In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Eight Pointless Things About Me

Jill

MaryAnn tagged me with a meme, so let’s play:

THE RULES
1. All right, here are the rules.
2. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
3. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
4. People who are tagged write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
5. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Eight pointless things about me:

1. I am very sneezy — as in, I sneeze all the time. And I almost always sneeze at least three times in a row. Sometimes, I can make myself sneeze silently.

2. I think I’m going to die by falling. I’m relatively certain I’ll either be in an elevator when the cord snaps, or in a plane crash. Not surprisingly, I am a little uneasy riding in elevators and flying.

3. I have a terrible habit of pulling on and playing with my nose ring. This makes me look like I’m constantly picking my nose in public (when, in fact, I only pick my nose in private).

4. My mom wanted to spell my name Jyl or Jil. Thank God my dad shut that idea down.

5. I have a major lingerie fetish — some women loves shoes, some women love bags, I can’t stop buying underwear. I have two drawers and several storage bags full of it. I have books about it. I have to plan out my route in certain neighborhoods to avoid my favorite stores, because I am unable to walk by without going in and buying something. And while I’ll spend stupid amounts of money on fancy underwear, I almost never wear it — I go with basic cotton boy-shorts almost every single day.

6. I love the smell of ballpoint pen ink.

7. I am very klutzy, and I injure myself a lot. Yesterday I banged my head on the freezer door (it was open, and I was standing up after having kneeled down to put something in the fridge), banged my shin on a crate (wasn’t watching where I was going in a deli), hit my elbow or something or other, and tripped at least twice.

8. I cannot stand nail clippers. I have never clipped my own nails, and cannot have my nails clipped at the manicurist. Occasionally they will clip my toenails during a pedicure, and it makes me feel like I’m biting down on a metal spoon while listening to finger nails drag across a chalkboard. The feeling — but especially the sound — of nail clippers gives me the shivers. My room mate clips her nails when I’m not home, or does it in her room with the door shut. I invest in nail files.

I tag:

1. Trailer Park Feminist
2. Magniloquence
3. Kactus
4. A.H.M.K.
5. All of you!

50 thoughts on Eight Pointless Things About Me

  1. As I sit here playing with my nose ring, I am thinking, “Hey, there’s someone else in the world who is constantly accused of being a nose-picker because of their nose ring.”

  2. 1. My real middle name is Eunice.
    2. My second toe is much longer than my big toe.
    3. I am allergic to blueberries.
    4. I am a FREAK about correcting grammar and punctuation!
    5. I wish I had been a professional cartoonist.
    6. I fell in love with my husband within hours of meeting him.
    7. My favorite sandwich is cream cheese and olive.
    8. I love people who make me THINK. I groove on that!

  3. You know what, clipping your nails is actually supposed to be bad for them; apparently it makes them split. I file mine down too.

  4. me too on the nose ring. me too.

    also on the picking the nose in private. I have to be careful because sometimes I feel like my car is private, but really, it’s not.

  5. Man, I can’t stand the sound or feel of filing. So… gritty. Give me a nice clean clip any day.

    Public clipping, however, is a huge no no. As anyone who reads the Last Days column in The Stranger can attest to.

  6. 1. I won’t eat any fish that smells or tastes like fish, except salmon.
    2. One of my life’s goals is to see every exhibit in the Met’s permanent collection.
    3. I love watching the Triple Crown of Surfing, but I don’t surf.
    4. The last time I golfed, I shot a 143 (FYI, that’s really, really, really bad).
    5. I sleep with earplugs and a blackout mask (my SO snores and likes to watch TV until 2 am).
    6. I watch This Old House nearly every weekend.
    7. I cannot keep plants alive.
    8. I haven’t dusted my office in 2 months.

  7. I used to play with my wedding ring so furiously I gave myself carpal tunnel syndrome. I had to stop wearing it. Maybe you should give up on the nose ring? How about a stud instead?

