150 Random things

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you.

1. I am doing 150 because I've been tagged by 10 or more people and this should end it all!
2. I really love reading these about other people whether they tag me or not.
3. I LOVE to make people (especially high schoolers) laugh ... and I get paid for it!
4. I put on a pretty good show (I think) of having it all together at the same time being real.
5. I want to become my mom or a lot like her.
6. My sister is amazing at so much, but she doesn't know it: motherhood, wifehood, graphic arts!
7. I miss Gracie's Aunt Kristi every day - it still hurts and always will.
8. I remember EVERY second of my trip to Italy and my quick trip back.
9. I used to love hospital dramas until I spent almost 30 consecutive days in the waiting room of one.
10. I never thought I would get married or pregnant.
11. I assumed I would never make it to 30 - just could never visualize it.
12. I love my husband so much it hurts sometimes.
13. We have created a very stubborn little girl!
14. I haven't cut Gracie's hair since she was born - it now reaches her tushy and tickles her in the bathtub when I wash it.
15. I find it laughable but flattering that when I left Amboy some people thought I was having an affair with a student.
16. I find it laughable but flattering that my husband is in a "friend" competition with me and I didn't even know I was playing. (For the record - I'm winning 459-243).
17. I am impressed (but not surprised) that he knows 243 people and got them to add him to Facebook in less than two weeks.
18. I have an amazing in-law family.
19. My mother's name is Gay and my mother-in-law is named Gayle.
20. Much of my sense of humor comes from my mother, although I am much quicker in wit than she.
21. She used to call my friends' houses and say, "Hi, I'm Gay, is your mother home?" It was always a hit!
22. I now say I have two "Gay" moms.
23. I have excellent gaydar.
24. I am currently back on Weight Watchers (which works for me) but plan to keep a little junk in the trunk!
25. I want to be pregnant with a second child almost as much as I love my first one.
26. Still with me?
27. I love directing theatre - always have - but it's a lot more difficult with a family than it was when I was single.
28. I know my daughter will want to be on the stage - she's a lot more confident than her mother was around her peers.
29. I am not a smoker, but I have fond memories of the smell of my mother's cigarette wafting down the hallway after she thought we were asleep. Now I can't stand cigarette smoke.
30. I never knew how much it hurt my mother to lose my sister until I had Gracie. I cry a little bit every day about that.
31. My biggest fear is that something will take Grace away from me.
32. I'm trying to keep track of all things that Grace says that are cute (from thinking Ryan swims at work because he has to wear a suit - so she thought swimsuit) so I can remember them forever.
33. I love hearing from my former (and current) students to see how they are doing. I hope I served them well as their teacher.
34. I am, however, pretty horrible at remembering names - thanks to my mother as well. Inherited trait.
35. I must have a friendly face as I was constantly asked for directions when I lived in NYC.
36. Some days I can't believe how much of a big city person I am.
37. Therefore, it's shocking at how I married such a smaller city person - hates waiting in lines, etc.
38. I fear for the day when I will lose one of my dogs as well - I realize they are not human but they are my fur babies.
39. I fear for all the stresses my high schoolers face every day and how it gets to them - I want to save them from so much pain!
40. It is difficult for me (because I give so much of myself in the classroom) to separate the personal and the professional - so when someone attacks my teaching choices, I take it personally.
41. I work with some AMAZING teachers and some not-so-great ones who need to RETIRE or move on already.
42. I would like to write my memoir someday, but fear no one will read it. Would you?
43. My daughter's preschool is run by some amazing professionals who do not get benefits - which is very sad to me.
44. I grew up a Republican in Republican Lincoln, IL, but I voted for Barack Obama and would do it again every day.
45. I type over 100 words a minute because while learning to type in high school, I would sit in a class that bored me and type everything the teacher would say on my "imaginary" laptop (they hadn't been invented yet).
46. My idea for an ideal student desk would have a built-in laptop with touch screen for typing so it would make no noise - I have a feeling someone has already invented it - but I'm just saying.
