100 Things

Everything you've never wanted to know about me, and so much more...

1. Yes, Stefanie is my real name. Yes, it's really spelled with an "f."
2. There were three Stefanies on my wing of my dorm sophomore year. Each of us spelled it differently. (I had the "f"; another one had two "ff"s; and the third one--incidentally, the bitchy one--had the regular "ph" version.)
   
3. My blog's name comes from a Velvet Underground song--the only song I've ever heard that has my name in it. (Well, almost the only song.)
   
4. I promise this entire list won't be name-related.
5. I grew up one mile outside of a very small town in eastern Wisconsin. I had very few neighbors to play with and couldn't go anywhere without my parents driving me.
   
6. I think that's why I value living in the city so much now, and why I'm not sure I ever want to move to the country again. Some people think it's not healthy to raise kids in the city; I think it's crueler to make them live in the middle of nowhere.
7. I spent a semester in Scotland while in college. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
8. I love board games. Even if I do get irrationally competitive sometimes.
9. My favorite is Balderdash, but no one will ever play with me.
10. I also love Catchphrase. It's much easier to find takers for that.
11. I'm very good at Boggle, but I suck at Scrabble. People don't understand this, as though if you enjoy one letter/word game, you must enjoy all of them. I maintain that Boggle and Scrabble actually involve entirely different skills and strategies.
12. I'm a terrible singer, and I'm very self-conscious about it. (I sing all the time, but only when I'm alone.)
13. I'm also horribly uncoordinated. Team sports are not my thing.
14. The first thing I remember wanting to be when I grew up was a children's book illustrator.
    
15. I loved art (and thought I was fairly good at it) up until 12th grade, when I suddenly decided I'd never make it as an artist.
16. I majored in English instead.
    
17. I don't regret that choice, but I do still wish I'd minored in art, or at least stuck with it in some way on my own.
18. I'm now a technical writer and editor.
    
19. I still have no idea what I really want to be "when I grow up."
20. I cannot help but be appalled by errant apostrophes and misused quotation marks on menus and commercial signage.
21. This seems to indicate that I'm actually in the right career field already, but I still don't think it's my passion.
    
22. I'm not good at maintaining a large group of casual acquaintances. Most of the time, I feel all I need are a few close friends.
23. I worry, though, that when I make a new friend, someone else falls out of rotation. As though I can have only a finite number at any given time, like some card game where you must always hold seven cards--no more, no less.
24. I feel like I need more alone time than most people seem to need. Sometimes I worry that I value my independence too much to ever live with or marry someone.
25. You will never, ever hear me say, "Let's go dancing!"
26. My favorite ice cream flavor might be mint chocolate chip. But I hate naming favorites. I like to keep my options open.
27. My all-time favorite band might be They Might Be Giants. Or possibly Indigo Girls. Again, it's hard to commit.
28. I think the term "alternative" has become entirely meaningless as a way to classify music.
29. That said, most of my favorites fall into the categories generally given an "alt-" prefix (alt-rock, alt-country, alt-folk, etc.).
30. I don't like anything artificially cherry-flavored.
31. I'm pretty sure I can trace this to a very bad experience with some cherry-flavored liquid medicine as a child.
32. I won the school spelling bee in sixth grade.
33. At the subsequent regional competition, I came in seventh (I think). The word I went out on was pejorative.
34. I know how to spell it now.
    
35. I didn't hear that word again until college, when suddenly every one of my professors used it in their lectures. I was convinced they were all taunting me.
36. I can be pretty paranoid sometimes.
37. It bugs me when people say they "could care less" when they really mean they "couldn't care less."
38. It also bugs me when people say "Have a good one."
39. And when they put the toilet paper on the roll facing backwards.
    
40. Apparently I'm easily annoyed by a lot of entirely inconsequential things.
41. I think the Coca-Cola polar bears are kind of creepy.
42. I really don't love Lucy. I don't even particularly like her much.
    
43. I am not a morning person. I hate it when I can't sleep in on weekends. (And I don't understand people who think staying in bed until 8:00 is "sleeping in." It doesn't count as sleeping in until the hour is in double-digits.)
44. Fall is my favorite time of year, though it also depresses me because it's so fleeting.
45. I've been called "blunt" more times than I should probably be comfortable with. I'm very honest, but I could maybe try to temper it sometimes.
    
46. When I start a book, I have to finish it, no matter how painful it is.
    
47. The one exception that comes to mind is Atlas Shrugged. (Damn you, Ayn Rand; I'll finish that one someday!)
48. There are few things about which I have absolutely no opinion.
49. I have very little patience for stupid people.
    