  9. Yeah, my mom wanted to spell my name “rows” but my dad wouldn’t have it!

    (that was a joke actually, maybe not a very good one, sigh…)

    There is a joke on the Golden Girls where Betty White’s “Rose” says “The name is Rose, like a bunch of seats in a movie theater” guy responds “You mean like the flower” Rose: “I never thought of that, but, yes, I guess so!”

  10. I always sneeze twice. And every time, someone around me has to comment on it, no matter how many times they have already heard me sneeze twice and know that I do it. Really, folks, it’s not that interesting.

    I’m in the process of tossing out lingerie. I don’t like the stuff. I can’t wear it everyday b/c it itches and is uncomfortable. It’s expensive as hell. I only wear it b/c men like it and I am tired of thinking that way. I have a few pieces of not-too-objectionable lingerie, but I will probably toss them, too, and anyone who gets to the point of seeing my underwear had better be so happy to be there that he dare not criticize it.

  11. 1. My dad named me after Heather Locklear. (My mom did not find that out until a few years ago.)

    2. I LOVE LOVE LOVE peanut butter & jelly sandwiches on toasted bread. And it has to be atleast 2 layers.

    3. When I’m driving by myself in my car I love to blast my music and sing really loud.

    4. I used to have my eyebrow pierced.

    5. The sound of people cracking their knuckles (or anything else, like their back, neck, etc.) makes me cringe.

    6. I have an organic garden in my backyard.

    7. I go through phases of “binge reading” where I go crazy and all I do is read books for a period of time…then I stop and don’t read any books for little while…then it starts up again.

    8. I really really wish I could have the patience to sit down and learn to play the guitar.

  14. I did this a while ago, and I said:

    1. I edited a family newspaper when I was a kid. It ran for several dozen issues, but they were spread out over almost ten years.

    2. I have a habit of twirling pairs of pipecleaners called “twiddling sticks”. It’s been with me most of my life. Depriving me of these sticks is a little like taking cigarettes from a smoker: I can’t work or think straight.

    3. I’m *allegedly* descended from an (elected) king of a tiny island off the coast of Gwynedd. We decided to investigate this once, and found that the elected monarchy did indeed exist, but there was no record of my ancestor (there were few records of anything at all).

    4. I had Special Educational Needs at school, but eventually they gave up on me. They couldn’t figure out why I performed so well on IQ tests but socialised so badly and was so alienated from most of the work I had to do.

    [since I originally posted this, I was diagnosed at the age of 31 with Asperger syndrome. Go figure. It was pretty much unheard of when I was at school as far as I know, although I can remember being taken out of class to be tested for ordinary autism when I was seven]

    5. As a toddler, I once fell off the side of a container ship in dry dock. My father, who had been holding my hand, pulled me back from hanging over the drop.

  15. 1.) For most of my formative years, I lived in a single-wide trailer with my family.
    2.) I was busted at eleven years old for trading cans of beer for other kids’ lunch money and ice cream. Once I traded a mason jar full of wine for a Drumstick.
    3.) I lived in an intentional community for three years.
    4.) I don’t read as much as I used to and I feel terribly guilty about it.
    5.) I have 200 pages of an unfinished novel “collecting dust” in my laptop.
    6.) I’m really obsessed with the pores in my t-zone. I squeeze them every day, use clear pore strips every other day, use pore minimizing scrubs and masks and steam my face once a weak to keep my pores tight.
    7.) I like to drink beer.
    8.) My boyfriend helped me build my own bike. It is the love of my life and I ride it six miles to work and six more back five days a week.

  16. 8.) My boyfriend helped me build my own bike. It is the love of my life and I ride it six miles to work and six more back five days a week.

    This could be misinterpreted in the most funny of ways.

  19. what is a t-zone?

    The T-zone is your forehead, nose and the area around your mouth, including the chin. (Basically, if you drew a bit letter T in the middle of your face.)

