I'm Slow and I Can't Follow Directions

So everyone else did this a while ago, but today Timmy was occupied with his swing for a few hours and in a desperate attempt to avoid homework, I did the 25 Random Facts note on Facebook. Here it is:

1. I'm an Aries. I actually think it describes me pretty well, especially the part about being stubborn. But I don't believe in horoscopes. Or fortune cookies. Or anything else that claims to know something about you based on your birthday or lines on your hands.

2. I've lived in Southern California my whole life, except for 5 years when I lived in New York City. I love visiting NYC now, but I hated living there... I think because I must have chlorophyll (I need sunlight to function and be happy).

3. I moved to NYC three weeks before September 11, 2001. It was probably the saddest thing I've ever dealt with and I didn't even know anyone who died personally. For a while I thought the terrorists were following me, because they bombed trains in Madrid about 3 weeks after I moved there in 2004.

4. The closest near-death experience I have had was when I had double pneumonia right before Christmas in 2003. I was in the Emergency room for 4 days, and the doctors told my parents that I might have died if I waited another 12 hours to come in. I've never felt worse in my life than I did then.

5. Studying abroad in Europe was a life-changing experience but I don't really want to live there again. I have a long list of places I want to visit for the first time before I would want to go back to Europe, especially South America and East Asia.

6. Most of my traveling was camping trips growing up. I hated them at the time, but now I am really thankful my dad took us all the places he did. I've visited every major national park west of the Mississippi. My favorite spots are Yellowstone, Mesa Verde, Banff and Jasper (Canada), Redwood Forest, and the Sea of Cortez.

7. Now most of my traveling is to go to weddings and visit PJO's family. Even though we went to school in New York, we've been to weddings in Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida, Minnesota, California and New Mexico.

8. I have always been an overachiever, but when I got to college, I seriously missed the memo that said you actually still had to do work and go to class. I don't regret anything though because I had a GREAT time in college.

9. I'm a terrible roommate. I can't say I have ever had a good experience living with someone in the same room (until PJO of course). The only thing that comes close would be living in the DG house and living in a Ruggles suite senior year (but I'm sure my roommates would say that doesn't count, since I probably spent a total of 20 nights there).

10. I've never lived completely on my own but I don't think I would really like it.

11. I met my husband at a dirty college bar (the West End, obviously) on his birthday. We were both drunk. True love. We didn't start dating until about 10 months later.

12. I would consider PJO my first serious relationship. I didn't want one. That might be the most major thing that has happened to me that I didn't plan. Three years after we started dating, we were married.

13. I think I am a much better person now than before I met PJO. He is also the perfect complement to me. But I don't really believe in soul mates... I think you find someone you can love and who loves you and then you make it work.

14. I thought Columbia would be the last school I went to, but about 2 months of working as a paralegal at a big law firm made me think law school was a good idea. I applied last minute and ended up at law school.

15. I can't imagine living anywhere but LA now. I absolutely love it. The only thing that might make me move is the fact that it's so damn expensive to buy a house here. But I think I could tolerate an apartment for a while longer in order to live in the most beautiful climate anywhere.

16. My philosophy on life is some combination of "everything happens for a reason" and "we make our own fate." I think it's crazy to look back at places in my life where I made big decisions and think about how differently things could be now, but I could not have planned a better life for myself than the one I have now.

17. I was raised Catholic, but I don't believe a lot of what the religion stands for with social issues. I do, however, love the tradition and some of the basic values the Church teaches, so I got married in the Church and plan to raise Timmy the way PJO and I were raised.

18. I have completely changed most of my political views at some point in the past ten years. I like to think that means I'm open minded, but I also know that part of it has to do with the fact that I tend to resist what the majority around me preaches. I was much more conservative at Columbia, and am much more liberal at my conservative law school. Or maybe I'm the same, and I just seem different based on the environment I am in? I'm a registered independent, but I am basically a Libertarian. I think our current political system sucks.

19. I am picky when it comes to my friends. There are only a few that I am every really close to and I almost never fight with them.

20. I used to be friends with many more guys than girls... Girls were usually too emotional and dramatic. Also, I was kind of a tomboy. I played softball for a while, but then I begged my dad to let me play regular baseball and I ended up on my brother's team. I wasn't that good, so then I moved on to other sports. Now I think I'm friends with an even amount of men and women.

