100 Questions Meme

Stolen from Dave.

1.ONE OF YOUR SCARS, HOW DID YOU GET IT?
I have a tiny pinprick on the side of my nose from an ill-fated nostril piercing

2. WHAT IS ON THE WALLS IN YOUR ROOM?
I assume my bedroom…Mike is installing two shelves to display our wedding flotsam

3. WHAT DOES YOUR CELL PHONE LOOK LIKE?
It looks like a llama. Jeez, it just looks like a regular phone. What the hell is that question?

4. WHAT MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO?
Lots of different things, but not country or R&B

5. DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME YOU WERE BORN?
2:22 AM! On 12-20 after 22 hours of labor. Amazing!

6. WHAT DO YOU WANT MORE THAN ANYTHING RIGHT NOW?
I’m going to second Dave’s answer and say, “To worry less about money.”

7. WHO DO YOU MISS?
My students…I’ll be worrying about one in particular this weekend.

8.WHAT'S YOUR MIDDLE NAME?
Mary. How very Catholic!

9. THE BEST TV SHOW EVER CREATED:
House, baby.

10. THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO?
Mike

11. DO YOU GET SCARED IN THE DARK?
Of course, the dark contains murderers.

12. THE LAST PERSON TO MAKE YOU CRY?
Those people that created the Duracell commercial where the boy is playing basketball and collapses and they need to get out the defibrillator. Bastards!

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOGNE / PERFUME?
I’m enjoying the stuff I use now. It’s just from the Gap and it’s called “So Pink.” I’m cheap about perfume. I’m not sure Mike would notice if it was cheap or pricey anyway.

14. WHAT KIND OF HAIR/EYE COLOR DO YOU LIKE ON THE OPPOSITE SEX?
I don’t really have a preference.

15. WOULD YOU RATHER BE SMART OR FUNNY?
Funny…being funny breaks down barriers. Being smart puts them up.

16. COFFEE OR ENERGY DRINKS?
Does Mountain Dew count as an energy drink?

17. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PIZZA TOPPING?
Tacos!

18. IF YOU CAN EAT ANYTHING RIGHT NOW, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Taco pizza. I’m so starving…

19. WHO IS THE LAST PERSON YOU MADE MAD?
Mike, because he spent all day an hour from home and forgot his inhaler. I worry about his asthma ever since our trip to Urgent Care.

20. DO YOU SPEAK ANOTHER LANGUAGE?
Spanglish!

21. WHAT WAS THE FIRST GIFT SOMEONE EVER GAVE YOU?
Life. Thanks, Mom!

22. DO YOU LIKE SOMEONE?
Sure!

23. ARE YOU DOUBLE JOINTED?
I wish I was.

24. FAVORITE CLOTHING BRAND?
Anything that’ll show off my amazing, albeit large, behind.

25. WHAT'S YOUR DREAM CAR?
One that didn’t have a big dent in the side, like mine.

26. WHAT COLOR IS IT?
Orange

27. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE KIND OF EXERCISE?
Hiking

28. WOULD YOU FALL IN LOVE KNOWING THAT THE PERSON IS LEAVING?
I don’t think I could help myself.

29. WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO TELL SOMEONE HOW MUCH THEY MEAN TO YOU?
Verbally.

30. SAY A NUMBER FROM ONE TO A HUNDRED:
Four.

31. BLONDES OR BRUNETTES?
Redheads

32. WHAT IS THE ONE NUMBER YOU CALL OFTEN?
My parents…I no longer call Mike much since we live together

33. WHAT ANNOYS YOU MOST?
Ants

34. HAVE YOU BEEN OUT OF THE U.S.?
Yeah. CANADA RULES!

35. YOUR WEAKNESSES?
Food, completely.

36. TATER TOTS OR FRIES?
Fries!

37. FIRST JOB?
Other than babysitting, working in a video store. It sucked.

38. EVER PRANK CALLED SOMEONE?
I don’t think so.

39. WHAT WERE YOU DOING BEFORE YOU FILLED OUT THIS?
Wandering the internet.

40. IF YOU COULD GET PLASTIC SURGERY WHAT WOULD IT BE?
I don’t know…but I would like my appendix out.

41. WHY DID YOU FILL OUT THIS SURVEY?
Dave said I would.

42. WHAT DO YOU GET COMPLIMENTED ABOUT MOST?
My sense of humor.

43. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF ALCOHOL BECAME ILLEGAL?
Not much, actually.

44. WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY?
Jewelry, preferably something cheap so I won’t get robbed for it. But something sterling silver, colorful, and utterly funky would be great.

45. HOW MANY KIDS DO YOU WANT?
1.5

46. WHERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
My name was chosen by process of elimination. It was the name that both my parents hated the least.

47. DO YOU WISH ON STARS?
Not anymore

48. WHICH FINGER[S] IS YOUR FAVORITE?
The pointer finger is always a trouper.

49. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY?
The last time that damn Duracell commercial came on.

50. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
Sometimes, until I compare it to someone else’s. Then I always hate it.

51. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
I like yogurt for lunch.

52. ANY BAD HABITS?
Procrastination, for sure.

53. WHAT IS YOUR MOST EMBARRASSING CD ON THE SHELF?
Vanilla Ice. Yeah.

54. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
I don’t think so…we’d both be too shy to talk to one another.

55. HAVE YOU EVER TOLD A SECRET YOU SWORE NOT TO TELL?
I don’t think so.

56. DO LOOKS MATTER?
To an extent…I’ve dated some pretty unique-looking guys, but I couldn’t date someone that I couldn’t bear to look at.

57. HOW DO YOU RELEASE YOUR ANGER?
Repression.

58. WHERE IS YOUR SECOND HOME?
My office, I guess.

59. DO YOU TRUST OTHERS EASILY?
Not really.

60. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TOY AS A CHILD?
My Little Ponies. I had a ton of those things.

61. HOW MANY NUMBERS ARE IN YOUR CELL PHONE?
45.

62. DO YOU USE SARCASM?
Sarcasm is my bitch.

63. DO YOU KNOW ANYONE FAMOUS?
Not really. Although some of my students are pretty infamous.

64. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN A MOSH PIT?
Nope

65. WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A GUY/GIRL?
Kindness

66. WHAT ARE YOUR NICKNAMES?
I don’t really have any

67. HOW MANY PAIRS OF SHOES DO YOU HAVE?
Not many shoes, but I love sandals

68. DO YOU UN-TIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Nope!

69. WHERE YOU UPSET ABOUT STEVE IRWIN DYING?
Not greatly upset, but sad in a general way.

70. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?
Strawberry or cheesecake

71. ARE YOU LAZY?
Yeah…see question 68

72. WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE COLORS?
Orange, blue, and yellow

73. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BAND?
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers…they’ve been around so long that they have an album to fit any mood.

74. HOW MANY WISDOM TEETH DO YOU HAVE?
None. I miss them!

75. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS?
Everyone!

76. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
Mike and the TV

77. LAST THING YOU ATE?
Those little pumpkins that are made of candy corn material

78. LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
Mike, asking me to bring his inhaler to him as soon as he pulled up to the house.

79. WHATS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ON THE OPPOSITE SEX?
How cocky they are.

80. FAVORITE THOUGHT PROVOKING SONG:
“She Talks to Angels” by the Black Crowes.

81. FAVORITE THING TO HATE:
Republicans.

82. FAVORITE DRINK:
Alcoholic? Amaretto Sour. Non-alcoholic? Slurpees.

83. FAVORITE ZODIAC SIGN
Mine, I guess. Sagittarius.

84. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SPORT?
Grade-school floor hockey.

85. WHAT IS YOUR HAIR COLOR?
Natrually? Sandy brown. Right now? Auburn.

86. EYE COLOR?
Bluish.

87. DO YOU WEAR GLASSES?
Yeah.

88. SIBLINGS?
One brother and one sister, both younger.

89. FAVORITE MONTH(s)
May, since it’s just starting to get warm and you have the whole summer to look forward to.

90. DO YOU LIKE SUSHI?
No, I hate all swimming food.

91. LAST THING YOU WATCHED?
Trick My Truck. It’s so awesome! It’s like Pimp My Ride but for semis! And it’s on the County Music Channel, so everyone’s a redneck! I love that show!

