25 interesting things about me

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. If you have the time, reply to this comment and post your own "25 Things" on your blog. Why you ask? Because the weather sucks and you're a friend and I want to know more about you. Here we go:

1.) I have an interest in Japanese tea ceremony and I plan on taking a 10 week class in it (and other Japanese cultural aspects) come January at a local community college.
2.) I love jumping in elevators (or generally messing) with people who are afraid of heights.
3.) I've never been brave enough to start a food fight, but I fantasize often about throwing food in public cafeterias.
4.) I have an irrational fear of apocalyptic events thanks to the book "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. I want to learn how to shoot a bow and fence (so I can kill my enemies) and learn how to forage for food in the wild.
5.) I am a level 68 Human Mage... if you are a World of Warcraft geek, then you know what I mean.
6.) I wrote a personal essay for my mom to the MS Foundation and she won a grant to get a special wheelchair easel so she can paint again. We are looking to get her set up now.
7.) One of the reasons why I want to own a German Shepherd is because they would look so good with a Siamese Cat. The other reasons are their brains, easiness to train, loyalty and size.
8.) I am scared to go fast snowboarding but I love going fast on the Jetski or on the runway in an airplane.
9.) Even though I enjoy riding horses, I have a new respect for them since I got kicked as a kid. I tend to be timid with them and like the more docile ones. I haven't ridden in years but I would like to ride again. If horses weren't so expensive, hard to take care of, and difficult to house, I would want a half-dead mare of my own :P My aunt has my mother's saddle so if I ever wanted to ride again, I'd just ask for her tack back.
10.) After living in NYC, I hate watching dogs poop on concrete. Plus you always see these brown smudges on the sidewalk and it just grosses me out. It takes forever to wash off.
11.) I am frightened of global warming. Thanks Al Gore. Thanks a lot.
12.) I spend more time with "South Park" then most people do with their children.
13.) I think our government needs to shift toward socialism instead of capitalism.
14.) Ever since my lung collapse and Michelle's death, I've been less willing to take chances. I think people who escape death and who have seen death understand what I mean.
15.) One of the most interesting movies is "Sliding Doors" with Gwenyth Paltrow. It's about what happens when Gwen's character misses her train and a parallel story line when she makes it. Basically she finds out her boyfriend is having an affair when she makes it and she doesn't when she misses it. I find myself wondering those same "parallel stories" with the choices I make with my own life.
16.) My favorite movie is Mulan because the ending scene is a father telling his daughter how proud he is of her and how thankful he is to have her in his life.
17.) I LOVE reading art history text books and taking notes. It helps me retain the information. I'm studying cave art right now. Fascinating to think that 200+ generations of homo sapiens have come and gone from the earth since those paintings were made.
18.) The time when I feel most alive is when I am partying with my friends.
19.) I have been to all the Disney theme parks except Disney Tokyo and I hope to go to that in January. I love them!
20.) As a profession, I have considered becoming a doctor, a dancer, a yoga instructor, a dance teacher, and a photographer at some point in my past.
21.) I am anal when it comes to coloring books. I think it's important for the artist to sign the page their name and the date they completed it and I think the person should finish the page before moving on to another page. They don't have to be in order... just completed, signed and dated.
22.) Even though I struggle with math and science, I realize that reading the text book, having an open class / group discussion, and doing all of the possible homework really helps with understanding and retention.
23.) I am frightened about the current state of the economy and I may start to stockpile resources and knowledge to help me in case our society collapses. (See #4, #13)
24.) I firmly believed in the power of knocking on wood... until my uncle knocked on wood that he had never broken a bone, knocked on wood, went out to the freezer in the garage, and slipped on ice and broke his leg.
25.) When I travel, I love delving into a country's history so I can improve my chances of understanding the culture.

New Thing #75: Quilting 101

Hi everyone, It's been a while since my last post. I am sure I've done a few things since last time I was on but I will tell you what I can remember:

1.) Took a lovely walk in the snow (I know!!) and looked at all the Christmas lights!

2.) Made Chocolate Chip cookies from the Gourmet cookbook.

