Miles from Fenway: 100 MORE Things About Me

I really felt like writing tonight, but couldn't come up with any one concrete topic. So here it is folks, 100 MORE things you totally didn't need to know about me. Enjoy.

1. I love the way old books smell.
2. I once snuck into the batting cages of the Atlanta Braves Spring Training camp.
3. I love old buildings with character; you know, chair rails, original moldings, etc.
4. One day I want to have a house with a wrap around porch, a window seat, and built in bookshelves.
5. Recently, I've been writing a lot more non-fiction. Turns out I'm much better at that than I ever was at fiction.
6. I don't explore Brooklyn as much as I should.
7. I once slammed my little brother's fingers in a car door. He was like 4. The terrible part is that I didn't really feel all that bad about it.
8. The snooze button was one of the worst inventions ever for me. I hit the damn thing for at least an hour before I actually get up.
9. I always have to make it cold enough in my room so that when I go to sleep I can snuggle under the covers.
10. Two years later and I still miss my grandmother every day.
11. There are few things as satisfying as a pop-up slide after a successful steal attempt.
12. I'm the kind of person that if you hurt me, I'll forgive you, but fuck with someone I care about and I swear to God it's over.
13. When I was in high school straight on through college whenever I was upset or just needed to be alone to I would always go to Colt State Park in Bristol to calm down.
14. No one, and I mean no one, can push my buttons like my mother.
15. I've got a lot more insecurities than I will ever let on about.
16. When I was 5 my sister Kara was stillborn. This affected me a lot more than I thought it would.
17. I am the furthest thing from a coffee snob you could possibly find. It could be sludge, but if it has caffeine in it, I'm happy drinking it.
18. When I was a kid I had this great pair of roller skates that were white with purple wheels and had pink, purple, and I believe blue rainbow type stripes on them. Sometimes I fantasize about finding an adult sized pair and skating around NYC in them.
19. Somehow I adopted a cat that is exactly like me. She's hyperactive, completely neurotic, is a total klutz, and is afraid of heights.
20. A subscription to the New Yorker was too much for me to handle. I just couldn't keep up with it if I ever wanted to read anything OTHER than that magazine. I see this as a personal failure of sorts.
21. I really love hurricanes. I remember the few that passed through RI when I was a kid and sitting with my dad on our porch watching them.
22. I get into food ruts. I'll eat the same thing over and over and over and then one day get so sick of it I won't eat it again for months. Right now it's turkey and brie sandwiches with honey mustard.
23. I spend too much time on the internet.
24. I am absolutely horrible at remembering names.
25. Cranberries make me gag but for some reason I really love Crasins.
26. A good hug, the kind you just melt into and don't want to get out of, can cure almost anything.
27. I am, by far, the most ticklish person you know.
28. When I write, I tend to use the computer, but I really REALLY love the way a good pen's ink flows onto paper.
29. To this day whenever I go into a swimming pool I will always do handstands like I did when I was a kid.
30. I don't know how to drive a stick.
31. My mind runs away with me sometimes, focusing on one particular issue in my life and not allowing room for anything else.
32. The only points I had deducted on my driving test were when I didn't put on my blinker to pull over to the curb and park. We were in an empty parking lot.
33. I got the exact same score on my verbal SATs as I did on my math. This shocked no one more than me. These days I need a calculator to add two numbers together.
34. Even though I played the clarinet for something like three years, I still can't read sheet music.
35. For some reason I am really anal about the toilet paper having to roll off the top not the bottom.
36. I take absolutely no stock in a persons "sign"
37. I am much better at written communication than I am at verbal.
38. I can't wait to live on my own. I love my roommates and all, but I am completely done with living with other people.
39. I fantasize sometimes about moving to random places all over the country and then realize that I could never live more than a 4 hour drive from my family.
40. I am absolutely using this post as a way to distract myself. I should be doing a thousand other things at the moment.
41. My curly hair used to annoy the hell out of me. I absolutely love it now.
42. I've sprained both ankles so many times I can pop them both in and out at will.
43. I take a really sick satisfaction from popping zits.
44. I didn't own a two piece bathing suit until I was 22 if that tells you anything about how confident I am in my own body.
45. I've got a girl crush on Kiera Knightley.
46. I'm completely addicted to myspace.
47. I'm a closet hopeless romantic who completely falls into bad chick flicks and even worse chick lit.
48. Somehow 25 doesn't seem anywhere near being grown up to me.
