100 Things About Me, Part I

I have been trying for the last two point five years to come up with my "100 Things" list. Here's the first 25:

1. If given the choice at a coffee shop, I’ll order a simple café au lait with Equal and skim milk. Mochas, cappuccinos, and lattes are just a little too much for me. The only exception is when there are pumpkin lattes available. Then I’m all over that.
2. Occasionally, I suffer from embarrassingly loud gastric noises. It’s mortifying actually.
3. The first live concert I ever attended was a Sonny & Cher show… when I was 2. It’s one of my earliest memories… I recall my dad lifting me up so I could see her. She was wearing something orange, red and sparkly. Quelle surprise. Apparently, Cher was my idol at that tender young age.
4. I’m utterly worthless without 8 or 9 hours of sleep at night. 9 is better.
5. In our family of 6 (hubby and 4 teenagers), I am the smallest. And they remind me of it often.
6. I am overly polite to people I don’t know well, but I am not polite enough to the people in my family.
7. I am empathetic to a fault. I know it’s supposed to be a strength, but crying about someone else’s pain—especially when I don’t even KNOW that person—sometimes borders on the ridiculous.
8. My favorite color is any shade of purple—lilac, violet, amethyst, “light urple,” ANY shade.
9. I have freakish memory… I mean really FREAKISH. Not necessarily for important things, but for those things that people would never have a need to store away. Like, remember that time when I was 5 and you were 3, and you lay down on the driveway and told me to run over you with my bike, and I did? And then I got in trouble for it, because, although you were younger, I always did what you told me, and mom said I should know better? And she sent me to our room to wait for dad to come home, while you got to eat ice cream? Yeah. Like that.
10. I am very easily irritated. Again, quelle surprise.
11. I believe in ghosts.
12. I took six years of French, and have probably forgotten 4 years worth of it. I hope not, but I’m not very optimistic.
13. I’m having a difficult time thinking of 25 things… how am I ever going to get to 100???
14. I am a classically trained singer, and I play the piano and violin. I dabble on the guitar and bass guitar. My talent strengths of each go in that order, too.
15. I took classes years ago in oil painting and love it, but haven’t had time to paint in years.
16. I used to be a better than average photographer (won awards in high school for originality, quality of shot, etc.). Now am VERY amateurish, but want to be good again. I love taking photos.
17. I think I am much older than I want to be, but am also to a point in my life where I’m comfortable with my maturity… even if it’s not in the chronological sense.
18. My birthstone is the garnet, even though people sometimes think they are rubies.
19. Sometimes I miss being a teacher. But then all I have to do is step into a school building, especially a middle school, and then I’m reminded why I don’t miss it so much.
20. Even though I’m really empathetic and highly sensitive, some people who don’t know me very well might initially think me cold or distant. It’s a defense mechanism really.
21. When I was little, I wanted to be these things when I grew up: Cher (duh!), a race car driver, a teacher, a veterinarian, a performer at Disney World, a brain surgeon, a writer… and then back to a teacher again.
22. There are days when I absolutely detest email and wish it had never been invented.
23. I’m a sucker for cheesecake.
24. I’m also a sucker for a tear-jerker movie or book and will most likely cry when reading/viewing. I’ll hide it from you, though. You won’t see me cry.
25. I’m a sucker for over-committing myself. I take on too much, because I can’t say no, and then I whine incessantly about it. (No?!? Really?!? Isn’t that why I have a blog?!? Haha)