40 Things You Don't Know About Me - Tag, I'm It

All right, I've finally got some time to respond to my "40 Things You Don't Know About Me" tag. I take no responsibility for anyone keeling over from boredom if you dare to continue.

1. My mom's "M" encyclopedia opens to "Montana" because I was obsessed with living there when I was a kid growing up in the city. I used to run around in the tall grass growing in empty lots and pretend it was Montana. Not so much now. I hear it's cold there in the winter. I think winters here (North Carolina) are cold enough, thanks.
2. Speaking of which, I grew up in San Francisco, or rather, a town south of San Francisco, called rather originally, South San Francisco.
3. South San Francisco has a sign on the hill above it. Kind of like Hollywood but not as cool, famous, and it wasn't lit. It was, however, regularly set on fire (the hill, not the sign) so it is made of concrete (the sign, not the hill). To wit:
4. One of my pet peeves growing up was having someone call where I lived "Frisco." Since then I've decided life's too short to spend brain power on pet peeves, but it still makes my teeth hurt to hear the word Frisco. Like biting wet yarn, yuck.
5. I used to walk through projects and rival gang territories on my way to the public bus stop to get to school, and home again, before and after dark, each day. I don't think my mom even realizes how dangerous this was.
6. I know how to use a ring of keys as a weapon. See #5 above.
7. Don't surprise me while I'm walking alone, after dark. See #6 above.
8. When I was about 15, I got into a total stranger's parked car, because he asked me to while I was walking to the bus stop. See #5 above. I'm not sure why I did it, nor am I sure why he did nothing but talk, and then let me go when I said I'd be late.
9. I've only had anything alcoholic once in my life (on purpose I mean) and it was when I was a little kid and my father gave it to me. My Not Step-dad (I hate the terms real dad or bio-dad but that doesn't count as a 40 things). It was vodka, by the way - in a Seven Up can (probably to hide it from my mom). I've never been able to drink Seven Up since then.
   
10. I never did one single piece of homework at home. Ever. Ever. I got straight A's though - literally, I think I may have only gotten a B in one class in high school once.
11. I've started six novels and always quite because I would get horrified at how awful they were, before I was halfway through.
12. After I took what is called ASVAT today in eleventh grade (we all had to take it), I got calls from the Navy and Air Force pretty much regularly for the next year, and even my first year in college continued to get letters. Probably not a big deal, as this happens to many people I'm sure today, but it was back then. The Air Force was particularly persistent and I was sorely tempted. They were offering a very sweet deal - and in retrospect it probably would have been a good thing for me.
    
13. My college short list choices were Pensacola in Florida, Biola in Southern California, and a school in Lynchburg, VA - Liberty University. I picked Liberty. Yeah, I'm still not quite sure about my reasoning there either.
    
14. Jerry Falwell called us "Young Champions." Champion is French for mushroom. Therefore we called ourselves Young Mushrooms. If you spent any time in the hallowed halls of LU you'd get the connection. Decoration and upkeep of the educational buildings was not a high priority.
15. I started out as a TV major, then switched to Psychology my second year, which I didn't finish.
16. I finally finished my degree (changed again to History and Classical Languages) after a break of a few years, at UNC Greensboro.
17. The longest job I ever held was a stint for several years as a manager at Chik-Fil-A. Oddly I really enjoyed it and constantly toy with the idea of going back to it.
18. The shortest job I ever held was two days - a job at a fabric store. I reacted violently to the dust and had to quit the second day.
19. I drew obsessively through high school and college. Mostly horses in high school, and candid portraits in college.
20. One summer I sneaked down to the race track several times to draw, and secretly longing to be offered a job. One guy did offer me work, but I didn't have the guts to even ask my folks. No one had exactly told me I wasn't allowed at the track, but I had a feeling the support wouldn't quite be there.
    
21. I learned to do gymnastics on horseback (it's called vaulting for some reason) at a camp I went to every summer. Even though I have vertigo and am terrified of heights, I was pretty good at it.
22. I always (except for the horse camp experiences and trail rides) rode bareback and Western when I couldn't, but I've always wanted to learn English style riding.
23. I thought briefly about going pro with horse training because I had a real knack with the naughty ones - enough that I did demos for the horsemanship classes at horse camp.
    
24. I can barely ride a horse now to save my life.
25. I played piano from the time I was five to the first year of college. And then I dropped it and have barely touched a key since then. Ask my mom about Für Elise, I dare you. I can still play a lot of that one.
26. I also sang from the time I was three until college, and like the piano playing, I dropped it. Except, I sing in the car along with the CD player, but that doesn't count.
    
27. I know the following languages sufficiently to sing songs in them. Which is not impressive in terms of competency, but this is "40 Things You Don't Know About Me," not "40 Super Cool Things About Me." Fortunately for me. German, Finnish, Norse, Swedish, Gàidhlig (Scots Gaelic), Irish, Cornish. Plus two English forms, Middle and Lallands. Notice Italian is not in the list. I don't get Italian and am not a fan of most Italian music.
28. I can read the following with a dictionary: Spanish, French, Gàidhlig/Irish, Koine Greek, Hebrew, and Old English.
    
29. I've read War and Peace about twelve times, literally. Possibly more. For fun. I love all Russian literature. I think War and Peace is way too short. And I was seriously disappointed when I came to the last page of Brothers Karamozov. It ended really suddenly, I felt.
    
30. I have a not very secret desire to learn Russian sufficiently to read War and Peace in the original.
31. I hate dog and cat hair. Actually, any hair gives me the willies. I love my shop vac. Everyone knows that - now you know the real reason.
32. The reason hair creeps me out is I'm super touch sensitive. But my sense of smell and taste is very dull, so food is all about texture, or strong flavor.
    
33. I may be the only woman I know who didn't inherit the chocolate craving chromosome. I do like many chocolate things, but they have to fit into one of the categories in #33.
34. My favorite foods are all savory. Cheese is my favorite food of all. I once ate most of an plate of Wensleydale while waiting for dinner at a Jack Knox clinic . Jack and I nearly came to blows over the last piece. It was not a proud moment in my life.
    
35. I make awesome biscuits. Seriously.
    
36. I haven't watched TV news in more than three years, about the time I noticed that the main difference between TV news and Entertainment Tonight is the people don't smile as much on the news. And the stories are longer on ET.
    
37. I haven't read a real paper newspaper other than to glance at one, in about ten years. See #36 above, except substitute The Enquirer for ET. In my opinion, journalism is dead.
    
38. I'm a starter, but not a leader. I loathe being the center of attention. Piano and singing are kind of about that, and this probably also hampers my progress in competitive stockdog training/handling.
    
39. I'm an extreme night owl, and every single close or semi-close friend I have (including my husband) is a morning person.
40. My circle of friends is so small that I can't tag three people who have the ability to respond and haven't already been tagged by my friends.

I really thought when I saw everyone doing this, "I can't come up with 40 things about myself, much less 40 things that people don't know." Obviously, this is heavy on the childhood reminiscences which is a bit of a cheat because I grew up in such a different culture/geographical place from everyone I know now. But, I actually culled out ten items when I was done!