I DID IT!!!!
Dude, it took me three sittings, but I did the 100 Random Things meme!
Started 6/1/10....
Sooooo the skies opened up right after I hit "post" on that last one, and I've decided to do the meme before I become uninspired to do so with the 2 hours I WOULD have been spending at softball practice. :)
100 Random Things About Me (That You May Or May Not Have Known Already):
1) I am my own harshest critic over everything from the quality of work I do to my weight to my LJ posts to my past experiences. It gets annoying sometimes, but I like to be proud of myself and if I can't be, then at least for my efforts and what I've learned.
2) I hated softball when I played it on a team in middle school. Fast forward 10 years, and here I am, volunteering to be on a team for the Minturnese Club!
3) For that matter, you all probably know that I'm 100% Italian. What you may not know is that, much like my American "mutt" friends divvy up their heritages by percentage (I used to feel bad in school that I couldn't), I can divvy mine up by region. Italians are so obsessed with region: I'm 1/4 Napolitana, 1/8 Calabrese, 1/16 Siciliana, and then we can go by town: 1/16 San Donatese, and 1/2 Minturnese. If we want to get technical, the half of me that is from Minturno is actually from two frasioni, or districts: my Nonno is from Scauri, and my Nonna is from Santa Maria Infante. I am blessed to know so much about my heritage as an American girl!
4) To go with the above statement, I am, and have always been and will be Catholic. :)
5) I'm not the most athletic person in the world, but I played my fair share of sports as a kid. I did gymnastics from age 4-8, soccer from age 5-9, dance from age 5-10, softball from age 9-13, and my high school's swim team sophomore and junior year.
6) I've been doing traditional Italian folk dancing in costume since I was 9, and worn the same costume since I was 12.
7) I look like my mom from the neck up, and have all genes from my dad's family from the neck down.
8) I've had legit back problems due to the size of my chest, and went from an A to a C cup overnight in 8th grade.
9) I've been in two car accidents - one with another vehicle, and one with a deer. Both times, I was sitting in the passenger seat.
10) I've been to Italy 4 times, and will return several more times. I know it.
11) I've been to Disney World 6 times, and Disneyland once. Again, I will return several more times. I know!
12) Other places I've been: Nassau, Bahamas; most of the 50 States; Niagara Falls, Canada; Edinburgh, Scotland; London, England; Athens and Ikaria, Greece
13) I've been on several vacations with my extended family, with numbers totaling up to 20 people traveling together at once. Sometimes in matching t-shirts.
14) I have always wanted to be on Broadway, but I don't think it's a dream that will ever come to fruition.
15) I LOVE performing - acting, singing, even dancing. LOVE!
16) I've played the piano for almost 16 years.
17) My love for Disney knows no bounds. And I let everyone know it without shame.
18) I've known for years that my life's calling was to work with children.
19) LBLP has been my summer job for 4 years, and I've gone from one of the weakest teachers to one of the strongest. It's been incredible.
20) I'll bet 20 bucks that I know more about emergent literacy than 90% of my Neag cohort.
21) I knew my alphabet at 18 months, was speaking fluently and precisely by age 3, and was reading by age 4. Maybe that's why. :)
22) I did book reports in Kindergarten. I distinctly remember one of those books as being Danny and the Dinosaur.
23) My elementary school was amazing. Since Q and U are almost always together when they appear in words, we had a wedding for the two letters. My best friend at the time, Colleen, was U and I was one of her bridesmaids!
24) I've related to the character of Belle in Beauty and the Beast since I first saw the movie in 1991.
25) I have a loving boyfriend named Greg, and we've been dating for over 2 years. This has been the longest relationship either of us has ever been in.
26) A dream of mine is to be on Dancing With the Stars. So here's the plan: I become America's greatest teacher (at least for a year), which allows me to have enough publicity to be a "C" or even "B" list star, so that I can be invited (or apply, or however they do it) to be on Dancing, and my partner will be Mark Ballas. Or Maks. :D
27) I'm starting to see why Annabelle stopped at 70 the first time, lol.
28) I love to shop!
29) My family used to have a big dog named Pooky. He was part Samoyid and part Yellow Lab, and HUGE!
