25 Random Things Meme

I've seen other people's lists and it inspired me. So here it is :)

1. My favorite vegetable is asparagus.
2. My mom and grandma taught me how to crochet approximately 27 years ago.
   
3. I've taught myself to knit to knit 4 times. The first time was in high school, the last 3 were in 2007 and 2008. I've finally kept it up long enough to keep the muscle memory. I used a book to teach myself all of those times.
   
4. I'm a sucker for vintage patterns, particularly early 1900s filet crochet.
5. The movie that gets me the most fired up and inspired to write/create/podcast is Pump Up the Volume.
6. I helped move pieces of the AIDS quilt onto the Mall during the last showing of all it in one place in 1996. It covered the entire Mall.
   
7. My original intention for a major in college was archaelogy. Every one breathed a collective sigh of relief when I changed my mind. Until they found out I was going for a BA in English.
8. I worked for 2 years at the same company as a temp secretary.
9. Even after 4 years of college I didn't become a regular coffee drinker until I started working at my current job site.
10. I was a dog person my entire life I until I adopted my kitties 2 years ago.
11. My first memory is of making a finish line to a race using a tarp and riding my tricycle over it. I was probably 2 or 3. I dragged the tarp out of the garage myself, no one else could figure out what I was doing.
12. The first year that I actually knew the year was 1981. I was absolutely terrified of Jimmy Carter's smile.
13. When I was in Catholic elementary school, my mom got so sick of gym class being gymnastics and only gymnastics that she gave me permission to skip. The gym teacher never raised a fuss.
14. I was the first generation in my immediate family to not grow up on a farm.
15. My grandparents on my mom's side lived with us during the entirety of my high school career.
    
16. I had perfect attendance in high school, mainly because I'd rather go to school sick than stay home and babysit my grandparents.
17. I never had an actual curfew. I went out so rarely and was usually with the same small, trusted group of friends, that my arrival at home was negotiable by situation.
18. I never had a set bedtime, even as a small child. I was required to stay in my room, be quiet and manage to get up when called. Other than that, my mom didn't mind if I stayed up.
19. I always used to hate being teacher's helper in kindergarten because I had to pass out papers and I couldn't pass out the correct paper to the correct person.
20. I've actually had poetry published in my university's literary journal. I've never done anything with the other poems I've written though. Although, hopefully, I'll be able to kick start my writing again and get the long-talked about poetry podcast off the ground.
21. I've always wanted to act but I get really bad stage fright. I get the leaning against the nearest surface that will support me while shaking kind. Reading for the podcast has given me an outlet without the actual physical audience looking at me.
22. I once ate so much strawberry ice cream that for years after the taste made me physically ill.
23. I always thought my parent's basement was haunted until I started watching shows like Ghosthunters. I realized that I was probably reacting to the EMF field created by my father's "custom wiring" of the telephones in the house.
24. I used to sleepwalk. I had dreams that I remember in black and white, but I would get up in the morning and realize that I had done what I thought I dreamed. This means that I went down in the basement in the dark and played hopscotch for no reason that I understand.
25. I made it to the county level of the Scripps-Howard spelling bee system when I was in the sixth grade. I was one of the last three, but I misspelled alcoholism in such a way that two the judges thought I got it right and they kind of had to prod me off the stage because I didn't see the one judge shake her head no.

There it is, such as it is. Anyone else who wishes to play along, let me know. I'm not going to make specific tags.

Good morning 2009!

Okay, so I'm a little late with welcoming the new year. It didn't really feel real until I went back to work and realized that I didn't take my calendar with me.

I got a surprise husband again over New Year's Eve and the weekend. They sent him home for a few days. It was good to actually see him. We went to one of my knitting group friend's house for a New Year's Eve party. It was pretty cool, even though I only knew 2 people there and I'm married to one of them. Most likely there are people who thought I was antisocial or angry. I wasn't, I'm just quiet to an extreme when confronted with a room full of people I don't know well. Ah well, the hostess knows better, lol.

I was trying to work on another Mother Bear project bear while I was there, but it wasn't easy as keeping all the yarn, counters, and general stuff around I need to work on a bear is a bit space consuming. I did get a foot started so that's something. Besides, I really need to finish the first bear I crocheted and finish up two afghans before I move on.

My mother-in-law's goddess afghan is very close to done. Yay! I need to finish it off soon, since I told them I was leaving them a surprise while they were off being snowbirds for a couple weeks. I'm down to about 10 rows left, but since they are about 200 stitch rows, it takes a bit to crochet. Also, I've been knitting a lot lately, the different motion was not making my wrists happy. Then there is Jack's tunisian entrelac afghan to finish. That one is also close, but the edging on that one is going to take an evening at least. I tend to make afghans that cover the entirety of queen-size beds and this one is no exception. He's been wanting it forever and 2 years is probably long enough to wait. Oops.

After all of this there are the Mother Bears to make, the old shale cowl I want to make for myself, and the knitted paper towels. As usual, more projects than I can ever finish, but hey, I have to try :)