"100 Things About Me"

Well, I've had this web blog up now for almost 2 months, and I still haven't gotten around to compiling the obligatory personal blog "100 Things About Me" list. At the risk of causing potential embarrassment to family members for illustrating just what a strange one I am, here goes... *clears throat*

100 Things About Me That You May or May Not Know

1. I am horribly obsessive-compulsive, but usually only in secret (shhhh). One of my roommates used to torture me by turning all the labels of my bathroom products so they were backwards.
2. I have bizarre names for our pets that make absolutely no sense. The cat is referred to in the plural ("my friends Sebastian"), and the dogs are often called names such as "La La Doghouse". My husband thinks I'm nuts.
3. My memories stretch back to at least the age of 2. My first unpleasant memory of note is the feeling of a dirty diaper. My first clear memory is the realization that I was living as a cognizant human being. I think I stared at my hands and fingers for about an hour.
4. At age 4, I hid behind the bushes of my family's house and proceeded to cut my hair off, after stapling my hands.
5. At age 5, I thought it would be a fun idea to hide on my family for a day to see if anyone would come looking for me (sorry Mom!).
6. I thought it would be a good idea to ride a skateboard on my chest when I was 8. It wasn't. I still have the scars.
7. I never really found the humor in Monty Python... don't know why, just never appealed to me.
8. I am short (5'2"), but have never thought of myself as being short. I only think of it when someone points it out to me.
9. My husband and I met on the internet. We've both been computer geeks since the late 1970s when PCs first came out.
10. I run an archaeology website which amazingly has close to 10,000 registered members. I wonder where all these people are coming from!?
11. I believe in reincarnation and remember things (and people) from several of my past lives. I might even remember you.
12. I usually don't tell this kind of thing to strangers. People tend think I'm a little nuts anyway... It's better not to encourage them!
13. Before the onset of carpal tunnel syndrome, I used to be able to type 100wpm (and not using all of my fingers). I learned to type on my own from using my brother's Atari 800. John and I ran some of the earliest Atari BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems) in the U.S.
14. I've always looked several years younger than my real age. I hope this continues as I get older! I'll chalk it up to good genes!
15. For me, there is never a good hair day. If I could get away with wearing a baseball cap all the time, I probably would. When I was a child, I thought maybe I would have been better off as a guy. I've never been into all the feminine frilly stuff.
16. I've seen what some people would call a ghost on three occasions - in 2 separate houses, and also in an old movie theater. The last one was dressed in ca.1920s clothing!
17. In high school I was a "Vo-Techer" and attended a class in Commercial Art for my junior and senior years. Drawing pictures for 1/2 of each day in high school wasn't a bad way to pass the time at all! This is one of my only positive memories of high school. I really didn't like it very much otherwise.
18. I receive unusual pleasure from simple physical activities like chopping wood, and, well, digging holes. I think I've chosen a career where I like to be intellectually stimulated, but not too much. I'd rather exercise my mind on my own time.
19. In college I built a washing machine out of an exercise bicycle and various parts modeled after the Professor's contraption on Gilligan's Island. The funny thing was, the damn thing worked! It was something of a tourist attraction at our apartment.
20. I have been very poor at several points in my life. I once subsisted on nothing but a bag of nasty, chewy, expired PowerBars purchased 10 for a dollar from a Mexican grocery store. I ate them for over a month, and I will never eat PowerBars again.
21. I think that Bill Clinton would be fun to hang out with, and Hillary is somewhat intimidating. But I'd still consider voting for her if she ran for President.
22. Besides working as an archaeologist, I've had a lot of jobs over the years. I started out delivering newspapers when I was 14. I've also worked through the years as a dishwasher, convenience store/gas station clerk, security guard, deli counter help, cell phone sales associate, clerk at various stores (RadioShack, Sam Goody, Everything Natural, etc.), sewer/assembler of dolls, janitor/maintenance person, office assistant, information systems coordinator, cartographer, AutoCAD technician, researcher, historian, and assistant manager/projectionist at 2 movie theaters. I've also had several factory jobs, delivered phone books, had one little job which involved "surveillance", played trumpet at cemeteries (for funerals, veterans day events, etc.), did a little freelance art/design, been a costumed participant in a parade, been paid to construct a parade float, manned a booth at events, passed out fliers, conducted telephone surveys, picked cucumbers, mowed lawns, and worked as a grunt helping people move. I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can remember right now!