30) I have a cat now, whose official name is Cleo (short for Cleopatra), but she goes by Kitty (or dumb cat, or gray cat, or any number of things). She's a cutie who loves to cuddle, and almost never runs away from people.
31) I still have all of my grandparents, and I thank God often for that.
32) I love to cook and bake, and I keep things pretty clean in my own place. I think I would have done well in the 1950s with a polka-dot dress and a white picket fence. :)
33) I've never broken a bone and never had a cavity. Knock on wood!
34) My favorite movie as a child (besides BatB) was Mickey and the Beanstalk.
35) The first song I ever sang was "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo". I used to sing it in the bathtub!
36) My best friend is a lovely red-headed girl named Kelly who I miss dearly because she doesn't like to be in CT if she can help it - right now she's pursuing her master's degree in some form of physics/energy studies in Edinburgh!
37) My favorite candies are gummy bears, peanut M&M's and almost any chocolate bar that has something in the center - Milky Way, Snickers, etc.
38) All throughout high school, my friends and I had an unparalleled obsession with the Lord of the Rings.
39) Yet, I have never participated in D&D or any kind of official costly.
40) Yet, I have appeared in public in a hobbit costume for a screening of all three theatrical releases of the movies, and even appeared in the paper for it.
41) I convinced my mother to drive my sister and I to Boston to see "colleges" - but my real reason was to go to the Boston Museum of Science because Sean Astin was going to be there signing copies of his book. Didn't get there in time to get in line and meet him, but went up a level in the museum and yelled his name from the balcony - and he waved and blew us a kiss! :)
42) I read the book Wicked, thought it would be really cool to act out some of the scenes - and a few months later, heard about how they made a musical about it that would be opening on Broadway soon. And ever since then, I can't help but feel smug for no reason about it.
43) I've stood on a Broadway stage, and gone back and under the stage - and even snuck a touch of one of the props (all for Phantom!)
44) Music runs in my dad's side of the family. I haven't had a birthday until this year (because of extenuating circumstances) where I wasn't sung "Happy Birthday" accompanied by my grandfather on the ukulele.
45) I listen to everything from Big Band and Swing to Hip Hop. My playlist looks like it was compiled by monkeys pressing random buttons, and I like it that way.
46) I have a REALLY good memory for lyrics and lines. My sister and I can recite entire scenes from movies without missing a beat, and I can know most of the words to a song after listening to it twice. I learned a 45 minute show - half an hour of which were my monologues - in less than 2 weeks.
47) I've often wondered if that made me weird.
48) If I had a nickel for every time I've sung at the top of my lungs and danced in front of a mirror, I wouldn't have any student loans left…
49) I get bad PMS. Bitchy is an understatement.
50) I discovered Glee last month, and now I'm obsessed. My sister says Rachel reminds her of me. I disagree! :-P
51) I watch What Not To Wear so much that I'm pretty sure I've got all the "rules" for curvy women memorized now.
52) I only like playing the Mario video games, or games with a story mode. I've never understood why guys like to huddle together and play Halo.
53) I've only been called to jury duty once, and I didn't even have to show up. :)
54) I didn't discover until after I moved back home how much I LOVE having my own place.
55) I have a voracious appetite for literature, and once I start a book, I can't leave it unfinished, even if it's frustratingly awful to read. This is how I ended up reading all four Twilight books, helped on by the fact that I liked all of the supporting characters. Just not Edward and Bella.
56) Well-written fanfiction is pretty awesome, and TrudiRose's BatB fanfiction is like crack to me.
57) I think James Marsden and Gerard Butler are HOT. Greg says that if the opportunity ever arises itself, I get a free pass with either of them as long as he gets one with Anne Hathaway. XD
58) I never had culture shock of any kind until a year after I started dating Greg. Total immersion into his Polish culture was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before, even the week I spent in Ikaria, Greece at my friend Tina's YiaYia's house.
59) I love wordplay and puns, and almost any kind of puzzle. I ROCK at hangman and wheel of fortune. You want me on your team for the "gnelleps" category in Cranium.
60) I love flowers. When I was little, I used to go out and smell every flower in our yard, and then come back inside with my nose covered in pollen. :)
61) I complain that I never do anything fun or go out, even though it's probably my own damn fault - but when I am actually invited to something that other people my age are doing, I get nervous and almost don't want to go.