3.) Writing in my hand-made Christmas cards that I stamped, embossed, glitter-fied, and sequined!

4.) Made a blanket for my mom and (gasp) quilted it all by myself! Since forever I only thought there were 2 ways to baste a quilt: by hand or by "gun". But now I have discovered that they make "quilter's basting pins" They are like safety pins but slightly curved. So now, I don't feel so bad about quilting and I was able to make a Christmas present for my mom.

New Thing #74: Beautiful Venetian Lady

New Thing #73: Mud face

I put Lush's Cupcake mud mask on and it freaked me out when I looked the mirror. This is one of my lamer posts because I was sooooo stressed out at work this week with the banquet and all. But hopefully you'll forgive me :)

New Thing #73: Fundraising Banquet

Since I've been hired at the Y, I've been planning on this fundraising banquet. I've done the invitations, collected all the RSVPs, planned the table hosts role, printed and written the programs, been the photographer for the evening, ordered the flowers, talked to the the caterer, printed off nametags, and I'm sure done other stuff too. But anyways, tonight was the night. So today, I was partly in charge of making a Y fundraising banquet run smoothly. I really enjoyed it. It went very smoothly. We had about 200 people show up and hopefully everyone felt in the giving mood.

New Thing #72: 14 Hands

Kevin is in town until Thursday, so we went out to a nice dinner at a restaurant downtown we had never been to before. I went and ate dinner at Palamino. It was too expensive for this day and age but the food was very good. We had a $20 off coupon so the night only cost us like $40 with two alcoholic drinks each and entrees. I got the caesar salad and it was delicious. It reminded me of all the good times Kevin and I spent at Hard Rock Cafes around Europe. I think we went to like 10 Hard Rocks when we were craving good ole American cuisine.

New Thing #71: Are you there God? It's me Margaret.

I was paged over the Wal-mart intercom that my car was ready. I went to a Tire & Lube center to get my oil changed and when Kevin and I were shopping, I got paged that my car was ready for pick-up. It was awesome! They said my name and everything :P I've never been paged before or had my name said over a loudspeaker. Unless it was Todd asking me if the flags were finished.

New Thing #70: New Drink

I'm not much for creamy alcoholic drinks but when I was out with Kevin at Coach's (the local dive bar) I tried a mudslide. It was pretty good. By the end of the drink I was feeling a little "ugh" but it was very nice and refreshing at the beginning. We watched our videos from Ireland when he got back from Louisiana today and we drank Irish Coffees during that trip and I wanted something sort of like that but with no caffeine. It was a good night. Plus I beat Kevin 3 times at pool with still leaving at least 4 of my own balls on the table. He kept hitting the 8-ball in or scratching. Normally I'm not that bad at pool but I was the winner in either event, LOL!

New Thing #69: Chanoyu

I went to the Japanese Gardens and participated in an authentic Tea Ceremony demonstration. I had known that on the third saturday of summer months, the Japanese Garden held a tea ceremony. I came to the garden an hour-and-a-half early and walked around and the sun started to come out. All the trees were changing color and the garden was highlighted with the reds and yellows of fall. Then when the ceremony started at 2 pm, I volunteered to participate in the tea ceremony. I was one of two people picked! It was awesome. You had to pick the bowl up a certain way and bow a certain way and drink a certain way: I LOVE all that stuff. I wish Americans cared more for ritual and ceremony. Normally a tea ceremony would last four-and-a-half hours but ours took 45 minutes. We ate sweets prior to drinking the matcha tea. It was wisked until foamy and I really enjoyed the whole experience.

I am going to take this further then this post today. I invite you to do the same if the Japanese tea ceremony is something that interests you. http://www.issoantea.com/ I have a neat children's book that tells how to do it at home. But the tea ceremony (or the Chanoyu) isn't ONLY about the tea itself but rather the art of kimono, the art of flower arranging, the art of Japanese cuisine (sweets are served prior to tea), the art of calligraphy, Japanese gardens and architecture, and tea etiquette. The woman who served me the tea had been studying this for 27 years! That's so amazing.

