The Benevolent Dictator

101 Things About Me:

1. I have lived in both Utah and Wisconsin

2. I don’t own a snowblower

3. I have been skydiving

4. I have never been on a rollercoaster

5. I met the Grammy award winning band Wilco when they opened for Sheryl Crow

6. They came back to my apartment so I could get my roommate and we went out drinking

7. I don’t own any WIlco music

8. When I was five years old, President Reagan waved to me outside his limo when I was crossing the street in front of the White House with my dad

9. I am pretty moderate or even left leaning in my political beliefs

10. I have never voted for a winning president

11. I don’t know who I am going to vote for in 2008

12. The first tape I ever bought with my own money was Madonna’s Like A Virgin

13. When I was in third grade, my friend and I made up a dance to that song for a school talent contest

14. I went to Catholic school for twelve years

15. I went to three Grateful Dead concerts before Jerry Garcia died

16. I have never tried any hard drugs

17. I do have an unnatural addiction to hand lotion

18. I have been to somewhere between 80-100 concerts

19. I have read over half of the books in the suburb’s library outside of SLC, Utah where I live about the Mormon religion

20. I am a Bad Catholic, but my child attends Catholic school

21. I love the beach, but in the past few years I have become a pretty decent skier and I love that too

22. My goal under my senior high school picture was to live at the beach and drive a convertible and to be happy

23. I still want to do those things

24. I play poker every week with the same group of people

25. I go to the gym five days a week

26. I am working on starting a small business

27. I had a relationship with a guy from the Netherlands in college

28. My favorite cocktail is a Ketel One gimlet

29. I have been to Graceland

30. I got to walk on the red carpet at the Oscars in 2002. It was actually a day before the ceremony itself, but it was all set up. If you must know, I was wearing jeans and a top (by the Limited).

31. Music is like the emotional barometer of my life

32. I love football

33. We cheer for the Green Bay Packers and, in the NCAA, our blood runs orange…Go Vols!

34. I live over 2200 miles away from my parents

35. My grandparents are my most favorite people I know.

36. They have been married for 66 years

37. They don’t act like old people in spite of the fact that they are close to 90

38. I met my husband in a bar

39. For years, I always played the same three songs on the jukebox in that bar

40. The Way You Look Tonight by Frank Sinatra- it was the first song we danced to at our wedding

41. Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond because it was a song I heard a lot when I was little

42. In the Meantime by Spacehog, for no apparent reason

43. I married him after knowing him for a little more than a year

44. We have been married for almost eight years

45. He is wonderful and also very, very tall

46. He is 6’7 and wears a size sixteen shoe

47. He is the calmest and most authentic and most moral person that I have ever met

48. We are both a bit high maintenance about some very specific things

49. Not materially, except the propensities for high dollar sheets (his) and high dollar hair care (mine)

50. More in terms of high standards about behavior and the cleanliness of our house

51. Right now, the carpet has goldfish crackers all over it

52. I have three children

53. I found out I was pregnant the third time from a test that I bought at the Dollar Store

54. When it turned positive, I figured that it must be wrong because it only cost $1

55. I used to drug test people involved in the federal court system as part of a job I had in college

56. I have heard some amazing spin from people about why their drug tests came up positive

57. I don’t think that the federal government buys any of their testing stuff at the Dollar Store

58. I love twizzlers, crème Brule, and s’mores

59. I believe in the natural superiority of the ocean to lakes

60. I am pretty opinionated about a lot of things

61. I love to watch old reruns of Designing Women late at night when everyone else has gone to bed

62. I passionately dislike Dr. Laura

63. I’m not a big fan of Tom Cruise or Halle Berry either

64. I really like Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audioslave fame

65. One of my favorite bands of the 2000s is the Killers

66. My favorite song is “Where The Streets Have No Name” by U2 and it has been since I was eleven

67. I also love “Southland in the Springtime” by the Indigo Girls and “Ave Maria” sung by Sarah Brightman. They both make me teary for very different reasons.

68. I like my steaks very rare

69. There is almost no place in the world that I wouldn’t visit just to try it out except probably Saudi Arabia. I’m not sure if I’ve heard a lot of positive things about Cambodia either, but then again, who knows.

70. And, if they changed their laws about headscarves, I would maybe change my mind

71. I applied to law school a year and a half ago. Two schools, albeit good ones, turned me down

72. I already have a graduate degree

73. I gave a speech at my graduation from graduate school

74. I got a standing ovation from my classmates

75. When I die, I don’t want to have an autopsy or be embalmed. I think that’s the most unnatural thing ever and I want no part of it

76. I miss living in the South

77. I miss humidity, sweet tea, and being called “honey” by old ladies with southern accents

78. I do my own taxes, cleaning, and painting

79. I refuse to color my own hair

80. The only other country I have been to is England

81. I am almost deaf in my right ear due to a condition called otosclerosis

82. As charming as it is to constantly listen to the TV at high volumes and ask people to repeat themselves, I am having surgery to correct it in Spring 2008

83. I can’t believe how many times I have uttered the phrase “Get your hands out of your pants” as a parent

84. I am thinking about running the Salt Lake Half Marathon in April 2008. I did it, and I am so happy that I did.

85. I gained a combined total of 150 lbs. during the three times that I was pregnant

86. In my car console right now, I have an empty can of diet coke, a lip liner, a pen, and a pair of gloves…and hand lotion

87. I’m not the kind of person that will take free samples just to take them…unless it is hand lotion and then, game on.

88. I really don’t like when people play with my car radio

89. I love the smell inside Barnes & Noble- books & coffee

90. I like my hands, shoulders, legs, and eyes

91. I have funny looking feet, fine hair, and I don’t like my nose

92. If I had the chance to have plastic surgery, I probably would

93. That being said, I am still pretty happy with myself

94. I think that I would be sad if any of my children told me that they wanted plastic surgery

95. I feel like a conflicted, flawed, inconsistent person

96. But, I imagine that everyone has these moments

97. I am mixed up about religion

98. But, I feel that religion is an intensely personal thing and do not presume to know any more than anyone else

99. I hope I never feel too comfortable because I always want to work on bettering myself

100. I hope that when my children are adults that they will think that I was a good parent

101. I hope that they measure this in some way other than number of craft and baking projects completed