30 Things Meme

A bunch of friends are meming on Facebook (yes, verbing weirds language), and rather than confining a bunch of random blather about me to a friends list, I thought I'd post it here as well.

1. I think we had more snakes when I was growing up than any other kind of pet. The mice didn't count. They were snake food.

2. I've never broken a bone (I think; not sure about my finger), but I sprained my back when I was in my teens.

3. I went to six elementary schools, three in sixth grade.

4. I wear three rings pretty much constantly. All were made by the same jeweler, based halfway across the country, and were purchased over eight years.

5. Both of my most serious ex-boyfriends ended up at Harvard for postdocs.

6. My cats have all had abstract nouns for names.

7. I did not do well on the swim team when I lived in Georgia. However, even years after moving back to Minnesota, I could still kick anybody's butt at swimming.

8. I was part of a trio of friends in my early teens. I'm the only one of us who survived past age eighteen.

9. I've skinned a squirrel.

10. I was one paper short of a college degree for nine years.

11. I spent much of my life up to about age seventeen afraid of everything. I don't know that I'm over that, but I've mostly stopped noticing.

12. I still haven't forgiven one junior high gym teacher for thinking I was faking what turned out to be arthritis.

13. I've been invited backstage at First Avenue, but I turned it down because I knew it was the equivalent of a date.

14. I "sneak" up on people all the time, but we usually both jump because I'm not trying to be sneaky.

15. Despite stage fright that's never fully gone away, I've been onstage as an actor, dancer, musician, singer and writer. Now I'm hosting a radio show.

16. I'm the slowest eater I know.

17. I would love to play with my hair color more, but I don't like coloring over my gray.

18. I've been scuba certified, but it's been almost 20 years since the last time I was diving.

19. Twice, I've gone on road trips to Canada on a whim.

20. I can cook ridiculously elaborate desserts with multiple layers, techniques and components. I'm no good at bread.

21. I used to take embroidery to class and do it during lecture.

22. I went an entire year without eating dairy, because things like pancakes made me throw up. It seems to have mostly worked, although I still can't drink plain milk, and ice cream sometimes still equals poison.

23. I'm a highly competitive person. Therefore, I rarely compete.

24. I don't do the polite Minnesotan thing. If I say I have no preference, it's because I don't. If I do, you'll hear about it.

25. I've seen my father twice since I turned eleven. The first time was at my wedding.

26. My favorite kind of lie is the one that tells most but not all of the truth.

27. I have yet to figure out any "rules" on what kind of music I like. I thought I had, then Beck came along. Fit the rules, but I said, "Eh."

28. I've only been stung once by a bee that I remember. I did everything right, but the stupid thing flew into my hair, got caught and panicked. Got me on the temple.

29. I use full capitalization and punctuation in instant messaging. It's faster for me than adjusting to text speak.

30. Coming up with 30 things to share was difficult because, despite blogging and occasionally treating Facebook status updates like performance art, I'm really bad at talking about myself.