25 Random things about me

It was brought to my attention by a step-3rd-cousin (I have a complex family) that I have been neglecting my blog. (His exacts words were "Ho, get off the street and back in the library")

So to kick start things I am sharing with you something I posted on Facebook. I was "tagged" in a Notes game of tag. You have to write 25 things about yourself and then tag 25 people and they then do the same. and So on. So here are 25 random things about me:

1. Lately, I've really been missing New York, A LOT but I'm not sure if I miss the city or if I miss that time of my life.

2. I hate carrots, bacon and asparagus.

3. Like Lorraine, I go through food phases. One three week period, I ate creamed spinach every day for lunch. Currently I'm going through a brownie phase. I'm hoping it will be replaced by something healthier.

4. I love coffee. I have a Pavlovian response when I even just catch a glimpse of a coffee cup. I love coffee.

5. Two summers (one in high school and one in college) I interned for Congressman Charlie Wilson (as in Charlie Wilson's War). There were three Amy's in the office so his nickname for me was Junior.

6. I have a cat. I love her but she is my secret shame. I don't want to be the cliche, but alas I am. But what can I say? She's a sweetie and greets me at the door.

7. I have never been married, but I have lived through three marriages. My mom and my dad's, My mom and my ex-step dad, My Dad and my step mom. And my mother asked me why I have commitment issues. I will say this, my dad and my step mom have THE marriage. If I get married I hope to be lucky enough to have the kind of marriage that they have.

8. When I was in high school, I hated my step mom. Now however she's one of the most important people in my life. She's the first person I turn to when I need something. I can't imagine who I would be and how I would survive if she wasn't in my life.

9. Like many people I too had a crappy childhood.

10. I'm angry at my sister for dying.

11. I love my family and get cranky if I go too long without seeing them. Although, I get cranky when I'm with them too long. I can spend three days with mom before I start whining like a 12 yr old. I can spend 7 days with my dad, step mom and brothers before we turn like dairy products. Once it sours, it sours fast. Still, I love them and love spending time with them.

12. I have at various times in my life had fake nails, dyed hair and a perm (not all at the same time, but some overlapping) At the moment my nails and my hair are all natural.

13. I have a book problem. I'm always buying them. I like to own them. To keep them. Its hard for me to go into a bookstore without spending 60 bucks. I loan books to friends but ask for them back. I'm a weirdo about books. I rarely re-read them but I still like to see them in my bookcase and remember them.

14. I used to have a shoe and a purse problem. Grad school poverty helped dim it a bit. Although I still own a lot of shoes, especially ones I never wear.

15. I really want to have a family some day. I always wanted to be my next door neighbors the Hamiltons (four kids - two boys and two girls). But I know that I am not ready to not only marry anyone but especially to parent anyone. And I'm ok if I never do. I've yet to meet anyone that I've seriously thought "This is the guy." And I'm not settling for good enough.

16. I watch a lot TV. I love cheesy shows (Gossip Girl, The Hills)

17. I am not licensed to drive. When I was living in New York my drivers license expired and I never got around to getting a new one. And now I have to take both the written and the behind wheel test again. For now, I'm all about the CTA.

18. The most consistent thing in life is my cell phone. I've had it since April 2000. It's the longest in my life that I've had the same phone number. It hasn't escaped me that the most consistent thing in my life is mobile.

19. I didn't eat red meat for ten years. When I was nineteen I stopped eating red meat in an attempt to be healthy, then on my 29th birthday I ordered a steak. I don't know why. But it just sounded good. Now I'm an omnivore.

20. Once in college, while I was bartending, I tripped and knocked over the cash register. It was a mess.

21. I get claustrophobic. It's not debilitating, but it's pretty bad.

22. I'm a night owl. When I was in grad school I did most of my writing late at night lying in bed. Sometimes I'd be up until 5am.

23. I'm an extrovert. I'd rather be out around people. I like crowded restaurants, standing at bars, walking through cities. I get energy from other people. But I go through antisocial moments. I hibernate in my apartment, turn off my phone, and don't leave my apartment for at least a day. I just want/need to spend time by myself reading, writing or watching bad tv about super rich high school kids.

24. I have the greatest Dad. He's "Adorkable." My biggest fear in life is disappointing him. Although, if you hear us talking to each other, I'm mostly teasing him about being nerdy. Underneath the teasing, I respect him the most of anyone I've ever met. He's a pretty extraordinary guy.

25. When I was in kindergarten I got in trouble for telling a boy to pull down his pants on the playground.

What is hidden in my closet?

I am not an organized person. And I'm a shopper (at least when I am employed and have a paycheck) On top of that, I am a pack rat. I'm borderline a hoarder. Alright, maybe I'm not that bad. But, it's not good.

I have clothes in my closet that I haven't worn in over four years. I also took more than eight trash bags of stuff to salvation army when I moved out of New York over three years ago. And cleared out another three bags worth when I moved into my current apartment a year and half ago. And yet, I still have crap in the back of my closet that serves no purpose, except to hang on a hanger.

Once, in NYC, I took a little trip through my closet and pulled out a dress that I forgot I owned. My roommate at the time commented that maybe I should shop in my closet. She had a point.

When I pulled out my sweaters this fall I realized that I owned two cashmere, sleeveless, cowl neck brown sweaters. What? really? I meant it's not like a white button down or a black turtle neck. One of them was a Banana Republic purchase, the other a Marshalls shopportunity. I'm sure I bought them months apart. But still, wouldn't you think I would realize what I was doing? Shouldn't I know what sweaters I already own?

