100 Stream-of-consciousness Things About Me

Beth over at Lorna’s Laces posted an update to her three-year-old list yesterday, and inspired me to sit down and jot down my own. Also, how fun to resurrect a hundred-year-old internet meme! In no particular order:

{Last updated December 2015}

1. My first name is not Kimberly. I have, at times, been annoyingly called, “Just Kim.”
2. As a kid, I lived in Canarsie, which is a neighbourhood in Brooklyn you’ve probably never heard of nor been to, even if you live in New York City.
3. My left thumb is double-jointed.
4. I absolutely detest raisins.
5. I found my first grey hair when I was 18. {My current grey streak is real. This seems to fascinate and impress people. Which makes me simultaneously happy and confused.}
6. I nearly failed a six-week course in Old Norse when I was in university.
7. However, I was ace in a six-week course in Sanskrit.
8. Absolutely no knowledge of either dead language remains with me.
9. One time, as a summer-camp counselor, I won a contest by eating a bowl of whipped cream so quickly I spent the rest of the day curled up on a cot in the nurse’s office (I also ate the Hershey’s Kiss at the bottom of the bowl, because I took my job as a camp counselor very seriously).
10. I learned to ride a bike on the paved playground of my elementary school.
11. The bike was blue, and I loved it.
12. One summer in the early ’90s, I worked in an ice-cream shop that didn’t have air conditioning; it was hotter inside than it was outside, during a heat-wave.
13. I do not bite my fingernails.
14. Spiders make me very, very uncomfortable. {Not so much anymore.}
15. Bright sunshine is my nemesis.
16. I was a camp counsellor till I was 25.
17. I’m an atheist.
18. At the same time, being Jewish is a very important part of my identity.
19. My favourite book is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon.
20. The book I recommend most to people is What is the What, by Dave Eggers. {Edged out recently by The Antidote, by Oliver Burkeman.}
21. The first proper concert I ever attended was the Dirty Dancing Concert Tour.
22. I majored in linguistics.
23. Nine months after I got married, I went to Italy with my partner’s parents, without my partner.
24. Which is when we stayed in a 14th Century monastery, which remains my favourite travel lodging, ever.
25. My preference for New York-style bagels over Montreal-style bagels is passionate and unwavering.
26. I had my ears pierced when I was six.
27. I got my first tattoo when I was 35. {And my second when I was 38.}
28. If the circumstances are right, I’ll tell almost anyone about my reproductive health and experiences related to it.
29. That doesn’t mean we’re best friends.
30. Neil Diamond: Yes.
31. Celine Dion: No.
32. When I was eight, I got a hamster and named it Fluffy.
33. When my little brother’s hamster Fuzzy killed Fluffy, I got another hamster that looked like Fluffy and I named it Fluffy.
34. After Fuzzy killed the second Fluffy I just started taking care of Fuzzy as if that murderous beast was my own.
35. Only recently did I wonder why my parents didn’t ask at the pet store if it was wise to put two male hamsters in a cage together. Twice.
36. On 9/11, I learned about the attack when I was in the shower, listening to the radio.
37. That day was my first working as a substitute teacher.
38. In the great state of Delaware, a place I hate with the intensity of a thousand suns.
39. I once got like 500 mosquito bites on a hike, and the next day I had a fever.
40. I’ve never broken a bone (knock wood).
41. When I was 18, though, I did suffer a wicked concussion.
42. Once, in grad school, my car mechanic ran after me as I pulled out of the station, and when I stopped he asked me out.
43. I didn’t date him.
44. I did, however, date a guy who asked me out in a sporting-goods store.
45. Come to think of it, when I was in college I also dated a guy who asked me out in a sporting-goods store.
46. The grad-school guy was an asshole and I hated myself for ever dating him; the college guy was not.
47. On my 21st birthday I drank a bottle of peach-flavoured Boone’s Farm and sang Air Supply’s Greatest Hits from beginning to end with my roommate. {That second tattoo I got was with this roommate the night before another of our roommate’s wedding. Our tattoos are identical.}