92. FAVORITE DAY OF THE YEAR?
Last day of school. The teachers are just hilarious.

93. ARE YOU TOO SHY TO ASK SOMEONE OUT?
Oh yeah.

94. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Summer, always.

95. KISSES OR HUGS?
Kisses from Mike, hugs from everyone else.

96. RELATIONSHIPS OR ONE-NIGHT STANDS?
Relationships…I couldn’t handle a one-night stand.

97. WHO IS THE MOST LIKELY TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS?
Maybe Dykewife.

98. WHO IS THE LEAST LIKELY TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS?
Mike.

99. Create your own question! Whoo!

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE EXPRESSION?

Lately at work I’ve been a big fan of, “I’m done,” as in, “They’re putting the school on lockdown again? Oh for the love. I’m done.”

100. IS ANYONE IN LOVE WITH YOU?
He’d better be!

The Story of Juneau

After my last entry fooltoworry asked if I worked at an alternative high school. Nope. Believe it or not, everything I write about happens in a plain ol' public high school. Sometimes it amazes me, and I wonder what the alternative high schools are like.

I put a footnote in my last entry that we wound up keeping Dreamer and re-naming her Juneau. Like most things, it wasn't a simple process.

We had Dreamer for awhile. We took her because a friend of mine found her but couldn't keep her, and the Illinois shelters were full. I took her certain that if we couldn't find a friend to take her in, we could at least give her to one of the nicer shelters in the area. Unfortunately we were told that because the cat was abandoned instead of ours she was technically a stray and would be sent to Animal Control instead of to a nice humane society. We weren't crazy about the idea of handing her over to them, so we hung onto her and tried to pass her off onto one of our friends.

We were keeping her in a seperate room away from the other cats and also away from Mike so he wouldn't get too attached. Mike is a softie and would fall in love with her if she spent any time with him. Unfortunately, Dreamer had other ideas. During the night she started somehow opening the door to her room and mingling with the other cats. After a few nights this way it was clear that she enjoyed being out and didn't have any problems with the other cats. I figured that she didn't need to be seperated anymore, but this meant that she was in contact with Mike, and an attachment began to form.

We had a couple of good prospects for homes for Dreamer but they didn't work out. However, we came close enough that Mike got a good idea of what it would feel like to have Dreamer leave. He didn't like it too much. After those few leads dried up he informed me that we should consider Dreamer to be ours semi-permanently, and that we should also give her a new name.

The name was a sticky issue since I knew that once we named her she'd be ours. That's why you never name foster animals or farm animals you intend to eat...a name makes them your pet. We hadn't been calling her Dreamer since we both hated that name. I had begun calling her Daydream Believer after the old Monkees song, and then branched out to refer to her as Sleepy Jean and Homecoming Queen. After she was out and mingling with the others, Mike referred to her as "the new cat," but I deliberately called her "the intern" to emphasize her status as temporary. However, he wanted a new name for her and left me the responsibility to come up with one. I think he thought that I'd be more enthusiastic about the idea if I was the one to name her.

I thought for a long time before settling on Juneau. It was a historical name, which satisfied the history buff in me, but is was also the name of one of Milwaukee's founding fathers, which appealed to the Milwaukeephile in Mike. Once Mike got her a collar and a tag I knew she was ours for keeps.

Recently we got a few offers to take Juneau but Mike wasn't too enthused about them. One was a co-worker who lives in Chicago, but her long hours would keep her from spending too much time with Juneau. Another was my friend Marc who was looking for a cat to replace his girlfriend's cat who recently ran away, but Mike didn't want to give Juneau to someone we wouldn't see regularly. My mom's dog Tess was recently diagnosed with lymphatic cancer and will probably die within the next six or eight weeks, and after that she might want Juneau. Mike is okay with that since we'd be able to see Juneau whenever we visited.

Five cats really is too many, and so we'll give Juneau away when we find the right home. If we find the right home. Someday.

Ugh...

This morning was quite the ordeal.