23. I was once scolded by a priest at confession for admitting that I did Tarot card readings.
24. One Thanksgiving, I was invited to dinner at a friend's house. During dinner, I somehow managed to overflow their upstairs toilet. Water ran down the ceiling, onto the chandelier, and on their table. Ever since then, I've had a fear of overflowing toilets.
25. I often have premonitions when something with the plumbing is going to go awry. Once a shower head popped off and hit me in the forehead, and I knew it was going to happen a week ahead of time. Weird, huh?
26. In high school and college I had the bejesus scared out of me on more than one occasion by fooling around with a Ouijia board. One time, I had a whole group of people thinking I was possessed by a spirit from the board. There was a girl down the hall who was afraid of me, and sprinkled holy water on her door to keep me at bay. She went out of her way to avoid running into me for the rest of the school year.
27. I am technically a Reverend in a friend's New Age church. At least I was last time I checked.
28. Over the years, I've attended just about every type of church service there is, everything from fundamentalists to Mormons to Jehovah's Witnesses. I think my interest may stem from my background in anthropology. Observing others' rituals is fascinating to me. This is the only way I was able to bear attending church as a child.
29. I once had a roommate who was in love with her mother. And I walked in on them in the act. After I discovered her relationship, she stopped talking to me, and I ended up moving out.
30. In 9th grade I won a VFW essay contest for an entry entitled, "What Loyalty Means To Me". Go America!
31. I was a vegetarian for seven years. The first items of meat consumed at the end of that period: hot dogs and Slim-Jims! I got physically ill...
32. I only like having my photograph taken from a distance. I've never photographed very well.
33. As a child, my favorite toy was a simple pen and pad of paper. I miss having that kind of ubridled creativity.
34. I have been told that, on several occasions, I've spoken foreign languages fluently in my sleep, in particular, Russian and Spanish. In my waking state, I have never learned to speak either of these languages. I actually have a hard time learning languages. In college, I had to take German classes repeatedly to get a passing grade. I failed French in high school.
35. In college, when drinking alcohol, I used to adopt a Southern accent without trying to. The scary thing was that I couldn't stop. It used to freak people out sometimes.
36. The smell of a freshly spackled wall has always been a pleasant sensation for me. I think this originated with my parents' building of a new house when I was 4 or 5 years old.
37. My husband and I do not watch television. At all. I feel like I am quickly losing touch with popular culture. If I were to watch TV, it would likely be something educational or a documentary.
38. I have a weakness for renting DVDs - usually foreign or indie films. I think Netflix is the greatest thing.
39. My husband and I agree to disagree about politics. It's a forbidden topic of discussion in our household. He is a Republican who loves George Bush and I'm a raging liberal.
40. In high school, I was often accused of reading the dictionary for fun. I thought the accusation was unfounded, as I only did this once.
41. When I was a child, I sometimes had difficulty pronouncing words. My kindergarten teachers made fun of me for once asking "to use the faculties" (I was trying to say "use the facilities").
42. At age 6 I wrote a book about a little girl who was abducted by aliens. You can say me being weird was always a given.
43. I am a closet Shania Twain fan.
44. In college I failed a photography class by not completing one assignment: a nude self-portrait.
45. I have a difficult time starting my day without at least one cup of coffee and NPR.
46. I'm a former chain-smoker. Nowadays I'm lucky if I have one cigarette every year - only if I am very stressed.
47. In high school, I was voted the quietest of my senior class. It wasn't that I didn't talk - I just didn't talk to most people. I recently skipped my 15-year high school reunion.
48. I love to sing - but only when I have no audience.
49. E-mail has replaced the telephone in most of my communication with friends. I think we're casualties of the digital age.
