100 Things

100 Serious and Silly Things About the Chaser O’ the Rabbits

1. I believe that if I select items for this list that are interesting, the picture they paint will not be totally flattering and that if I choose items that are flattering, the list will not be terribly interesting.
2. I have an excellent memory – sometimes almost scary. Which is why…
3. I’m haunted by things that I did and said ages ago – like the 3rd grade!
4. I am an incredibly picky eater – unless we’re talking about junk food!
5. I think burning popcorn or reheating fish in a workplace microwave is a fire-able offense.
6. I love the smell of coffee but cannot drink the stuff.
7. I think it should be illegal to make a Captain and Pepsi … and I can’t even describe what I think about people who do this and try to slip it past you!
8. Having to repeat things makes me absolutely crazy! My son’s favorite sentence is, “What, mom?” My husband has no memory. I think this is God’s way of teaching me something. I’m just not sure what!
9. I do not like apple pie – or frankly any cooked fruit! My favorite pies are peanut butter and strawberry.
10. Cheese is a food group. Not kidding – I will add cheese to just about any food!
11. I refuse to go anywhere where I cannot be connected through technology … well almost. I’ve not reached ridiculous quite yet.
12. Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and Nash Bridges were, at one time, must see TV.
13. Shortly after the first episode of Melrose Place, I told a friend that I liked the show because it wasn’t so soapy – it was more realistic! It was!
14. I wear makeup so infrequently that it’s necessary for me to purchase new makeup every time I decide to wear it – that stuff has expiration dates!
15. My wedding was planned entirely on the Internet – every element, including flower selection!
16. We got our marriage license at a fish market. It’s legal! We checked!
17. My language is what you might call salty – until I’m in front of children and magically it cleans right up.
18. I have an opinion about EVERYTHING and have NO problem sharing it!
19. I look and act like my father. My mother often wonders if I got ANY of her genes.
20. My education is in education – my concentrations are in music, history, and biology.
21. I hate math … I was a better math teacher because of it (well, at least most of the time).
22. I am intensely and insanely proud of my children – who are wonderful!
23. I’m fairly certain that I’ll be in constant conversation with my son’s kindergarten teacher. I predict that he will correct her thinking (or, perhaps we should say, capitalize on teachable moments) at least twice on the first day of school!
24. My husband and I saw George Clinton in the South Bend, IN airport. He was very Clinton-esque. I realized who he was immediately after my husband saw him said, “Look at that freak!” My husband was not using his quietest voice.
25. I’ve gotten to meet more than a few children’s book authors – Patricia Pollaco, Chris VanAllsburg, Robert San Succi … the list is fairly long.
26. Barbara Park (Junie B. Jones author) sat and talked about writing and teaching with me for over an hour. It was the coolest thing – I can’t even tell you.
27. I’ve taught on television – while running all of the equipment. Let’s see Katie Couric do that!
28. I’m an extrovert. I get my energy from people. 
29. Making small talk with the aforementioned people makes me crazy!
30. Passive-aggressive behaviors tend to make me aggressive.
31. When I clean my house (a most hated task), it tends to take a very long time and it gets waayyy messier before it gets cleaner!
32. I’ve got a thing for Sugarland and Bon Jovi – separately and together. They just make me happy. I think they should tour together. If they did, I might become bonafide groupie.
33. Getting me to eat broccoli would require a HUGE incentive – like a massive plasma TV, a high end graphics computer, a new car, or the promise of world peace. Even then … I’d negotiate to one bite! 
34. I wear the same pair of shoes almost every day of my life – Dansko! (Update: I love Crocs … this is no longer completely accurate.)
35. I was a lifeguard and swimming instructor in high school.
36. I’m married to a man who can’t swim and who doesn’t really want to learn!
37. My jaws are held together with metal brackets and the orthodontic equivalent to duct tape.
38. I like to freak new dentists out and not tell them!
39. I shortened my name to Jen in the mid-90s so that folks would no longer ask me how I spell my name. An astounding number of people still don’t get it right!
40. I rehearse most big conversations and some little ones. Often the rehearsals are sufficient and I never have the actual conversation.