  20. 1. I can spin a coin with one hand as well as most people can with two. People are rarely impressed with this until they try it themselves.
    2. I have better than average vision, but I’m jealous of people who wear glasses.
    3. I don’t like to eat eggs.
    4. I enjoy eating frosting right out of the jar.
    5. I’m practically obsessed with fictional robots.
    6. When I was a child, a relative smuggled me into and out of Canada by hiding me in the sleeper section of a semi-truck.
    7. I love cooking, but hate doing the dishes (and cook less than I ought to as a result).
    8. I’m the oldest person of my generation on my father’s side, and there is about 9 years between me and the youngest. On my mother’s side, I’m in the top half, but there is over 30 years difference between the oldest and the youngest.

  22. 1. I’m really obsessed with the pores in my t-zone, too! I spend way too much money on pore strips even though they hardly work.
    2. My boyfriend and I went to high school together and met in math class. So did my parents. M grew up in the same neighborhood my dad grew up in. I grew up in the same neighborhood my mom grew up in. M and my dad are both the youngest of 4. My mom and I are both the oldest. Cheesy, I know.
    3. I’m crazy about beagles.
    4. I hate the sound of styrofoam. The feeling (but especially the sound) drives me crazy and makes me cringe.
    5. I didn’t have many dolls when I was a kid (didn’t like ’em), but I did make up a game called Dead Baby, which my cousin and I played with the dolls I did have. “Pro-abortionist” in the making, I tell ya.
    6. My parents sent me to Vacation Bible School every summer when I was a kid.
    7. I like doing back-flips off docks into lakes.
    8. My parents named me Sarah Maria, after a James Taylor song.

  23. thanks, folks.

    I should think of three more things, but they would mostly be things about “I’m so lucky to have such a wonderful daughter” or something rather than about *me*.

  24. ooh ooh! yes, making up insane games.

    6. I made up a game when I was eight where everyone in my class was a superhero named after a different brand of toothpaste. It really caught on. I cannot account for this.

    7. I did not know where or exactly what the clitoris was, or much else about the way the vulva fits together, until I was about 25. I should be ashamed of this, but possibly the blame lies just as much with the education system. (I say 25 because I had the general geography explained to me over the phone by a good (platonic) friend I knew at the time, who discovered in the course of making some remark or other that I had no idea what she was talking about: she was very helpful and thorough in her explanation, and the information all came in very useful when several years later I finally got to meet one up close.

    8. I can move my ears up and down at will. Such a useful talent.

  25. are you sure you don’t sneeze a lot because of your nose ring? It might trigger nerves, making your nose think it should sneeze.

  26. I sneeze a lot, too, but I think it’s because I obsessively remove all of my nose hair, so there’s nothing to catch all the pollen.

    I also twirl my nose ring a lot, but I’m not going to pretend like it’s just a nervous thing I do. I do it because boogers get stuck to the post, and I scrape them off to keep it “clean.” I also tell people that I’m not really picking my nose when I do this, but… I guess I am.

  27. Hmm…I don’t know if I can think really interesting at this point, but I’ll try:

    1. I’m obsessive about protecting the corners of the covers of my paperback books with tape.
    2. I still own a deck of Magic: The Gathering cards, but haven’t played the game in nearly ten years.
    3. I don’t own a television.
    4. My favorite thing to do with my mother when I visit her is to go shopping.
    5. I hate popping bubble wrap.
    6. I study, among other things, the North American fur trade. (No “beaver” jokes, please.)
    7. I’ve never blown a bubble with bubble gum in my life.
    8. I can put both of my feet behind my head.

