100 Things You may not know about me
10 Comments Published by katitude on Monday, April 17, 2006 at 2:23 p.m..
Edited August 2008
- I will do anything, no matter how lame, to procrastinate from doing any actual work. Hence, my list.
- I'm in my "fuck-off" forties. And I quite like it here.
- I'm on marriage #2. The only way I can bear to think about marriage #1 is as "practice for the real one". This is definitely the real one.
- Wedding #2 was in Las Vegas by an Elvis impersonator in 2003. It was my first trip to Las Vegas.
- I don't particularly like Elvis, but I love Elvis impersonators.
- I live within 50 miles of where I grew up, and can see the town from my window, across the lake.
- I am a teacher, a profession I lucked into, and completely love. And not just for the holidays.
- I teach typing, but have the worst typos on the planet.
- The only time I don't typo is when I'm blind drunk.
- I think that the Monty Python gang are the funniest people on the planet, followed closely by Douglas Adams.
- My favourite movie is the Holy Grail by Monty Python, and can quote many parts of it with a good degree of accuracy.
- My current second favourite movie is MirrorMask. The creativity and the animation leaves me breathless.
Edit: Second place is now jointly occupied by Hero and the Kill Bills. - My answer to ANY stupid question is "42".
- I think that Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman are the most brilliant writers I've read.
- I have never been overseas.
- The "Places I Must Go Before I Die" list includes Tuscany, Australia (must ride the Ocean Road), Venice, Cairo, and Alaska. There was more, but I decided to be realistic.
Edit: Strike Alaska; been there. - The only inanimate object I feel any affection for is my 1985 Yamaha Virago 750 that I bought 6 years ago with 12,000 kms on it. It now has over
75,00085,000 kms.
Edit: It had 85k on it when I sold it. My new love is a 1998 Yamaha Virago 1100 with 61k on it. - I love the style of the bike, but I really wanted this one because I secretly liked the definition of the word Virago: "strong, courageous woman".
- I have travelled over most of North America by motorcycle.
- The best trip was to the Grand Canyon and through Utah…there are some very amazing roads and scenery.
Edit: best trip was Alaska, hands down. For far more than the scenery or roads. - I will jump at any chance to wear black leather.
- At 17 I became the first (and only) punk rocker in a rural high school filled with people who thought the Who and Supertramp were the epitome of fine music.
- I have a good vocabulary and I'm not afraid to use it.
- I have an unnatural affection for double salted licorice.
- My desert island cd would either be Big Calm by Morcheeba or Pursuit of Happiness by Weekend Players.
Edit: Add in Mezzanine by Massive Attack or some Social Distortion. - My least favourite music to listen to is Country and Western.
- The whole "grunge" scene makes me angry, because it's not angry enough.
- When listening to music or watching tv, the volume MUST be on an even number. I don't know why, it just does.
- My favourite songs of all times are Lined Up by Shriekback and Jet Boy Jet Girl by Elton Motello.
- I own a Hello Kitty vibrator that was given to me on my birthday by a friend. I will never use it because it just seems very, very wrong.
- I hate pink.
- I wear black almost exclusively. As I get older, I'm letting a few other colours in my wardrobe and actually have one bright red tank top.
Edit: No I don't. After not wearing it for several years, I gave it to Gracie. - I don't often paint my fingernails, but toes must be sporting red nailpolish at all times.
- I have three tattoos, and don't regret any of them.
- I have one piercing in a place other than an ear. I had more but gave up.
- The only forms of exercise I do are bicycling, rollerblading and swimming. But only if I really, really have to.
- My hands shake pretty much all the time and have since I was a teenager. You can think it's a tell if you want, I won't stop you. Just know I'll use it against you.
- My very first hand of poker was played live at Casino Rama on October 16th, 2004, the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend with Juliette. It was KK…I had no idea what I was doing but knew it was a good hand so kept raising. I lost the hand but got hooked on the adrenaline rush.
- My favourite hand is QQ - I've gotten quads with it
45 times, and have only lost with it once. And that's because I'd just told Garth I never lose with them.
Edit: the bitches are dead to me; dead! My new favourite hand is whatever holds up. - I've been colouring my hair since I was 18.
- My hair has been a number of shades: blue, orange, black, red, purple…even leopard spotted for a very brief period.
- I have never been blonde.
- My first grey hair on my head was at 28, and didn't bother me that much. The first grey hair found elsewhere was at 38 and freaked me out for days. Weeks even.
- I started drinking at 17. My first drink of choice was Black Russians, because that was what my ever-so-elegant cousin drank. I soon realized they were far too sweet, so from 19 to 27 my drink of choice was vodka on the rocks.
- I stopped drinking for a year, about 8 years ago. I don't talk about why, but it was good for me.
