25 Things - Revisited

 I got this idea from my friend Melissa - thanks, Melissa for always giving me good blog ideas. I bow down before your blog prowess. :-) 

You probably remember the craze a few years ago on Facebook to create a list of 25 random things about yourself. I thought it would be fun to revisit this list. Interesting tidbit - I wrote this almost exactly 4 years ago. Wow. That feels like a million years ago!

Here was the list I made, with my thoughts now in italics.

1. I actually already did the 16 random things survey, but then it morphed into 25... but I love these types of things enough to challenge myself to think of another 25 things...I'm going to try not to have any repeats, but as I'm not consulting my old list, I can't make any promises. Ha ha, yes it's true...I love things like this. It's fun to think about the things that make me me - and I love learning random facts about other people too!

2. Within the last year or so, I've met 4 favorites within the literary world... Jodi Picoult, John Green, Garrison Keillor, and Mo Willems. They are all very different genres and audiences, but all fabulous for their own reasons. I'm still embarrassed that Garrison corrected my grammar (he knew I was an editor), but the fact that he gave Jeromy and I a wedding gift makes up for it. These people are still some favorites, and actually I've seen Jodi a couple more times and John another time after this!

3. My first born daughter (if I have one) will absolutely, positively, without a doubt in my mind have the middle name Elizabeth. It's so important to me that I'm pretty sure I made Jeromy agree to it before we were even married. I wrote this before we were even seriously talking about having kids, and now we have our beautiful Linnea Beth. I ended up deciding to go with Beth as a middle name instead of Elizabeth because my sister was always a Beth, just like I've always been a Becky. I love that I was able to honor her in this way.

4. I really love working downtown. I love the skyways, the accessibility to stores, restaurants, etc., and I love working in a fancy office building. It makes me feel more grown up than I think I really am. I'm still working downtown, but at a different job - yeah, lots has changed! I still like working downtown. I hate the corporate world, but it's fun to be in the city.

5. Jeromy was my first kiss, my first boyfriend, etc. Sometimes I'm embarrassed at that (being that I was 19 when we started dating), but most of the time I think, "Wow. I got that whole dating thing totally right my very first time." Yup. Totally still feel this way. Melissa, I love that you have the same item on the list! :-)

6. As a kid (and still kind of now), I looked eerily like my paternal grandma. I never met her (she died long before I was born), but we have pictures that neighbors and friends swear are me, but they are my grandma. Totally true. I will try to find a picture sometime. It's kind crazy. It's also interesting because now I have little cousins who also look a lot like her. These genes run deep, I guess!

7. I struggle a lot with living in the present. There are so many things I want to do, see, and be...and I have a really hard time accepting that I can't do them all right now. Oh so true. I don't know that I've gotten any better at this, but I'm working on it.

8. I have a secret fear that we will never be able to afford to have kids. I'm pretty sure that's not the case, but I still worry about it. Ha! So we ARE affording our first child, but now I've moved on to worrying that we won't be able to afford a sibling for Linnea. I know we will...but it might be awhile.

9. (cont. from #8) I'm a worrier. It runs in the genes and is so a part of me I'm not sure how to completely get rid of it. Yup. I think becoming a mom has made me more of a worrier in some ways, and less of a worrier in other ways. I'm not sure if that makes sense.

10. (cont. from #9) Same with people pleasing. Bah. Yeah...still a struggle for me. But I think I've gotten better. I feel like I've gotten to know myself better in the last few years, which has helped me to feel more assured, which helps a bit I think.

11. There is a Bible that's coming out this Spring that will have my name in the contributors list at the front. I'm not sure it's completely sunk in just how cool that is. I have a lot of pride in work projects of mine like that. The Bible came out, and then I got laid off. Uff. I am very proud of it still, even though I don't work at the company anymore. The Bible sits in the pews at church. Linnea and I often look through it. I love that.

12. I always thought it was cliche when people talked about their spouses and said, "I love him/her more now than the day I married him/her." Now that I'm married, I totally get it. Each and every day I love and appreciate Jeromy more and more. This is still true, and even more true since having Linnea. There's not much better than watching the man you love be an AWESOME dad. And Jeromy is one AWESOME dad.

13. I look at the clock on a regular basis when it's 10:13 (AM and PM). For a while I thought that maybe that was going to be an important day in my life or something. Jeromy and I could have gotten married on 10/13, but decided on the 6th instead. I still sometimes wonder if that number has some sort of significance in my life. REVISION: So I wrote this and then later headed to bed. I climbed into bed, looked at the clock, and guess what time it was... 10:13. Weird. This is still the case! Isn't that weird! There are lots of days where I look at the clock at 10:13 in the morning and at night. I always wonder if it means something...

14. I love, love, love my WOWZAs (and the MANZAs too). I have no doubt in my mind that we will continue to be friends and have regular get-togethers until we're old and gray. Sometimes I think about that and get really giddy and giggly. We are going to be some sweet, awesome old ladies, for sure. I LOVE MY WOWZAs!! Just last weekend we spent the weekend together at Sarah's cabin. We had SO much fun.  These ladies are my best friends, and I know they always will be. Since I wrote this, we've had three babies added to the mix. It's amazing to watch our lives change, and it's such an honor to be with all of them every step of the way.

15. I have a grave plot already, but I don't want to be buried. I want to be cremated and sprinkled someplace (not sure where...hopefully I have many decades yet to decide). Still the case for both. I've thought about looking in to selling it....is that weird?

16. I totally respect people's opinions and such, but I do not at all understand people who don't want kids and pets (particularly dogs). I have wanted both for as long as I can remember.

