100 Things for My 100th Post (aka The Stupidest Post Ever)

I started writing this post a long time ago.  I knew it would take a while to actually think of 100 things to say.  And while I did complete the list, I can’t say it’s the most revealing thing I’ve ever written.  There are some little jewels tucked in here and there, but most of it is sort of silly.  My recommendation, if I may, is that you just skim the list until something catches your eye…for pete’s sake don’t feel like you actually have to read all 100 things!! 

And I’m sorry, one last time, for this ridiculousness.  But it’s tradition, right?

1.  Married to Hubs, my partner of almost 15 years

2.  Mother to Sweet Pea, who is getting to be a tween

3.  We adopted Sweet Pea at birth

4.  We live in San Antonio, TX

5.  But we’re really from Houston until just this year

6.  Born in New Orleans, LA

7.  I have a younger brother whom I ADORE

8.  I have a dog named Maggie who is the most precious puppy ever.  Seriously.

9.  Maggie is fully grown and weighs 5 pounds.  See why she’s so precious?

10.  I love Mexican Food.

11.  When I go to a new Mexican restaurant I always order cheese enchiladas.  That’s my barometer.

12.  I didn’t partake in adult beverages until I was 30.

13.  I LOVE NY.

14.  I travel with three of my girlfriends to NYC every other Christmas for a weekend of shopping, theater, piano bars, and general FUN!!

15.  Seriously, if I could move to Manhattan I would.  Don’t try and talk me out of it.

16.  I have two dream jobs.

17.  Number One is working as an actress on Broadway.

18.  Number Two is working as a face character at Disney World.

19.  Walt Disney World in Florida is my happy place.

20.  I’m a little bit cheesy.  Can you tell??

21.  At the same time, I think I’m fairly down to earth.  Not totally crunchy, but a wee bit granola nonetheless.  Maybe more like boho. 

22. I’m getting old and I feel it.  I’m 36.  Yikes.

23.  I can wiggle my right ear.

24.  I gave up pedicures to help the budget this year.  I’m not as good as the Korean lady who has always painted my toenails.  It was a serious sacrifice.

25.  I have a new car, a Honda CRV which I’m surprisingly in love with.

26.  My dream car is a yellow Jeep Wrangler with a soft top.

27.  In 7 years I’m going to pass the CRV to my daughter and get myself the Jeep.  Mark my words.

28.  My Hubs and I are planning to go to Europe for our 20th anniversary.

29.  I’ve never been out of the US, so this excites me greatly.

30.  I’ve seen more than half of the 50 states.

31.  I love our national parks.

32.  Hubs and I grew up taking big family road trips, but we haven’t tried it with Sweet Pea yet.  We’re driving to CO this December…I’m sure there’ll be plenty to blog about after that!

33.  I enjoy skiing.  I’m not good at it, but I enjoy it.

34.  I was 25 years old before I saw real winter snow for the first time. 

35.  Every few years we go with our whole family to Breckenridge, CO for Christmas.  It is simple and magical and perfect.

36. I love to read.

37.  My favorite books of all time are the Little House books.

38.  My favorite genre is historical fiction.

39.  Within the genre of historical fiction, I like American History post-reconstruction, and British History post-Henry VIII. 

40.  I have a strange fascination with WWII.

41.  I don’t think I’m going to actually come up with 100 things to say about myself.

42.  I was born a blonde, it faded to “dirty”, and now I’m a brunette.

43.  I don’t think I’ll ever go blonde again. 

44.  When I was 19 I had a brother who died suddenly of cardiac arrest.

43.  We soon discovered that my other brother and I both had a very serious heart condition known as Long QT Syndrome.

44.  Long story short, I got a 4 hour ambulance ride home from college, three surgeries, and a pacemaker during my sophomore year at Baylor.

45.  I have had 5 pacemakers since then…I tend to wear the battery down. 

46.  Now I have an implantable defibrillator/pacemaker, just in case my silly heart decides to stop.

47.  It’s only “gone off” once. 

48.  That hurt.

49.  ALOT.

50.  All this heart stuff is why we adopted Sweet Pea.  It used to be a big deal, but now it’s just part of life.  Most days I don’t even remember it’s an issue.

