Because I'm lacking in creativity

And I feel the need to commemorate my 100th post! So here are 100 random things about me:

1. I learned to read and write in Spanish before English.
2. Which meant that when I tried sounding out my name, it sounded like Ca-thè-REEN-è
3. I won the 5th grade spelling bee.
4. It was life-changing.
5. I’ve kinda been obsessed with words ever since.
6. Which means nothing much as most of you know by now; this blog is strewn with misspelled/misused/misinterpreted WORDS.
7. I’m also obsessed with weather.
8. If it weren’t for the fact that I happen to know living, breathing, interesting people are actually reading this thing occasionally, I’d blog about the weather like I blog about my tonsils and my youngest child’s bowel movements in the bathtub.
9. In other words, once too often… I’d tell you all about how it was -15 F the other morning, but -27 once you factored in the wind chill. I’d talk about my fascination with snow thunder and snow that falls while the sun is shining, and about how a day here can have a forty-degree span from start to finish, and how I’m convinced it affects my mental stability when I have to change clothes three times a day in the summertime.
10. In high school, I was voted Most Friendliest AND Most Shyest my senior year.
11. I was neither.
12. I like to tell people I can’t cook.
13. I can. Quite well, actually. Shhh!
14. (I don’t particularly ENJOY cooking.)
15. I spent a good majority of my young life trying to be a good, devout Catholic.
16. And then in college, I fell in love with my gay supervisor, a man who made me realize that judgment is one of the worst kinds of sins.
17. It was the beginning of the end of my strict Catholic belief system.
18. Although I still have a pet saint whom I wholeheartedly believe watches my back.
19. I used to drive my college roommates crazy because I recycled EVERYTHING.
20. They didn’t care about the recycling so much as the fact that I rarely took the crap to the recycling bins downtown.
21. They must have hated me.
22. I hated chemistry. I had to take Chem 1, 2 and Organic Chem each TWICE.
23. I should have majored in English.
24. Or Creative Writing.
25. Or something that involved NOT science.
26. But the environmentalist in me thought she needed to do her part to save the world.
27. While earning a buck, of course.
28. So I majored in soil science.
29. With an emphasis in Environmental Resources Management.
30. I sucked at it.
31. Although now I know the difference between a Mollisol and an Entisol and an Aridisol.
32. Even if nobody really cares.
33. Not even me.
34. UNLESS I find myself at a Soil Scientists Convention where other people care.
35. Although I’ve never been to a Soil Scientists Convention in my entire life.
36. I’m NOT a soil scientist.
37. I’m a soil CONSERVATIONIST.
38. I’m still recycling, though.
39. Only instead of hoarding the crap in my apartment’s patio, I’m hoarding it in the garage.
40. Every time I blog, I think it might be my last time.
41. I’m always left feeling naked.
42. Even if I rarely talk about anything of importance.
43. When I was younger, I wanted people to think of me as a sweet, nice, kind, gentle, virtuous human being.
44. My thirties changed me.
45. I realized that you are never sweet, nice, kind, gentle, or virtuous enough to please everyone.
46. Pleasing everyone. Now THAT’S what I REALLY wanted out of life.
47. I’ve made peace with that wish.
48. Just before I buried it for good.
49. Now, I just want to be The Smart Girl. Or The Fun Friend. The Clever Mom. And The Hot Chick.
50. Just kidding.
51. I don’t need to be clever.
52. I’ve taught a bunch of high school kids how to measure the moisture in snow.
53. My toes were three minutes away from being frost-bitten in the process because I didn’t own snow-wear at the time.
54. Tahoe City, California and Des Moines, Iowa are two of my most favorite places on earth.
55. I’ve only been to each place once, but my life irreversibly changed at both places.
56. In the same year.
57. At Tahoe, I learned that I’m not as cold-intolerant as I claim to be. I slept all night in a snow-cave that I built with my own two hands.
58. At Des Moines, I learned that complete and utter happiness was within my reach after all.
59. I’m in love.
60. Completely and utterly.
61. A boy named Pancho was my first love.
62. I called him Frank.
63. He didn’t like me in first grade.
64. I was friendly. And shy. But very, very, very plain. Not to mention six.
65. In the ninth grade, Pancho became my boyfriend…
66. …A little after I broke up with his brother.
67. Not very virtuous, I know.
68. I think skiing is sexy.
69. And sky diving.
70. And horseback riding.
71. And I’ve never done any of them.
72. I’m a sucker for a man who uses words like VACILLATE and PENCHANT.
73. IF he has no problem changing diapers.
74. OR can decorate the living room better than me.
75. I loathe cell phones.
76. And drivers who use cell phones.
77. I can say this because I’m not one of them anymore.
78. I have a terrible memory.
79. But only when it’s convenient.
80. I CANNOT play Tetris.
81. Because it has a way of holding me hostage and sucking the lifeblood right out of me. Suddenly, I don’t care if I eat, or sleep or shower or VOTE. Worse yet, I don’t care who ELSE eats or sleeps or showers or votes.
82. I can cut hair.
83. I screwed up a few heads in my time. But I’m really good now.
84. One of my sisters graduated high school with bangs a little like Frankenstein’s because of me.
85. It was unintentional. So she forgave me.
86. This is the same sister that went with me to Mexico to get a perm about twenty years ago.
87. We both left that country looking like Napoleon Dynamite.
88. I am allergic to air.
89. Well… pretty much everything that floats around in it.
90. After thirty odd years of suffering from a perpetually runny nose and watery eyes, I got tested and medicated and realized that life really isn’t so miserable after all.
91. Sadly, though, pets are out of the question.
92. I will never go to a class reunion.
93. Did I say NEVER? I actually meant I will NEVER EVER EVER go to a class reunion.
94. I don’t do well in social situations.
95. Besides, it’s best I be remembered as the friendly, shy girl.
96. As opposed to the smart/funny/hot chick wannabe loser girl
97. Emma and Kyra are at a new day care now. Yesterday, Emma introduced me to her new friends.
98. It was a great compliment. She’d never introduced me to anyone before.
99. She almost introduced me to my maker.
100. But that’s a story for another day.