100th post: "100 things" navelgazing extravaganza

I'm a lap or two behind my friend Ruth on that Great Blogospheric Cinder Track, and so I'm going to swipe her fun idea for my 100th post!

1. I'm half Norwegian and half Swedish. I like the sweaters and I make great lefse, but will not eat lutefisk (best description I ever heard was "warm anchovy jello"). Eccchhhh.
2. I'm an associative learner; I make sense of the world through comparison and relationships and always tilt toward synthesis.
3. In case you haven't guessed from the names of my puppies, I'm a Peanuts fan of the first rank.
4. I have an extra kidney. Apparently, it's not that uncommon, but most people don't have occasion to know it.
5. I love cobalt blue and fire-engine red.
6. I think chocolate is sufficient evidence that "God loves us and wants us to be happy" (to rip off Ben Franklin's comment about beer).
7. Not wanting to upset the venerable Mr. Franklin, I also enjoy a good microbrew. :-) My friend P convinced me to try beer and M&Ms together. It's gooooood.
   
8. I read The Cat in the Hat to my kindergarten class when I was five.
   
9. I'm trying to like being a bicyclist (have a very nice blue bike, but don't like to be bent over for so long).
10. I have murderer's thumbs.
11. All my shoes are Birkenstocks. (Gimme a break...I AM a lesbian!)
12. In that same vein, if I had another life to live, I'd be Emily Saliers.
13. And I had a terrible crush on my sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Hager.
14. I've read The Stand (Stephen King) eleven times.
15. I'm not a great cook. I am an appreciative eater.
16. I wrote and bound a book of 40-or-so limericks in fifth grade for a class project.
17. Millipedes creep me out. No spring in their step; it's more like they're oozing along. Eeeeyew.
18. A child of the '70s, I used to crack up my mother with my Jimmy Carter impersonation. How was I to know he'd become a statesman and a peacemaker?
19. I made friends with L in high school through an epistolary relationship my freshman year. I was in the third-period Concert Orchestra and she was in the fourth-period Symphony Orchestra, and we shared a cello. We'd leave each other notes tucked between the strings. In later years, we'd serve two terms as co-presidents of the Symphony. We were Ubergeeks.
20. I used to be a corporate trainer for a financial services company. Zzzzzzzzzzzz...
21. I first saw The Sound of Music in utero at the Coronado Theater in Rockford, IL. Every year afterward, my family would watch it together when it came on TV. It was the first VHS movie I bought, and then the first DVD. I've never seen the stage version. Since I can remember, I've always wanted to solve a problem like Maria...well, Julie Andrews, anyway. :-)
22. I had sinus surgery ten years ago and was awake for it. I remember the sound of the bones being broken in my head...and how much I just did not care, thanks to the rather impressive drugs they gave me.
23. I have a book with me almost everywhere I go. I'll read a couple of pages in any spare 30 seconds that present themselves to me. I'm usually reading 4-5 at a time, and STILL, the stack of "to reads" would probably reach the ceiling. But I love it.
    
24. I'm wildly self-conscious about dancing. Apparently, I possess several left feet, even weirder than Eugene Levy in Best in Show.
25. Which leads me to mention that I have a head for trivia, dialogue, lyrics, etc. My mother says she used to push me in her supermarket shopping cart when I was little and I'd sing the commercial jingles from the products we passed. Hmmm...maybe a tad too much TV.
    
26. I have NO head for "I have a meeting at _______ with ________ to discuss ________." Fortunately for me, I have two coping strategies: an organized wife and a day planner, which I use religiously.
27. I am happiest in bluejeans and a t-shirt.
28. I have a sister who is 3 years younger than I am.
29. The only non-U.S. place I've been is Canada.
30. My veins are full of diet Coke.
31. Beloved and I had been together for 9 years and 10 months when we married last October. The experience was amazing and stuffed with love.
    
32. When I was in middle school, I was quite sure I would grow up to sing backup for the Captain and Tennille. Still have a semi-sheepish affection for their music (but she's got PIPES if you hear her singing blues stuff!).
33. I have a child's love for chocolate chip cookie dough. This horrifies Beloved, who would prefer that I didn't contract salmonella. And she's pretty sure I'm going to, if I keep eating raw dough.
34. I'm an ENFP on the Myers-Briggs scale.
35. When I was in grad school, I started (never finished) a cantata based on Madeleine L'Engle's poetry...the stuff in which she speaks in the voices of various Biblical characters. I cried when she died last year; her writing has had a profound effect on me.
    