  28. 1. I can’t whistle. Like absolutely can not do it.
    2. I can’t enter a convenience store without coming out with at least 5 different drinks. I think I’m terrified of being really thirsty.
    3. I pretend to be a total movie snob, but my favorite comedy is Anchorman.
    4. I am really really proud of my Scottish heritage. So proud, in fact, I got a thistle tattoo on my shoulder blade. Upon further inspection, however, it really just looks like a purple flower, not specifically a thistle.
    5. I don’t believe in ghosts, but my current house is beginning to convince me.
    6. I hate going to weddings.
    7. After having an ingrown toenail when I was 8, I trim my toenails like it’s my job.
    8. I eat condensed milk right out of the can. My husband says it’s the most disgusting thing he’s ever seen.

  29. 1. I can’t stand the feel of dish panned hands on dry towel. It makes me cringe!!! Or if people make noises when they eat.

    2. I buy most of my summer clothes in the winter and my winter clothes in the summer when they are cheap!

    3. I am a penny pincher but occasionally splurge on something I just can’t live without. Then I feel guilty about it.

    4. I cry when watching shows about women having babies.

    5. I am addicted to a type of homemade salad dressing my boyfriend’s mother makes.

    6. I grow my hair out for months only to realize I hate long hair on me and then I cut it short.

    7. When I’m at work I spend the whole eight hours deciding how my future home will look down to the detail.

    8. I have dreams of owning some kind of shop one day. Not sure what kind, but it may have something to do with clothes, knitting, or food.

  30. After having an ingrown toenail when I was 8, I trim my toenails like it’s my job.

    I had an ingrown toenail like 5 times when I was in middle school / highschool. DO NOT trim your toenails too short. It’s trimming them too short at the corners that creates ingrown toenails. Cut straight across the top, but not too short.

  31. 1) I’m cheap and not very materialist at all. My parents didn’t have much money when I was growing up, so I was denied every fancy toy that kids had and managed, in the process, to learn that I didn’t want for that stuff anyway. As an adult, I wear thrift store clothes and drive a beater truck.
    2) I’m obsessed with eating enough fiber, which is weird for someone not yet 30. I will probably never have colon cancer.
    3) Since I grew up in West Texas where there’s fluoride in the water, I have never had a cavity. I think I have one now, though, and I really need to get it drilled.
    4) Spiders unnerve me. It’s knowing that they have 8 eyes.
    5) I cannot watch men shave with even a safety razor. The sharp object next to the throat freaks me out. My boyfriend uses an electric razor, which is a huge relief to me.
    6) I’m extremely squeamish about pain, but not very about anything else. Dirt and shit don’t bother me much. In my past of gardening, I had no problem digging around in manure and getting covered in shit, albeit dried shit.
    7) I’m not very picky, but I need coffee with cream and sweetener, much to my great shame. I’d love to be tough enough to drink it black.
    8) I like having carrot cake on my birthday.

  33. Actually, I’ve got the worst of both worlds: I’m extremely cheap but also extremely materialistic. And I use straight razors, but use them for as long as I can, well past when they actually cut cleanly. I don’t know if that’s better or worse.

  35. Scranton, PA is my hometown. And my dad works at a paper company.

    HAH! I’m in the process of watching the second season of The Office!

  36. Good on ya! There’s actually going to be an Office convention in Scranton in October. I forget the website… but it’s sponsored by like NBC, VisitPA.com, the Chamber of Commerce, etc. I feel like I should rent out my parents’ basement. Either way, I’m both excited to go (um, what do you do at an Office convention?) and nervous!

  37. 1) I’m very klutzy as well, I fall down, trip over sidewalk cracks, and bump various parts of me on random things. Usually I don’t mind, but it sometimes bothers me that I’m like one of those romantic comedy stereotypes who is usually competant but then some jackass writer decides to cut her down to size by making her fall over a lot.

    2) I can wiggle both my ears, and my right one by itself, but not the left one on its own.

    3) When I get depressed I watch hours and hours of tv in a row and can’t stop.

    4) I like to read and knit at the same time.

    5) I like popping pimples.

    6) I make cakes so I can eat my homemade icing out of the bowl with a spoon.

