Jeez Louise

100 Things

Like any good blogger, I feel compelled to write a 100 Things About Me post. I wrote one sometime back in … I don’t know. 2003? 2004? but I am not good at looking through my archives. So, sit back and we’ll see what I can think of 100 things to say about myself.

1. I’m Canadian. If you wanted to go back through to my ancestry, you’d find French Canadian (my mother - she has traced her family tree back to the 1400s in France, with a little bit of Cree in there in the form of my great-great-great-great-grandfather), Irish, and Scottish (my Dad).

3. When people ask where I’m from, I say PEI, although I wasn’t born here.

4. My parents were in the military so we moved around alot.

5. As a child, I lived in Nova Scotia (1 year) , then Alberta (4 years), then PEI (6 years), then Saskatchewan (2 years) until my parents retired from the air force.

6. We moved back to PEI when I was 13 and they retired. Although I’ve lived here for 19 of my 32 years, I’m still considered “from away” to people who are “true” Islanders. It’s very insular.

7. I was always the tallest person in my class at school. Person, not girl. Except for one guy who really shot up senior year.

8. I’m nearly 5′9″, but have always rounded down to 5′8″.

9. I wore flats to my prom, so that I wouldn’t tower over my date. When I slouched, we were the same height.

10. I’m very allergic to dogs, cats, dust, dust mites, any type of pollen, tons of different kinds of soaps, salmon and on a slightly lesser scale chicken, beef, and pork. I still want to have a dog (I’ve been researching hypoallergenic breeds for years). I still eat chicken, beef, and pork (I feel like I’ve built up a resistance). I hate seafood so I’m not all that fussed about the salmon allergy.

11. I have an autoimmune disorder that caused me to lose all my hair in 2002. I had had little bald spots before that, but one morning, it all just fell out.

12. In the years since, some of my hair has grown back. Not enough on my head to go without wearing a wig, but I am especially grateful to have my eyebrows and eyelashes back. If you don’t have those, so many things get in your eyes, it’s unreal.

13. I married the best man in the world on August 19th 2006. As of the time I’m writing this, we’ll have known each other for six years.

14. We were long-distance for over a year before he came to live with me.

15. I graduated from high school in 1994.

16. I graduated with my first degree - B.A., major in French, minor in English (and could have had a second minor in History because I took enough history classes, but didn’t realize it til the diplomas were all printed up) in 1997.

17. My B. Education came in 1999; I was one of two people in the Education program to graduate that year as a specialist in teaching French as a Second Language. That’s not as impressive as it may sound. My university was small. There were a total of 32 graduates in Education that year. 80 graduates total.

18. I have been teaching since September 1999. For my first two years, I taught here in PEI. One year in elementary, one year in high school.

19. In 2001, I moved to Halifax (Nova Scotia) and taught there for four years (all four years in elementary).

20. In November 2004/05 I began a really serious bout of clinical depression. I was put off work for the year, and Rob and I decided to move back to PEI.

21. As treatment for my alopecia, my doctor put me on a high dosage of prednisone (a steroid), as well as steroid injections into my scalp. They didn’t help anything, although the steroid pills I took for over a year did cause me to gain about 100 pounds.

22. It’s five years later, and I am still trying to lose that weight.

23. I finally went to a doctor this year who told me that my inability to lose the weight has something to do with the fact that I have PCOS and insulin resistance.

24. I am now trying a new way of eating which will hopefully help with all of the above.

25. I love the 80s. I love the music, the terrible sitcoms, everything. I do kind of hope the fashion stays buried, though.

26. I have an older sister who is 7 years older than I am. She has 3 kids - 19, 16, and 13.

27. I have a younger brother. His birthday is the day after mine, but a year later. He’s been married for 8 and a half years now. He and his wife have two kids - 5 and 3.

28. My parents are still married (35 years!).

29. I have never travelled outside of Canada, unless you count a long weekend spent in Minot, North Dakota when I was 12. We stayed in a motel and went to JC Penney.

30. I really want to travel the world.

31. I really love having the summers off.

32. I was a figure skater for many, many years, starting when I was five. I was never Olympics material, but it was something I loved. I gave it up when it got too expensive.