51.  Good grief, I’m only on number 51.

52.  My first car was a 1979 Ford Fairmont, white with rust vinyl interior.  I called it my “government official car”. 

53.  My second car was a hand-me-down Ford Bronco II.

54.  My third car was another hand-me-down Ford Bronco II.

55.  My fourth car (and first new car) was a Ford Explorer.  I loved that car.

56.  It was a really big deal when I bought a Honda this year.  We are a Ford family.

57.  I didn’t take a car to college my freshman year, so I had to bum rides off everyone all the time.  It stunk.

58.  Speaking of college, I started as a Music Education major at Baylor. 

59.  But I was really tired of classical music and theory, so I switched to Elementary Ed/Music (more Ed/less Music)

60.  After the whole heart thing, I decided to change completely and be a nurse. 

61.  My mom is a nurse, and she didn’t think for a second that I would EVER be a nurse.  I hated hospitals, needles, everything.

62.  I spent my junior year doing pre-nursing stuff at Baylor, before transferring to Houston Baptist University for nursing school. 

63.  I got married the summer after my junior year, so I was married the whole time I was in nursing school.

64.  After graduation, I went straight to work at Texas Children’s Hospital in the Operating Room.

65.  I worked there for 11 years, until we moved to SATX last year.

66.  My specialty in the OR was ENT; airway cases are my favorite.

67.  I spent the last few years as the Charge Nurse on evenings and then on days. 

68.  Being the Charge Nurse in the OR means you have to convince surgeons (who mostly think they are God) to do what you want them to do.  I found that required a delicate balance of Southern charm and cajones.

69.  I loved working in the OR.  I miss it alot.

70.  I especially loved the academic aspect of TCH…it’s a teaching hospital so there’s always someone in the room who is learning something new. 

71.  When Tropical Storm Allison hit Houston and all the hospitals lost power, I worked a night shift.  We didn’t have any cases so I went over to St. Luke’s (the adjoining adult hospital) to see if I could help there.  I carried a post-bypass surgery patient down 15 flights of stairs with a group of high school students who were in town for a medical center tour and came to the hospital to volunteer.  It was one of the scariest things I ever did as a nurse. 

72.  I have assisted on surgery on babies that weigh a little more than a pound.  Their limbs are the size of my fingers.  It is truly amazing.

73.  Did I mention I miss my job?

74.  Another weird thing that I liked about my job was writing policies and procedures.  I like rules.  I like it when people follow the rules.

75.  My Sweet Pea almost never follows the rules.  That’s God showing me His sense of humor.

76.  25 more????

77.  I grew up Baptist…my dad is a minister.

78.  For the past few years we have been helping start a church that is “inter-denominational”, in other words, lots of different faith backgrounds.

79.  Now that we are in SATX, we have joined a Methodist church.

80.  Clearly I don’t think that one’s denomination is as important as one’s faith. 

81.  I believe that faith is a lifelong journey that is never complete.  There’s too much to learn, and too many things we can’t understand.

82.  I believe very strongly that God has a plan.  That’s what has gotten me through the darkest days, and what continues to get me through my present trials.

83.  My favorite colors are yellow and orange

84.  I have too many pairs of jeans in my closet

85.  My iPod has an interesting (?) mix of showtunes, acoustic folk, and 80’s hits. 

86.  The 80’s was a totally awesome decade.  Like, for sure.

87.  I listen to a lot of NPR.

88.  I also listen to this crazy radio show at night called Coast to Coast.  It puts me to sleep.

89.  I truly believe I have another couple careers ahead of me, but I can’t begin to guess what they are.

90.  I’ll never make it to 100.  This is definitely the stupidest thing I’ve ever done in my life.

91.  We are sort of addicted to reality television.  Amazing Race, Survivor (still!), Project Runway, and America’s Next Top Model are among the favs.