New Thing #68: Fun with Mom

Kinda like "Fun with Dick and Jane."

I drove down and visited my mom at her home late last night. Today I picked up some Taco Bell for us and we chatted practically all day long. Among other topics, We talked about plans to cut down on expenditures for the next 6 months. It was really nice to talk to my mom about money matters.

New Thing #67: A Real Gusher

It just seems to be how my life has been going this week. I've been crying a lot lately but I've realized something very important: If shows or books or series DID NOT end, then there would never be any room for NEW wonderful creations. And I suppose, as long as it ends in a way that pleases me, then I shouldn't be sad. I should be happy because, unlike the real world, good triumphed over evil and the guy always got the girl.

But, speaking of "gushing" (with tears, emotion, etc.) my car ran out of windshield wiper fluid so I got to go to the automotive section in a store, buy more fluid, get under the hood of my car, and add more. So today's new thing is I added my own windshield wiper fluid to my car.

New Thing #66: Thai Bye

I ate dinner with Cassandra at Thai Kitchen. I had the pad thai-- it was pretty bad because I normally like pad thai. Needless to say, I'm not going to that restaurant again.

I feel like I've been coming down with something. I've been feeling listless and depressed. I took some wellness formula herbal supplements. I drank a warm cup of milk with cocoa powder and marshmallows before bed. Hopefully that will help put me to sleep. It's taken me like an hour and a half to fall asleep the past few nights.

New Thing #65: Revelation #1

I was emotionally unable to complete a new thing activity today but I realized something about myself instead that I believe should count. I just got so torn up about getting to the end of the "Avatar: The Last Airbender" series that I couldn't stop thinking about it and I lay awake tossing and turning and not feeling well the next day. I have always liked how imaginative I am: How I get so involved with books and movies, etc. I just hate how it bothers me if the story line doesn't move in a way that pleases me. I suppose that is normal with anyone. But, I feel that it especially affects my day negatively or positively depending on how the fictional plot goes. I cried when Harry Potter ended. I cried when the Pirates movies ended. Today I cried over the Avatar TV series, and I can't help asking myself "why?"

I realized that If good stories never ended then there would be no room for new stories to enjoy. And that should be consoling me because at least the ending of Avatar and Harry Potter satisfied me. And I'm always on the look out for new adventures in the Land of Make Believe.

New Thing #64: Earth, Air, Fire, Water

I watched the entire second season of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" in one day. I absolutely love it and it makes me feel so happy. But I'll be disappointed when the series ends when Aang meets the Fire Lord. UGH! I can't take the suspense.

New Thing #63: Tea con chicas

I spent a nice lazy sunday just chilling around the house doing random projects and crafts. This evening, my old roommate Katherine and her mom popped over to my apartment for tea. They were driving back to Kirkland after visiting her aunt in Albany. I served Katherine and her mom tea and showed them my apartment and we chatted about old times. It was so nice to catch up. I should get up to Washington one of these days to visit her.

New Thing #62: Hisssssss

I made a door snake to improve insulation. I bought like five pounds of red kidney beans and sewed a neat snake with button eyes and a red felt tongue. I remember growing up we had a green upholstery fabric snake that we'd use in winter and it was filled loosely enough that we could drape it over the doorknob when it wasn't put down. I remember this one time we were staying in a hotel and I was sleeping on the floor and my parents were in the bed and there was a draft under the door and someone had to jam their jacket underneath it to keep me warm. After that moment, I always regarded the friendly green door snake as a means to keep warmth in the house.

New Thing #61: Definitely, maybe

I had been meaning to do this for awhile, but for the past two nights Kevin's friend's wife has invited me over to dinner. I'd been eating over at Laura's because Larry is away hunting deer so I was busy. But it finally worked out and we met up to grab some dinner and then watched a movie ("Definitely, Maybe") and we girl talked for like two hours afterward. I went over to Jessica's house for a movie following dinner. We ate sandwiches and soup near the fire at the Pannera Bread store. Doug got home really late and I left at that point to give them some time together. It was so nice to get to know her better.

