2. When I finally clued in, I was shocked. It took a long time for me to warm up to the idea of there being other countries, people, languages and cultures in the world.
3. My favourite Popsicle flavour is orange.
4. When I was five my mom desperately wanted me to get a perm. She said I’d look adorable, like Shirley Temple. I didn’t want to, but she went on and on and on for so long that I agreed to get one done just to shut her up. While I was getting it done I cried because it smelled so bad and I cried afterward because I looked like Annie.
5. I resented my mother for years afterward because of it.
6. I still cringe when I see pictures of myself with that goddamn perm.
7. My childhood best friend and I used to fight over which side of the apple juice can would face us when we ate lunch together. Neither of us wanted to look at the French side.
8. I loved playing with my mom’s hot rollers when I was a kid.
9. I used to stuff my cat into one of those mesh laundry bags, throw her over my shoulder and carry her, howling and clawing, around the house.
10. The first drug I ever did was acid.
11. I did it at school and got busted.
12. My stepmother introduced me to Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
13. I still have several of my baby teeth. My mom saved them and I don’t have the heart to throw them out.
14. I hate crows.
15. My favourite colour is orange.
16. I’ve given up on growing my nails.
17. I dyed my hair purple in high school and my father was shocked. It pleased me that I got a reaction out of him.
18. I continued to dye it that colour for a few years.
19. I got my first tattoo when I was 16.
20. My mother was devastated and made me promise I’d never get another one.
21. I got another one.
22. I tried to hide it from her but she saw it one day when I leaned over to feed the cats.
23. I told her it was fake and she came over and ran her fingernails over it. It started to bleed and she started to cry.
24. I felt bad for trying to lie to her and for doing something she didn’t want me to do but I wanted her to accept how I felt about tattoos.
25. I partied a lot when I was younger.
26. There is a lot that I don’t remember because of that.
27. I know the main reason why I partied was to try and escape my unhappiness.
28. If I could change one thing about my life I’d change how old I was when I lost my virginity.
29. I try to keep up with politics, nationally and internationally, but I find a lot of it to be really boring.
30. Since I lost my good friend in early January I’ve been really missing my mom.
31. I moved out of my mom’s house when I was sixteen.
32. I lasted about two months before I moved back.
33. I’ve been to several raves.
34. I knew that Dave was the one for me when, one night, we were talking on the phone and he made me laugh, really hard, the kind of laugh that is easy and comfortable and comes from the bottom of your belly.
35. The people that I am closest to live far away from me.
36. The relationship I have with my father is the best it has ever been.
37. We can go weeks without talking.
38. I can’t help but resent him sometimes for not appearing more interested in my life.
39. There is a little bit of me that is jealous that he plays such an important role in my brother’s lives.
40. I consider myself to be quite close to my grandmother.
41. I am terrified of cruise ships.
42. I’ve always thought left-handed people are cool.
43. I started drinking coffee the day my mom had her liver transplant.
44. At times I worry that people will judge me because of the stuff I did when I was younger.
45. I love reading other people’s blogs.
46. I’d like to lose 25 pounds by next summer.
47. I really, really miss driving standard.
48. I hate cleaning out the refrigerator. I try to avoid doing it at all costs.
49. I know that sounds disgusting but I can’t fucking stand cleaning out the fridge.
50. I just went upstairs and yelled at Julia for jumping so hard on her bedroom floor she was making the ceiling light fixtures rattle and shake. (She’s supposed to be napping.)