62) I've been boy-crazy since i was about 7 years old, my first crush being Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
63) I want to cry every time I watch the beginning of UP.
64) That was the only time I ever cried in a theater besides the very end of Return of the King.
65) I've watched the extended versions of LoTR so many times that I've forgotten a lot of which parts are extended and which parts were in the theatrical release.
66) It's to the point where I think to myself, what's the point of watching LoTR if it's not the extended edition?
67) I hated a lot of books in school that are deemed to be great classics that everyone loves: The Lord of the Flies, A Separate Peace, Bridge to Terabithia and Night
68) I like playing board games, especially trivia games. No one wants to play Disney Trivia against me, though! :-P
69) I was always the Yellow Ranger when we played Power Rangers on the playground.
70) My family is extremely quick-witted. Dinner conversations can and have half-consisted of one-liners.
71) I hate spiders.
72) My favorite stuffed animal as a teeny tot was a pink elephant.
73) I was a huge N*SYNC fan back in the day! I also loved 98 degrees and BeWitched.
74) I miss classic Mickey and Looney Tunes cartoons. Remember when they used to be on at night?
75) I also miss TGIF!!!
76) And here's something that people may not remember - I used to LOVE TV Land before it was it's own channel. Over the summer, they used to show different shows each day of the week, and that's what first introduced me to and made me love The Monkees, Bewitched, I Dream of Genie, I Love Lucy, the Munsters, Gomer Pyle USMC and the Addams Family!
77) I've seen more bands that were big in the past in concert than I've seen artists who are still big today - this list includes the Beach Boys and Davy Jones and the Monkees (The Monkees twice, Davy Jones alone once).
78) I think I was the only one in my confirmation class back in 9th grade who took the sacrament seriously.
79) I've been to a Jewish temple and a Muslim mosque.
80) I hate vacuuming.
81) I have much more patience for small kids than I do for high schoolers, and even less patience for adults who act childishly. It's not my job to teach an adult how to behave.
82) I plan on getting my own laptop in 3 weeks.
83) I seriously need to go clothes and shoes shopping. Almost ironically, I need cleats for softball!
84) This is eating up time that I could be spending working on job applications but this is my third day working on this and I'm going to finish it, damn it!
85) For someone who has an innate need to finish what she starts when it's stupid things like this, I have a bad habit of leaving things halfway done when someone calls or distracts me, and that's how I contribute to the general mess of the house (i.e. What is this bottle of Lysol doing on the kitchen table? Oh…)
86) I could eat fresh strawberries every day and not get tired of them.
87) I love smoothies.
88) I've had my wisdom teeth removed. I was under anesthesia and when I came to, I was swearing like a sailor. I could not tell you why.
89) I think British humor is funny. I LOVE Eddie Izzard.
90) Gerard Butler is sexy, but if I had the choice to meet any Scotsman, I think I'd have to go with Craig Ferguson…and that opportunity might arise itself this summer!
91) I like having a daily planner, but I also need to have a wall calendar. I need to see the month at once, so that I can plan without flipping pages around. It's weird, and Michelle is convinced that it's a source of stress, but I NEED it.
92) I could spend half an hour or more in a bookstore, easy. If I had unlimited funds, I spend a good chunk of it at Barnes and Noble.
93) The Limited is my favorite clothing store, but if I want dresses, I go to J.C. Penney. This is all when items are on sale, of course. I love bargain shopping.
94) I want all of the seasons of LOST on DVD so that I can marathon watch them. I feel like the show is a serious part of history.
95) My sister can somehow simultaneously be my best friend and worst enemy. Everyone thinks we're twins because we're always together, but I don't think we look anything alike.
96) I have one sister and two brothers: I am the oldest. I'm also the oldest grandchild on one side of the family, second oldest on the other.
97) i feel like I'm already an aunt because the age gap between me and my youngest first cousin is 18 years - obviously, I'm not an aunt, but I'm definitely more of an aunt figure to her and her brother than a cousin. I really can't wait for Greg's married cousins to start having kids. I love babies.
98) I love and trust my cousin Kara sooooooo much. We tell each other everything.
99) I can't believe how wonderful some of my LJ friends are. You are all so caring and nice (for lack of a better word), and I'm really glad that I "know" you all!