33. We got a dog when I was 10. She passed away when I was 26. I still miss her.

34. I have no grandparents left, but I remember and love them all.

35. If I wasn’t a teacher, I would want to work in a library.

36. I worked in the university library all through (duh) university. I also worked at the local library here every summer. I loved it.

37. My favourite movies of all time are HEAD (no it’s not porn), Empire Records, Diner, and I’m sure there are more, but I can’t think of them at the moment.

38. I went through two major boy-band obsessions in my teenage years: NKOTB (shut up, Joseph Mulrey McIntyre is FINE) and the Monkees (they are all older than my parents, I realize this). I still have a soft spot in my heart for them.

39. My favorite music would have to be Motown, although seriously? I just really love music. People think I’m weird for having everything from Gordon Lightfoot to Miles Davis to Muddy Waters to Coldplay on my mp3 player. Okay, honestly the Coldplay is Rob’s. I’m not that fond of them.

40. For a long time I was pretty much addicted to Coca-Cola. Now I’m not, since I’m not supposed to consume any sugar and diet Coke is disgusting. It’s basically water or milk (or sugar-free sparkling lemonade) for me.

41. I was diagnosed with ADD back in 2000 or 2001, I don’t remember.

42. I was in my mid-20s by then, and haven’t ever bothered to go on any kind of medication.

43. I would probably function a lot better if I was taking Adderall or something, but now I’m 32 and I still am like “No! no meds for me!”

44. I love sleeping.

45. I have only been to a few concerts in my life, because we don’t get that many where I live. They’ve all been Canadian bands: Barenaked Ladies, Great Big Sea, and Blue Rodeo. They were all amazing concerts and I would see any of these three bands live again in a second.

46. My first boyfriend, A., was a really sweet guy. I always felt so so bad for dumping him.

47. I dumped him because we’d been dating for almost 4 months and he never kissed me, and I knew that I wasn’t going to kiss him, because I didn’t know how, and I figured that he would probably dump me soon because of it, so I broke things off with him first.

48. We’ve recently reconnected via Facebook and he’s still a sweet guy.

49. My second boyfriend, D., was NOT a sweet guy at all. And that’s all I have to say about that.

50. If I don’t eat fruit, I feel really weird.

51. Once when I was 2 I decided I didn’t want to nap, I wanted to go outside and play with the kids I could see out in their yard. So I climbed out the window. Problem was my room was on the 2nd floor. My mom heard me yelling for her to come and help me because I was falling. She thought I was falling out of bed, but when she got upstairs she saw my little fingers on the window ledge. She nailed all the upstairs windows shut after that.

52. My husband says that my “teacher” voice is slightly lower than my regular voice.

53. I really really enjoy my job, even on days when I come home and want to hide under the covers.

54. The first music that I owned (aside from Disney records) was the Ghostbusters soundtrack on cassette, which a cousin bought for my sister and me. My sister didn’t really care for it (she was into Ratt at the time) so it became my own.

55. I read alot. Alot. I can get through a 500-page novel in a day, if I’m not interrupted.

56. I don’t like math. I’m gifted at math (so the testing said in high school; I tend to think the people testing me were on crack) but I really hate it so I sucked at it in school.

57. I was once asked to teach junior high math and turned down the job because I thought I’d screw those kids up so badly for the rest of their lives.

58. I love Disney movies. The musicals. I haven’t really seen any of the newer ones beyond “Beauty and the Beast” though. I realize they’re probably somehow misogynistic and racist, but I’m sentimental for the oldies, like Peter Pan and Snow White. I was always terrified of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, though. Still kind of am.

59. I’m not very good at horror movies or scary stuff. I have a vivid imagination and just manage to freak myself out even more with that as fodder.

60. I am a good cook.

61. We are trying to have kids; it’s tough going but here’s hoping.

62. I still have my tonsils and appendix.

63. In 8th grade I had surgery to repair my right eardrum (it was basically non-existent after a steady series of ear infections from age 2 on).

64. My husband and I have had two pets together, Emilio Estevez and Judd Nelson. They were both hairless guinea pigs. They have, unfortunately, both passed on (guinea pigs aren’t long-lifers). They were awesome little dudes, though.

65. I went to french schools, from first grade through university.

66. My mother is French, and my brother, sister, and I are all perfectly bilingual, but mom will sometimes assume that we can’t understand french (which is hilarious).

