100 things about me...

Since I think in lists these days, here's me, in 100 items.

1. That's me in the picture.
2. That sweater was formerly parked at my desk chair in my corporate job. It's what you use when you're inevitably cold every day at work, and rarely leaves. Everyone seems to have one.
3. I was born and raised in Lynchburg, Virginia. It's a lovely town.
4. I have a beagle named Colonel Mustard. He's a pain, but cute.
5. I feel sorry for the lone bananas that aren't part of a bunch at the grocery store. I buy them because I'm worried they won't find a good home.
6. I have lived in only one state - but I've lived in Virginia, Georgia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. That's a riddle.
7. I have entirely too much knowledge of random trivia. Trivial Pursuit stands no chance with me.
8. I write another blog, which is anonymous and I won't reveal intentionally on here.
9. My writing is done on an Apple Macbook Pro. Love it.
10. I love clothes - it was hard to give up the shopping habit.
11. I can not stand Broccoli, or even the smell of it.
12. Art supply stores are like DisneyWorld to me. I could spend forever in one.
13. I have a HUGE family.
14. I'm the shortest one of all my brothers and sisters.
15. I once lived in a fraternity house.
16. I once lived in a sorority house.
17. I knew I wanted to be an artist when I was two years old.
18. My grandmother taught me 80% of my art education.
19. My mom was a photographer and my dad wanted to be an architect for a long time. Creativity runs deep.
20. If I'm nervous on a date, I talk incessantly.
21. I'm trying to eat more locally and organically.
22. I love the Reading Terminal Market.
23. Most of my college friends are married with children, but I'm not aching for it, I for some reason always knew that I'd be married late.
24. If I never get married or have kids, I genuinely feel my life is still complete.
25. I love antique stores.
26. I watch Nightline and Oprah almost every day.
27. I knew I COULD be an artist when I was 9. My grandmother took me to see the Wyeth museum in Chadd's Ford, Pennsylvania, I looked at a painting that Jamie Wyeth did of a pig and thought "I can do that!"
28. I have made out with two random, minor celebrities. One famous, one infamous.
29. I can not take decent photographs to save my life.
30. Foreign languages befuddle me.
31. I knew that I needed to leave the corporate world while reading Chapter 27 of "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I was in Independence Park in Philadelphia.
32. I get annoyed by Rachael Ray, but I have this gut feeling that she's a nice person that if I knew, I'd be really good friends with.
33. I am not religious. I was part of a more evangelical Presbyterian church until college, but left because I felt like I was constantly feeling the need to prove my faith.
34. I AM spiritual. My beliefs come closest to that of Taoist Philosophy.
35. I see the shrink. It works.
36. I come across as a pessimist, but my core is an optimist - to the point where I've been told by bosses and the shrink to cut it out.
37. I am very close with my mother, we talk about once a week. She's heard secrets about me that no mom hears about her daughter.
38. I was not as moved by the Sistine Chapel as I thought I would be. It was August, 95 degrees, crowded and smelled like a lack of deodorant.
39. I WAS incredibly moved by St Peter's Basilica. It is genuinely a sacred place, even if you are not of that faith.
40. I once met Dave Matthews in an airport while waiting for a flight. His wife was just about the sweetest thing I'd ever met, and they were delighted to meet a fellow Virginian apparently.
41. I am scared of the dark.
42. I am even more terrified of trains. When I rode the train to work, I was constantly terrified that someone would dash for the train and get hit, and I don't even like seeing trains now. I think it has something to do with Virginia Drivers' Education videos, which work by showing train vs car and train vs pedestrian accidents in gruesome detail, thereby scaring you into looking both ways at least 523 times before crossing.
43. I have lots of DVD's. I love watching movies, but I'm lately very unlikely to have 2 hours of uninterrupted time.
44. I have a minor girl-crush on Carrie Underwood. She's just so pretty and nice-looking that I just want to be her friend.
