Getting to know you

Post inspired by Madame K in France today! I highlight the ones that apply to me and post .... now YOU go!

1. Started your own blog (check - this one)

2. Slept under the stars. (been camping as a kid and in college - also recently tried to sleep in our hammock this past summer and the mosquitoes drove me inside - it is BUGGY out at night!)

3. Played in a band (I played clarinette in 6th and 7th and 8th grade I think - I pretty much sucked. Sounded like a goose getting a rectal exam.)

4. Visited Hawaii.

5. Watched a meteor shower. (Furry Husband will get me up all the time to watch meteor showers. OOO! One time he got home from his bar tending job in Denver at like 3A.M. He woke me up to see the red light in the sky. I thought he was insane at the time and rolled back over. He kept after me and I went out grumbling, thinking I was gonna see the stupid radio towers on the horizon... I was dumbstruck. The whole entire night sky was BLOOD RED. It was so incredibly cool and amazing. We watched it for maybe 15 - 20 minutes until it faded away. I've never seen anything like it before or since. The next day the paper said there was some borealis phemonenon in the CO/WY sky.

6. Given more than you can afford to charity.

7. Been to Disneyland - I've been to whichever one is in FL -

8. Climbed a mountain ( Furry Husband and I climbed the Soufrière volcano on St. Vincent during our honeymoon. It was a personal vendetta for Furry Husband cuz some loser on the boat told him, 'you will never make it in those shoes'. He did make it in those shoes. Also, we live in CO so any time we go hiking, we are pretty much climbing up something )

9. Held a praying mantis. (No but I held a trantula at the Butterfly Pavillion - does that count? Wouldn't come near the hissing cockroach they had tho!)

10. Sang a solo.

11. Bungee jumped.

12. Visited Paris.

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch.

15. Adopted a child.

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty. (went to see it, but I don't think you could go inside it when I was there??)

18. Grown your own vegetables. (yeah, I did. And then the veggies had BUGS on them and I would obsessively wash the vegetables for hours at a time. I realize the grocery store veggies probably have bugs too but I don't SEE them crawling around on my food. )

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France. (took our picture outside the Louvre - too late to actually go inside)

20. Slept on an overnight train. (took a f'ng nightmare of a ride overnight on a Greyhound bus 2 yrs ago when I visited my Pa in Omaha and a blizzard hit CO. My flight was cancelled and I was going to be stuck in NE for like a week... trains were full, no rental cars to be had, no flights til after Christmas... I'm lucky I made it back to CO alive. The bus driver was from Russia and began the trip saying in a thick Russian accent "there will be no number 2 on the bus". Caused hysterical 13 yr old potty humour laughter from the morons around me. The girl in front of me wore a skin tight see thru tank top - no coat - cuz it's December in NE for fucks sake. She passed pictures of herself in her bra and panties back and forth to the boys in the next seat while they all talked about how hot she was and tried to get her to have sex with them. The guy behind me kept talking about his nether regions and how big it was and how often he masturbates. He used many names for it. "Magilla gorilla" was pretty inventive. He pulled out his switchblade at one point and was showing it to the guy next to him. I thought if I got to CO with both my kidneys I'd be thankful. The guy next to him would hide any time there was a police officer in view of the bus at any of the many stops we made ... he would actually dive down and hide on the floor. I've never been so happy to see uniformed police officers in really bad moods barking orders at people once we got to the Denver bus terminal. I almost fell down and hugged the police man's knees I was so glad )

21. Had a pillow fight. ( I went to all girls catholic school. Whatya think we DID there anyway? rolling of eyes)

22. Hitch hiked.

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill.

24. Built a snow fort. (I grew up in NE so yeah)

25. Held a lamb. (no - but many goat kids!)

26. Gone skinny dipping. (Been to a NUDE hot springs in CO somewhere. A girlfriend talked me into going with her and her MOM and her MOM'S BOYFRIEND - why did I not see how wrong that was at the time? Anyway - my weekend adventure included sitting on the stairs of the cabin in my shorts and sweatshirt early one morning, eating my cereal when this old guy goes JOGGING past wearing socks and running shoes but nothing else. That is when I completely understood the phrase about the drapes matching the carpet. He was totally grey... um.... yeah. Totally. The other adventure included skinny dipping with my friend in the natural hot springs pool...cuz that is what you do at a naked hot springs. There was a really large older woman reading a book in a reclining pool chair. She had a shirt on but nothing else. It looked like there was a large grey possum in her lap.)

27. Run a Marathon (this will NEVER happen - NOT EVER - someone asked me once and I almost fell down laughing)

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.

31. Hit a home run. (When I was on the Hillside All-Stars softball team in grade school... I kicked ass)

32. Been on a cruise. (Windjammer cruise thru the Grenadine Islands.)

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person.

