25 Random Things

Random things, facts, habits, goals. I rebelled against the trend to do this,the latest feed on Facebook, but I’m no good at rebellion...so here it is.

1. I’m not fond of goals, and I’m not proud of it. I’m an INFPorJ on the Meyers Brigg personality test, but I want to be an extrovert.
2. I like being around people that remind me to take myself less seriously. 13-yr-olds help; this survey doesn’t.
3. I have absolutely no sense of direction. I still get lost driving home to Memphis. I think it’s because I think too much in the car and get distracted.
4. I would love to volunteer for a study of the brain and the hippocampus.
5. My dream as a little girl was to be Amy Grant, or one of Degas’ “blue dancers.” My friends often ask me to pantomime random songs on the radio. . . The dream lives on.
6. My dream now is to be Meryl Streep in “Out of Africa,” except I would teach English instead of manage a coffee plantation. In 2009 that translates into Nicole Kidman in “Australia.” I plan to do this sometime in my late 30’s. I will need a map and a guide and a planner.
7. I clean my room to clear my mind. I keep all my books from high school where I can see them, but I’m too busy cleaning my room to re-read them.
8. I’m almost finished with grad school. I blame teaching, coaching, and going to school for the reason I stopped writing and painting. I call it losing my soul, but that may be a little extreme. I have painted two paintings this month-woohoo.
9. This spring I’m coaching varsity track. I get chills and a rush of adrenaline when I think about it. I will probably pull a muscle while trying to whip out some old hurdle moves, but I firmly believe that embarrassing yourself in front of kids is a great teaching tool.
10. I hurt my right knee playing flag football in college. Instead of running now, I love riding my bike, but can’t decide if I’ll every wear a nylon uni-tard. Also, I can’t figure out how to open the storage room it’s in at my new apt.
11. My friends often say I’ll marry an older English professor, but I would like to resurrect Paul Newman instead. Cool Hand Luke would’ve made a great man if he’d gotten out of prison.
12. I’m drawn to people that are bold and sarcastic, but being assertive is a huge weakness of mine. I’m currently changing that. Watch out.
13. I can make my mother laugh until she cries and goes into spasms. But usually she laughs at things she says herself, and so does my brother. My dad and I usually have people laughing “at us.” He was always on my side.
14. I have to read books really slowly. But I remember one-liners that change my world. Currently it’s the Twilight series and Across Five Aprils.
15. I cried when I saw the view from the top of Edinburgh Castle, and then had my picture taken with a fake William Wallace.
16. A stranger once said I looked like Cheryl Crow. A year later someone said I looked like Joan Cusack. I don’t believe what strangers say.
17. I still love Mariah Carey and Celine Dion.
18. I’ve worn a Ninja costume for Halloween two years in a row. I love Memoirs of a Geisha and The Good Earth and the Last Samurai.
19. I would rather be an Indian than a cowgirl.
20. My mom once called me a “delicate flower”; over the past 7 months, I’ve had walking pneumonia twice and get some kind of sick every two weeks.
21. I’m hard on myself about not being more spontaneous, but my friend and I did get two of my friends lost in the Cherokee National Forest in 35 degree weather, after which we hitch-hiked to get down the mountain. I basically tricked them into going on a 6 mile hike.
22. I want to be really good at what I do-coaching and teaching. I love a good pump up speech. I owe that to my dad.
23. I once tried to explain the origin of trail mix to a Brazilian who spoke 20% English. I used hand motions and words like “forest” and “lost.”
24. I live in Birmingham but Tennessee will always be home. Maybe one day it will be Nashville. But Margo would move away because we think God doesn’t want us to live in the same city.
25. I have absolutely no plans next summer and absolutely no money to spend. But I want to go to Greece.