51. I was holding my mother’s hand when she died.
52. It wasn’t until I saw two tears running slowly down her face that I noticed she had stopped breathing.
53. I threw up when the Charge Nurse said “There’s no heartbeat.”
54. Having Julia completely changed my life.
55. I hate camping.
56. An angry customer threw a 20-pack of nuggets at me one night when I was working drive-thru at McDonalds.
57. I can’t drink hard liquor anymore because I drank so much when I was younger.
58. I love popping zits.
59. I always remember my dreams.
60. Six Feet Under is my favourite television show of all time.
61. Twin Peaks gets an honourable mention.
62. The artist I’ve seen the most times in concert is Ani DiFranco.
63. I regret passing up the chance to go see Radiohead when I was in college.
64. I want to get another tattoo.
65. I stopped caring about my looks when my mom died.
66. I care a little bit more about them now.
67. I tried to pierce my nose with a sewing needle when I was in high school.
68. I see so much of my mother in Julia its spooky sometimes.
69. I regret that the last Christmas I spent with my mother was overshadowed by my miscarriage.
70. I’m a homebody.
71. I inherited my childhood home when my mom died.
72. We fixed it up and lived there for almost two years.
73. A very close friend of mine was killed in a car accident when I was sixteen.
74. I think about her a lot and wonder what kind of woman she would be today.
75. Math is the subject that I struggled with the most.
76. Science was a doozy, too.
77. We went a while without having cable when I was a teenager so I used to watch Sid and Nancy every day.
78. I loved the thought that Julia’s nursery had been my childhood bedroom.
79. I’m closer now with certain members of my family than I was when my mother was alive.
80. I love cheesecake.
81. I had my tonsils removed when I was in Grade 5.
82. I had a bad reaction to the anesthetic and was a bit unruly after surgery.
83. There isn’t a day that goes by that my children don’t make me laugh and make my heart swell with love and pride.
84. I don’t eat fish.
85. My best friend is more like a sister to me.
86. I love swimming but I hate being in a bathing suit.
87. When I was little I used to type short stories out on our typewriter.
88. My mom saved them.
89. When I was in high school I used to run 3-5 miles a day.
90. The thought of doing that now makes me want to throw up.
91. I grew up in a very cluttered home.
92. I hate clutter.
93. I get very antsy and claustrophobic when my house is too cluttered.
94. I can hear Julia singing in her bedroom.
95. I just crouched at the bottom of the stairs to listen to her sing.
96. I learned how to drive on a Ford Tempo.
97. My mom taught me how to drive standard.
98. She had perfect pitch and she could change gears without putting the clutch in just by listening for the car’s hum to hit the right note.
99. She and I look a lot alike.
100. I think about her all the time.
48 Comments, Comment or Ping
Just a quick hello to tell you I think your blog is great and I always look forward to reading it.
February 24th, 2006
orange is my favorite popsicle and I don’t eat fish too! Brillaint!
Clutter makes me feel like the wall are closing in on me, and when I let things go too long, the German side of my rears its head, and I Blitzkrieg the place. People stay away from me when this happens. I suspect that Miek thinks I am hott (2 tt’s) when I am like this as he is very organized. To him, me cleaning/organizing is foreplay.
Great list.
February 24th, 2006
Mexmommy — thank you!
Jen — LOL. I’m the same way, but I am confident that Dave doesn’t find me hott when I get like that at all.
February 24th, 2006
That was the best list of 100 I have ever read.
February 24th, 2006
Awesome.
#10 – So much for pot being the gateway drug. I’m trying to convince Jeff to do it with me sometime.
#51-52 – Me too. I promised myself I would write about it this year.
#60 – Ditto. I cried so hard during the last scene of the series finale, it was as if someone I really knew had died. I still sometimes cry when I hear that song.
#63 – We are going to see them in June. Can. Not. Wait.
#78 – That is so unbearably awesome. We are moving into Jeff’s dad’s childhood home for a year when we go to Florida. That is the thing I am most excited about when we have a baby – they will get to live in the home where their grandfather grew up.
#91-92 – Me too and I think that’s why.
#100 – You’ll never stop. Sometimes I can hear her voice in my dreams.
February 24th, 2006
God I love these lists!
As you know, I am totally with you on the fish thing.
I like orange posicles best if there is no lime in the package.
I pierced my ears with a sewing needle in high school. Still have the holes. Did the nose bleed? And is that the same piercing you have in your nose now?
February 24th, 2006
I can totally relate to you. Especially doing things that your mum asked you not to. I’m sorry to hear about your friend. I lost a great friend when we were twelve and I still miss her.
February 24th, 2006
Teebs — You are so strong for even attempting to write about that. I don’t think I could.
Mrs. H — My nose didn’t bleed but it was unbelieveably painful. It’s not the same piercing I have now — once I’d decided that I did want to get it done I had it done professionally, and it hurt much less.
February 24th, 2006
Great list!
Will anything ever be as good as ‘Six Feet Under?’
February 24th, 2006
Awesome list.
38. Me too. I just hung up on my dad today because of it. :(
41. I am so afraid of cruise ships! There are like these huge floating cities without proper medical staffs or police.
56. I had an angry customer throw a lawn chair at me once, when I was working at Home Depot. I stood at my register and cried. LOL If he had done it to the 32 year old Melissa and not the 20 year old Melissa, I seriously would have kicked his ass.