21. Every time I try to define my awkward stage, I end up extending it. As it stands now, I was awkward from about 4th grade through most of college.

22. I am a planner and an organizer. I am constantly updating to-do lists, color-coding calendars and thinking about how to make everything work.

23. Having a baby is the only thing so far that has made me slow down and truly appreciate every minute for what it is, and not just look for the next thing coming up.

24. Yes, the baby was planned. (See #22). He appreciates planning too, because he waited until my finals were done before being born on Christmas day. This gave me enough time to recover before starting my last semester of school.

25. Having Timmy made me sure that I want more kids. I have no idea when that will be though, probably not for a while.

26. I absolutely hated being pregnant. Everything about it. This even though I probably had the easiest pregnancy and delivery ever. It was worth it though, and I absolutely would do it again.

27. Having a baby isn't hard for the reasons that I thought it would be. The hard part is not being able to get anything done during the day and doing everything much more slowly than you're used to. (I choose cleaning the apartment or eating over anything related to law school).

28. Being late drives me crazy, whether it's me or someone else who is late. My volleyball coach used to say "early is on time, on time is late and late is unacceptable." Now I find myself running late to a lot of stuff and I hate it. I can't tell if it's because I live in LA or because I have a baby.

29. I am not really ready to be done with school forever. I love it and I love the flexible schedule that goes along with it.

30. I am very excited to finally start a career though. It seems so much more fulfilling than a job that I know will be temporary.

31. I don't really watch TV. The only shows I consistently watch are the Office and Everybody Loves Raymond. I don't have the time or energy to faithfully follow anything else, but sometimes I wish I knew what everyone was talking about.

32. Same goes for movies... there are A LOT that I have never seen and don't plan on ever watching. Star Wars, Braveheart, and Gladiator are a few.

33. Somehow though, I am totally addicted to the internet. Email, blogs, facebook, I check them all the time.

34. I don't have "favorites" because I like too many things and usually have to mix and match. The kind of ice cream I get or the movie I watch or the entree I order change every time. But when I really like something, I usually refer to it as my favorite, even though I like it no more or less than the next flavor.

35. I am a sucker for everything seasonal and point-of-sale. If you put it near a check-out stand or make it a flavor like Pumpkin or Eggnog, I'll get it. It drives PJO crazy. I keep a little dish on my coffee table filled with holiday themed candy.

36. I am the spender of our marriage. He always wants to save money and it makes him pretty boring to shop with. I think if I had married someone who spent a lot of money, I would have been the saver.

37. I have two cats. I used to be exclusively a cat person, but then I realized dogs are good too, and just because I like dogs doesn't mean I'm admitting that cats aren't as good. Now I really want 2 (or 3) labs, but I have to wait until I have a backyard for them to run around in. It might be a decade before I get dogs...

38. I like to think of myself as an active person, but the truth is I am pretty lazy. I haven't been to the gym in almost 10 months. I would cancel my membership, but I'm pretty sure the second I do, I will feel like working out and then I would feel pretty stupid. When I actually do work out, I feel awesome afterward... somehow this does not motivate me to go to the gym very often.

39. Speaking of fat, I love dessert. The only time in my life that I didn't want to eat it was when I was pregnant.

40. Oddly enough, the only real cravings I had when I was pregnant were beer and wine.

41. I usually buy wine based on how creative or attractive the label is. This might be because I can't really find any correlation between how expensive wine is and how good it tastes, so if I don't know whether a particular bottle is good or not, I at least want to have a fun bottle to look at.

42. I'm totally OCD, and I don't think it's a bad thing. PJO and my friends will tell you that I don't let anyone else wash my dishes, clean my apartment or do my laundry. They mix up the sponges, don't dry things the right way, put pillows in the wrong spot, etc... I would rather do everything myself and have it look just right.

43. I don't cry in real life very often, but I regularly cry during books, movies, and commercials. When I do cry in real life, it's usually about something totally trivial and then I go crazy. I always feel better after a good cry, except for when I cry so much I get a runny nose and can't breath normally.

44. I am really wordy. That is always the number one criticism of my writing. It is also why it took me 44 things to finish a "25 random facts" list.