Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Because I can.

And because it's my birthday, and you can do anything you want on your birthday, right? Right. That's why I still had to do dishes and laundry today. At least I got to do them in a cashmere sweater.

(Side note: As I write this, my husband and children are gleefully doing the bunny hop around our house as they dance their way through an entire roll of bubble wrap. No joke.)

So, I've been tagged. Okay, not really, but I want to do this tag, and it's my birthday, so, tag, I'm it!

Here goes -- seven random things about me:

1. My wiring is a little weird. I don't know how else to describe this, but I have strange places on my body that are directly, consistently connected to odd and seemingly unrelated places. For example, I have a spot on my right elbow that makes my back itch. I think this is different than pressure points because it's mostly surface -- no muscle involvement, only skin. My husband kind of thinks I'm crazy, but MommyJ and our mom and both brothers experience the same sort of thing, so maybe CPod is the one who's weird.

2. When I was a little kid, my favorite food was liverwurst. I would take ketchup and liverwurst sandwiches to school every day for lunch. Yeah, no one ever wanted to trade lunches with me. Go figure. I asked my mom the other day how I ever discovered I liked liverwurst -- I mean, who eats that stuff? The only thing we can figure is that she craved it when she was pregnant with MommyJ and I just picked up the habit. Now, I can conjure up a gag reflex just thinking about it, and I'm not even pregnant.

3. I am strangely compelled to stop on Dirty Dancing if it's ever on TV when I'm looking for something to watch. I cannot look away. When I was a kid, I took dance lessons at the studio they used to recruit all of the back-up dancers. Half the girls in that movie were my dance teachers, and I was dying to see it. Of course, my parents weren't about to let their little innocent 10-year-old be corrupted by exposure to such (ahem) filth. Instead, I suggested it every time I went to a sleepover at someone else's house. It was so forbidden, so illicit, that I just kept asking, and by the time I was in high school, I had seen it dozens of times and my girlfriends and I would watch it every time we got together. Nobody puts Baby in a corner.

4. I have some strange sleep idiosyncrasies. I make my bed nearly every day -- even if I get in it immediately. I cannot sleep if the sheets are not tucked in tightly. This is a problem for CPod who is 6'5" but I'm a crazy person if I don't get enough sleep so he just copes with his toes being folded backwards. I also cannot sleep if my feet are uncovered or if the palms of my hands are exposed. There is more, but I'm beginning to sound a bit crazy so I'd better stop.

5. I share this one with MommyJ as well: when I look into the mirror to check out my outfit, I tilt my head to the side. It's absolutely subconscious and it happens every time. Here's why: when we were younger, I had a full-length mirror in my room which MommyJ would also use when checking out her outfits. It was propped up against the wall, and unless you tilted your head to the side, you could not see your head in the mirror. Now, when I ask my husband if my clothes look okay, he tells me to tilt my head to the right and then, and only then, does it look right. (MommyJ, do you tilt right or left?)

6. True story: I got a full scholarship to BYU even though I wrote my essay about how I could belch the alphabet all the way through and then to Q again, and called it not an oxymoron but an oxyMormon. I know. They were one lucky university. (I can't do it anymore, but when I wrote the essay, it was absolutely a true statement. I'll have to start practicing so I can, A: totally impress my kids when they're hanging out with their friends in about 10 years, and B: totally embarass my kids when they're on dates in about 14 years. I also have to add that I wrote two essays. The other was one heck of a paper on Milton's Areopagitica. Oh, I get it -- maybe that's why I got the scholarship!)

7. Yesterday I plucked an eyebrow hair that was gray. GRAY! I had never thought about going gray in . . . places other than my full head of dark, luxuriously curly and mysteriously-free-of-any-signs-of-aging hair. Oh, this opens up all kinds of horrible possibilities that can certainly not be remedied by my talented and confidential hairdresser.

So, it's official. I should probably be medicated . . . maybe this post wasn't such a great idea after all!


  1. You know, I loved reading this post! I cannot stand having my toes pressed on by the sheets or blankets,having to first untuck anything that MAY have been tucked in. Also, I found my first, full length gray hair on my 18th b-day. Now, 13 yrs later I have a few more. Happy Birthday! (Now Jeremy's first little girl gets to share a b-day with you)

  2. happy birthday! I totally think you should practice the alphabet again. it's a shame to lose that talent.
    sadly i've never seen dirty dancing. guess i had the wrong friends.

  3. I am so glad you did it! I hate asking to tag people, so thanks for tagging yourself. It is kind of a fun tag. Maybe I should just start doing random Tuesday blogs. hum...

    Anyway HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I can't believe you are brave enough to wash your dishes while wearing your cashmere... scary!

    Loved it all!

  4. Happy Birthday! I love the 7 random things about you!

  5. I meant to come by yesterday to leave my birthday wishes ... and forgot by the time I got back to my computer!!!! Thanks for the well wishes on mine, too ;) We DO know a thing or two (or 3 if you count CPod) about December birthdays, don't we?! Hope yours was the best ever!!!

  6. Happy, happy Birthday! I love all this randomness but #7 especially struck my funny bone. I laughed right out loud. I have never ever considered that before. Oh my!

  7. I watched dirty dancing at a friends house when I was in the fifth grade. When her parents came home, we hid it under the couch cushions, and quickly turned on a tape full of billy joel videos. Because we were uptown girls... living in a downtown world.

    You are completely crazy. And I already knew all that stuff about you, except the part about gray eyebrow hairs. To which I say... na na na boo boo. I'll always be younger than you. :)

  8. I don't even know how to respond to liverwurst. I mean, you must have been a confident kid to take that in your lunch. Just thinking about it makes me laugh.

    Dirty Dancing: Still haven't seen it all the way through because I am SUCH a good girl. I still feel like I'm breaking a rule when I see it on, and can't get past it. Even though I've watched Sex in the City on TV and I'm pretty sure even the TBS version is worse than DD.

    Love the scholarship story. Very funny.


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