50. I really, really don't understand why George W. Bush is president.
    
51. I hate horror movies. I've always been a big 'fraidy-cat.
    
52. I'm terrified of ghosts or anything in the supernatural realm of creepiness.
    
53. I talk very quickly. I don't know why, and I can't seem to remedy it.
54. I've owned my own house since the summer I was 29. (Well, technically a mortgage company somewhere in Arkansas owns it, but my name is on all the very serious and grown-up paperwork.)
    
55. I don't cook.
    
56. On rare and special occasions, however, I do make excellent chocolate chip cookies.
    
57. My bowling name is Shaniqua. (Everyone should have a bowling name.)
58. I hate mushrooms, and I love olives. Bear that in mind if you ever order pizza with me.
    
59. E-mail is my preferred mode of communication in many, many scenarios.
    
60. I routinely call myself lazy, but really I'm just unmotivated and procrastination-prone. (As if that's any better.)
61. Maybe the fact that I'm a middle child has something to do with it.
    
62. When I go on vacation, the only souvenirs I generally need are photos and a refrigerator magnet from the place I visited.
63. I'm mostly cautious and don't seek out a lot of risks or adventures.
64. Despite that, there are few things that I would never try. I'm not as conservative as people think.
65. If I could pick any superhero or alien power, I'd pick the ability to stop time.
66. Though flying would be pretty cool, too.
67. I don't embrace change well at all.
68. I like to attempt empowering and money-saving DIY craft and home improvement projects, but they often don't really go so well.
69. That is, unless your idea of "going well" means lots of swearing and a time investment that's double what you originally estimated.
70. I learned to knit in a community ed. class a few years ago. So far, that hasn't involved nearly as much swearing as some of my other endeavors.
    
71. I was never quite sure if I was 5' 9" or 5' 10", so when anyone asked my height, I said I was 5' 9½".
    
72. Now I'm pretty sure I'm 5'9", and I fear that the shrinking that occurs in old age has actually already begun.
73. As a general rule, I don't like fish. I do enjoy a McDonald's Filet-o-Fish every now and then, however.
74. I am also averse to eggs, but I actually like deviled eggs.
75. Apparently only the most disgusting version of something is the version I will eat.
76. I can say the alphabet backwards.
77. I taught myself during a period of insomnia several years ago.
78. My standby drink is a Captain & Coke or a cider.
79. I've been feeling the need to pick a new (possibly more "grown-up") standby drink, but I have no idea what it should be. I routinely ask for suggestions, but I haven't found a winner yet.
80. I don't like beer. I tried to acquire a taste for it the summer I was 21, but I quickly decided it just wasn't going to happen.
81. I seem to have the misguided notion that thanks to Swiffer and Tilex Daily Shower Spray, I almost never have to clean my bathroom properly.
82. I saw Say Anything approximately 117 times between 1989 and 1996. I haven't seen it in years, but I'm confident I still have large portions of it committed to memory.
83. I once won a trivia question at my college's TV station for being the first to identify the line "I gave her my heart, and she gave me a pen."
84. The prize was 100 photocopies at Kinko's. It was a somewhat anticlimactic victory.
85. The first album (on vinyl) I ever purchased was Tiffany's self-titled debut.
86. The first CD I bought was one recorded by The Innocent Men, a six-member a cappella group that's a subset of my college's all-male chorus.
87. I'm not particularly proud of either purchase.
88. The first movie I remember seeing in a theater was Snow White.
    
89. The first movie I remember seeing on a VCR was Mask.
90. I have no idea what the first movie I saw on DVD was.
91. I think dark chocolate is always preferable to milk chocolate. Don't even talk to me about white chocolate.
92. I am addicted to lip balm. My usual fix is Softlips (french vanilla or strawberry sherbet flavor), though as a lip balm enthusiast, I'm always interested in trying new varieties.
93. I oftentimes feel entirely incapable of making decisions. It's really annoying.
94. I hate shopping. I have a hard time finding things that fit right, and I never know what to wear with what.
95. I've been taking yoga classes for five years.
    
96. I should really be more bendy by now.
97. I could spend hours in a library or a good book store without getting bored.
98. Ditto for Target, though I feel that's not particularly admirable.
99. In either case, I prefer to browse alone. I feel I can take more in, and I don't have to worry about timing my "ready to go" point to coincide with someone else's.
100. Sometimes I fantasize about selling all my stuff and moving to London.