100 Things About MEEEEEE!!!

This didn’t take me anywhere near as long as I thought it would…I could go on and on and on….

1. Tom Jones, (The Green Green Grass of Home), was number one, (in England), when I was born.

2. I am my parents’ fourth child, third daughter.

3. I was born on the fourth.

4. Four is my favorite number, although it has never been lucky for me.

5. I was the only one of the five children to be born at home. My Mum says that I, “shot out!”

6. She also claims that I was the quietest, most well behaved of her children.

7. My sisters named me after their best friends; Liz’s best friend was Heather Wilson, Julie’s best friend was Catherine Gun. They no longer know these people.

8. I like my name.

9. I was a mistake and knew this from an early age. So was my younger brother. This has never bothered me.

10. My older brother hated me. That bothered me.

11. I highly respect my parents who did a good job of raising us. I know it wasn’t easy. They put us well before themselves and often went without.

12. I’ve never had pocket-money or a babysitter.

13. I shared a bedroom with 3 of my siblings in two sets of bunkbeds.

14. I used to believe that everyone could see though walls except me.

15. I still often feel as though I am being watched.

16. I believe in ghosts.

17. I’m scared of the dark.

18. I have only recently become comfortable with my own company.

19. I am glad to have come from a big family – it taught me a lot.

20. I hate having to ask for help. This stems from being constantly denied.

21. I have never been in therapy.

22. I like being independent.

23. My Dad’s job with British Rail provided us with first class travel around a good part of Europe. I have very fond memories of those train journeys. I had no idea how stressful they were for my parents.

24. I didn’t stay in a hotel until well into my teens. It was only for one night. Staying in hotels still seems like a luxary.

25. I love to travel and long to just take off and see the world, especially Asia. Ever since my Dad returned from a business trip to New Zealand when I was ten, I’ve wanted to go. There are more sheep than people – all that wool!

26. We could’ve moved to Australia when I was young. My Mum wanted us to stay in England for our education. I didn’t find out about this until recently. We should’ve gone!

27. I used to dream about flying in an aeroplane, until I took my first flight to Germany on a school trip in my teens. The thought of flying still excites me.

28. I remember a lot of my dreams. I think many of them represent my frustrations. In my dreams I can only run on my elbows and I can never throw a punch or yell. I often dream that I am in danger. In a few of my dreams I have fallen, hit the ground and died. I also dreamt that I was shot in the head and killed. When I have written my dreams down, they never make any sense. I also dream a lot about toilets, they are never clean or private, so I can’t use them – I believe that if I do find a clean, private toilet in a dream, that I will wake up in a mess!

29. I can only sleep when it is dark, quiet and I am comfortable. I can’t sleep while travelling. Up until recently I couldn’t even close my eyes while travelling – I was scared of being punched or stabbed – which probably stems from growing up between two brothers!

30. It takes me forever to get to sleep and I wake up several times during the night.

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32. I am usually in a good mood on waking and feel happy. I think I smile when I wake up.

33. The second thing I do upon waking is look at the clock. I usually wake up between 5-7am. My alarm is set for 7:15. I’m usually up before it goes off. It makes the sound of waves lapping against the shore but I rarely get to hear it. I rarely lay-in at weekends. I get to work far earlier than I need to - big girly swot!

34. I don’t like our current bed. It is a full-sized loft bed. I want to have a big bed in the middle of a bedroom, like normal people.

35. I watch the weather channel most mornings, but never watch the news.

36. I don’t read a newspaper.

37. I only watch the news or read a newspaper when I visit England.

38. I don’t buy magazines. I look at the pictures in fashion mags at work and sometimes tear out articles, but very rarely read them.

39. I could live without a television, but would miss watching films.

40. I love music, but rarely play it at home.

41. I own an ipod, buy only because it was $60 with the puchase of my laptop. I have spent longer downloading music than I have listening to it, but really enjoy when I do, although I dislike headphones, (and earplugs!) My music taste is very wide, but I gravitate towards 70’s and 80’s punk-rock-pop.