50. I'm probably the only person I know who visited New Orleans for Mardi Gras and didn't drink any alcohol.
51. Several of my jobs in college entailed working as a pizza delivery girl. On one occasion I was chased by a large woman in a moo-moo dress. She accused me of trying to sell her "white man's pizza". I wasn't sure what race had to do with anything. Oh well.
52. At another job working at a movie theater, I was also chased by a man who tried to break into the theater. I narrowly escaped. I didn't report the incident to the police, though I'm not really sure why.
53. You know those pictures people post on ghost chaser websites of orbs? I've seen them since I was 19 years old. The orbs actually move around pretty fast, even though they appear to be stationary in people's photos. It's not a big deal - I've run into at least 5 other people who also see them. I have no idea what they really are!
54. In college, I was known as the wild girl who would jump into water fountains or do crazy things after a night of drinking. I've also been kicked out of fraternity houses for being too obnoxious while under the influence. Few people know it, but I had to do "community service" in my dorm as punishment for "inciting a riot". The funny thing is, after college, I was no longer interested in drinking alcohol. Some people have told me that I'm not a "real archaeologist" because I usually don't go to the bar with the crew.
55. Everyone thinks I can't cook. I really can, I just don't want to.
56. Though I spend a lot of free time in front of a computer, I hate to sit in front of one at work for very long. I'd much rather be out in the woods digging holes all day.
57. When I was 18, I wanted to have my name legally changed to "Tatiana Domanich". My mother talked me out of the idea. I still think it has a nice ring to it.
58. Walking through old houses has always excited me. If I visit an old house that I've never been to, I always want to see the basement.
59. If I could get away with sleeping for 12 hours out of the day, I'd probably do it.
60. I have always intuitively practiced the principles of Feng Shui.
61. My husband has been employed in the past at a well-paying job playing video games.
62. I don't think John Kerry tried hard enough. For awhile, I was pretty pissed about it too.
63. I once broke up with a guy over religion. He thought I was going to hell. I thought he was nuts. God interfered in our relationship. The last I saw of my ex he was passing out bibles to people on the street. God bless him.
64. Two of my most interesting archaeology projects involved digging up graves at cemetaries. Some of the bodies were a little, shall we say, fresh. I've been up close to rotting corpses and had brains and body parts splash in my face and hair. I've excavated gunshot victims who have had their skull blown off and accidentally tasted dried maggots that fell off a skull. Occasionally I have nightmares about dead people. I'm not sure if I would ever do another cemetary excavation project.
65. In high school I dated a guy who was wanted by the law. On some of our dates, we were pursued by the police. It was terribly exciting at the time.
66. In junior high, I was the founder of not one, but two computer clubs. Yeah, I'm a dork.
67. College took me almost 7 years to finish (and that was just for my BA). I can usually kick ass playing Jeopardy.
68. It upsets me when people squash bugs for no reason. Maybe I was a Jain in a past life?
69. I've had several friends who were strippers, er, exotic dancers. I was always jealous of how much discretionary income they had to blow.
70. A perfect life for me would entail an apartment in the city, and a house in the country.
71. I've always been fascinated by Chinese Foo Dogs, or Tibet Snow Lions. For those who aren't familiar with them, this is usually the pair of statues you see in front of Chinese restaurants. I used to dream about them a lot. In dreams, we would communicate telepathically.
72. If I could live anywhere, it would probably be out west in Arizona or California.
73. At one time I lived with a friend in a 14 foot camper near the U.S./Mexico border. One of my jobs there was working the graveyard shift alone at the local 7-Eleven. And I couldn't speak Spanish.
74. For many years, there was a guy I knew who was somewhat obsessed with me. I hope he's not reading this blog right now. *shudders*
75. Sometimes I wish I didn't tell people about my blog. If I could hide behind the veil of anonymity, this would sure be more fun! ;>
76. I was once blessed and cursed by two different Native Americans in the course of a week. I figured that the blessing and the cursing cancelled each other out.