45. I once was almost a size 10.
46. I am now smaller than most stores' size 0.
47. I love running.
48. I cried when Sex and the City ended.
49. I gave up my car in November of 2007. I still own it, but don't drive it.
50. I'm trying to be more green.
51. I am STAUNCHLY pro-choice.
52. I am a feminist and I don't believe "feminist" should ever be a bad word.
53. I love going to baseball games, but only because you get to sit outside with boys and booze on a nice summer day.
54. I love Shiner Bock Beer. I can't get it in Philly.
55. I discovered meditation in January. It's like a drug.
56. I can't pick a favorite color - it's the combination of more than one that I find beautiful.
57. My younger brother and I have gotten closer as I've gotten older. It's nice.
58. It is entirely possible that at any given time, I may not even know what country my sister is in.
59. I hated coffee for the first 24 years of my life. I went to Italy and fell in love with it.
60. My friend Celeste is by far the coolest friend I never thought I'd have. We're completely different but she and I were fated to be close friends.
61. I have about a billion embarrassing stories. Want to tell them? Start your own blog. Kidding, I'll probably tell them.
62. I've had surgery on my nose twice for horrible sinus and ear problems.
63. I am NOT a hugger. I hug about 11 people in the world. Unless you have seen me naked or have been a shoulder I've cried on, I don't want to hug you.
64. I don't think I've ever completed a to-do list in my entire life.
65. I have an MBA and use more of it than you'd think as an artist.
66. My Dad once thought the song "City of New Orleans" was written about him, as he met Arlo Guthrie in a New Orleans bar before Guthrie recorded it and had a long conversation with him that involved things in the song.
67. I am trying to break my habit of writing run-on sentences.
68. I won the spelling bee in 5th grade. I placed 7th in the regional bee, but I felt bad because the kid who lost to me looked really really sad when I won.
69. I talk too much.
70. My hair grows very fast, is very thick and is naturally blonde. I won the genetic hair lottery.
71. I get told that I look like Sarah Michelle Gellar and Kristin Bell. I don't see either resemblance.
72. I once dated a guy who looked exactly like John F. Kennedy Jr. I think I put up with his crap more than I would have normally simply because we agreed our children would be incredibly beautiful. Yes, I'm vain.
73. I tend to go for manly men. No, not meatheads. They disgust me.
74. I have no idea what the price of gas is right now. It's the beauty of being a vehicle-less citizen.
75. I usually don't like any of my artwork when I'm finished with it. I have no emotional attachment to any of it and would rather give it away if I didn't have to pay the rent.
76. I get nervous if I run low on ranch dressing.
77. I never get tired of pizza.
78. I love Philadelphia Cheesesteaks from Jim's or Pat's.
79. I have one tattoo, it's a cursive letter L on my left wrist, for my cousin Laura. She was killed in a car accident on Christmas Eve of 2003.
80. I pierced my belly button when I was drunk on spring break in 2000.
81. My youngest brothers are some of the coolest people I've ever met.
82. I think I'm allergic to chewing gum.
83. I clip coupons.
84. I don't like children whose parents I don't know.
85. I'm a Red Sox fan.
86. I can't seem to make a cell phone last longer than a year or so.
87. My grandmothers are by far the two coolest women I've ever met.
88. I rode a bicycle across the state of Iowa - twice.
89. I'd love to live in Manhattan once.
90. I don't regret much of anything, but I wonder where my life would be if I had made a different decision all the time. Not the big decisions like career, marriage, etc, more like "what if I had ordered the salmon that day in 1999?" or "what if I hadn't given that guy my phone number?"
91. I briefly dated a guy who was born in the Johnson administration. It still scares me.
92. I love the art museum on an early wednesday morning. It's quiet and the weather always seems to be lovely.
93. My parents split up when I was 6. I still remember every word of the conversation, what I was wearing, and where I was sitting when my parents told us.
94. I've been in a LOT of weddings, but I love them. I know I'll never wear the dress again, but it's fun to see everyone dressed up and having fun.
95. I was a debutante.
96. I love bread and oil and balsamic vinegar.
97. Paige Premium Denim is a gift from God to my body.
98. I am actively trying to not be annoyed by people.
99. I have a huge crush on Jamie Oliver.
100. If I could meet any person in the world, it'd be Dolly Parton. I could die a happy girl if I met her.