100) My favorite color is purple.
Started 6/1/10....
Sooooo the skies opened up right after I hit "post" on that last one, and I've decided to do the meme before I become uninspired to do so with the 2 hours I WOULD have been spending at softball practice. :)
100 Random Things About Me (That You May Or May Not Have Known Already):
1) I am my own harshest critic over everything from the quality of work I do to my weight to my LJ posts to my past experiences. It gets annoying sometimes, but I like to be proud of myself and if I can't be, then at least for my efforts and what I've learned.
2) I hated softball when I played it on a team in middle school. Fast forward 10 years, and here I am, volunteering to be on a team for the Minturnese Club!
3) For that matter, you all probably know that I'm 100% Italian. What you may not know is that, much like my American "mutt" friends divvy up their heritages by percentage (I used to feel bad in school that I couldn't), I can divvy mine up by region. Italians are so obsessed with region: I'm 1/4 Napolitana, 1/8 Calabrese, 1/16 Siciliana, and then we can go by town: 1/16 San Donatese, and 1/2 Minturnese. If we want to get technical, the half of me that is from Minturno is actually from two frasioni, or districts: my Nonno is from Scauri, and my Nonna is from Santa Maria Infante. I am blessed to know so much about my heritage as an American girl!
4) To go with the above statement, I am, and have always been and will be Catholic. :)
5) I'm not the most athletic person in the world, but I played my fair share of sports as a kid. I did gymnastics from age 4-8, soccer from age 5-9, dance from age 5-10, softball from age 9-13, and my high school's swim team sophomore and junior year.
6) I've been doing traditional Italian folk dancing in costume since I was 9, and worn the same costume since I was 12.
7) I look like my mom from the neck up, and have all genes from my dad's family from the neck down.
8) I've had legit back problems due to the size of my chest, and went from an A to a C cup overnight in 8th grade.
9) I've been in two car accidents - one with another vehicle, and one with a deer. Both times, I was sitting in the passenger seat.
10) I've been to Italy 4 times, and will return several more times. I know it.
11) I've been to Disney World 6 times, and Disneyland once. Again, I will return several more times. I know!
12) Other places I've been: Nassau, Bahamas; most of the 50 States; Niagara Falls, Canada; Edinburgh, Scotland; London, England; Athens and Ikaria, Greece
13) I've been on several vacations with my extended family, with numbers totaling up to 20 people traveling together at once. Sometimes in matching t-shirts.
14) I have always wanted to be on Broadway, but I don't think it's a dream that will ever come to fruition.
15) I LOVE performing - acting, singing, even dancing. LOVE!
16) I've played the piano for almost 16 years.
17) My love for Disney knows no bounds. And I let everyone know it without shame.
18) I've known for years that my life's calling was to work with children.
19) LBLP has been my summer job for 4 years, and I've gone from one of the weakest teachers to one of the strongest. It's been incredible.
20) I'll bet 20 bucks that I know more about emergent literacy than 90% of my Neag cohort.
21) I knew my alphabet at 18 months, was speaking fluently and precisely by age 3, and was reading by age 4. Maybe that's why. :)
22) I did book reports in Kindergarten. I distinctly remember one of those books as being Danny and the Dinosaur.
23) My elementary school was amazing. Since Q and U are almost always together when they appear in words, we had a wedding for the two letters. My best friend at the time, Colleen, was U and I was one of her bridesmaids!
24) I've related to the character of Belle in Beauty and the Beast since I first saw the movie in 1991.
25) I have a loving boyfriend named Greg, and we've been dating for over 2 years. This has been the longest relationship either of us has ever been in.
26) A dream of mine is to be on Dancing With the Stars. So here's the plan: I become America's greatest teacher (at least for a year), which allows me to have enough publicity to be a "C" or even "B" list star, so that I can be invited (or apply, or however they do it) to be on Dancing, and my partner will be Mark Ballas. Or Maks. :D
27) I'm starting to see why Annabelle stopped at 70 the first time, lol.
28) I love to shop!
29) My family used to have a big dog named Pooky. He was part Samoyid and part Yellow Lab, and HUGE!
30) I have a cat now, whose official name is Cleo (short for Cleopatra), but she goes by Kitty (or dumb cat, or gray cat, or any number of things). She's a cutie who loves to cuddle, and almost never runs away from people.