49. I laugh at just about anything.
50. I consistently think of ways to improve myself and then keep putting them off. For example: going to graduate school, quitting smoking, and starting to exercise again.
51. One of the best presents I ever got was a first edition of my favorite book.
52. I absolutely refuse to chicken out of my plan to go skydiving for my birthday.
53. I didn't realize until recently how scarred I was from previous relationships.
54. When I am sad, instead of avoiding songs that make it worse, I listen to them obsessively.
55. My favorite color rose is yellow.
56. I'm really proud of the work I've been doing since getting the new job. This is a relatively new feeling for me.
57. I read constantly and yet still don't feel like I come even close to being well-read.
58. Tanning is not an option for me, I burn, peel, and then turn the same pasty white I was before.
59. If I could get into any graduate school in the country I'd go to the University of California at Irvine.
60. I talk a pretty good game, but sometimes, that's all it is.
61. Except in certain circumstances, I can't fall asleep unless the television is on. It's a habit I got into after The Ex left to stop myself from thinking so much that I couldn't fall asleep at all.
62. I haven't seen a doctor in over two years. That doesn't mean I've been healthy for two years, just that I am stubborn and doctors scare me.
63. I'm so used to the traffic noises of New York that when I'm at home in RI everything seems eerily quiet.
64. I love the way fall smells. Like burnt leaves and school supplies.
65. My alone time is incredibly valuable to me, and if I don't get it, I start lashing out at people.
66. I fancy myself "one of the guys" but really? I'm just a girl who likes sports and doesn't wear make up. I'm still your stereotypical over-emotional, completely sentimental, likes getting dressed up 20-something female.
67. Libraries and bookstores give me an electric charge. Like I can feel all of the knowledge in them floating in the air.
68. I'm pretty short but have an average sized torso. So basically, I've just got short, stumpy legs.
69. I probably only wear about half of the clothing I own.
70. I own the first and second seasons of Moonlighting on DVD.
71. I enjoy splurging on things for my apartment more than I enjoy shopping for clothing or shoes.
72. The guilt trips my mother lays on me can stay with me for days. And she's convinced she has no affect on me. Little does she know.
73. I'm incredibly talented at lying to myself until I believe the lie.
74. Jersey sheets are my favorite.
75. Lately I've taken to cuddling with my pillows instead of using them to rest my head on.
76. My mom is right more often than I admit.
77. I hate clutter but seem to create a lot of it.
78. I love the name Sean.
79. I can tell you exactly where I was when I found out my little brother had been born. And exactly what I was doing.
80. When I was in first grade I had to draw a portrait of my family for my "All About Me" book. I left my little brother, who was less than a year at that point, out of the picture and explained it as "He’s taking a nap". Really, I was just pissed someone else was getting all the attention.
81. My bedroom walls are yellow.
82. I still don't really know what I want to be when I grow up. I love what I do. But I want to be a full-time writer. I want to be a college professor. I want to be an editor. I want to be a lot of things.
83. I have never owned a vibrator. There are many women out there who would consider this a crime of sorts.
84. I miss Newport Creamery cheese burgers: greasy, dripping, and on toast.
85. It's possible (ok, probable) that my grandmother was connected to the Providence Mafia.
86. I have a weird love for Excel spreadsheets.
87. I am terrible at taking photos but have TONS of albums filled with snapshots. It's possible I’m a little camera happy.
88. The last few weeks have utterly exhausted me.
89. I really appreciate those of you who read, lurk, comment around here. Like, more than you probably understand.
90. I once burned pasta.
91. At one of the weddings I went to recently, there was a father of two kids I used to babysit. He promptly told his girlfriend the story of when his son ran away on me and I effectively lost him. And suddenly, I became 14 years old again.
92. Sometimes I'll be walking down the street, have a memory of a particularly embarrassing or oh-damn-I-can't-believe-I-did-that memory and will visibly shudder. Even if the memory is over a decade old.
93. I eat crap food and am not ashamed to admit it.
94. My high school colors and mascot could not have been more typical-all-american-generic; Blue and Gold/Eagle
95. I've recently learned to love high heels. As long as they're comfortable. That's not easy to find.
96. I've also recently learned to love getting my nails done, if only for the massage.
97. Bugs creep me out. If I see one in my apartment I will start screaming like a five year old girl.
98. For someone who is an editor, it's ironic that I completely ignore style, grammar, and punctuation rules on this site.
99. You all now know WAY too much about me.
100. I still love the way rain smells.