100. ((((Katherine)))
February 24th, 2006
Fabulous list!
55. Amen.
61. Woot woot!
62. Oh, very cool.
100. *hug*
February 24th, 2006
I LOVED reading that. And it made me smile that I actually *knew* quite a few of those about you! :)
I struggled w/ Math and Science too and writing was where I excelled. We seem to have a lot in common in those areas, eh?
Thanks so much for sharing Katherine!!!
February 24th, 2006
We have way too much in common. In a few days it will be 14 years since my mom died. I think about her a lot too. She would have loved seeing me work in a yarn shop. She taught me when I was little.
Hugs to you.
xo
February 24th, 2006
I like you even more now. If that is possible.
February 24th, 2006
Great list. I’m left handed. I’m not sure I’m cool, though. But I am sure you are. Girl, you’ve done a lot of living.
February 24th, 2006
Chris, it doesn’t surprise me that you’re a Twin Peaks fan. LOVED that show!
EE — We do have a lot in common.
Scout, did I know you lost your mom too? How cool that she taught you to knit and that you’re so awesome at it now. I know she can see you in your yarn shop.
Nancy, thank you. :)
Gary, a leftie? That’s totally cool! I think Julia’s gonna be a leftie and I am PUMPED. LOL! And…thanks. :)
February 24th, 2006
4. whaaaat?
17. mine’s been pink, turqouise, blue, (i think?) white, purple, teal, and seriously, unnaturally red.
29. i just find it incredibly scary.
33. ditto.
42. i’m a leftie :)
45. me too. and by ‘other peoples’ i mean ‘yours.’
46. me too.
56. HAAAAAA! sorry. i hope that wasn’t a traumatic experience for you, it just sounds so funny.
58. one up- i love popping other peoples zits.
62. did i mention she’s my neighbor? hehee
67. belly button/safety pin/didn’t work.
69. ::hug::
80. that’s it, that’s the clincher, i’m making some for the shower!
84. i eat no meat except fish.
100. good. it keeps her with you. :)
February 24th, 2006
I loved reading this and getting to know you even better.
February 24th, 2006
I’m so with you on the virginity thing. I think I’ll tell my son that I conceived him and his brothers miraculously after being visited one day by an angel.
February 24th, 2006
Well, we have favorite popsicle flavors and neglected high-school fitness activities in common. And, I also love reading other people’s blogs, especially yours.
Great list!
February 24th, 2006
We have alot in common. I’m so sorry about your Mom. But how wonderful she lives on in your daughter! I loved your list! So real. So raw.
February 24th, 2006
Great list, Katherine! I enjoyed reading it. **hugs** and hey – my dad was a lefty, I always desperately wanted to be left handed.
February 24th, 2006
Mr. Half and I watched “Six Feet Under” religiously. I struggled with math, too. I would not want to live in my childhood home. No reason…I just wouldn’t. Left handed people fascinate me. I had my navel pierced when I was 38. My husband went with me. I love reading the blogs of other people, yours included!
February 24th, 2006
That was fun!
I love Ani Difranco. Well, not so much her new stuff, but I was WAY into her from about 1996 to about… um… the album after Little Plastic Castle…. THe one with the hands… UP up up. That was the last album of hers I bought. DO you have her newer stuff? Are you into it? I haven’t even heard it I don’t think.
February 24th, 2006
Thanks, guys!
Kirsten — I knew you were a leftie. ;)
Krista, Little Plastic Castles is the album I left off at. I don’t know anything after that. But I’m familiar with everything up to that album.
February 24th, 2006
I enjoyed reading your list! :-)
February 24th, 2006
*blush* You think I’m cool. LOL!
Great list. I enjoyed learning more about you. I don’t even think I could think of 13 things about me, nevermind 100!
February 24th, 2006
I couldn’t keep track of the numbers, but my daughter’s left-handed and this makes me think she’s super-gifted-brilliant. I love hiding outside her room and listening to her songs and stories (can you record her somehow?). A close high school friend of mine that I had drifted apart from died from a heroine od five years ago, and I think about him at least every other day. I dream about him a lot, and wake up sad that I won’t see him again. I think your list is wonderful. I’m going to read it again now…
February 25th, 2006
“My childhood best friend and I used to fight over which side of the apple juice can would face us when we ate lunch together. Neither of us wanted to look at the French side” – LOL!