31) I still have all of my grandparents, and I thank God often for that.
32) I love to cook and bake, and I keep things pretty clean in my own place. I think I would have done well in the 1950s with a polka-dot dress and a white picket fence. :)
33) I've never broken a bone and never had a cavity. Knock on wood!
34) My favorite movie as a child (besides BatB) was Mickey and the Beanstalk.
35) The first song I ever sang was "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo". I used to sing it in the bathtub!
36) My best friend is a lovely red-headed girl named Kelly who I miss dearly because she doesn't like to be in CT if she can help it - right now she's pursuing her master's degree in some form of physics/energy studies in Edinburgh!
37) My favorite candies are gummy bears, peanut M&M's and almost any chocolate bar that has something in the center - Milky Way, Snickers, etc.
38) All throughout high school, my friends and I had an unparalleled obsession with the Lord of the Rings.
39) Yet, I have never participated in D&D or any kind of official costly.
40) Yet, I have appeared in public in a hobbit costume for a screening of all three theatrical releases of the movies, and even appeared in the paper for it.
41) I convinced my mother to drive my sister and I to Boston to see "colleges" - but my real reason was to go to the Boston Museum of Science because Sean Astin was going to be there signing copies of his book. Didn't get there in time to get in line and meet him, but went up a level in the museum and yelled his name from the balcony - and he waved and blew us a kiss! :)
42) I read the book Wicked, thought it would be really cool to act out some of the scenes - and a few months later, heard about how they made a musical about it that would be opening on Broadway soon. And ever since then, I can't help but feel smug for no reason about it.
43) I've stood on a Broadway stage, and gone back and under the stage - and even snuck a touch of one of the props (all for Phantom!)
44) Music runs in my dad's side of the family. I haven't had a birthday until this year (because of extenuating circumstances) where I wasn't sung "Happy Birthday" accompanied by my grandfather on the ukulele.
45) I listen to everything from Big Band and Swing to Hip Hop. My playlist looks like it was compiled by monkeys pressing random buttons, and I like it that way.
46) I have a REALLY good memory for lyrics and lines. My sister and I can recite entire scenes from movies without missing a beat, and I can know most of the words to a song after listening to it twice. I learned a 45 minute show - half an hour of which were my monologues - in less than 2 weeks.
47) I've often wondered if that made me weird.
48) If I had a nickel for every time I've sung at the top of my lungs and danced in front of a mirror, I wouldn't have any student loans left…
49) I get bad PMS. Bitchy is an understatement.
50) I discovered Glee last month, and now I'm obsessed. My sister says Rachel reminds her of me. I disagree! :-P
51) I watch What Not To Wear so much that I'm pretty sure I've got all the "rules" for curvy women memorized now.
52) I only like playing the Mario video games, or games with a story mode. I've never understood why guys like to huddle together and play Halo.
53) I've only been called to jury duty once, and I didn't even have to show up. :)
54) I didn't discover until after I moved back home how much I LOVE having my own place.
55) I have a voracious appetite for literature, and once I start a book, I can't leave it unfinished, even if it's frustratingly awful to read. This is how I ended up reading all four Twilight books, helped on by the fact that I liked all of the supporting characters. Just not Edward and Bella.
56) Well-written fanfiction is pretty awesome, and TrudiRose's BatB fanfiction is like crack to me.
57) I think James Marsden and Gerard Butler are HOT. Greg says that if the opportunity ever arises itself, I get a free pass with either of them as long as he gets one with Anne Hathaway. XD
58) I never had culture shock of any kind until a year after I started dating Greg. Total immersion into his Polish culture was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before, even the week I spent in Ikaria, Greece at my friend Tina's YiaYia's house.
59) I love wordplay and puns, and almost any kind of puzzle. I ROCK at hangman and wheel of fortune. You want me on your team for the "gnelleps" category in Cranium.
60) I love flowers. When I was little, I used to go out and smell every flower in our yard, and then come back inside with my nose covered in pollen. :)
61) I complain that I never do anything fun or go out, even though it's probably my own damn fault - but when I am actually invited to something that other people my age are doing, I get nervous and almost don't want to go.
