jayesel

I’ve been tagged by the lovely Allison (fellow BurghMom, w00t!) for ‘Honest Scrap’. She thinks I’m BRILLIANT! Boy, do I have her fooled.

The Honest Scrap award is given by other bloggers who consider a blog’s content or design to be brilliant. The awardee must then post ten honest things about themselves and pass the award on to other bloggers who fit the bill – in other words, whose blog is brilliant.

Well gee! Ten things about me. Seeing as I’ve been blogging for like a bajillion years (since 2000!), there’s probably not a whole lot I haven’t covered. But I know I have some new readers from the past few months, so here are 10 random things about me. Some superficial and silly, some a bit more serious, all of them weird because they’re about me and I’m kind of a goofball.

1. I can sing, but I get embarrassed about it. I sang the National Anthem in high school for some basketball games, and I think one hockey game (where I was standing on a mat on the ice and the cord of the microphone was laying on the ice and HELLO ELECTRICAL SHOCK ON MY LIP WHILE I’M SINGING, gah!) and again in college a time or two. I also sang solos at church, and I was in an auditions-only ensemble in high school. Plus some karaoke here and there. Additionally, I rock out in my car ALL THE TIME, imagining I’m up on stage somewhere with hundreds of people watching me. But in real life? I get way too nervous and way too embarrassed to do it anymore. I was much braver as a teenager apparently. Now I think I would melt into a puddle of goo if I had to sing in front of a crowd. So, it’s just for Maggie and Dan when we’re in the car. Aren’t they lucky??

2. I love to cook. This is a relatively new development in my life, in the past couple of years. And I’m getting pretty good at it, I have to say. *insert tooting horn* When we first got married, I didn’t cook much- just simple stuff, usually from a box. Dan was in graduate school and then I started freelancing while still working full-time, so that didn’t leave much time for being in the kitchen. We ate a LOT of fast food and soup from a can. But once things calmed down a bit (relatively speaking of course- having a kid can hardly be considered ‘calming down’!) and we settled into a more predictable schedule with work and all of that, I usually cook 3 or 4 nights a week. And I try to cook something new each week or at least every other week. I get boooored with the same stuff all the time, plus I’m more comfortable in the kitchen now so I’m braver with recipes.

Also, as much as I love to cook, I HATE cleaning up, planning what to make, and shopping for the ingredients. Is there someone I can hire for just those parts? :) I can also do the eating part, I’m good at that.

3. Sometimes, I’m afraid to have a second kid. Parenting is a big honking huge leap of faith. From the moment you decide to TRY to become a parent all the way through your kid becoming a grown up and having kids of their own- you have NO idea how it will turn out. That’s obviously part of the attraction, it’s the Best Part of Life, really. But for me, A Planner, it scares the crap out of me. And the entire process of having Maggie turned out so fantastically awesome, why would we want to mess with Perfection? We conceived practically right away, my pregnancy was boring & uneventful (which, as far as pregnancies go, that’s what you want!), delivery was perfect, and she is just The Best. (And I say that even after she was Super Crank, Child Spawn of Satan yesterday.) Plus, there’s the whole idea of being responsible for a SECOND human being. I feel like we just got settled into a nice rhythm of our days, I’m balancing my business and being a mom pretty well (most days!) and things are going great. Having another kid will completely crap on all of that. heh.

That’s not to say that we won’t have another one, and it’s not to say that we don’t WANT to have another one. It’s just some days I really consider the benefits of only having one child. I know one day when we do have another one, I’ll look back and laugh and think I was crazy for ever thinking that, but still. You know.

4. My torso is super-short. SERIOUSLY. It makes buying shirts nearly impossible. The style lately seems to be longer shirts, narrow and tight against the body. On me, they end up looking like a too-small dress because they come down past my butt. Because of this, I usually shop in the petite section of stores- which leads to two problems: 1) Not very many stores HAVE a petite section, and the ones that do are usually quite pricey (at least for me, El Cheap-o when it comes to buying clothes) and 2) The styles in the petite sections are usually geared toward… um… MATURE women (basically OLD LADIES.) Flower prints, plaids, SHOULDER PADS (I only WISH I was kidding!!) So yeah. When I go clothes shopping, I usually leave with determination and many hours blocked off for many many many trips to the dressing room, and I end up coming home with like TWO SHIRTS and major feelings of dejection.