67. I have terrible fashion sense. Terrible. I see other people wearing outfits that are awesome and trendy, but I never can seem to have my own trendy outfits. Add to that that I can’t ever tell if clothes “go” together, and I am a hot mess.

68. My uncle (mom’s brother) was deaf, so I know sign language… except where my mom is from, in the mountains, they weren’t exactly close to anyone who would teach them “real” sign language, so they had their own. So basically I know the alphabet, and a bunch of gibberish (but my family can understand it).

69. I could read before I started kindergarten.

70. I don’t think I could live somewhere not near the ocean.

71. I love the beach.

72. My grandmother bought me a book of Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tales when I was about 7. These were the real deal - people died, there were beatings, all that - and I loved it. I still have the book and read them sometimes.

73. I love singing, but I have a terrible voice.

74. I don’t ever wear perfume. My mother-in-law gave me a bottle and I haven’t touched it yet.

75. I am bad at remembering to wear makeup. It’s too much of a hassle for me to deal with in the morning.

76. When I wake up in the morning, I need about half an hour to fully wake up before I can even function well enough to take a shower.

77. I have worn glasses since third grade. I’ve considered wearing contacts, but I just like wearing glasses better. I guess because I’m used to it.

78. About once a year, I get an incredible craving for boudin. I give in, even though it’s disgusting.

79. I’m extremely extremely shy. I think it makes people think I’m stuck up or antisocial. In reality I really wish I wasn’t so shy; I would love to take part in conversations or be the life of the party but I just don’t know how.

80. I love fruit and vegetables. I think the only thing I would ever really really hate to eat is fish. It makes me gag.

81. I will go fishing, though. As long as I don’t have to touch the fish.

82. When I was fifteen, before I had a boyfriend, I had a huge crush on this guy, R., who worked at the local bookstore. I would go into the bookstore every day and, because I was poor, buy a pencil. So deep was my love for him (ha!) that one day when I saw him striding around town in fluorescent yellow shorts and a fanny pack, it didn’t change my feelings for him one bit.

83. I know about hockey. ALOT about hockey. I don’t watch it that much, though.

84. I have seen every episode of every season of “Are You Being Served?”, as well as the sequel that ran years later, “Grace and Favour”, AND the (really bad) eponymous movie.

85. I love cheese. Well, most cheese. Not the super stinky ones with mould in them. But if I had a choice between say, chocolate or cheese? Fermented dairy products all the way, yo.

86. Big Brother (UK, not US) has totally sucked me in.

87. When I hear the song “Let’s Hear It For The Boy” by Deniece Williams, I don’t think of the movie “Footloose”. Instead I can actually smell chlorine. It’s a memory from when I was 7; we were on the bus on the way back from swimming lessons (a bus full of chlorinated kids) when I first heard that song.

88. We live in a rented house. I like not having to deal with it if something breaks.

89. When I did have hair, it was all curly and thick and auburn.

90. When I was a little kid I used to wish my hardest that mermaids were real.

91. I am an INFP according to the Myers-Briggs personality profile. I think it’s pretty accurate.

92. I know how to drive a stick shift. I like knowing that.

93. Sometimes I go on YouTube and accidentally see videos about pus and earwax. It’s disgusting but now and then I get pulled in all trainwreck like (and by ‘accidentally’ I mean somehow after I type ‘earwax’ in the search bar, I get those gross videos!) WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME???!

94. One Christmas, I got Proactiv in my stocking. I was not amused.

95. My siblings and I grew up away from any extended family, so our immediate family is very close.

96. I am very disorganized and this is evident when you look at my house. I wish I was neater but that never works out for me.

97. I was in school choir from grades 3 - 7 (it was mandatory, by the way, and there was no choir after gr. 7). Our choir always won the annual provincial competition. I think it mainly had to do with the fact that I would very frequently (unless the music teacher was listening right beside me) just mouth the words.

98. I am notoriously cheap and constantly worried about money, for no reason other than I’ve always been that way.

99. I love spicy food. LOVE. IT. Thai is one of my favourites. Lebanese is my hands-down favourite food, though.

100. It took me four days to write this list - and I still think it could be done better. But it’s done! So that’s all.