62) I've been boy-crazy since i was about 7 years old, my first crush being Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
63) I want to cry every time I watch the beginning of UP.
64) That was the only time I ever cried in a theater besides the very end of Return of the King.
65) I've watched the extended versions of LoTR so many times that I've forgotten a lot of which parts are extended and which parts were in the theatrical release.
66) It's to the point where I think to myself, what's the point of watching LoTR if it's not the extended edition?
67) I hated a lot of books in school that are deemed to be great classics that everyone loves: The Lord of the Flies, A Separate Peace, Bridge to Terabithia and Night
68) I like playing board games, especially trivia games. No one wants to play Disney Trivia against me, though! :-P
69) I was always the Yellow Ranger when we played Power Rangers on the playground.
70) My family is extremely quick-witted. Dinner conversations can and have half-consisted of one-liners.
71) I hate spiders.
72) My favorite stuffed animal as a teeny tot was a pink elephant.
73) I was a huge N*SYNC fan back in the day! I also loved 98 degrees and BeWitched.
74) I miss classic Mickey and Looney Tunes cartoons. Remember when they used to be on at night?
75) I also miss TGIF!!!
76) And here's something that people may not remember - I used to LOVE TV Land before it was it's own channel. Over the summer, they used to show different shows each day of the week, and that's what first introduced me to and made me love The Monkees, Bewitched, I Dream of Genie, I Love Lucy, the Munsters, Gomer Pyle USMC and the Addams Family!
77) I've seen more bands that were big in the past in concert than I've seen artists who are still big today - this list includes the Beach Boys and Davy Jones and the Monkees (The Monkees twice, Davy Jones alone once).
78) I think I was the only one in my confirmation class back in 9th grade who took the sacrament seriously.
79) I've been to a Jewish temple and a Muslim mosque.
80) I hate vacuuming.
81) I have much more patience for small kids than I do for high schoolers, and even less patience for adults who act childishly. It's not my job to teach an adult how to behave.
82) I plan on getting my own laptop in 3 weeks.
83) I seriously need to go clothes and shoes shopping. Almost ironically, I need cleats for softball!
84) This is eating up time that I could be spending working on job applications but this is my third day working on this and I'm going to finish it, damn it!
85) For someone who has an innate need to finish what she starts when it's stupid things like this, I have a bad habit of leaving things halfway done when someone calls or distracts me, and that's how I contribute to the general mess of the house (i.e. What is this bottle of Lysol doing on the kitchen table? Oh…)
86) I could eat fresh strawberries every day and not get tired of them.
87) I love smoothies.
88) I've had my wisdom teeth removed. I was under anesthesia and when I came to, I was swearing like a sailor. I could not tell you why.
89) I think British humor is funny. I LOVE Eddie Izzard.
90) Gerard Butler is sexy, but if I had the choice to meet any Scotsman, I think I'd have to go with Craig Ferguson…and that opportunity might arise itself this summer!
91) I like having a daily planner, but I also need to have a wall calendar. I need to see the month at once, so that I can plan without flipping pages around. It's weird, and Michelle is convinced that it's a source of stress, but I NEED it.
92) I could spend half an hour or more in a bookstore, easy. If I had unlimited funds, I spend a good chunk of it at Barnes and Noble.
93) The Limited is my favorite clothing store, but if I want dresses, I go to J.C. Penney. This is all when items are on sale, of course. I love bargain shopping.
94) I want all of the seasons of LOST on DVD so that I can marathon watch them. I feel like the show is a serious part of history.
95) My sister can somehow simultaneously be my best friend and worst enemy. Everyone thinks we're twins because we're always together, but I don't think we look anything alike.
96) I have one sister and two brothers: I am the oldest. I'm also the oldest grandchild on one side of the family, second oldest on the other.
97) i feel like I'm already an aunt because the age gap between me and my youngest first cousin is 18 years - obviously, I'm not an aunt, but I'm definitely more of an aunt figure to her and her brother than a cousin. I really can't wait for Greg's married cousins to start having kids. I love babies.
98) I love and trust my cousin Kara sooooooo much. We tell each other everything.
99) I can't believe how wonderful some of my LJ friends are. You are all so caring and nice (for lack of a better word), and I'm really glad that I "know" you all!
100) My favorite color is purple.