New Thing #60: Dinner party

I went over to Vanessa's house where she made me and two other friends dinner. It was a fantastic evening we talked politics mostly and that was really fun! We ate pasta and salad and cheese and drank sake and watched the Palin video on youtube about "What does the VP do?" I love having intelligent friends that have opinions and who I really enjoy hanging out with.

New Thing #59: Paper Cuts

I was asked at work to assist the Human Resources department with there filing. They have MANY filing cabinets and since they relocated to a new section of the building, their new stuff has just been piling up! So, they hired me to put all the clutter away. I have SOOO many paper cuts on my fingers from alphabetizing folders all day long. I don't mind that kind of work. It makes the day FLY by. But I feel more tired when I come home, that's for sure! Today I helped out the HR department by doing a ton of filing. I think it's going to take me 2-3 more days to get them caught up. The boxes of loose papers I am avoiding because it will be difficult to find the specific folder they have to go in... Sigh. I am very VERY thankful for the extra hours before the end of the year!

New Thing #58: Clean Coal: Fact or Fiction?

I researched clean coal technology. A good place to start is the wikipedia entry for clean coal technology.

http://www.coal-is-dirty.com/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4468076.stm

I don't really know which to believe. I mean I understand that in the clean coal making process, the coal will still create waste -- it just won't be causing global warming anymore. It will be buried underground which seems like just another way we'd be poisoning our planet and possibly our water supplies could be affected by long-term exposure to the "impurities" in the coal. (Most of this is from the Greenpeace point of view) The other thing though is that we HAVE to remove ourself from foreign oil in our manufacturing processes and our energy consumption. But I wish we would go straight to wind or solar farms rather then coal or nuclear power. And that's what I have to say about that. Please feel free to make your own conclusions and comment below.

New Thing #57: health help

I registered at my health insurance web-site to get points and awards for healthy living. Every 50,000 points, you get a $25 giftcard. I browsed the site for an hour and already earned 8,000 points just reading news feeds, message boards, and signing up for reminder emails to eat healthy and exercise. Sometimes I want to get healthier but I don't have any place to start. Sure I can browse the Food Network and get healthy recipes but sometimes choice is a problem for me. It's nice to have help laying it all out if I am feeling unable to make a decision.

New Thing #56: Yearbooked Myself

Me in 1952

Me in 1960

Me in 1968

Me in 1974

Me in 1996

I used the site Yearbook Yourself to put me in some selections of yearbook pages. You should totally try this. Word to the wise, once you save one picture, you can't scroll through the rest, so make sure you look at them all first and see which ones you like and THEN go through and start saving them. http://www.yearbookyourself.com/

New Thing #55: Bad

I "practiced" forging a signature on documents. Don't worry, purely scientific research.

New Thing #54: Another Cynthia

I went to Dante's Caffe Italiano to see my friend's coworker's band, Another Cynthia. They did pretty good. I think I've actually seen them before in NE, but I couldn't remember the name of the place. There music was very familiar to me. Then Cassandra and I went dancing at Barbati's Pan. Ugh, I'm feeling it the next morning. Blarg!

New Thing #53: Gone Baby Gone

I sold some CDs for money. I took about 30 of my CDs down to a used CD store and got rid of them. They really didn't give me very much... I got $4 for a Disturbed CD and $1 for Justin Timberlake (really!!!??) but I only got a losy total of $3 for the rest of the (doing math...) 28 give or take CDs. But now they are sitting on someone else's shelf and since they are all ripped to my iTunes library, I'm glad I got rid of them.

New Thing #52: Just a Movie

I went and watched "Burn After Reading" at the movie theater. It was a weird comedy and it was too dark for me.

New Thing #51: Why Won't You Print!???

At work, I am responsible for creating a lot of the visual design work for the Christian Principles team. For the upcoming fundraising banquet, I designed something with Adobe InDesign. It was pretty challenging for me because I've never worked with the Adobe design platforms before but it was super fun. I'm glad that the program is going to be part of my repertoire after a few more months of experimenting with its different capabilities.