    7) I don’t shave my ‘bikini line’ and as such buy really low cut bathing suits to compensate. I hated shaving or waxing down there, but I don’t want anyone to see my hair either…

    8) I’m a really picky eater but pretend not to be for appearance’s sake (a ruse which usually fails).

  38. Straight razors cut really well. In my experience electric razors don’t cut worth crap, but they’re the only ones I feel comfortable having near my throat.

  39. 1. I ate oysters from a condemned creek.
    2. I have some sort of angel halos around my pupils.
    3. I have never been on an airplane.
    4. I can make a weird hum-whistle that sounds like a Theremin run through a distortion pedal.
    5. I never went to kindergarten.
    6. I have promised myself to only drive vehicles with clutches for the remainder of my days.
    7. I eat the shells and tails of shrimp.
    8. I taught myself how to Sign the lyrics to Where Did You Sleep Last Night.

  40. I can spin a coin with one hand as well as most people can with two. People are rarely impressed with this until they try it themselves.

    I can do it with one hand, but two works better (more leverage). One-hand spinning doesn’t work for me unless I rotate my wrist outward at the same time.

  41. 1. i know almost all the lines from the original star wars movie
    2. i collect postcards and empty wine bottles
    3. I trim my nose hair
    4. i can’t sit in the same room as someone eating a banana because the smell makes me nauseous, but I like dried banana chips
    5. my first plane journey took place before I could read (I was *just* two)
    6. my middle name is spelt “lauren” but pronounced “loren” (as in sophia) and I get really picky about that
    7. I own more than thirty pairs of shoes – but wear the same three pairs in constant rotation.
    8. I cannot say brigade without having to stop and think about it. or soldier.

  42. 7) I’m not very picky, but I need coffee with cream and sweetener, much to my great shame. I’d love to be tough enough to drink it black.

    Come up here to the Emerald City, Amanda. We’ll get you drinking black coffee.

  43. 1) I’m about the most scatterbrained person I know.
    2) I’m terrified of snakes, even the little tiny ones that don’t hurt anybody. It prevents me from going outside during warm weather and is a huge annoyance.
    3) I’m addicted to coffee coolattas from Dunkin Donuts.
    4)I love lingerie, but more the chemises and baby dolls. I buy them compulsively and rarely wear them.
    5) I hate onions and mushrooms.
    6) I’m extremely klutzy and have stories to prove it, including the time I got a weight clamp stuck in my head between my scalp and my skull, or the time I cut myself on a jagged piece of frozen dirt and ended up with 8 stitches.
    7) I tend to obsess about everything, including that which is not that important.
    8) I love old musicals and cheesy romance movies.

  44. 1) I have had less than 4 ounces of red meat to eat in the last 13 years.

    2) I am allergic to a lot of shellfish but come from Maryland, which means that I will never be elected to public office (the whole crab feast thing.)

    3) We have two autistic sons, 4 and 2, so we see few movies as babysitters are a challenge to get.

    4) My wedding was essentially a “Mafia Wedding” of the Maryland Libertarian Party, but I am now thinking of registering as a Democrat.

    5) I follow public transit issues like an obsessive freak.

    6) 90% of American men think that they are above average drivers, but I am in the honest and realistic sub-competent 10%.

    7) My wife and I are of different religious perspectives; I am an atheist and she is an evangelical pro-life Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher from Oklahoma. Makes dinnertime chat fun.

    8) I went to Princeton as a hard-core financial-aid pot scrubber, liked the classes but disliked intensely the sociology of Princeton itself.

  45. 1) I was a veterinary technician/assistant for ten years.
    2) I can juggle (balls, knives, clubs, rings, apples, eggs).
    3) I do like spiders and snakes, but I’m terrified of clowns and monkeys.
    4) My favorite movie is Tod Browning’s Freaks.
    5) I attended my own wedding reception dressed as Groucho Marx.
    6) I believe the goddess Athena is a splendid role model.
    7) At my first academic conference, I read a paper about Elvis in urban legend.
    8) I don’t know how to remove the space between 7 and 8.