5. I chewed my nails to BITS up until I was 22. Then one day, I decided I was done walking around with hands that looked like they had been through a meat-grinder. I got some of this stuff and used it religiously. Once my nails grew a little bit and started getting stronger and prettier, I didn’t WANT to chew my nails. Since then, I’ve had long nails and haven’t gone back to biting them.

6. I am afraid of debt. I suppose it stems from growing up and watching my parents work SO HARD and still have Money Troubles. Now that I’m an adult with a job and a family and a house and bills, I am constantly afraid we’re going to get into trouble. We have 1 credit card that we use for daily things (groceries, gas, shopping, whatever) and we pay it off each month. Basically, if we don’t have the money for it, we don’t buy it- we just like the rewards points we can redeem for free crap! (which, it is rumored that these perks for ‘Good’ credit card users will be going away, in which case, they can guarantee that we’ll stop using ours. Just isn’t worth it, thanks.) This Anal Retentiveness (on both of our parts- thankfully Dan and I are on the same page when it comes to money) has worked out fairly well for us- we have only ever carried a balance on our card once, right after we got married (we had to pay for a bit of our wedding stuff- photographer and honeymooon and such- and it took us a few months to catch up) And now that we’ve paid off our 2 student loans from undergrad (totaling over $40K, GAH!!) and our first 2 cars, our only debt is our house and my new car we bought last September. That makes me a happy camper. Credit cards SCARE THE LIVING CRAP OUT OF ME.

7. I crack a lot. And by crack I mean my joints. My knuckles, my wrists, my elbows, my neck, my back, my toes, my ankles, my knees… you get the idea. A lot of times it’s not even on purpose- it just happens when I stand up or move. Sign I’m getting older, I suppose. But my knuckles cracking is all me- yes, I’m that annoying one making all that racket with her fingers. I imagine my old co-workers were glad when I quit. ha

8. I used to be afraid of the phone. This is SO funny to me because I’m normally very chatty (just ask… anyone who has ever met me. ha) But in college when it came time to do something like Order The Pizza, I would do whatever I could to avoid making the call. I would make Dan do it. I don’t really know why, I think I just felt awkward and didn’t like the uncertainty of calling a stranger on the phone about anything, even something as minor as extra cheese and pepperoni.

I have since gotten over this, given that I have a business. I participate in a LOT of phone calls with people I’ve never spoken with before, and now it’s no big deal. Which makes me laugh when I look back on my panicky evasive maneuvers. Such a dork.

9. I drink a ton of water. It started when I worked in a research lab after college. I think the air was really dry or something because I was constantly thirsty. Then it became a habit and that’s pretty much all I drink anymore. I prefer water to most anything else- I rarely drink pop (or soda or whatever the eff you call it in your neck of the woods) and I don’t usually drink alcohol either. I get too filled up on fizzy drinks and I’d MUCH rather spend my calories on something covered in cheese. (Do they make alcohol you can put cheese on? Because THAT I’d be into.) It has gotten to the point where if I don’t drink my normal amount of water, I get a weird headache the next day and feel horrible. Water withdrawal?

10. I’m addicted to chapstick and lipgloss. I think this kid of goes along with the water thing- parched mouths and lips ANNOY THE CRAP out of me. So I always have a chapstick nearby (Bonne Bell Lipsmackers FTW!). I have them stashed all around the house: in my desk drawer, in my purse, in my jewelry box, and I usually have either a chapstick or a lipgloss in my pocket. If I happen to be wearing pants without pockets, I PANIC. WHERE WILL MY LIPGLOSS GO???!

I’m kinda neurotic. (hey that’s bonus item #11!)

Okay, for this little meme thingie, I’m tagging:
Melissa at Moody Peach
Danielle at Captain Pork Chops
Kelly at Kellybeans