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors. (What? You mean Omaha, NE?)

35. Seen an Amish community. (When I went to PA to see my really dumb boyfriend's family/hometown. We drove thru an Amish community. His mom had a gazillion cats in the house that peed on anything not covered with plastic. Seriously. At one point his sister left her Nintendo game box uncovered - the big hard plastic thing the size of a VCR you hook up to your t.v.? The 300 cats took turns pissing all over it. Totally gross. POOLS of cat urine. I have cats, but mine don't pee all over your stuff and if they did, they wouldn't live in our house. His mom also had a squirrel in a cage in her room. It was really, really, really wierd. We broke shortly up after that. We were in an argument and I said, 'Jim, stop acting so stupid!' He replied, 'Shanster, I'm not acting stupid. I AM this stupid!' He was completely serious. Yeah. Ahem. Sorry. I can't continue to date you any longer than I already have. )

36. Taught yourself a new language. (Learned how to say 30 things in French when we went there)

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied.

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing (Climbing anything higher than 2 rungs on a ladder scares the crap outta me. I did go rock climbing with people - I watched them climb with all their carabiners and ropes and harnesses. They TRIED to get me to climb)

40. Seen Michelangelo's David

41. Sung karoke. ("Me and Bobby McGee" at the Drager's neighborhood party. It was bad. Much funnier and a much better imitation when I'm in my car with the music blaring in my own private sound studio on wheels. Ask Furry Husband, I'm hilarious!)

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt.

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant.

44. Visited Africa.

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance (flight for life actually - I was in this car accident where this drunk driver t-boned my car on the driver's side. I was the only one in the car which means I was driving. I don't remember any of it - well I sorta remember fighting the Dr.s telling them if they'd just leave my leg alone, it'd be o.k. I thought I was dreaming. I woke up in a hospital bed naked, an oxygen tube in my nose, a neck brace on and a cast all the way up to my right thigh. "uh, hello?... can someone tell me what just happened?"

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris ( the line was too long, there are scary guards with machine guns at the bottom. Keeping the line orderly I guess )

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (Snorkeling - on our honeymoon. The ocean is really loud when you go under the water! )

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business (trying! )

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia (in H.S. took a trip to Moscow, Lenningrad and Kiev - I mooned someone in Lenningrad out my hotel window. They ran to a phone kiosk and I freaked out thinking the KGB was gonna haul my arse away. Kept all the lights off and curtains pulled the rest of the night. Lenin looks like a wax figurine in Lenin's Tomb - I don't know if he's real or not cuz you can't trust what the communists tell you! Oh - here is the wierdest thing. In Moscow, to get a drink? They have (or had) these crazy vending machines. You put your $$ in, there is a GLASS - a real GLASS - the machine fills the glass up with the liquid of your choice. The person drinks said liquid and puts the glass back. Next person chooses whatever liquid they want, drinks up and puts the glass back. The lines are long and no one ever takes the glass! Boggled my 17 yr old mind. )

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout cookies

62. Gone whale watching. (Madame K is right. I went whale watching in Boston. There are 5-6 boats. When a whale is spotted, all boats go screaming over to the whale, circle it, and the air is thick with boat fumes and gasoline. The boats are jam crammed with people asshole to belly button. I mostly felt sorry for the whales putting up with all of it)

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter ( see # 46 I don't remember it. Been in a small 2 seater plane twice - from CO to Lake Tahoe and in AK to a cabin you could only get to via a little 2 seater plane)

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy.

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial (It seemed a lot smaller in person than it looks in the movies.)

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades (I was taken for a tour in some swamp in Mississippi - does that count? I learned that alligators love marshmallows. You can lure them to your boat with marshmallows! Sounds like an ad for the next "When Animals Attack" doesn't it?)

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London.

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle. (I dated this tiny, wee man named Ben. He had a motorcycle. Napoleon complex. 'Nuff said. )

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper (as a kid - standing in line for Santa's Workshop - The Omaha World Herald)

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House ( didn't go inside, but walked all around it, on the lawns and stuff. )

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (we took Turkey Lurkey to a "processor" guy who killed her and dressed her out for us and then we cooked her. I could only eat one bite. I kept picturing her out in the yard chasing grasshoppers. I'm not so good at eating animals I know.)

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life (Furry Husband tells me I saved his when I married him. Awwwww - are you barfing yet? )

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous (I met Jimmy Connors - the tennis pro when I was 15. )

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person (horrible, horrible guv'ment conference held in San Antonio - I saw it. I was not impressed. I really didn't like that part of TX at all - it coulda been the horrid guv'ment conference but I don't think so.)

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a lawsuit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Read an entire book in one day