New Thing #50: Ink Blot

I took the Rorschach Test. This is the test using inkblots on paper and the person taking the test tells the examiner what each blot looks like. There are 10 blots (some in black & white and some in color) and my own personal reactions to each picture. Feel free to comment with your own answers.

It looks like a star-shaped guitar.

It looks like two women with their pony-tails hanging straight up and down, reclining against something (away from each other) and looking at each other in the face.
It looks like two red lizards crawling up an upside-down butterfly and a man with a green head and blue tunic and they are going to meet at the top. Will they have to fight to stay on top?
It looks like a crab rearing up with it's red and yellow claws. The crab looks like it's going to crash down.
It looks like two red sea horses smoking blue pipes under the Eiffel Tower with blue and yellow splotches of color around them.

It looks like a big, smooshed bug with a stinger at the end at small pinchers at the top .

It looks like two people facing each other with red shawls over their faces and unfortunately, they are both bleeding from the knees. Ewww.
It looks like two women fighting over a basket with a red butterfly between them and a red rabbit behind each of them.
It looks like a scary face with drooping ears at the top and eye holes in the center: like a bear skull that's placed on a table facing me. It reminds me of some of the movie masks that people wore in "primal" movies dealing with rituals.

It looks like a butterfly caught on an updraft and soaring upwards.

New Thing #49: Ole Friend

Completely out of the blue, I called a friend who lived a few houses down from me and who I've known since middle school. She had sent me a text message for my birthday and I just now decided it would be awesome to talk to her again. Her name is Catherine and she told me she's now living in Vancouver. I invited her over for dinner and I cooked fajitas and she brought over a 6-pack of Rolling Rock. We had a delightful time catching up over the past couple of years. Last time we really hung out was like 3-4 years ago! I think we will be hanging out from time-to-time since we've always gotten along so well together.

New Thing #48: Butch Cassidy

I honored the late Paul Newman. He was a generous philanthropist and awesome actor! I went and bought a bottle of his salad dressing and now I'm going to be more interested in buying his products because they are going to continue "Newman's Own" which gives all it's proceeds (following taxes) to charity. It has earned $200 million dollars already! The non-profit's mission statement is: "Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good." Plus, they taste really good and he uses healthy ingredients. Screw Hidden Valley!

New Thing #47: Prime-time Debate

What with the scary $700 billion government bail-out, I wanted to see what the presidential candidates said about the financial crisis. So, I tuned in for the entire presidential debate at Ole Miss. 30 minutes were devoted to the financial crisis, 30 minutes were on foreign policy ( which is what the debate was supposed to be on but no one really cares because what's going on in our own country right now). My mom and I talked about it for hours that day and we watched Anderson Cooper's round-table analysis following the debate.

New Thing #46: Dinner and a Movie

I have always wanted to throw a "Location-themed" dinner party. For instance, someone could make enchiladas and we could sit down and watch a movie like "Y Tu Mama Tambien." Today, I threw an England-inspired dinner party. I served corned beef and cabbage to my friend Vanessa and we watched the movie "Miss Potter" about the author Beatrix Potter. It was a delightful evening!

New Thing #45: Customer Complaint

After struggling for an hour with a product I got for a Christmas present, I took it back to the store and got a new one. Then I took THAT product home and that one was also faulty. So, I took that one back and got in-store credit. I then went home and I was so dissatisfied about how a product worked, that I wrote a formal complaint to the manufacturer.

"I was very disappointed with the "Quilting Basting Gun." I recieved it as a present for Christmas this year and it has taken me this long to get my quilt done. I took out the gun, loaded it and tried to baste my quilt together. On the very first try, it broke and a piece of red plastic fell out of the top when I shook it. I followed the instructions exactly--especially STEP 3, which was emphasized in the instructions. I took it to JoAnn's Fabrics and they swapped it for a new model. I thought the one I had was defective model but sure enough, when I brought the new Basting Gun home, it also continued to misfire and got jammed CONSTANTLY. I was incredibly dissatisfied with this product. I will never be buying anything from DRITZ that is sold at JoAnn's and I am going to look at your products to make sure that I never buy any of your junk again. On another note, I think the product is crappy because you made it with cheap, Chinese materials and now charge Americans $25.95 for a piece of junk that probably cost you about $5.00. You are terrible business people to ship your work overseas and I hope you go bankrupt."