77. On several occasions I've traveled cross-country on a Greyhound bus. I was chaperoned by a newly released prisoner on one trip (a convicted murderer, no less), and proposed to by a drunk Native American elder on another. On one trip, I had someone press a crack pipe into my hand, and witnessed an incestuous mother-son couple making out and swigging tequilia out of a thermos. I alternately find comfort or trepidation in the fact that there are a lot of people weirder than me out there.
78. Twice in my life I have had someone try to get me in their car. Again, there are a lot of weird people out there, and some sickos to boot.
79. I am, without a doubt, addicted to Chapstick. I think there's an extra ingredient in there that nobody knows about...
80. In high school, I once let some friends copy my test answers in history class. I gave them the wrong answers on purpose. I can be a bitch sometimes.
81. I don't currently have a religious affiliation, but if I had to choose, I'd probably either be a Pagan or follow a path of Native American spirituality.
82. If I were rich, I'd blow most of the money on traveling. A large portion would also be donated to charity. I think it would be fun to give envelopes stuffed with hundred dollar bills to complete strangers.
83. I always knew I'd never quite be one of the cool kids in school, but I didn't really give a damn.
84. In college, a friend and I were put into a situation where we could have been raped in a fraternity house. It was one of the scariest close-calls I've ever had.
85. I have a story in my head that I've been writing and rewriting every since I was a kid. I usually play out different scenarios within the storyline whenever I'm bored.
86. I once physically bumped into a black bear (I was carrying a box in my hands at the time and didn't see it until I almost knocked it over). It was a large mother bear with cubs. On another occasion, I was chased by a bear for about 1/2 mile. It was so close behind me that I could hear it breathing.
87. I've actually had a lot of encounters with animals, usually on archaeology projects. There have been a lot of snakes, and spider bites have sent me to the hospital. Sometimes dealing with the public has proven to be just as difficult. I've had the cops called on me, and on one project, my boss was hit in the knee with a shovel by someone who didn't want us digging on his property.
88. I was once present for an exorcism. I can't really say whether or not it was successful.
89. I've probably read Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" at least three or four times. At first I thought the protagonist was really messed up, but she's been kind of growing on me.
90. When I was a teenager, I often had premonitions of things that would come to pass. As I've gotten older, I seem to have lost a lot of my psychic abilities. Life is a little less complicated this way. Oh yeah, and I see things too. I usually don't tell people about it.
91. Over the years, I've chosen to have friends who were always far more interesting than myself. Sometimes I live vicariously through other people.
92. One of my majors in college was art. I once submitted a 3-dimensional sculpture with live mice as part of the work. It went well until the mice escaped into the art gallery...hehehe.
93. For some reason, I find firing a rifle to be quite exciting! I've never wanted to go hunting, but, man, I could shoot a gun all day. The staccato percussion of the ammo vacating the weapon and the smell of the gunpowder invigorate me.
94. I was in the Army- briefly. I was foolish not to have stayed in. It's something I will always regret.
95. The gas chamber was simultaneously both my favorite and least favorite experience in basic training. I did very well on the rifle range firing an M-16, especially during night fire while wearing a gas mask. I think I was pretty close to being a crack shot. I wish I had an M-16 of my own.
96. Late at night on a street in San Diego, I once scared away a potential attacker by reciting one of the violent cadences I learned in basic training... something about bayonets and "blood making the grass grow green". Hoo-ahh! Even though I was only in the Army for 2 months, I learned a lot that actually helped me out later on in life. Call me crazy, but I thought about enlisting again, but I'm getting too old now. It really bothers me that I wasn't able to finish what I had started.
97. Secretly, I really enjoy receiving junk mail. It's good to know that someone cares.
98. I have been told that I have been abducted by space aliens. I have also been told that I really AM an alien. I just want to know when the mother ship is really coming. This waiting around kind of sucks.
99. My doctor told me that I broke my clavicle bone when I was a kid. I have no recollection of the event, though it was supposed to have been very painful. I'm thinking that maybe the aliens did it during one of those abductions? That would explain the missing memory...
100. It's not a well-known fact, but there are a lot of weird people who work in the field of archaeology. Try as I may, I can't think of anything I'd rather be than an archaeologist! In this profession, I almost fit in...