36. I've had my guitar since I was ten years old. His name is Marty.
37. I like the smells of baking bread, rain in the forest, vanilla candles and sleepy puppies.
38. The first boy I ever kissed is gay, too. Wow, did THAT not go well. :-)
39. Warm sesame semolina bread with real butter. Mmmm. Give me a piece of that and I'll do whatever you say. (Hey, we all have a price, right? Ha ha ha.)
40. I first met Beloved at a choir audition. She was the best voice in the room.
41. I drive a white Saturn named Hildegard. I got her in grad school, when I was doing a semester-long project on Hildegard of Bingen. Love them both.
42. I have five lovely godchildren: Celia, Colleen, Kytessa, Mirabeau and Corbett.
43. Like Truvy in Steel Magnolias, "Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion."
    
44. I admire Bill Moyers for his intelligence, eloquence, curiosity and moral courage.
45. My first job was at the McDonald's next to my high school. I loved it. I was Queen of the Breakfast Grill. I'd wanted to work there since I was little and Grandma took me there every week to share a Filet-O-Fish and fries.
46. I like and support Barack, but am a little sad it isn't Hillary.
47. I was twelve years old, the summer that Grease came out in theaters. I saw it nine times. Summer movie, had me a blast...
48. I don't like crowds; I get sort of claustrophobic. So I'm not a huge fan of the MN State Fair (though it's a good one); there, I can be claustrophobic in August humidity. What an opportunity!
    
49. I refuse to eat anything whose label informs me that it's food (cheez food, etc.). If I can't identify it as food without the label, maybe should leave it alone.
50. When I was in sixth grade, I was completely taken in by two fads in my class: playing jacks (I was good, but not one of the greats) and signing the covers of each other's spiral notebooks.
51. I love to cuddle quietly on the couch with Beloved and the pups at the end of the day.
52. I wonder if I'll be a pastor someday.
    
53. Many of my best memories of childhood took place at Bebak's Forest Lodge in Winter, WI. My dad's side of the family started going there in the 1930s, and we continued 'til I was out of high school.
    
54. I was a brownie and a girl scout--third generation, on my mom's side!
55. I wish I could play the piano better, but mostly because it would be useful; not a real longing.
56. When I was in fourth grade, I made a really cool red/orange/yellow piece of spin art at the school Fun Fair. My string art and macrame (also attempted that year) didn't come out as well.
57. I never, EVER want to skydive or bungee jump. My maternal grandfather was a ski jumper, and had all five of his grandchildren up on skis in the back yard as soon as we could stand up. The back yard was about perfect for my level of adventurousness and physical courage. All things considered, I should really be able to ski now. Nope.
58. I think I'm a Buddhist/Universalist in Lutheran clothing (vestments?).
    