9/29/08 Note: The company wrote me a nice e-mail back apologizing and asking if there was anything else they could do to make my experience better. Because I already returned the product, it's not like they needed to do anything but I was glad that they wrote back.

New Thing #44: Hansel & Gretel

I know this is a bit obscure, but I thought it would be cute. I left a bread crumb trail like Hansel & Gretel. For those of you who aren't an expert on the Brothers Grimm, let me remind you that this was what Hansel and Gretel used to try and find their way back home after their father took them away the second time. (The first time they used little white polished stones) This time, the little critters ate the crumbs and the children were lost, leading themselves to the witch's gingerbread house. Now, I didn't get more than 100 feet before I ran out of the remnants of my bread bag. Too bad!

New Thing #43: Exploring 23rd

I took a walk down all of 23rd Ave. in downtown Portland. It's this really nice street with all these trendy shops. I got off at the Streetcar stop at 23rd and Northrup and walked clear down to the Goosehollow MAX stop. It was a really nice way to celebrate the first day of fall.

New Thing #42: Malaria No More

Malaria No More is a non-profit organization with a mission to provide enough malaria nets treated with anti-mosquito repellent in African communities that have a high concentration of the disease. Each net is $10 for the organization and that includes the cost of the net plus teaching the locals how to use it and how to get the nets to the families. Each net is large enough to cover a whole family sleeping. I donated malaria nets in memory of my best friend who died in September of 2006. I was so happy to do this wonderful gesture in her memory. I want to also convey the importance that malaria nets are ONLY effective if EVERYONE in the village has one-- if not, the mosquitoes will just bite other people in the village that don't have one. Therefore, it's important for each village to understand the importance of the nets and to use them wisely.

New Thing #41:Book Sale

Today I made a special trip downtown to shop at the Portland Art Museum's annual art book sale. I found some fantastic books there. The Christy's auction catalogs were only $1--they are perfect for clipart for my scrapbooks. I also got a nice National Geographic photography collection and an Impressionist era collection. It was a steal of a deal! My friend Cassandra, who met me there, was also able to find several books/catalogs that she wanted. I didn't spend much at all and everything was super duper reduced in price. It was a little overwhelming at first--it was like the Filene's Basement of wedding dress sales for art enthusiasts.

New Thing #40: Letter of Tea Memories

I was feeling a little... nostalgic... today. My friends Heather, Cat and I used to go to bible study once a week in college and we would use it as a time to drink tea, do a bible study from our book of important biblical women and talk about prayer requests and what was going on in our lives. It ended up being a very soothing and comforting hour each week for me. A little rejuvenation time and a time that no matter what was happening between us, we put our differences aside and focused on each other. I heard that our bible study's husband's father had passed away recently and I felt bad about that so I wrote a long letter to an estranged person from my college days. I updated her on what was going on in my life and to say I was sorry about her loss. It was nice to reach out to her and I hope she will appreciate the gesture. I asked her to write back if she has time because I am interested to hear how she has been with her family and how life is treating her. She is such a kind lady and I feel kinda guilty about not having contacted her before but I really think now I have something to say. And better late then never...

New Thing #39: White Crane

Since I normally work at the Y on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I thought I couldn't try any of the Tai Chi classes. But today, since my schedule was switched around, I went to my first ever Tai Chi class. I've always been interested in Tai Chi--partly because I'm a Star Trek: The Next Generation nerd and Lt. Worf is always doing the Klingon form of Tai Chi and I always think it looks so cool--but I was finally glad I got to try it for myself. It requires a ton of concentration, balance and muscle control (or relaxation as was my problem because I was all "dance-tricked-out"). The instructor was very good and he was teaching the Yang-Style Tai Chi in 37 Postures. I think we made it about half-way through all the moves. I hope I can do it again because I really enjoyed myself a whole lot! Now I am drinking green tea and trying to feel zen-like.