17. I have a weird knack for remembering friends' middle names. I have no idea why... but I can name most of them (I think).  Yeah...totally the case.

18. Right now I'm listening to me and Jeromy's song (Miles Davis' "It Never Entered My Mind") and smiling thinking of Jeromy and I slow dancing to it. I'm not listening to it now (I'm listening to The Princess Bride in the background), but I still love our song. We've added a few songs that are kind of "our" songs, but this was the original, and it has a special place in my heart.

19. I'm really interested in seeing where my career path takes me. I love my job (most days), but it's not quite what I went to school for... it'll be interesting to see what the future holds. This is crazy. How is this still SOOO the same. As said before, I've been laid off and got a new job since this, but I wonder (and worry) even more now about where my career is going. I hope I find my niche.

20. When Jeromy and I were house hunting, I hoped to find a house that had a fun address (cute street name, fun number patterns, etc.). I love our house and don't want to be anywhere else, but I'm still kind of sad that the other house that we looked at on our same block didn't pan out, based simply on the address (5432 32nd Avenue). Seriously. Say that out loud (but say it 54, 32, 32nd Avenue). Ha ha ha. Yup. I love our house though.

21. Wow. I am a huge dork. Still the case. I'm proud of it.

22. I used to have the ambition to be the first female president. I no longer have that ambition. At all. But I'm really happy because I'm confident that I will live to see the first. I still get chills thinking about seeing the first African American president sworn in. :-) I'm so glad that since this was written, he was elected for another 4 years! I know not everyone feels the same, but I love my president!

23. I also used to have the ambition (BIG time) to be a Marine Biologist. As soon as I figured out that you had to do math and science for the job, I was out. (I'm decent at math and science, and enjoy both all right, but didn't want either for a career). This makes me laugh. I just wanted to play with dolphins!

24. Snuggling into the nook of Jeromy's shoulder at night is quite easily the best part of my day. Still a highlight for sure, but now it shares the title with Linnea running to me and happily yelling "Mama!" when I get home.

25. Someday I want to visit all 50 states and all 7 continents. I would love to make this happen...and I hope we can travel a lot as a family. Sometimes I get really sad/overwhelmed by how to make that happen, but I hope I can some day!

30 Before 30 - Months 6, 7, and 8

I haven't been as good at updating this as hoped, although admittedly it's been a light few months for my 30 Before 30 project. Winter has been particularly cold, dark, and generally yucky which leaves me a bit unmotivated. I have crossed a few fun things off of my list. It's a bit shocking that I only have a few months left until the big 3-0!!

Since it's been cold and dark, the biggest thing I've worked on is the movie list. I've crossed a TON off - I finished the Star Wars trilogy, watched the entire Back to the Future trilogy, The Goonies, The Princess Bride, Pretty in Pink, Can't Buy Me Love, Ghost, Zoolander, Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

It's been an interesting experience - some movies have FAR exceeded expectations. For example, I always had the impression that The Princess Bride was a stupid movie. I had tried to watch it a couple times in college, and always managed to fall asleep. It isn't as funny coming in and out of sleep. However, this tops the list of favorites of the movies I've watched so far! It's hilarious!

I always thought Ghost was a sweet, romantic comedy. Not so! It's scary (well, it's scary for whimpy me). Even though it was scary, I thought it was a really good story.

Since my last update, I also got not one, but two LASIK consultations. The first was mid-December at Associated Eye Care in Stillwater. My friend Beth worked there for many years and referred me there. The experience was good - everyone was really nice, the process was smooth and painless. Since the price I was quoted at was higher than desired, I decided to go for another one. This time I went to Whiting Clinic in St. Louis Park. The experience was very similar - lots of tests and funny machines. Nice people. I had found out at Associated that I have thin corneas (weird, huh?). Associated has more or less a flat rate for their LASIK procedures. Though Whiting has different levels of pricing, I was bumped up to the higher level because of my thin corneas. Boo. Basically $1,000 more because of it. The quotes ended up being very comparable...and simply too much to justify right now. I'm disappointed, but it's good to know. I'm glad I got the consultations.

At the end of January I asked my friend Jonathan Rundman to teach me how to string my guitar. Jonathan is a professional musician, the husband of a former co-worker of mine, and an all around awesome guy. Jonathan gave me a short tutorial, and then we took turns doing each string of the guitar. Although it takes a little bit of practice, it is much easier than I expected to string my guitar. I'm really glad I learned - it's been something I've wanted to do for a long time!

Also at the end of January I started taking a belly dance class through Minneapolis Community Ed. I taking the class with my good friend Susan (it's fun to have a buddy!). We're both a bit disappointed because the "90's Hip Hop" class that we wanted to take filled up, so this was our plan B. We've done the first two classes. I like it, but definitely don't love it. It's much, much harder than I thought. Even though I consider myself a decent dancer with pretty good coordination, belly dancing makes me feel like a klutzy baboon. 

My meals have been going well too. I've really noticed a difference in my confidence level. I am feeling much more comfortable in the kitchen. I've even found myself making other meals, and being a lot better at it than I have been. In fact, we've discovered that I make the BEST scrambled eggs. Who knew?! It may not sound like a big deal...but it's a big improvement for me! In the last few months I've made Honey Lime Tilapia, Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas, and Coconut Chicken with Garlic Fries. The Coconut Chicken is probably one of my favorite meals I've made so far.

Although there haven't been a ton of things crossed off the list in the last few months, the ones that have been have been a lot of fun. I'm coming to the home stretch of this project...time to get in gear to wrap this up!