48. It’s possible those things happened on two separate occasions, but I don’t care that in my memory they’re combined.
49. I’ve never ridden a motorcycle, but I’d like to.
50. The only drug I’ve ever tried is pot.
51. It makes me paranoid and hungry. Also more giggly than usual.
52. The shining highlight of my time spent orchestrating shenanigans on the internet was interviewing Joss Whedon.
53. I still have the first scarf I ever knitted (purple acrylic boucle; about 3 inches by a gazillion inches).
54. I’m confused by why that scarf wasn’t my first knitting project, period; I also still have that, though – a very boring felted bag.
55. At the moment, I have no idea what my first completed crochet project was.
56. Growing up, I often had a fat lip.
57. In high school, I wore clothes that were too big for me.
58. I was a painfully self-conscious adolescent.
59. I’d like to take tennis lessons.
60. Dolls that look very much like human beings scare the shit out of me; I do not visit wax museums.
61. I have a special love for dolls that do not look like human beings, and especially ones that are grotesque in some way or another.
62. At an editorial retreat back in my Interweave days, I came up with an idea for a webcomic that I’d still like to make, featuring a protagonist named Maeve.
63. I don’t draw comics, however*.
64. We adopted our son with less than 24 hours’ notice.
65. Breast-is-best rhetoric makes me twitchy, and occasionally very, very angry.
66. Though my partner assures me I’m not actually tone deaf, I manage to carry a tune only on very rare occasions.
67. But I once carried a tune through an entire Alanis Morissette CD on a road trip, while imitating her voice.
68. Dune is one of the few books I’ve read more than once.
69. Also Pride and Prejudice.
70. I enjoy going out to the movies by myself.
71. Though I’m outgoing and social, I have introverted leanings and need quite a lot of time by myself to feel happy and balanced.
72. This is my biggest challenge as a parent.
73. I’ve waited so long to prepare my Canadian citizenship paperwork that I feel stuck by my own procrastination.
74. I feel a bit of self-loathing for not being able to vote where I live.
75. I thrive when I don’t have a boss.
76. I have no desire to be anyone else’s boss.
77. Generally speaking, I get far more excited by the potential of things than the reality of them.
78. That said, when the appropriate factors align, I can seriously get shit done.
79. I find garbage day deeply satisfying.
80. If I have the time, I prefer taking public transportation over driving.
81. As a teenager, I worked at a research firm doing phone surveys on topics like a person’s satisfaction with their doctor or their bank.
82. I’d have dreams that involved going through questions like, “When thinking about the bedside manner of your primary-care physician, would you rate your primary-care physician’s communication style as excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor?”
83. I was a university tour guide.
84. I was a tomboy.
85. I like to wear mascara every day.
86. But I don’t. {Nah, I usually do.}
87. I don’t have a great love of shoe shopping, but I will spend an astonishing amount of money on a pair of boots if I’m fairly certain I’ll wear for them for at least a decade.
88. I’d like to lose about fifteen pounds, but I’m not much bothered by carrying them around with me.
89. I sleep on the left side of the bed.
90. I enjoy lots of different kinds of food, but find some very common ingredients revolting.
91. Like vinegar and goat cheese.
92. This makes people think I’m a very picky eater, but it’s just that the foods I can’t force myself to choke down are often in that salad you brought over.
93. I love olives, spicy food, black liquorice and bourbon.
94. I don’t like cake.
95. I love doughnuts, but I don’t eat them frequently.
96. I’ve never been to Paris.
97. I’d like to visit Russia.
98. I was not awed by the Grand Canyon.
99. The Black Hills of South Dakota, however, left an enduring impression.
100. When I pronounce Mary, marry and merry, they all sound different.

* In search of like-minded collaborator.