42. I sing a lot. I have performed on stage a number of times and would’ve loved to have become a singer/actress. I was always in plays and the choir at school, I wish I had pushed myself more in that direction.

43. I was a good student and did well without really trying. I don’t know if it would’ve made any difference in my life if I had worked harder.

44. I have a ridiculously high IQ, but am too dumb to remember what it is.

45. My Dad wanted me to become a professor and a jazz musician, (I played the clarinet and the saxophone.)

46. Art was my favorite subject, I loved to paint, draw and sculpt. I also enjoyed languages and sceince. I was good at maths, but didn’t particulaly enjoy it.

47. I was good at sports, but am useless at catching and throwing, (I still made it to Goal Attack on the netball team!)

48. I was a very good swimmer. I still love to swim, but only do it on holiday.

49. I represented my country in the BMX racing world championships. I don’t own a bike anymore but I borrowed my friend’s hybrid to complete the Boston to New York Aids Ride 4.

50. My parents never seemed to be proud of me.

51. I missed almost a year of school though being ill with glandular fever, (mono). I lost a lot of weight and was very weak for a while. My sixteenth birthday was a very sad and lonely affair.

52. My tonsils were taken out when I was 17. They had been troubling me for a while. That was my only stay in hospital.

53. I have broken 3 bones since becoming an adult, all on my left side; Forth finger = (my dog, Max’s fault – I was sitting in my friend's garden with his lead loosely wrapped around my hand. Her cat appeared and my dog went after it, taking my finger with him!) Elbow = in two places – happened in a small town in Northern Italy – I leapt into the air, forgetting that I was wearing a long tight dress and landed onto the concrete below with all my weight onto my poor little elbow. I knew it was broken immeadiately. The hospital I was taken to wasn’t fully staffed until the following morning. After a very uncomfortable night at my friend Giada’s house, without pain killers, I was fitted with my first ever cast, only to be told a few weeks later, (in England), that it had been positioned wrongly and had to be reset. The doctors said that I would never be able to straighten it, but I can! I feel twinges in it every so often. Foot = after the second date with my boyfriend, I tripped wearing heels, let out a squeal of pain and hobbled onto the subway. It was days before I went to the hospital. I was supposed to have surgery, but couldn’t face being inactive for six weeks. It still hurts.

54. I love to dance. I miss those nights when we would jump around to load music for hours.

55. I miss making a new outfit for Saturday night every week, dressing wildly, having brightly coloured hair and being a “freak”.

56. I don’t know what colour my hair would be if I didn’t bleach it. My sister first bleached it when I was twelve and still relatively blonde – I was her guinee pig! The first colour I dyed my hair was blue. The only colour I have never tried is black. I put on a black wig and didn’t like the way it looked. I was too colourful, (and happy!) to be a goth.

57. My hair is bleached. But apart from that I am no maintainance. I have only ever had 3 manicures and I didn’t enjoy them. I have never had any beauty treatments. I doubt that I will ever have a pedicure – who cares what my feet look like? I only wear make-up for very special occasions. I don’t brush my hair very often. I am a very scruffy and unfashionable looking fashion designer.

58. Only Cathy, (my best friend from school – we met when we were eleven in art class – she’s now a hairdresser, wife and mother back in our home town), is allowed to cut my hair. It is very long.

59. I was going to cut it all off and give it to Locks of Love, but they didn’t want it because it’s bleached!

60. I have been pierced many times. My ears were pierced as a gift for my tenth birthday, I was the first one in my family to be pierced and had asked for those earrings for a few years before getting permission. I pierced my own nose and belly button when I was seventeen. The nose ring looked horrible, (attracting attention to my big nose was not the best idea I’ve ever had), but I still have metal in my middle.

61. I have two tattoos, one that I had thought about for ten years before being inked and one that was completely spontaneous. I still like them both. I have designs for more, but don’t know if I will ever get them done.