47. I learned how to T9 text last year and it changed my life!
48. I still cannot do it as quickly as my students but I'm quicker than my husband.
49. I can't stand that my husband keeps empty boxes for years.
50. I'm surprised he can stand that I keep papers everywhere.
51. I never want to move again, but probably will.
52. Hang in there - 1/3 of the way done.
53. My favorite candy is Reese's Peanut Butter cups - which are incidentally 5 POINTS apiece on Weight Watchers.
54. My husband split his pants when he proposed and I still think it was the most romantic moment of my life - because it was so real.
55. I miss my Beverly, my Lisa, my Nell Bell and soon-to-miss Kirsten.
56. I'm still angry at Chelsea for leaving the country and me.
57. I am a teacher because of the way Kathy Stoyak teaches Spanish - with passion, energy & love.
58. I am a teacher also because Sheila Armitage was an idiot and I knew as a junior in high school I could do a better job - so I did....and I do.
59. I am not conceited - just confident.
60. My skin crawls when I read professionally made signs with grammatical and/or spelling errors.
61. I hate when I make a similar mistake - but know that I do...and life goes on.
62. I find it very easy to not sweat the small stuff after going through losing Kristi, because after that, most of it is small stuff.
63. My mother kicked cancer's ass.
64. Gracelyn's name came to me in a dream.
65. I don't think I will have a son because I can't visual it.
66. I want to continue with the Y in my daughter's names so Kirstyn is up next - Kirstyn Keith - isn't that cute?
67. My husband does not want to name any children with the letter K.
68. My husband and I met online.......he wooed me with words.
69. It irks me when people ask if I really like Elvis that much to name my daughter Graceland.
70. I do, however, love Elvis.
71. I grew up on the music of Elvis, the Beatles, Alabama, Dan Folgerberg, Barry Manilow and John Denver.
72. I still LOVE most but my favorite is Barry Manilow.
73. I am in the extras scenes with Adam Sandler in "Anger Management."
74. I saw Barry Manilow in person at the Rosie O'Donnell show in NYC.
75. I had front row seats for Weird Al Yankovic at Chicago's Navy Pier.
76. Gracie has listened to music since before she was born - and listened to the same lullaby CD since she was about 6 months old.
77. I am so addicted to it that I longed for it when I spent the night away from her in Chicago.
78. When Grace and I went down to see Ryan's parents without him for Christmas, he played the CD when he was alone at night.
79. Chipper was named because we love baseball so much.
80. When we picked him out of the pound in Sparta, he also pranced around the other cages, flaunting the fact that he was going to a home.
81. Pepper was free, but hasn't been since we brought her home.
82. Pepper's favorite spots to lay down are in the thresholds of doorways. Pretty inconvenient for anyone else since she's 125 lbs.
83. Because Ryan's been so busy covering the governor, my students knew I bought a Wii before he did ... and they told him.
84. Ryan doesn't feel it necessary that I share about myself/my family/him as I teach.
85. It's my favorite part of why I do what I do.
86. I got a B in my final semester English class at EIU because although I had A+ papers, I didn't have any class participation.
87. My professor told me if I spoke up in my final class, he would give me the A. I took the B. Chicken? Yep.
88. I got over that as soon as I started teaching and realized that I was pretty fun.
89. I now have people ask me to please be quiet.
90. I have all the seasons of "Friends," "Gilmore Girls," "Seinfeld," and "The Simpsons" so far, but really want "Growing Pains" & "Moonlighting."
91. My favorite book/novel/play to teach is Shakespeare's Hamlet.
92a. Oprah gave me a Kindle.
92b. Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.