- I love beer. Luuuuuuuuuuvvvvv it. It might be because it's genetically coded with my last name though. I am distraught at the thought of missing this year's Festival of Beer :-(
Edit: I have missed the FoB several times now; I've heard it's not what it used to be so am no longer so distraught. - I love martinis. The best one I have ever tasted was at the Martini Goddess's place. I thank her profusely for the recipe.
Edit: Still the best. Ever. Leaves even the best from the Park Hyatt's Roof Lounge far behind. - I've experimented with drugs. I don't anymore.
- I have never smoked cigarettes. Well there was that 3 week period during grade 9 when I caved to peer pressure, but always felt self-conscious and goofy so I stopped.
- The most fun I have EVER had as an adult was the Charlie's Angels day through weekendtrips.com, with Jules, Su and Deb. The second most is in Vegas with bloggers and Loud.
- I can't specify the most fun I ever had as a kid, because in retrospect it ALL seems fun. And yes, I feel very, very lucky because I can say that.
- If I had the money, I would shop at Northbound Leather (see #21) WARNING: this is a fetish clothing site and IS NOT SAFE FOR WORK
- Since I don't have money I shop at Value Village.
- My best score EVER at Value Village was a pair of brand new, 8-hole Doc Martins in my size for $20. And it was on my birthday.
- I am a geek, but a software geek, not a hardware geek. I will play around for hours with PhotoShop and Flash, and will edit the html and css on my blogs just because I'm bored. I will send people email in binary because it makes me giggle. But ask me to install a sound card or configure a network and I will give you a dirty look while handing you the phone number of someone who can come in and do that for you.
- I think the T-shirts at ThinkGeek.com are too too funny and I want them all.
- I am afraid of heights and tall bridges. This makes going anywhere south of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes on the bike an interesting route-mapping problem.
- I am not afraid of spiders, mice, rats, snakes, or bugs. But that stuff in the strainer after you've done the dishes and drained the water gives me the willies.
- I miss living in the country during those long summer days when the world seems to stand still.
- I don't miss living in the country every time I want to order food to be delivered, desire something other than pizza or Szechuan, want to shop for cd's at 11pm, find an underground poker game/bar or need to take a bus anywhere at anytime.
- I like to think of myself as a jaded fuck, yet I still go "ooooooo" at fireworks and cry during some movies/ty shows and all those commercials for the Church of Latter Day Saints that I don't get muted in time.
- I think that people who refer to themselves as Mummy and Daddy when talking to their pets are a bit touched in the head.
- I like kids and dogs; but have never felt the need to live with either on a full time basis.
- My favourite magazine is Mental Floss, followed closely by ReadyMade and Bust.
Edit: Craft is pretty damn cool, too. - My favourite saying is "I doubt, therefore I might be."
- I read. A lot.
- For the last 3 summers I have re-read the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K Hamilton, adding on any new ones she's written in the interim (she's up to 14 of them). It takes me a few days. I always feel a bit drained afterwards…not sure if it's the writing, the action, or the sex scenes.
Edit: make that 4 summers. - I still own music on vinyl. Which I still listen to, scratches and all.
- I haven't listened to a broadcast radio station since discovering commercial free internet radio.
- When in places where there is no internet radio, ie the car, I listen to the jazz station. Comments from Hunny Bunny about me being in my "Carlsberg years" usually follow.
- I love how the internet has opened up communication between people. Blogs, email, chats….we're able to meet and get to know people without letting the visual filters get in the way.
- I hate how some people use the anonymity of the internet to be complete and utter jerks. Oh, I've got stories.
- You can choose your friends, but you're stuck with your family, as the saying goes. In my case though a lot of my family also happens to be my friends.
- The last one is a recent development. If you'd told me that when I was 30, I'd have looked at you pityingly and wondered what meds you'd missed.
- I'm a crafty girl. I knit and crochet, embroider, design and build stained glass pieces and generally goof around. But it's more a craftster.org kind of craft, not a quilted ducks and country sheep kind of craft.
- My best project is tied between a big shawl/scarf I knitted 6 months ago and some clothes I made for my niece.
Edit: best project is a wrap-around sweater that I kinda designed as I went along. - My worst project is a tank top I'm knitting from this nice cotton/wool blend I got cheap on eaby. It's supposed to be black, but was sold as seconds as it's more of a deep black coffee colour. I think the yarn is under a spell cast by a wicked witch who read Goldilocks and the Three Bears. This is the fourth time I've tried to make a summer top from it, and so far the end result has been too big, too small, and too short. This iteration is shaping up to be too lumpy. I'll keep you posted if I ever get it "just right". Update 07/06: it's been frogged, another top partially knit and then frogged again. I give up. The cursed yarn is going to Goodwill.
Edit: After languishing for a while I gave it one more shot. See above new best project. - The project I may never finish is a pattern called Rogue; a knitted cardigan with a hood that has all these great celtic knotwork cables throughout. I love it, but my attention span is this -> <- long and this project requires far more from me than that.
