I was going to end up a registered Republican as an adult.
    
65. In college, after meeting different people, and studying different things, my perspective on poverty and social privilege changed. I realized that just by not being born in poverty and not growing up in a ghetto, I had much higher chances for success than others who were poor and lived in dangerous neighborhoods with bad schools. Hard work is sometimes not enough to pull yourself out of a bad situation you were born into, without choice. And that's not fair. That was the beginning of the gradual shift of my political leanings over to the "left".
66. I worked for an investment bank for a summer during college and wore a suit nearly everyday.
67. I like to complain. Very much, I do.
68. I am a sucker for a sale.
69. I almost went to the same college as my husband, and we probably would have met then, on the East Coast, instead of 4 years later on the West Coast. It chose not to go there (even though the financial aid/scholarship package was several thousand better) mostly because the boy-to-girl ratio was 10 to 1. That's what you get with a big engineering school.
70. I am a Cancer. The zodiac sign, of course. Hopefully, I am not actually a "cancer" to anything. I try not to be.
    
71. I had a big Lego collection as a child.
72. I have never been to Disneyland, though I have lived in Southern California for 8 years.
73. I love to study maps. I have no idea why.
74. I love the beach and can't really imagine living in a land-locked place, though I'd love to have the cheaper real estate that goes with it!
75. I taught myself to swim at 8.
76. I taught myself to ride a bike at 8, with the help of my childhood friend in the back alley of her house.
77. I have only a handful of real girlfriends. One from when I was 5 years old, and the other two from college.
78. I have bad teeth (they look fine, white and mostly straight from braces, but they are weak and cavity prone), unlike my husband who has had one cavity in his entire life (I believe it's genetic!). I can't remember how many I've had, and I had a crown put in at 22,when the dentist found a crack in my molar.
79. I've had my identity stolen and collections people called my house for accounts opened in my name that, obviously, were never paid. It took more than 6 months to straighten out, and I now have a fraud alert on my account which makes getting credit a hassle. But it's better than not having it.
80. I used to drive a Mini Cooper S, before I decided it was not practical with a big 60 pound and also 30-pound dog. I miss that car.
81. I drive stick shift, but didn't learn until I bought the Cooper which the Husband, then Boyfriend, had to drive home from the dealer for me. Since I was incapable. I loved that car so much I didn't even test drive it before buying it. I am no longer such a impulse spender, at least not a huge items.
82. I watched Sesame Street and Mister Rogers until I was 7 or 8 years old.
83. I love puzzles. I was doing 100-piece puzzles at 4 years old.
84. I am very disorganized. But everything is in order in my head, where it counts.
85. I used to hide in cardboard boxes as a kid, for fun.
86. I walked at 10 months.
87. I wasn't potty-trained until two and a half and apparently had some bad temper tantrums when I was in the "terrible twos". I am scared for what I am in for when I decide to finally procreate.
88. I love to make things with my hands, knitting, sewing, remodeling, painting, etc.
89. I can roll my tongue into a flower shape.
90. I have a major sweet tooth. Love candy, cakes, pastries, cookies, etc.
91. I do not love chocolate. I actually vehemently dislike chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream. I will, however, eat good chocolate like Godiva, or imported Belgian and Swiss chocolate. Yum!
92. I love custards and anything with caramel, butterscotch, brown sugar, etc.
93. With this vegetarian endeavor, the thing I miss most is probably fish and shellfish. I will let myself eat sushi and shellfish once in a while but not as much as I would like.
94. I once forgot my husband's birthday. He will never let me live that down.
    
95. I can waste hours searching for obscure things on Google.
96. I am can be quite competitive. Unless I don't have a chance of winning, then I don't care.
97. I can't dance my way out of paper bag.
98. I am a terrible liar, and sometimes put my foot in my mouth when I say what's in my head.
    I listen to a wide range of music styles, some Country, some Rap, Pop (even teeny-bopper Pop), Rock, Oldies Rock, Southern Blues, Bluegrass, Alternative, etc. The only style I don't like at all is Death Metal. I need some kind of melody or beat or else it's just screaming to me.
99. I have the same email address from freshman year of college in 1996 because of the lifetime forwarding that the university provides.
100. I am a dog lover and when I have a free Saturday, volunteer at a local rescue
101. I know, this is 101, but I love Cracker Barrel and wish they would open one in California!