50 Oh So Very Random and Probably Irrelevant Things About Me, Gren

I doubt anyone will read this...

1. I have an irrational fear of small holes and groups of holes, like honeycombs.
2. I have a hard time standing up for myself and I need to be more assertive. (If it's okay with you...!) hahaha
3. I love learning languages and I am pretty proficient in French. Gren is from grenouille (frog in French)...it's one of my favorite words in French along with fromage (cheese). Don't know why. I like other "ouille" words in French b/c they are fun to pronounce!!!! (For me, because I am language geek).
4. I taught French at a rural high school in Louisiana for 3 years.
5. I tend toward nostalgia and thinking of how things should have or could have been in my life.
6. "The Slithy Toves" comes from a line in Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky.
7. I tend to appreciate absurdity in art, comedy, films...and in real life. I have a very, very dry sense of humor. I like Monty Python and Flight of the Conchords for that reason.
8. I was a loner as a kid/teenager, and stayed in my room most of the time, listening to The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, etc. and drawing and daydreaming.
9. People have told me to "lighten up" throughout my life.
10. I enjoy learning about other cultures, religions, and social customs.
11. I miss my family in Louisiana so much and I talk to my mom everyday on the phone. I cry almost everytime they leave here from a visit.
12. I worry too much about whether other people like me. And I hate conflict.
13. Sometimes I might come across as aloof because I either don't know what to say or I figure the other people don't like me anyway.
14. I would say I'm a tad complex.
15. But some people say you can read me like a book.
16. My 13th birthday was on Friday the 13th. Oooooooh!
17. I love crossword puzzles, anagrams, mad-libs, any kind of word games.
18. I also love games like Jeopardy and Trivial Pursuit.
19. But my math skills SUCK.
20. I like to look at dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, most reference books.
21. I also like to play The Sims 2 and make myself, my family, friends and famous people and watch them "live".
22. I don't have a lot of free time to do much of the above anymore...
23. ...because I am a stay at home mom and have been for 4 years.
24. I believe being a stay at home mom is a REAL JOB, damnit, and it's not all about sitting around in my skivvies all day eating Pop Tarts and watching SpongeBob!
25. I have a tendency to start my sentences with the pronoun I, to use "quotation marks" and CAPITAL LETTERS in them and to end them with exclamation points!!!!!!!
26. I like to make lists, but not as much as in the past. I am still in recovery. I used to make lists of what I needed to do instead of doing those things. :/
27. I love rings...especially silver and ones with unusual stones, like hematite.
28. Based on a questionnaire, my animal totem is a lion and it helps me to remember to take charge of my life and be aggressive when needed. I think it fits (see #2).
29. I love to laugh and to make other people laugh. People have said I am funny. Sometimes I hear crickets when I try too hard to be funny.
30. My mom would always sing to me (real songs and made up songs, too!) when I was a kid. I sing to Ava all the time.
31. I have had a love affair with the Beatles since I was about 7 years old when I heard "Penny Lane" on AM radio. And when I saw Paul McCartney in a teen magazine my aunt saved from 1965, I fell hopelessly in love. I had all their albums (VINYL!) by the time I graduated from high school. There is no one who can touch them for me.
32. I love seafood, esp. shrimp. And my favorite color is red. Damn, now you have peered into my soul and there is NO GOING BACK. I feel so naked.
33. I have discovered that potty training a child is quite difficult.
34. Even though I quit teaching 7 years ago, I still remember all my students and wonder how they are.
35. I like to read the obituary section of several newspapers from where I used to live. My husband thinks this is morbid, but I feel a need to know who has died that I used to know.
36. The most beautiful place I have ever been is Lucerne, Switzerland.
37. People have told me I have a very nice voice and that I read stories and things aloud well. I have read passages for relatives at weddings and funerals. But I do mumble sometimes or talk too softly when I am less than confident.
38. Sometimes I come across as pre-occupied or self-absorbed. Enough about me, what do YOU think of me? ;)
39. At times talk and write like Yoda I do. Why at the end of the sentence the subject and verb do I put?
40. I started liking SpongeBob SquarePants since I started watching it with Ava last month. I have seen every episode! I really like Squidward Tentacles.
41. I hope number 37 doesn't make me sound like an arrogant ass.
42. I am now on number 42 and I am excited about it!!!! Why? Because 42 is the answer to life, the universe, everything.
43. I check too often to see if people have made comments on here.
44. Throughout my life and even now, I have tended to be a follower. When I was a kid, if someone asked me if I liked a band or movie, I would ask if they liked it before I gave an answer. If they liked it, I liked it, too. I try to remember that it is okay to have a differing opinion from others and that I do not have to defend my opinion or denigrate others' opinions.
45. I love to window shop on the Internet. I'll go to a site like Neiman Marcus, fill up my cart with thousands of dollars of stuff and then bail out. Hardeharrhar.
46. The only time I truly have to myself is the wee hours of the night when everyone else is asleep. I don't take advantage of it often because then I can't wake up early enough the next day.
47. I do have a part-time job that I adore. I am teaching English to a 10-year-old boy from Vietnam who is here in Houston until next year. I can see a big improvement since we met last November. We see each other 4 days a week. I feel like he and his family are a part of my own. He has taught me just as much as I have taught him. He is a fantastic artist and an expert on the Titanic and other ocean liners, airplanes, whales, chess, and building intricate models of ships from Legos.
48. Losing weight, especially after pregnancy and while being a stay-at-home mom is hard as hell.
49. I love doing work in my yard, especially planting flowers and bushes. It's really gratifying to see them grow. I bought a wilted little plant from the store precisely because it was in such bad shape and I wanted to help it. It is beautiful and healthy now.
50. Phew! Making a list like this was fun, but I really had to delve into my mind to find enough things to write about. I hope I didn't drone on too much about myself. But there I am, in black and white and in lovely list form, numbered for your convenience. The last tidbit about me is that I used to love taking personality tests to find out who I am. I even got a book about the MMPI (the mother of psychological tests back in the day) when I was in college and administered it to myself. Haha, it told me I was an insecure introvert!!!! The conclusion I have drawn from all that self-analysis is that I love to do self-analysis. I don't do it anymore. So much more to life there is!!!

Happy Holidays!!!
Gren

***All the above things are true about me, but I want to say that above all else, I adore my little girl who will be 4 on December 14th. She is my sunlight and my inspiration! Being a mom is the most rewarding, challenging and important thing I have ever done.***