Labels: misc.

posted by FINY @ Tuesday, June 13, 2006

12 Comments:

At 6/13/2006, kate.d. said…

One of the best presents I ever got was a first edition of my favorite book.

me too! breakfast of champions for me. it helps to have equally (or even greater) book-geek friends, right? :)

though i always have a little dogfight in my brain when i try to think about what my absolute favorite book is. gatsby! no, breakfast of champions! no, portrait of the artist! no, wait, what about...

so what first edition did you get? or maybe i should just go read the first 100 things about you, the answer might be right there.
At 6/13/2006, FINY said…

You know I can't even really remember what I wrote in that first 100 things about me. I hope I didn't repeat myself.

Meanwhile, LOVE Gatsby, that's right up there. And Breakfast of Champions too. But Portrait of an Artist? Oh God I really just can't get on board with Joyce.

Mine is The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker. It's a first edition that probably means very little to anyone other than me, but that almost makes it that much better.
At 6/14/2006, Esther said…

I have the same problem with cranberries and also love craisins. I'm convinced it's because they taste like sugar. On a side note you'll be so proud that I think as I sit here (before 9:00am at work) that I'm still a bit drunk from last night.
At 6/14/2006, Ari said…

Hey,

Some great thinks in there, COLT STATE PARK. Wheneve ri was in a pissed off mood I would go there just to watch the kites and sit by the water and watch the clammers. The other place I used to go was in Bristol right by RWU on Old Ferry Road under neath the mount hope bridge. I could just sit there for hours throwing shit into the bay watching the boats pass by.
At 6/14/2006, BklynSoxFan said…

Great stuff, FiNY. Once agin you inspire me, and my own 100 Things About Me is coming soon on my blog. (And you will be properly credited as well.)
At 6/14/2006, kate.d. said…

ah, well, my M.A. has a concentration in irish lit, so joyce could not be avoided :) and really, both he and yeats (who i really, really, really wrote too many pages on in my academic career) are fascinating people and incredible talents. they were also impossibly arrogant, self-centered, and all the other obnoxious things that great male writers can be. but in a way, that's what makes reading them all the more interesting. there are times when i'd like to just slam joyce against a wall with a forearm to his throat, and tell him to stop being such an insufferable ass. but then he writes things like,

Stephen lent an avid ear. Words which he did not understand he said over and over to himself till he had learned them by heart: and through them he had glimpses of the real world about him.

and i can't hate him. in fact, i have to be this strange, slightly ambivalent joyce advocate :) so if you've never pushed your way through portrait, i highly recommend it! there's so much in there that makes it a worthwhile endeavor.
At 6/14/2006, Chief Slacker said…

Ok, so it might not help you learn to drive stick, bag Kiera Knightley or a guy named Sean, but you know have something to write about:

Congrats on being a NEW Deputy Slacker!!!

Go forth and slack :O)
At 6/14/2006, FINY said…

esther: god I wish I could have seen that!

Ari: I used to go to a softball camp at RWU every year and we'd go down there during breaks all the time! Ah little Rhody!

Q: Can't wait to see it!

kate.d: Oh I definitely see the genius and talent that Joyce possessed, I just don't personally LIKE it, that's all.

Chief: I alrady said this over at your site, but OH.MY.GOD! So honored!!!
At 6/14/2006, Esther said…

Sorry you missed it - there was something to be said for that crazy place we called work for so long. Though me for what, a year longer? Shudder...
At 6/15/2006, Michael Leggett said…

In my planned 100, I once posed as a High School Sports Reporter, & got access to Team USA under Bobby Winkles, then Baseball Coach of AZ State, @ Shea Stadium, in 1972:

I got to see Shea the way Mets Fans could ONLY Dream.
At 6/15/2006, Mike said…

I set my alarm an hour earlier then I need just so I can hit the snooze button multiple times. That feeling inbetween being awake and asleep is great.

Toilet paper HAS to come over the top, the underneath method is just rediculous.
At 4/24/2007, Anonymous said…

Where did you find it? Interesting read » »