Monday, July 9, 2007

Eight things...

Tersie tagged me on this one, and even tho my inner procrastinator wants to put it off until later, I'm putting together my eight things...

Oh... and Tersie, this one was far too interesting to stick on the other blog.
Thanks for tagging me.

The rules are simple…Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Number 1.

I am obsessed with ink pens. You may already know this from a previous post... It's true though... I probably have fifty different pens on my desk right now, all of which write slightly differently... some of which are so nice to write with that I waste most of the ink just doodling with them, and some which are so terrible that I can't stand to pick them up. For me it isn't just about the way the pen writes either... it is about how it feels in your hand, how much it weighs, the balance as I lean it over my index finger and place the tip to the medium... This ink pen obsession is weird for me because I rarely have the occasion to write anything long hand...

Number 2.

Jenn worries about everything... In order to compensate for this, I do not.

This isn't the kind of not worrying that Jaki seems to be blessed with. I actually worry and carry stress around for almost every aspect of my life... I am a perfectionist, a workaholic, and an over achiever... I truly believe that my worst critic is myself, and most of the time it eats me alive... BUT, I know that Jenn wouldn't be able to cope at all if I let on that I was stressed over everything, so I nearly always squelch the anxiety with will power and assure myself and those around me that things are going to work out ok in the end... ( The fact that everything generally turns out ok in the end is, of course, not a coincidence... but that's another story ).


Number 3.

I have sleep apnea. I realize that everyone who has had the misfortune of sleeping with me or near me in the past 10 years or so already knew this... For anyone who didn't know though, this basically means that when I'm asleep I stop breathing, and then snore, snort, and make other horrific noises when my brain realizes that there is no O2 getting up there... To compensate for my sleep apnea, I wear a CPAP machine to sleep at night. It is basically a little box that blows air up my nose to keep all the pipes and stuff open. It is pretty small and unobtrusive, so I take it everywhere that I go that I might sleep even when I travel overnight somewhere. It was a little tough getting used to when I first got it, but after five years I hardly notice it anymore... The cool side affect of the cpap machine is that when I'm wearing it, if I open my mouth then the air that is blowing up my nose, just rushes right out... You might not realize why this is cool, until you learn that all I have to do is pucker up and then I can whistle non-stop, without needing to worry about breathing for as long as I an hold a pucker... It makes great Youth group entertainment on mission trips, trust me.

Number 4.

I'm a pack rat. I can't stand to throw things away. Anyone who has ever seen my office, my coffee table, or the inside of my shed can attest to this. I know it drives Jenn crazy, as she is always trying to get rid of my stuff... I attribute my pack-rat-ism partially to the fact that deep down I just can't bear to part with stuff ( see this post ), and partially that I have convinced myself that if I do get rid of something I will need it later... Being a pack rat is one of those annoying habits that I would love to kick, but am not sure how to start...

Number 5.

I have hair issues.

I hate the hair on top of my head. When I let it grow out it is thick. I don't just mean thick like it is full, or anything like that. I'm talking shag carpet meets wire brush thick. It can't be combed, styled, or tamed... So I shave it off... I prefer it shaved right to the skin, shiny and squeaky. It grows so fast that I can go from being shaved squeaky clean to an unmanageable mane in about three weeks.

In contrast to the hair upstairs, I seem to be follicularly challenged in my facial region. I would love to grow a big bushy mustache and a crowder goatee, but try as I might I get nothing greater than fuzz from the temples down.

See... hair issues... *sigh

Number 6.

For almost two years, while I was in college, I drank an average of two and-a-half pots of coffee per day. Maxwell house. I had a coffee maker next to my bed in my dorm room, which I would put the water and coffee in before I went to sleep. I had a big insulated coffee mug, which would hold half of the pot in one cup. When my alarm went off, I would reach out and smack the Snooze button, and the coffee switch in one swift motion and go back to sleep for nine minutes. When the alarm went off again I would sit up, pour the first cup, and drink it before I got up. Then I would empty the pot into my second cup-full, make another pot and take that cup to the shower with me. Post-shower I took another cup to my first class, and stopped in my room for the fourth cup-of-the-day between my first and second classes.

Typically I would drink either half-a-pot or a whole pot in the evening while doing homework or sitting around. Even though I was buying the coffee, it was too much of a hassle and I was too poor to waste money and effort on cream and sugar so I drank it black.

I'm better now... One to two cups per day with cream typically satisfies me.

Number 7.

I love to read. My favorite book of all time is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy by Douglas Adams. I read the five part trilogy for the first time while I was in high school, and have probably read the series hundreds of times since then. I make Hitchhiker references multiple times daily in my normal conversations, but it is only rarely that someone catches or acknowledges the reference. Most of the time I just get looked at like I'm strange.

Number 8.

I was running out of steam, and Jenn told me I should include this last one so here you go...

I love to cook. My specialties are home made fettuccine alfredo, all kids of breakfast stuff, chilli, and random other things. When I was in college ( back in the coffee-swilling days ) I devised a scad of different ways to cook things in the dorm ( where most cooking apparatus wasn't permitted ). Especially during my senior year, when my dorm room had a large living room, I would cook huge meals in my room and invite the whole floor down to eat and hang out. I also love to cook for guests or friends as part of evening entertainment.


Well, that's it... If you're still reading this far down I hope you found it interesting.

Thanks again to Tersie for tagging me. I would like to tag Marty, Lauren, Jordan, Steven, and anyone else who wants to get on the band wagon.

Monday, July 2, 2007

My other blog...

This post is just in case any of my regular readers haven't stumbled onto my other blog yet...

For anyone who has been wondering if I am just too grouchy, or too much of a stick in the mud to take all those online quiz things... I actually do fill them out most of the time...

However, rather that clutter up my "real" blog, I publish my results to all of that crazy stuff on my other blog... which you can find here.

Random by Roogles

Enjoy the silliness.