It started out at 4:45, which is about 45 minutes before I'm supposed to gain consciousness. I was laying in bed, pretty much immobilized since Juneau* was laying against my left side, Mike was laying against my right side, and Rusty was laying on my chest. There wasn't a bit of wiggle room, and I tried to get back to sleep flat on my back with my arms straight down at my sides.

After the alarm woke me from my dozing I ran into the bathroom and got dressed. I shivered the entire time because we turned down the heat. Yesterday we got our gas and electric bill, and it was painful. Our electric company has this deal where they estimate your engergy use at the beginning of the year and you pay that estimate in installments so each bill is the same instead of having small bills some months and large bills in other months. At the end of the year you pay the difference if you used more than what they estimated, and you get credited if you use less. Well, the energy company's estimate was low, so we have to pay the difference. That difference is over $400. So the heat has been dialed down and my goosebumps have been popping up.

While I was getting dressed I managed to break my glasses. The screw that holds on the left arm fell out. I abandoned the glasses and blessed the instinct that told me to hang onto my disposable contacts. I put the contacts in, and while I was rummaging around looking for an old pair of glasses I found my eyeglass repair kit. Since I was now running late I grabbed the pieces of my glasses and the kit and dashed out the door.

It was freezing outside. I had to scrape the frost off my car, which made me even later. As I drove I tried to remember how my insurace works with glasses. It covers new glasses or contacts every two years, and the last time I got glasses it was in April 2005. I wondered if I had to wait until April 2007, or if I could get new glasses as soon as the year turned over. I also tried to remember what my deductible was...pretty soon Mike will have to go in to the pulmonologist for some tests and I might have to go see a doctor as well, so medical bills have been looming pretty large in my mind lately.

I thought all my bad luck was over, but then this afternoon something happened that made me realize how petty all that complaining was. I found out that another one of our students died. I think it was suicide. If so, that makes the third suicide and the fourth death this year, and it's only October. Some days it just doesn't pay to get up.





* I'm not sure if I ever really mentioned it, but we wound up keeping Dreamer, and we re-named her Juneau.

Wedding Photos

I know I haven't been too good at providing wedding photos. I was hoping to use the ones the photographer took, but he's being slower than I thought. So here are some photos, mostly taken by my sister, up on my Flickr account. Maybe once I get the photographer's photos I'll put more on and re-post the link.

Enjoy!

What a lovely weekend

This weekend has been the best one in a long time. Well...the second-best. Last weekend was pretty outstanding.

This weekend Mike and I didn't do much but putter around the apartment. It's been so relaxing. We did some laundry and grocery shopping, cleaned, and did some projects around the apartment. I've learned that the sudden increase in Mike's tool population means that more tools will be employed for each project. You know that old saying, when you have a hammer everything looks like a nail? Well, when you have a hammer, two drills, a miter box, a rivet gun, an electric screwdriver, a Dremel, and who-knows-what-else, each task looks like a full-scale project. It's not that he over-uses his tools, he just uses the exact tool for each task. Me, if I can't find the hammer, I'll willingly attempt to drive nails with newspapers, shoes, or cans of soup.

I found out today that my cousin is engaged. No date has been set yet, but I'm really looking forward to the wedding. When I was single, every wedding I attended was filled with relatives asking about my love life or trying to hook me up. When I was engaged, every wedding consisted of people asking how it would compare to the one I was planning. Now I just want to go and eat and dance without being self-conscious.

Speaking of not self-conscious...one of the wedding presents I got was a thick, handmade fleece blanket. It was made this way, except that it's made with two layers of fleece and the knots hold the two layers together instead of just finishing the edge on one layer. If that doesn't make sense, I can post a picture. Anyway, it's incredibly warm, and I've taken to wearing it around the apartment. Sometimes I wear it like a shawl, over my shoulders, but sometimes I wrap it around my chest below my armpits, like a sheath dress. I probably look quite eccentric, but it's too damn cold to worry about how I look. I'll just scurry into the bedroom and let Mike answer the door if someone comes over.

I wish shawls would become stylish again. Some on, the 1890s look has to come back into style sometime!

So yeah. It was a weekend of not much of anything. But it was just what I needed.