“I tried to pierce my nose with a sewing needle when I was in high school.” – what the …?!!
You are weird!!! :)
I totally agree with you on the swim suit thing and the left hand thing though.
February 25th, 2006
GREAT list!!
Very personal feelings about your mom (and your kids for that matter). My first time here, but it was pretty cool to be let right in like that.
February 25th, 2006
ramblingmuse, thank you.
Jeanne, yes, I think you are COOL!
Mignon, we just replaced our video camera and one of these days when she’s not sleeping I’m going to hide outside of her door and record her while she’s putting on a concert in there.
moonface, I am weird. I know. LOL.
Tammy, thank you!
February 25th, 2006
Giving a natural color diamond jewelry to someone you care about is a message of caring. There are so many great local resources now for natural color diamond jewelry . It is easier than ever to pick up the phone or go online and find natural color diamond jewelry.
Another great site with a lot of updating information is http://www.aphroditesaccessories.com. Thanks by the way for such a great blog!
February 25th, 2006
Geesh, I have to follow the diamond ad?
Will you believe that I care if I don’t give you a natural color diamond?
I must go. A small lumpy blanket is about to attack my foot. This blanket is, by the way , left handed.
February 25th, 2006
I love to drive a standard. My dad insisted on us learning on that. We lived in a rural area where standard is a given and he didn’t want us to get in trouble and not know. He also taught us how to shift incase the clutch went out. Our Saturn is a standard. Just thought you had to know. LOL.
Georgia is a lefty and we are kind of thrown for a loop. My MIL hates it and comments on it every time we go up. I just love your blog. Just don’t have the time to post all the time.
February 25th, 2006
My god, how did you find time to write that with two little ones? I only have one, and I can barely find time to rub two words together (figuratively speaking…)
February 25th, 2006
Friends of Ani– You should definitely check out the 2-disc album “Reckoning/Revelling”, which came out in 2001 and is very awesome (Reckoning, especially.)
February 25th, 2006
What a beautiful post. Having just lost my father, my heart so goes out to you about your mom’s death. It changes your spirit when you watch a parent die.
You seem to be an amazing mom. I am inspired.
I’m a homebody, former hard partier, hate fish and clutter. Let’s be friends! LOL
Great post – thanks…
February 25th, 2006
how do you feel about strawberries?
February 25th, 2006
Awesome list. Being a lefty, I feel like I’d somehow be accepted by you but, by far, you’d be my “cool” friend. :o)
AND you’re Canadian! w00t!
February 25th, 2006
I love a driving sticks, but yeah, they don’t make mini-vans that come with them.
I feel for you over losing your mother. I cannot imagine life without my mom.
February 26th, 2006
LOL Dawn, I can’t delete the diamond ad now.
Kim, thanks for telling me. ;) I love that Georgia is a lefty, and that you love my blog. :)
mama_bean, I wrote this while both of my children were sleeping…at the same time.
roo — my friend Sarah loves that album. I will definitely check it out.
lena — I’m so sorry about your father.
Tigerlily — Yay! Canada! LOL.
Ditsy, yeah, the guys at the dealership looked at me like I’d just asked them to smoke crack with me when I asked if the Pontiac Montana was available with five on the floor.
February 26th, 2006
There’s nothing funnier than a cat in a sack. For serious.
I’ve also seen Ani D like a thousand times.
February 26th, 2006
Totally agree with #29, and I love orange, popsicles, too.
I think you’re a really interesting person. I’m glad I get to read your writing all the time. :)
February 26th, 2006
Ahhh… former hard partiers turned homebodies unite! We RULE!!!
February 26th, 2006
I used to put cats in doll dresses. The cats usually weren’t very cooperative.
So glad to get to know you!
February 27th, 2006
I’m a little late…
11. What a teaser for a potentially great story. ;)
16. Me too. Besides, they’re only good for scratching OTHER people’s backs. :/
26. I hear that. I don’t remember anything I did when I was 17.
48. You actually clean it?! I just fill it with food so no one can see it.
59. Me too.
75. Me too.
77. Ditto, only I watched “The Price Is Right.”
93. Me too. It drives Hoop crazy. I make him clean the bathroom counter while he’s shitting.
February 27th, 2006
I make him clean the bathroom counter while he’s shitting.
And he does it? That’s love, baby. That’s love.
February 27th, 2006
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