41. It is nearly impossible for me to go to bed without taking a shower.
42. If I attempt it, odds are I will get up at 2 AM and take one!
43. I once drove more than 6 hours to see Garth Brooks in concert. I’d do it again in a heartbeat!
44. I’m not an FTD girl. Flowers. They die. Waste of money. – I know. Highly unromantic of me!
45. I can read trashy romance novels like I can eat chocolate and drink Coke – boxes and cases at a time!
46. I’d be a very happy lady if football season was year-round … I REALLY like football.
47. I love the Ocean. Sand? Not so much.
48. I’ve been known to cry if it doesn’t rain for a long period of time.
49. My teen years were not horribly rebellious.
50. My early 20s were pretty much a train wreck.
51. I don’t like winter – OK, real winter, like where you have to shovel snow and it’s cold and slushy and grey all the time.
52. I LOVE winter clothes.
53. I’d wear jeans every day if I could.
54. Meyers and Briggs will tell you I’m an ENTP/ENFP … I’m not sure what my friends would tell you!
55. When I am interested in something, I have an insane ability to focus. This is often to the exclusion of all else.
56. Sometimes I forget to eat.
57. I’m very tech savvy – not afraid to see how something works!
58. My favorite pizza toppings are shrimp and green olives. Oddly, something I didn’t crave when I was pregnant.
59. I have minor in vocal music. I sing in front of people – no problem.
60. I will not do karaoke.
61. I have a very healthy appreciation for sarcasm. Healthy and sarcasm … together … really?
62. I very much dislike Times New Roman. 
63. I think The Giver is one of the best books ever.
64. I may be one of 5 people who liked ALL of the Ocean’s movies (yes, even Ocean’s 12).
65. My favorite comedians do cerebral political/historical comedy … and all of them are fairly profane.
66. There are 2 exceptions to this comedian item above. One is profanely politically incorrect (I won’t tell you who, but he drinks lots of scotch). The other does a dead-on John Madden.
67. I will not watch a movie with Tom Cruise in it – nope, not even Risky Business anymore.
    Just … can’t … support … that!
68. I like to cook. Hate to clean up. I like to do laundry. Hate to fold.
69. I have had 2 cats … Izzy (the hairiest cat in the universe) and Winston (My mom called him Satan.).
70. I once freaked out a whole bunch of rural mid-western folks by knowing all of the lyrics to Ice, Ice, Baby … I may or may not still know them … Yo, VIP let’s kick it.
71. I have a thing for Mike Rowe.
72. I hate being dirty.
73. Left to my own devices I will mis- and over-use ellipses points … you know … like this! It’s genetic. My dad does it too.
74. I usually make sure that I’m not left to my own devices.
75. I wish more places would deliver food. I am a very good tipper.
76. I can mentally outwit almost any pain … unless I have a headache. Headaches put me into a fetal position.
77. My husband and I are opposites in almost every way possible.
78. I talk to myself.
79. I also talk to people I don’t like or am mad at - in my head, where it’s safe to say whatever I want!
80. I frequently blog in my head and then forget what I’ve “written”.
81. I know that the period in #80 is placed correctly because I work with some amazing people who verify such things for me!
82. There are a lot of things I “just know” but can’t remember where I learned them or why I know them.
83. I’ve been known to vigorously argue and defend my point-of-view.
84. My husband thinks I should have been a lawyer.
85. Instead, I direct curriculum development efforts for an online curriculum/software provider. (You’d be shocked at the similarities, I think!)
86. I sometimes freak people out by being uber observant and following logical paths of thought.
87. I have a very bad habit of replacing people’s middle names with Jane or Lou (i.e., Lori Lou and Sarah Jane) without their permission.
88. I do not like the color orange. If I write you a note on orange paper or in orange ink, you should ask me what’s wrong!
89. I love to drive. Love it.
90. My first computer was an Apple IIc – I got it instead of a prom dress my senior year in high school.
91. I sat through Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King when I was 9 months pregnant. Drank a very large drink. Didn’t leave to go to the ladies’ room once. I am good!
92. I love the word obstreperous. Learned it from Barbara Park in Skinnybones.
93. I have been known to be obstreperous from time-to-time.
94. One of my high school English teachers told my parents that I was going to have trouble passing college English (specifically writing). I didn’t have trouble. I now get paid to write.
95. I started my career as a teacher. It was hard work. I learned so much. I loved every minute of it.
96. I am an only child. I have no issues or regrets about that.
97. As an adult, the longest I’ve ever lived at a single address is 4 years. The longest stretch before that was 2. I move a lot.
98. I have very few regrets. Those I have revolve around hurting and/or disappointing people I cared about while I was trying to figure out who I was.
99. I am all about the lyrics of a certain 1997 Meredith Brooks song. I think we all are.
100. I am a pathological editor reviser. I have edited this page 37 times since I published it.