Edit: Finished! Finally! - The first nickname I can remember having is Ginger Ale when I was in public school. Yep. Kids were so original back then.
- My face when relaxed makes me look grumpy and frowny. Which makes drunken little girls in nightclubs perkily chirp "You'd be so much prettier if you smiled". This happens more often than you might think. My usual response is "Fuck off", which usually (and thankfully) dims the perkiness.
- I hate perky. Perky people make me wonder what they're hiding. PPMD.
- I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON. I need to be eased into my day. Slowly.
- To facilitate this, my beloved brings me coffee in bed every morning when he's home. Honestly, I think the world should thank him for this.
- A day without coffee is a day spent just lurching from moment to moment in a daze. I only really function anymore if I'm appropriately caffeinated.
- In my next life, I'd like to come back as a house cat. I think eating the same crappy food every day is a suitable trade-off for 20 hours worth of naps every day.
- I lost my virginity in an Alpha Romeo Spyder. I look back fondly on those days when I was that limber and flexible. It was with a boy I had just met that afternoon. We dated for a year after that.
- My first car was a brand new 1980 Honda Civic in "Frosted Green", a colour also know as "Iced Snot" by my friends. I loved that car. I drove it so much I killed it.
- I'm vain enough that I think it's pretty damn nifty when very hip and sophisticated 17-year-olds will tell me how cool I look/am on my motorcycle, without a trace of irony or sarcasm in their voice.
- Some people get turned on by a great face, body or wicked sense of humour. Me, I dig deep bedroom voices. Alan Rickman, Clive Owen, Benicio Del Toro, GCox....they all make me shiver. Hunny Bunny has the best deep bedroom voice. Ever. It makes me shiver right down to my toes.
- My favourite flavour is black currant.
- I've been goofing around on the internet since 1995, when I signed up with one of the first ISP's in Toronto, called Passport.ca
- They put out a local telnet baset chat up shortly after I signed up. I may have gone a tad overboard at first (Jules, shhh), but without it I would not have met Hunny Bunny or my best bud Jules. Yes, you read right...I met my husband in a chat room. Again, thanks to Bozak and Kludge, for putting up the Dyslexicon.
- I am the black sheep of my family. Yeah, I'll bet that's a shocker. Everyone was sure it'd be my younger brother, but he met the right woman.
- I moved out when I was 22, and didn't go back to visit for over 6 months. During that time I cut my hair very, very short, dyed it black and had my ears pierced just about all the way up. I walked in the door, and the first thing my dad did was laugh and say "yes, just what you need...more holes in your head". I laughed with him, because he was right. That was the first time I realized my dad was a funny, ok kind of guy
- I wish I had more stories about my mum, but she got breast cancer when I was 16, and understandably so, became a bit preoccupied with fighting for her life for next 12 years. I still miss her, and the lost possibilities.
- I would rather learn 100 different ways to say "Would you like fries with that" than become a telemarketer. I don't think I could handle rejection on that scale.
- I have no religious affiliation. Nor do I want one.
- I've inherited my mum's and aunt's good crystal, china and silverware, bought in the 50's when a girl had to have these things in her hope chest. After amalgamating both sets, I now have enough to really "entertain" and put on a meal for 12, from sherry glasses and sherbert cups to shrimp forks and coffee spoons.
- I don't much like entertaining. I like having people over to hang out, but the whole Martha Stewart experience escapes me.
- I do not have a green thumb. I don't even want to think of the many lush plants I've carried proudly from the store/market/florists only to watch in growing horror as they drop leaves, develop spots and turn brown within a week.
Damn I enjoyed reading that. Much better than my attempt...
Why did I think you were 21 year old college student???
You can learn a lot from these types of emails...
Good stuff...
God, your going to start a Blogger chain letter of top 100's.. STOP NOW!
Yep, you're adorable! Nothing that suprised me, but lots that made me chuckle (and it makes me miss you more!)
I applaud your choice of "Big Calm" by Morcheeba. I listened to that album incessantly in 1998. I managed to catch them live when they toured earlier this year, and they were just wonderful.
21, Tripjax? Wow. I'm speechless.
And Waffles I AM NOT going to tag anyone with this...I hate chain letters.
Great post, Kat. Very interesting stuff. Some of it I already knew, but most I did not. And I loved reading about it all.
I'm not even sure I could think of 100 interesting things about me!
I love it!!!
Don't get too over-the-moon with TripJax saying he thought you were 21; he asked if I was a fourteen year old blonde before having me in his Blog Spotlight (I finally got creeped out after the fifth day pretending I was a babysitter...).
And I didn't even do the Blog Spotlight until cc sent me some pictures that were obviously not of her *cough* him.
I keed, I keed.
Kat,
If you ever come downtown Toronto there are a few places to grab a good martini or cold beer. The Bier Market is always a fun spot to try a few from around the world...
I will see what I can do to line up a broker to pay for it as well!... nothing better than free beer... other than more free beer and some free food...