Shall I Introduce Myself? Essential Tidbits to Know if You Wish to Claim You Know Me

50 Semi-Interesting Things About Me

I know everyone says these things are stupid, but the fact is that no one's reading this profile yet anyway; besides, it's fun to do ;-)

1. At first impression, many people find me to be aloof or even unwelcoming, although in fact I'm quite the opposite, my friendliness merely masked by my crippling shyness.   
2. I am too afraid of people to work or go to school, though someday I'd like to do something that involves planting things, environmental cleanup and saving the world.   
3. I love to grow fragrant plants, especially herbs.  My favorites are sages.  I <3 my garden!
4. I still sleep with a teddy bear.  His name is Ted; I've had him for 23 years.  He's missing his left arm.  
5. My body is covered in the scars of an overly-sensitive child, hurt and alone.  No more, though.
6. Although I am generally a modest person, I can say without reserve that I have amazing handwriting.  
7. I can recite the first 106 digits of pi from memory.  
8. I'm a compulsive pack rat, but extremely good at compacting my belongings. 
9. While I'm quite shy and don't often approach others on my own, I am watchful & observant of the people around me.  
10. One of my great loves in life is exploring various parts of the banks of the American River with my beloved dog Charlie and one or another of my closest friends.  
11. My favorite season is autumn, but I do truly love the spring.  
12. I'm a bit of a narcoleptic.  Whenever I feel the slightest bit overwhelmed I immediately feel quite tired and have to go to sleep.  
13. I prefer being wanted to being needed, but would choose being needed over being wanted in any case, provided at least some want is present.  It's more reliable.
14. I picked up a hitch hiker once.  He smelled like muddy newspapers and sweat, but was nice.  
15. I waited until I was 18 yrs old to drink, drug, drive and have sex.  
16. I'm not attracted to boys my age.  They have to be at least ten years older than me.  
17. All the boys I've been with seem to be ass guys or neutral, yet I'd prefer they prefer my breasts.  
18. I've never once dyed or highlighted my hair.  For the longest time I use to wish it was a darker brown, but have grown to love my long, auburn tresses.  
19. I'm half Canadian, as my mother was born in Newfoundland.  
20. I grew up with three sisters, no brothers and both biological parents.  We've moved a lot, but mostly within Sacramento.  
21. My younger sister and I played with Barbies until I was nearly in eighth grade.  
22. The music my sister and I listened to while playing Barbies--rock 'n roll from the '60s and '70s mostly--was known in our family as "Barbie Music," to which I still listen to this day.  The very first Barbie Music ever played was the soundtrack to the rock 'n roll musical film "Streets of Fire," which will always hold a special place in my heart.  
23. Since I wasn't allowed to have any pets as a child ("four girls is enough animals!"), my sisters and I would catch insects and small wild things to keep as pets, such as crickets, butterflies, tadpoles & pond frogs.  My favorites were a blue bellied lizard I named Taco Bill (taco for the taco chip bag in which I caught him, Bill from Alice in Wonderland) and a field mouse named Zeus (I wanted him to feel bigger than his one inch).  
24. The only insects I enjoy playing with (anymore) are praying manti, although I do appreciate many other species of bug.  
25. I consider myself agnostic, although I was baptized Lutheran and do believe in the possibility of a greater whole or higher power.  When I was little I'd occasionally go to church with my mom, just because I liked the texture of the communion wafers and the taste of the wine.  
26. I've never been on an airplane, jet ski, or personal boat.  
27. The first sewing/craft project I ever put together was a stuffed bear for my little sister.  She didn't really like it.  
28. I often stay in the shower so long that the water goes from hot to cold then back to warm again.  How does that work?
29. I hate almost everything on television, and get really mad if I watch it for very long.  
30. I love to put together furniture when, upon purchase, some assembly is required.  
31. I believe in ghosts.  
32. I've never broken or sprained any of my own bones, although I broke someone else's rib once.  
33. I love to be at the ocean on bleak winter days, when no one else is around.  
34. I love to boast about my mother.  She was adopted on an Air Force base in Newfoundland as a baby, grew up in Morocco and California, can play eleven different instruments, and speaks three languages fluently (along with English). 
35. The only things I've ever won are a second place ribbon for my bonsai at the State Fair when I was a kid in 4-H, and a care package (intended for poor families) at Christmas in fifth grade because I dressed so shoddily that everyone thought I came from poverty. 
36. One time I tried to spike my long hair with Crisco and petroleum jelly.  It didn't work, but my dad kept me home from school until it finally washed out after a week.  It solved my dry hair problem for quite a while!
37. I love to write lists.
38. I love thrift stores and flea markets, garage sales and estate sales.  
39. I love my Charlie-dog more than anyone could possibly comprehend.  He's the best animal in the world.  
40. I take at least one nap every day.  Whenever something upsets me, I go lie in bed.  
41. I'm a courteous driver, usually.  
42. I'm training myself to eat mushrooms, even though I hate them.  
43. I see a therapist/psychiatrist (no, not psychologist) twice a week, whom I love.  He's saved my life more times than I can count.  He also gives me psych meds.  
44. I spend a lot of time alone.  
45. I'm extremely honest with myself about myself.  
46. I like to collect things a lot.  When I was little, I collected empty deodorant bottles and kept them sealed to preserve the smell.  
47. The first piece of clothing I ever created was my recent, reversible, hot pink/tie dyed, duct tape paneled mini skirt.  I hope to post the tutorial for that on here at some point. 
48. I vastly prefer cold weather to hot, and use to avoid the sun altogether by living a nocturnal life.  Diurnal once again, I'm starting to get use to these California summers that I've lived through for 25 years (I swear they're getting worse, though).  
49. At first impression, most people think I'm a vegetarian.  
50. As you can see from the last 49 Tidbits, I am not an interesting enough person to possibly come up with 50 fascinating things about myself.  I started struggling in the 30s.  

Well, congratulations to those of you who read the whole thing, though I understand if you didn't.  It wasn't all that fun and fascinating.  Nonetheless, I think you'll have a better picture of who I am after having read it.  
Until next time, farewell! 

Welcome to My Mind

Hurray, I finally sat down and made my first blog ever!  I've been planning on creating this for over a month, trying to figure out what I would say in my first posts, how I would set it up, etc; then, wouldn't you know, one day I decided that I'd just wing it!  I tend to spend all of my time planning things and none of it following through with such plans, so this is a big step for me.  It also means that I can finally start recording some of the many things that are going on in my mind all the time, which I wish I had started doing a month ago when I first decided to create a blog.  

For the time being, I think I'm going to treat this blog largely as an online journal, though in the future I might direct it toward becoming something more theme-based, perhaps using it as a place to post tutorials for some of the other projects that I spend more time thinking about than working on. ;-)  We'll see.  I may just post specific theme-based things in here whenever I complete an accompanying project, mixing them in with my regular journal posts.  Any thoughts from readers as to what would interest you more?

Whatever the case, the possibilities are absolutely endless here on this great World Wide Web, and I'm sure I'll find something to suit my tastes.   For now, I'm quite excited to be writing again, finally!  

A happy greeting to all who read this first of my entries!