92.  Mad Men is the best thing on TV, IMHO.

93.  We eat breakfast for dinner at least once a week.  (Clearly, I’m grasping here.)

94.  I am NOT a morning person.  Never have been. 

95.  Blogging used to make me happy.

96.  But since trying to come up with 100 things it has started to get on my nerves.

97.  This is one of the first blogs I ever wrote, and it’s one of my favorites.

98.  I like this one too. 

99.  And this one.

100.  Well, that was about the biggest exercise in self-indulgence I have ever experienced.  I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

I Voted (it says so right here on this little sticker)

Regardless of the outcome of this election, I am reminded of the PRIVILEGE that it is to vote.  It is easy to forget that there are many places in the world where people are not free to elect their leaders.  It has been less than a century since women achieved the right to vote in this country. 

 I am fortunate, and grateful for the freedom that is mine. 

Grateful for a democracy, where the majority rules, for better or worse. 

Grateful for a choice in government. 

Grateful to be an American. 

Somebody cue the patriotic music and pass the Kleenex…I’m all verklempt.

Facebook Etiquette

I’ve told you already about my love affair with Facebook.  Seriously.  It’s like having a class reunion without the too-cold hotel ballroom and too-rare roast beef carving station.  It’s all the good with none of the bad.

Except…

What do you do when your ex-boyfriend finds you? 

Do you ignore or do you accept?

If you ignore he might think that you’re still holding on to whatever stuff there was at the end of the relationship.  On the other hand, if you accept he might think you’ve never gotten over him.  And on top of all that, what are you going to tell Hubs?

To be honest, I only have one of these guys in my past, and he’s not on FB.  All my other “exes” live in Texas are friends of mine.  No weirdness at all.  But if this one guy finds me, it’s gonna be AWK-WARD!

So, how are you Facebookers handling this dilemma?

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut…

Okay, kids.  I’ve gone back and forth on this one, but I finally decided to let y’all in on what I’ve been doing at the theatre for the past couple of months.  So here’s a little photo blog from Forbidden Broadway at the Cameo Theatre.  All photos courtesy of James Tenninty.  Enjoy!!

As Bebe Neuwirth in Chicago.

As Dot from Sunday in the Park with George.

As Carol Channing in Hello Dolly.

As Rita Moreno.

As a nameless French chanteuse singing C’est Magnifique.

As Fantine in Les Miserables.

As Ethel Merman (in a huge dress.)

As Mimi from Rent.  In the most hideous costume I’ve ever worn.  Which is why I cropped the pic.

As The Lady of the Lake in Spamalot.

As Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray.  (This was a publicity pic, and actually made the paper after they doctored all the background stuff out of it.  The fact that the fatsuit is sort of, ahem, showing, makes it all the better dontcha think?)

The only character I didn’t get a picture of is Girl from Fiddler on the Roof.  Somehow that one got missed.  I believe the average costume change for this show was about one minute.  My shortest was about 20 seconds, and my longest was around four minutes (although even then I was singing in my mic backstage.)

11 characters, 10 different wigs, 4 pairs of shoes, 3 hats, 2 pairs of gloves, and one heck of a good time…PRICELESS!

The Dog Ate My Hearing Aids

No kidding.  And not just once either.  It’s happened before. 

You’d think we’d be smart enough to prevent this kind of thing.  We are. 

And yet it keeps happening.

This time she sniffed them out from the front pocket of Sweet Pea’s backpack, managed to dig her paw all the way in there to retrieve the thing, and then hid from us to do the deed. 

I should’ve known it was too quiet.  I should’ve known something was up when she was sitting on the second step instead of the landing at the top of the stairs. 

Dumb Dog.

And dumb mom.

I swear my heart stopped when I saw that hearing aid laying on the floor.  It’s a wonder my defibrillator didn’t go off.  (Geez, that would’ve been the icing on the freakin’ cake!)

And all this on top of a perfectly horrible evening…major meltdown, homework unfinished, no bath…ugh.

So, anyone in the market for a cute little dog?  The adorable girl comes free!

The King…and I

Today I want to tell you about one of my favorite blog-readers.  His name is Patrick, and we’ve known each other since doing The King and I together about three years ago.  I am uber-excited because Patrick is coming to SATX to see my show this weekend!  Woo Hoo!!

So, Patrick has been a teacher since graduation.  Middle school, y’all.  That takes some kind of extra-angelic qualities that I do NOT have.  To top that off, he spent quite a few years as an assistant principal at an “at-risk” middle school.  I’m telling you, he’s a saint.  We both left Houston the same year, and he now works in Dallas for a company called Avid that helps schools identify gifted and talented kids in at-risk populations.  How cool is that? 