59. I'm fascinated by the beautiful food on Top Chef. I'm tickled that Stephanie won!
    
60. I was a good ice skater when I was a kid. Janet Lynn (Olympic bronze medalist in the '72 Sapporo games) was from my hometown, and I thought she was pretty cool.
61. My favorite sounds are water hitting the shore, a well-tuned chord (especially a choral one) and the voices of my loved ones, in all their glorious individuality.
62. I love my iPod, and have a barely-held-in-check lust for an iPhone.
63. I'm frightfully competitive at board games and cards.
64. Well-planned, innovative worship in a singing congregation is, to me, a Foretaste of the Feast To Come.
65. I miss thirtysomething, Six Feet Under and The West Wing.
66. I had a pair of boat shoes in college that I wore to tatters. Sockless, of course.
67. When I was on high school orchestra tour in Chicago (paid for by selling SO MANY CANDY BARS), I was in the front row to see Shelley Winters star in The Gingerbread Lady at the Music Box Theater. She was magnificent.
68. Wonderful Colleague makes opportunities for me to preach, every once in awhile. I love it.
69. I'd like to learn more about wines and cheeses. (Praise cheeses!)
70. I'm a punster (not a Jedi), like my father before me. I'm always apologizing for it.
71. I was ninth in my high school graduating class of 325.
72. I get very crabby when it's humid. If hell is tailored for each person, my version would be thus: it's a humid day, I have an itchy rash, and I'm trapped on the "It's a Small World" ride at Disney World, in a car with Rush Limbaugh. Ooooo...the horror...
73. If I were an animal, I'd be a beagle; they're cuddly, they're social, and they sing!
74. The greatest influences on my professional sensibilities (other than my own teachers and colleagues) are Alice Parker, Walter Brueggemann, Rene Clausen, Madeleine L'Engle, Krista Tippett, J.S. Bach, Benjamin Britten and Martin Luther.
75. I love candles. Our house is overflowing with them, my favorites of which are Danish iron.
76. I'm an absolute sucker for a well-executed boo-boo lip, a surprise act of kindness, beautifully-crafted language, a kiss on the back of the neck, the sound of kids singing, moral courage, and small, furry cuteness in all its forms.
77. I swear a lot in the car. I'm working on it. Also, my car is usually full of junk. Sheet music, books, water bottles, food wrappers...yech.
78. I don't drink coffee. This bothers my family of Scandinavian Lutherans MUCH more than my sexual orientation. ;-)
79. Before I die, I'd like to meander through Europe for a year or so, learn Greek and Hebrew, and have more regular "discretionary" time built into my schedule.
80. I'm freakishly good on the nose flute.
81. I secretly love all those lists that appear in magazines and on TV during the second half of December every year--the Ten Best __________ of 200_ (as you may have guessed by this exercise). There's sort of a "taking stock" aspect of it that I enjoy.
82. I'm thinking that my next car might be a Smart Car, but I hope Hildegard still has some healthy years left first.
83. I think that Eddie Izzard might be the funniest person on the planet. See this post to find out what I mean.
84. My cousin Steve is deaf. I asked him when we were teens if he'd teach me to sign, but all he'd teach me was how to swear.
    
85. I have a scar on my thumb that I got when I was five, peeling carrots. The others (on my elbow, brow, knee and hip) came from bike accidents (see point #8).
    
86. I hate elliptical machines with a fiery passion. I want more freedom of movement than they allow.
87. When I was a kid, my mother woke up one morning with a spider sitting in the hand she'd tucked under her pillow. After that, I wouldn't put a hand under my pillow until I went away to college.
88. Our Christmas trees are always Fraser firs, with white lights, red wooden beads and ornaments that are mostly red and blonde wood...with the exception of Beloved's penguins (I get her a new one every year) and my Snoopys.
89. I have an irrational fear of driving behind trucks with ladders on them. Pretty sure I'll be decapitated in a car accident. Oy.
90. When I was tiny, I liked to play with all my grandma's Tupperware and empty margarine tubs on the floor of her kitchen, with breaks for a drink of orange juice & 7-up mixed together.
91. I would still play with Legos, if I had them...and the time. :-)
92. I have sworn off nylons for life.
93. I can't go on any kind of vacation without a book of crosswords. Curse you, Will Shortz!
94. I saw The Exorcist when I was in middle school and going through a horror phase (appropriately timed, it seems...). It scared me so badly, I threw up. I also read The Amityville Horror (against the advice of my English teacher), and that was good for a couple of years' worth of nightmares. SO much scarier than the (dumb) movie.
95. I have treasures from each of my grandparents: my maternal grandmother's engagement photo (signed to my grandfather) and her lefse recipe; my maternal grandfather's Norwegian Bible (with a bonus: stuck in the pages, I found a newspaper clipping about my parents' wedding); my paternal grandfather's green stepladder (he was King of the House Project; Beloved uses it now); my paternal grandmother's set of Corelle mixing bowls, and her recipe for un-freaking-believable sugar cookies (which, somehow, aren't as good when I make them).
96. 
97. I'm teaching myself to play the trombone.
98. My first car was a silver 1979 Fiat Strada, bought from an amazed friend who referred to it as her "lawn ornament." Dad got it going and kept it going for 3 years.
99. While I was in seminary, in order to make money, I directed two church choirs, baked bagels for Bruegger's, was a nanny for two sets of sibs and served as a grad assistant to Paul "Pops" Westermeyer.
100. My lucky number is nine.
     
101. I'm happy with and grateful for my life.
     

Now, friends, it'd be fun if this became a meme! I loved reading Ruth's, and it was fun to write my own. (Hmmm...weird, these were numbered instead of bulleted in "edit" mode...)

Tag. You're It!