Jonobie's "25 things about me"

[jonobie]

Following in Zach's footsteps, I'm posting my "25 things about me" meme from Facebook here, as they'll get sucked into Facebook automatically.

I may tag a few people over in Facebook, though I think I'm the last of my friends to hop on this meme. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you. If you're on LJ and enjoyed reading this, consider yourself tagged.

(Facebook Rules: Go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.)

1. A few years ago, I made a conscious effort to become funnier. (I'm still working on it.)
   
2. I still sometimes ask Jeff to write jokes for me when I'm doing a speech. I envy his ability to make others laugh.
   
3. I often narrate my life in my head in the style of Facebook status or Livejournal entries.
   
4. Despite always swearing I wouldn’t dye my hair when I got older, I was so annoyed by gray hairs in my 30s that I started hennaing.
   
5. I'm always surprised when I realize I'm smarter than someone. When I was quite young, I was often one of the smartest people in the class. Honors classes in college and graduate school quickly cured me of this conceit, though, and I got used to being of average intelligence, at best. It took me a while to realize that graduate school is different than the rest of the world in this regard.
   
6. The first serious project I managed was when I was on the Renaissance Fair committee (I think I owned merchants or performers, can’t remember now) at Ohio State. I often think that experience taught me more skills that I currently use than pretty much any college course.
   
7. I have always loved cats and can generally mimic their sounds well enough to elicit responses.
   
8. I used to be embarrassed that I liked to craft and listen to country music, as neither of those fit my image of what a young, sophisticated, intelligent woman did. Crafting used to seem less hip than it is now. Country music hasn't gotten any more hip, but I've gotten more mellow.
   
9. I sometimes wish I could be less image-conscious. I've always thought it would be great to have dread falls and gothic or Victorian clothing, but fear that would brand me as "that goth girl" and people would see only the stereotype. That, and I've never wanted a bunch of clothes I can only wear outside of work.
   
10. At one point in school, I was taking weekly lessons in flute, voice, piano, tap, ballet, and gymnastics. I remember being angry that my parents wouldn't let me add track that year unless I dropped something else. The fewest lessons I ever took at one time was piano and tap.
    
11. I identified as a Pagan for about two years of my life before I realized that although I was in love with the idea of gods, and really found ritual powerful, I was just playing an elaborate game of “let’s pretend” with myself.
    
12. I love to dance. In college, I took belly dance lessons, ballroom dance classes, tap dance classes and learned Renaissance dances in the SCA. Thinking myself an excellent dancer, I took a two hour masters Baroque workshop and found myself completely out of my depth.
    
13. In high school, I was quite active in science fairs and was proud to place third in the International Science and Engineering Fair. As part of that, I won a trip to Spain to the EU science fair, and that was the first time I went overseas.
    
14. The first time I got tipsy was when I was served sangria in Spain (see #13). It was complete culture shock that alcohol would be served at a high school event, and I didn't realize it was alcoholic until I'd already drank several glasses. I also developed an extreme distaste for being around drunken people there, as drunken high school kids don’t behave particularly well.
    
15. I find it nearly impossible to not write in complete, fully-punctuated and capitalized sentences, even when text messaging or IM'ing people. I suspect this somewhat has the effect of making me sound stilted or formal.
    
16. For a while when I was dissatisfied with technical writing, I investigated becoming a UU minister. I looked at divinity programs, preached a sermon at my church in Austin and did several mini-sermons. Doing these made me realize that coming up with something inspirational to say week after week wasn't something I thought I could do.
    
17. I've always thought it would be fun to start a small business of my own, but have never found an idea that I'm passionate enough about to pour my life into.
    
18. I love personality tests. I usually test as an INFP on Meyers-Briggs, though I am gradually becoming more extroverted as I get older.
    
19. I caught a bad case of pessimism in college and later realized that it was making me unhappy. Ditching that attitude was one of the best things I've ever done.
    
20. I asked Jeff for something to add to this list. He suggests noting that I’m the only little girl he ever heard of who asked for a pony and got one. (Technically, I had an Appaloosa horse, not a pony.)
    
21. Jeff and I were engaged before we’d ever permanently lived in the same city. We had been at two summer internships together.
    
22. The dance that Jeff and I did as our wedding dance was an Italian Renaissance dance (Amoroso) instead of a ballroom dance.
    
23. I did not attempt or complete a crossword until I was in college.
    
24. Even though I sang in choir for several years and took two years of voice lessons, I don’t like singing for others now; I notice too many imperfections in my voice.
    
25. I started running seriously because the Austin Distance Challenge sounded like one heck of a challenge. When I started it, I had only done a couple of 5K races. When I completed, I’d run over 100 miles in races and finished my first marathon.