We had a very interesting journey together through The King and I.  That show is largely about race relations and class warfare in Siam (Thailand) in the late 1800’s.  Patrick taught me about race and class in America today.  We talked about poverty and it’s hold on people.  We discussed stereotypes, and then the reality.  He let me ask my questions, and he answered them honestly.  We debated, argued sometimes, but always found resolution.  I had never read The Color Purple – he insisted that I read it.  To this day it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read.  He opened my eyes to things I didn’t understand.  He helped me see that there are some things that I, an upper-middle class white woman, will never understand.  And yet he encouraged me to keep trying. 

I see the world differently now.  I see people differently.  I see poverty differently.

This is a picture of one of my favorite moments in the show.  He takes his ring off and gives it to her, insisting that she wear it.  She accepts, not knowing what to say. 

We should all be so fortunate as to have a friend like Patrick in our lives.  Someone who keeps us honest, and teaches us more.

Kiss Today Goodbye

Tonight on Project Runway (why aren’t you watching???) Jerell (one of the final contestants) said something that completely took the wind out of my sails.  It was something along the lines of “I’m fabulous, and when I’m 80 I’m going to go to the Met and attend a retrospective of my life.”  This is a 27 year old, who believes so deeply in himself that he can see success happening over the course of the next 50 years. 

Talk about long-range planning.  Something about that just got me.

The truth is,  I’m so concerned about TODAY that I don’t leave much room for the fact that success may come much later in life.  I feel like if I’m not fabulous RIGHT NOW, then I’ll never be fabulous.  And I’ve just GOT to be fabulous!

Interestingly, when it comes to family, I’m much more long-range.  I look forward to the days when Hubs and I will have an empty nest.  (Not that I don’t totally love Sweet Pea, but sometimes too much of a good thing…you know?)  We’ve already got plans for our 20th wedding anniversary, which will be celebrated on a whirlwind tour of Europe.

But for myself, I apparently need immediate gratification. 

I saw a woman in her 60’s win a Tony this year.  I want to believe THAT level of greatness could still be in my future.  (Not literally.  I don’t literally think I’m going to win a Tony.  I’m using this as an example.)  And yet I often think “have I missed my opportunity?”  Was my opportunity sometime between the ages of 18-21? Did I let it pass me by?

BUT, I’m not one for regrets.  Which is why I continue to try to make my moments count.  Not just as a wife, or mom, but as ME.  Me, the crazy middle-aged singer-actress.  Right or wrong, I just can’t put that on the back burner.  There’s guilt there, but somehow I believe that feeding my passion makes me a better wife and mother. 

Selfish?  Maybe. 

Necessary?  Absolutely.

It’s Fall, Y’all!

Down here in Texas, it’s still summer.  Seriously.  I’ll be sweating like a pig when I walk up to school to pick up the Sweet Pea.  But since it’s October, everybody’s got their pumpkins out and I’ve bought my candy corn.  We do our best.  The leaves won’t change until Christmas.  But whatever.

So in the spirit of Fall, we decided to take a family fun day to Hondo, Texas for the South Texas Maize.  Yee-haw.  I’m not sure how they do it, but these people have a MASSIVE maze on their farm.  And for a small fee (clearing throat…$9/adult!!) you can act like you’re on Survivor and get lost in the maze.  Pretty fun, actually. 

That lasted about half an hour before Sweet Pea got bored and decided to try all the other stuff at the farm.  She shot corn cobs out of the corn cannon, fed the goats, and climbed on the hay bales.  She also spent some time on the “corn popper”, which is really just a big trampoline.

We polished off a couple of bags of kettle corn, and then topped that off with some Texas Barbecue.  Delish!  All in all, a fun day!!

In related news, Sweet Pea is thinking of being an Angel for Halloween.  Does anyone else find that funny?

So far, she’s considered Elphaba (otherwise known as the Wicked Witch of the West) and Jessica Simpson (what am I doing wrong??)  I always wait until at least mid-October before buying anything because I know she’ll change her mind a million times before finally landing on something.  Ve shall see…

What are your kids going to be??