  46. 1) My 21st birthday was September 11, 2001. Suffice to say, I never had a 21 run.
    2) I organize my books by the Dewey Decimal System (but I cheat and look the proper # up on the library system)
    3) The first time I made Thanksgiving dinner, I did it for 25 people… successfully.
    4) Secretly I still want to be President, but I’m pretty sure I’d never make it.
    5) Apparently a lot of people in high school thought I was a lesbian, so seeing them now with my husband is always entertaining.
    6) I can independently wiggle my ears and my eyebrows of each other.
    7) If left alone, I will watch ‘Girls Next Door’ until my eyes fall out of my head. However, the husband hates it and the apartment is small, so I don’t get to very much. I have oral surgery next week and plan to crack out on the box set.
    8) I didn’t really like the Lord of the Rings books as much as the movies, and I only read the books so I could watch the movies guilt-free.

  47. 6) I am a goddess when it comes to making soup. Seriously. My soup is awesome.

    I love to make soup, too. You’d love my celery & Stilton. That is, if you like celery and Stilton.

  48. Picking your nose in public is perfectly acceptable as long as you don’t eat your snot. In public.

  49. 1. I have a speech impediment – I can’t say “sh” and “ch” correctly. There have been many conversations with strangers where I say “she” and they say did you just call her “he” and I have to say no, I have a speech impediment. They feel all awkward and apologetic. I try to explain that I’ve had it all my life so not offended.

    2. In 4th grade, my class wrote personal letters to President Clinton. I wrote to him on how he could fix the U.S. economy. My plan was that he should lower the taxes until everybody could pay their bills & then he could raise them again to pay for schools, roads, healthcare, etc. It was a comical plan but then again I was 9. I received a personal response from him & I was soooo thrilled.

    3. I hate when people at work complain about their weight and working out. I’ve had an eating disorder & suffer from body image issues. I try to remain a positive body perception but hearing them say “Oh, I’m so fat, I need to run today” drives me mad. Its a constant struggle to love my body.

    4. I’m from New Jersey & v. proud of it. I know an insane amount of factoids about it – such as we are one of the top 7 states in terms of immigration, we have the tallest & fastest roller coaster in the world, we are the home of Frank Sinatra, etc. etc.

    5. I aspire to travel to every continent in the world, so far I’ve only been to two.

    6. I had my nose pierced twice. When I had a nose ring, I totally twirled with it all the time. Also had my tongue pierced, belly button & an orbital (hoop that goes in & out of your cartilage – one hoop, two holes)

    7. I love being a feminist. Intelligent women with strong opinions inspire me – hence why I love and read feministe.

    8. I love bookstores. I’m agnostic and not sure if I believe in heaven, but if it does exist, I think it has every book imaginable & unlimited amounts of free chai latte. And you have the perfect couch to curl up on and read for eternity.

  50. 1. My entire family knows every word to The Sting. I’ve watched it more times than I can count and “Take him back to the baggage room and put one in his ear!” is one of my favorite insults.

    2. I love office supply stores. Pens are a particular weakness.

    3. Pulling apart cotton balls makes me freak out. I can’t even deal with it when the Q-tip pulls.

    4. I am addicted to Diet Coke. I have vowed to kick the habit after I take the bar exam.

    5. When I drink alcohol, my first two questions will always be: Is there champagne? Is there tawny port?

    6. I am a speed demon about showering and getting ready in the morning. The thing that takes me the longest is resisting whatever book is on my nightstand. Otherwise, all morning ablutions take less than 6 minutes.

    7. I was nominated as “Most Likely to Become a Supreme Court Justice” in my law school graduating class. I have no idea if I won because I couldn’t be bothered to go to “3L Week”.

    8. My twin sister and I have a knack for identical academic achievement. We graduated sequentially in our high school class (2nd and 3rd) and finished college with the exact same GPA.

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