Temerity Jane

Did you even WANT to know?

So I’ve been tagged for this about 782 times on various blogs and facebooks, so why the hell not.

25 Things You Didn’t Know About Me (and probably could have lived without knowing)

1. I do not eat sausage. At all. Period. Ever. If I suspect there might be sausage in a food item, no matter how many times I am assured there is none, I will not be able to eat it. Not any kind of sausage. Some people make the mistake of thinking that I just do not eat meat that is in a tubular shape, but it goes deeper than that. The same rule that I apply to sausage applies to bologna as well, which I also do not eat. See, sausage is a meat that can be made from numerous other meats and still be called sausage. Bologna is the same. Anything that falls into that category is something I will not eat. That is not WHY I do not eat those things, but it is a safe bet that if you come across such a food, it will not be eaten by me.

2. When driving anywhere, I will always stop the radio for the following songs: Love the One You’re With, Goodbye Stranger, Freebird, Radar Love.

3. I am never naked. When it is time to shower, I have a mitten. I put the mitten on my right hand, stick my right hand out of the shower so the mitten does not get wet and gross, and wash my left side. When I am done with the left side, I switch the mitten to the left hand and stick my left hand out of the shower and repeat.

4. From age 16 to 18, I had three legal guardians.

5. I have seen Bon Jovi in concert 6 times. And it was awesome every time.

6. When I was in college, I came home for the weekend, 250 miles, specifically to see Shaun Klush – The Best Elvis This Side of Heaven. Seriously, check him out:

7. I have two callouses, one each at the base of my middle and ring fingers on the palm of my left hand, from opening diet soda bottles.

8. One time, to relieve summer boredom, my sister and two friends of ours bought a giant old school boombox from a good will store. The batteries for it cost more than it did. We then recorded the Rocky theme on a cassette tape and went out looking for joggers. We found a few, and we would hold the boom box up to the window and play the song for them. A couple were pissed, but at least one of them raised his fists and really got into it.

9. When I was in the 6th grade, my sister cut off the top of my finger with a pair of scissors.

10. Speaking of fingers, I might have mentioned this at one point when it was officially diagnosed, but I have a vasovagal syncope – basically, with certain triggers, I faint. For me, it happens when I pinch or crush my finger in something. The first time I remember it happening, I was sitting in a little wooden chair in kindergarten, holding the seat and bouncing up and down. The seat separated from the legs a bit and came down on my finger, and the next thing I knew I was in the nurse’s office with my feet in the air. Another time it happened, I was on a date and driving on the Scranton Expressway. I woke up to “YOU HAVE TO PUT YOUR FOOT ON THE BRAKE!!” I’m much more careful with my fingers these days, and also better at recognizing when I’m going to faint – I’m usually able to get down on the ground quickly and avoid the actual fainting part totally.

11. I have gotten a ridiculous number of people to believe #3 over the years.

12. The “Hi TJ!” signs are my favorite part about having this website.

13. I have never owned a dog, but I have owned 2 cats (that someone stole!), a guinea pig,  2 hamsters, and many fish. Two of the fish were named Aufbau and Avagadro. I am also a nerd.

14. There are certain feelings that I have only because after being told about them, I believe I am supposed to have them. For example, sentimental attachment to items. I do not truly feel any attatchment to physical items – when I think about it, the concept seems silly to me. However, over time I have learned that other people do, so I also do. It has lead to me holding on to a lot of junk because I think I am supposed to want to.

15. My nervous system does not work the same way yours does. Of course, I can’t truly know how yours works, but apparently mine is different. It hurts when my mother hugs me, I can’t really always localize where pain is coming from, and my skin can hear. Yeah, trying to explain this one and the previous one was a poorly thought out idea.

16. I’ve been blogging for 10 years. I used to be a LOT funnier.

17. I won a math competition and a spelling bee in the 4th grade.

18. I peaked in the 4th grade.

19. I applied to 8 colleges and got into 7. I was extremely apathetic my senior year of high school and let my guidance counsler send an application anywhere he wanted. I had never heard of the University of Maryland til I applied. My mother is still convinced I decided to go there because it was the last school we saw in an epic 5 day journey up and down the east coast looking at schools. I don’t truthfully know why I decided to go to UMD.

20. I find headlights in my rearview mirror to be ominous, no matter what the situation or circumstances.

21. I went through a 3 month phase of sleeping the short way across the foot of my bed about a year or so ago.

22. I look exactly like my maternal grandmother. Not a slight resemblance, but the exact same face, to the point that I was asked to step out of the nursing home where my great aunt lives, as she has Alzheimer’s and could only recognize me as her sister and it was upsetting her.

23. I am the shortest full grown person in my family, on all sides. I am about 5’2″. Cousins range as high as 6’7″.

24. People can tell my sister and I are sisters based simply on the WAY we talk. The rhythm and inflection of our speech is identical. I’ve been recognized as Kate’s sister in a record store I had never been in, when I had been living out of state for years, and she was not around, just because the clerk heard me ask my mother a question.

25. I’m moving to Arizona in 5 weeks. Surprise!