62. I was flashed at so many times as a child that I thought it was normal.

63. I am very lucky not to have been harmed as I would continually and naively put myself in dangourous positions.

64. I have never been in a car crash, but have fallen off a motorbike. I was unhurt.

65. I have never skiied, but have snowboared once. I took to it very well, but fell off the ski-lift every single time.

66. I bump into things often and always have at least one bruise. I am wider than I think!

67. I hate the cold. I am always colder than anyone I am with. Anything below 60 degrees is too cold for me. I am much, much happier if the temperature is over 90.

68. My nose runs when I come in from the cold but I haven’t had a cold in years and it’s been even longer since I’ve had the ‘flu.

69. I am an outdoorsy coach-potato.

70. I take good care of my body – that is to say that I eat very healthily – I could definitely do more excersise! I don’t smoke, and rarely drink anymore, although the night I met my boyfriend, I downed 7 bottles of Red Stripe. I was matching him beer fo beer, it wasn’t until afterwards that he told me that his were non-alcoholic!

71. I’ve been a vegetarian for most of my life, (a vegan for a few years a long time ago). Not because of animal rights, although the thought of eating an animal is disgusting to me.

72. I love leather.

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74. I’m allergic to hard cheese – it won’t kill me, but it doesn’t like me. I can eat soft, white cheese, but hardly ever do.

75. I’m also allergic to penicillin and most other anti-biotics.

76. I haven’t been to the doctor in years.

77. I wait for a trip to England to visit my denitst. He’s very nice.

78. I considered a career in dentistry when I was younger.

79. I should wear glasses for reading, but have yet to get them. I sometimes have to close one eye to see clearly. I don’t even like to wear sunglasses.

80. I feel blessed to be healthy and have a good strong body.

81. I am the shortest member of my family. My torso is long but my legs are short. I don’t have a defined ankle area – I am missing two inches of height right there! If there was a safe, quick and painless way of putting those two inches back in there, I would do it.

82. I don’t think I would ever have cosmetic surgery – unless it was for health reasons.

83. I love the city, but wish that the countryside was closer.

84. I don’t like my apartment but love living right beside Central Park.

85. I want to own a house. A real house with a decent garden and lots of rooms. I don’t know where I want this house to be, but it needs to have plenty of room for the dogs. I miss having dogs. I prefer the big ones that put their heads to one side and seem to say, “huurr-rrum?”

86. I have never wanted a wedding or to be a bride. I wear a ring on my wedding ring finger, but it doesn’t mean anything.

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88. I don’t think I will ever be a mother – that makes me sad.

89. I have a neice (4) and a nephew (7 mths), they are cousins. They are both in England and I wish I could see them more often.

90. I am the only person from my family who lives in a different country.

91. I talk to my parents on the phone every few weeks or so. My Dad and I email one another now and again. I feel closer to them now than I ever did. They have been together for close to 50 years. They are still in love, which makes me a believer.

92. I very, very rarely cry, but after writing number 88 I got a lump in my throat. It was naughty to cry when I was little, it makes me feel weak. And also makes my big nose all red and runny!

93. I am generally a very happy person and laugh every day.

94. I have some very good friends and even a pretend American family, (they are real people, we’re just not really related!) They are my best friend in America’s in-laws, (she’s English and lives in New Hampshire). I don’t see them anywhere near as often as I’d like to. I know that they are there for me if I ever need them, which is an amazing feeling!

95. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.

96. I feel blessed to have turned my passion into my career. It took a long time and a lot of hard work to get where I am, my Dad even suggested that I give up when he realised how difficult it was, but it was a dream of mine to live and work in New York. I achieved my goal and feel that I am here to do more. (I’m still waiting for my Green Card and have to return to England to renew my visa every year until I get it – which is an expensive and time consuming pain in the neck!)

97. I am not religious. I am a lapsed catholic. My Mum still goes to church, her sister and family, (my only surviving uncle and two cousins), are Jehovah’s Witnesses. My sister and her Cuban husband are members of the Church of Christ. The rest of us are devil worshipers – just kidding!

98. I like going into old English churches – the art and acoustics are wonderful. I also like reading the gravestones.

99. I’m not sure if I believe in life after death. It all just seems so final.

100. But I do believe that I should make more time for myself and for others.