I changed my blogger profile pic. It's one I took last year when I cut off ten inches of my hair. I tried taking a photo of it to email it to a friend. Anyway, I noticed the sweater that I'm wearing in the pictures and I wondered, where the hell is that sweater now? Seriously. I have no idea where it is.

My roommate was right. I need to do some shopping in my own closet.

Blagorageous claims of the day

He's being impeached because he tried to get pap smears for women.

He is the reason some kid got a new kidney.

He could have saved the housing crisis, but The House stood in his way (and made things worse), so you know, blame them if you lose your home.

He has a Poem of the day desktop calendar.



and I'm just curious about this sentence:
"...let me close by doing something that I probably won't do much after this, but I feel like doing it again since I did it not too long ago"
What?

[Sweet blog - Suntimes]

Making Noise in Public Library

I had to watch a lot of Sesame Street when my brother was young. Which is fine, except that we are eleven years apart in age, so when he was 2 and I was 13 I was watching a lot of Sesame Street. There was one bit that I remember with Grover. He was sitting on a mountain top wearing lederhausen and calling out "Echo" and listening to the return "Echo, echo, echo." During this time my dad was working at the American Embassy in Rabat, Morocco. We had a great Moorish styled home with tiles and marble and echoing hallways, as well as critters you find in a Mediterranean home. Especially gecko's. Not so cute as the Geico one when it crawls out of your bath tub spout. My brother, a fan of Grover (and his own voice) would sometimes sit at the bottom of the staircase and call up the marble stairs and the echo'y hallway "Gecko, Gecko, Gecko." Loving the sound of his voice bouncing around back and forth.

So, I'm back at the Public Library today and in the midst of the seemily normal people surrouding me who are also working on laptops or reading books and newspapers, there is a man standing in the staircase making "MMMHHHMMM" noises, listening to the acoustics and the sounds he can make.

I'm coming around to this whole Public Library experience. It is entertaining.

Roland Burris takes a break from the 3rd person

This is what unsettles me about Roland Burris, he kept beginning sentences with "Roland Burris."

I just have a hard time taking anyone serious who speaks in the third person.

The other thing, and well, this is bigger, he appears to be surprised that anyone would have issue with him accepting the appointment. If he had acknowledged that there is validity to everyone's concerns, it would almost feel OK to accept him as the appointee.

But maybe that's starting to crack a bit for him, today standing in the rain, he actually didn't seem surprised that he wasn't being sworn in, and for the entirety of the "press conference" (which was really more like a scene from Law & Order, with black umbrellas, rain and press surrounding the man on the steps of the gothic looking Capital Building) he didn't once refer to himself in the third person. So there's that.

Here's the thing, this is what I've been thinking about this fiasco:

There was an episode of Scrubs where Turk wanted to give Carla a gift, something personal to show her that he cared and that he got her, except he was a resident or an intern or some sort of quasi doctor and working all the time so he never found the time to go out and buy her a gift then he came across the Lost and Found box and inside among other random items was a pen. A beautiful expensive fountain pen. Carla liked writing letters so the pen was THE gift to give her. And she loved it and she loved him. Except one thing. After giving her the pen and her loving it, he discovers the hospital doesn't have a lost and found box. The hospital has a It's Been Removed From Someones Butt box. The pen doesn't seem so nice anymore, does it?

That would be the obvious reaction to the appointment. At least to me.

The Public Library Is Stinky

In an attempt to get out of my apartment (and you know bathe and get dressed) and take a break from my new obsessive news watching, I am blogging from the Chicago Public Library. Usually I go to various coffee shops. I have quite the knowledge of which ones have free wifi and which ones are loud, which ones quiet and who plays the best music. But in an attempt to be economical (because let's be honest, it's never FREE. I feel obligated to order a coffee or buy a bottle of water or a sandwich and before I know it, it's been a $14 dollar afternoon) I am trying out the public library. This is what I've observed so far:

• It stinks. Kind of like a mix of B.O., new car smell and stale air.
• There are a lot of people in here on a Monday afternoon. Recessionistas? Daycrawlers who work from home? Retirees? Who knows...
• The seats by the window go fast.
• It's a wackadoodle trip down memory lane sitting in a study carrel. I keep expecting to see Greek letters carved into the wood. Or graffiti referring to my sorority (or one of the others) as slutty.
  
• I type REALLY loud.
• Turning the page of a newspaper is a distracting sound.
• People need to turn off their ringers. (and what is great is that if you don't, the sweet Asian lady librarian will come over and passive aggressively request that you kindly turn if off)
  
• The guy sitting one study carrol over from me needs a cough drop.
• I need to be able to gaze out a window and think for like hours when I'm attempting to write brilliant things.
• Next time, come early and snag a window seat. (and bring a cough drop for throat clearer sitting next to you)
  

cryptic notes

As a writer (and in particular as someone with ADD), I do not always have a pen handy when I have an idea, so I have gotten into the habit of saving text drafts of ideas. But frequently I forget what I was making notes about. Following are some notes I made about story/essay/blog entry ideas:

• Olive (no idea. Seriously, not one clue)
• What would be innocuous? (again, who knows?)
• Signs on Greenlawn (Greenlawn Dr was the street of my childhood home. But I don't know what I wanted to write about the signs)
• An ordinary day (this one I do remember. How seemingly out of nowhere your perception of something changes.)
• The backend of peoples homes (This is referring to the view from the el, but when I started writing I kept thinking of Denis Johnsons Dirty Wedding and nothing I wrote could compare)
• Gaf (Irish slang for home. Not sure what I wanted to say. But I like the word)
• Winners: Hairbrush and shoes (this one puzzled me for quite a long time until I realized it was referring to the bizarreness of our news that week..the Hairbrush was Blago's and the shoes were the ones tossed at W)