93. I love the movie "Steel Magnolias." I almost thought about the name Shelby, but I wanted something more unique.
94. I have watched "Days of Our Lives" off and on since Bo & Hope first met.
95. I love Tagalongs Girl Scout Cookies.
96. During the year that someone tainted GSC with some metal, I couldn't sell them for anything!
97. I took that personally.
98. I need to clean out my closet.
99. I did not complete this list in one sitting.
100. I applaud you if you're still reading...and clap wildly if you find it remotely entertaining or interesting.
101. I think Rose Dunphy (a former student) is hilarious and wish I could claim some credit for her success.
102. I have former students in almost every section of the world who still want to have contact with me.
103. I have former students who definitely do not want to still have contact with me.
104. I have former students who have scared the bejesus out of me and hope they don't know where I live today or hold grudges that they have invented.
105. I think Steve Carell is a comic genius.
106. I also like Seth Meyers but miss Amy Poehler on SNL.
107. I recently met Jessica English from WICS and she wasn't very personable to me or my students.
108. I think anything can be a lesson taught in an English class.
109. I do not like it when people who know nothing about education tell me how to teach my class. It's not like I'm walking into any law firms instructing anyone how to prosecute the case....although if you're interested, I do have ideas...
110. I love parents who LOVE their kids, but give them the freedom to make mistakes.
111. I do not love parents who SMOTHER their kids.
112. I do not love parents who shelter their kids thinking they are saving their kids when they are in fact harming them - although I understand the impulse.
113. I do not love parents who do not know their kids.
114. I hope Gracie and any other subsequent children trust their Aunt Julie as their "cool aunt to tell stuff to" because then she will tell me.
115. I have tons of different ideas, usually at the same time, that I cannot prioritize them.
116. I think people's bodies grow up after high school, but most of their minds stay the same.
117. I love romantic comedies - the cheesier the better.
118. I hate horror films - only one I watched recently was Salvage because a former student had a lead in it and it debuted at Sundance - and I even fast forwarded to just his parts so I wouldn't be scared.
119. I love thrillers.
120. While living in NYC, I saw over 30 Broadway and off-Broadway productions and at least 100 movies within weeks of their release - and I loved every minute of it.
121. I am a trained photographer from the International Center of Photography in NYC.
122. I was planning to be on the top of the World Trade Center towers on 9-11.
123. I wanted to live in NYC because of David Letterman's set.
124. I believe in answered prayers - it's how I explain my husband and daughter.
125. I believe in unanswered prayers - it's how I know my sister is not suffering any more.
126. I love to watch sports and am thrilled that my family supports my lack of ability in playing them.
127. I wish I had my master's degree already and dread paying for it.
128. I wish I had the ability to heal people's hearts with one touch.
129. I love when I'm the only one awake in the house, but it does make me sleepy.
130. My right hand tingles when I have a cold coming on.
131. I have never broken a bone.
132. I have only stayed overnight as a patient in the hospital when I was pregnant.
133. I love teaching Journalism - it's what I wanted to teach in the first place when I graduated from college 13 years ago.
134. My husband knows more about it than me. :(
135. As soon as I complete this list, I will think of another 150 in 24 hours.
136. I will probably not post them, however....probably not.
137. I have taken a photograph that numerous photography scholars in NYC told me would sell thousands of copies...and yet, I've done nothing with it.
138. I joined Eastern Illinois University's honors program so I could register early (with the athletes) and take overload classes (like photography) for free. Then I dropped the program.
139. I was president of my dorm in college.
140. I ran for president so I could move in earlier than the others and not have to bring my stuff up 9 floors worth of stairs.
141. I lived in the same dorm room for four years...with three different roommates.
142. I was a relatively normal sized child until my parents got divorced.
143. I feel in some ways like I raised my sister Julie...and I mix up her name with my daughter's a lot.
144. I think many people who share the same first name have similar traits...which makes it very difficult to pick out baby names.
145. I did not originally like the switch to the new facebook, but it has grown on me....and I like to stalk people on here.
146. My husband likes to grill so much he wants to open a restaurant that has only grills in it and call it "Grill This."
147. I like clever restaurant names - like "Wok This Way" and "Batter Up" for a bakery - don't steal that one - it's the title of a pastry shop in my first screenplay.
148. I've written a screenplay - it's a romantic comedy set around the baseball diamond.
149. It's not very good.
150. I love you and thank you for your time.