100 Things About Me

Family
1. I was born in Philadelphia, PA at the hospital where my mom was a nurse
2. I weighed 4.5 lbs but wasn't premature, just tiny.
3. 2 years and 364 days after that, my sister was born.
4. She was not tiny, leading to the best ammunition a grandma could have ever given a big sister. "When you were in the nursery, people would look at all the babies and talk about them. When they got to you they'd say 'Look at that Fat Baby'".
5. My dad, sister and I have our birthdays within 4 days.
6. I have a small family. Thanksgiving dinner consists of 10 people and that's with the extended family
7. When I was young, I spent a large portion of my summers in Ship Bottom, Long Beach Island, New Jersey
8. I lived in the same house for 24 years.
9. In the 10 years since then I've lived in 9 different places.
10. I hate moving with a deep and abiding passion.
11. One day, I'd like to live within walking distance of an ocean
12. I got Lucy from the animal shelter in Pittsburgh.
13. She's 9 years old right now.
14. She has lived in 7 different places with me.
15. She has had the Posterior Cruciate Ligaments replaced in both hind legs.
16. Thank god for doggie insurance

Education
17. In school, I had ESP between 3rd and 12th grade.
18. This wasn't psychic ability; it was the Enrichment Studies Program. Smart kid segregation.
19. I was a member of my school's Scott's HiQ team. Like College Bowl, but sponsored by Scott Paper, a local company
20. I took dance lessons from 3rd grade until college, tap, ballet, pointe and jazz.
21. I was never good enough to seriously consider doing anything significant with it, but it was fun
22. I was in acrobatics, but I quit when I couldn't master the back tumblesault.
23. I'm not very bendy
24. I played the flute for 3 years in elementary school
25. I wasn't very good and I'd get so nervous that I faked playing a lot of the time
26. I played drums for about 6 months, but they always gave me a headache so I quit
27. I have a bachelor degree in Biochemistry from Albright College, Reading PA
28. I have a Masters degree in Genetic Counseling from University of Pittsburgh.
29. I just started a Masters of Library and Information Science at University of Pittsburgh.
30. That is correct. Two Masters degrees from the same school.
31. It's an online course, so I don't have to move
32. Sometimes I really want to move, back to the east coast where my family is.
33. I took a writing class last summer
34. I enjoyed it and I realized I really like writing

Jobs
35. I worked at Merck Pharmaceuticals for a while.
36. Since I was in the vaccine division there, I've been vaccinated against pretty much anything.
37. I still have no titre against Measles, even after 4 tries.
38. I've decided that I don't really care about it
39. I worked as a Genetic Counselor for 2 years.
40. The first year was at Albert Einstein Hospital in North Philly.
41. I never got mugged there, which put me in the minority there
42. The second year was at the Medical Center of Delaware, Christiana Cares.
43. I loved that hospital. I had interned there and knew people and was so excited to get a job there.
44. Thanks to an evil doctor, I was fired.
45. I still haven't forgiven her.
46. Because I lost that job, it royally screwed up my path to get Board Certified as a Genetic Counselor. So much so, that it is now basically impossible for me to get certified, unless I become independently wealthy and don't have to work for a year.
47. I was also a Bereavement Counselor for pregnancy losses at MCD.
48. Because of this, there was a period of time where I had held more dead babies than live ones.
49. I didn't mind giving up that part of the job.
50. I have also worked in bookstores, flower shops, record stores and as a costumed character.
51. I don't really like working retail and small children freak me out.

Health
52. I am a cancer survivor.
53. It feels funny saying that, because thyroid cancer is so easy to treat compared to other cancers.
54. In September 2005, it will be 5 years since my diagnosis and I will be considered out of the recurrence risk phase.
55. I've been treated for depression 3 different times.
56. This means it's something that's not going away permanently and I'm going to have to deal with the rest of my life.
57. That pisses me off.
58. But, hey, at least there are expensive medications I can take
59. Before I turned 30, I got my first grey hair, had my first back spasm, my first bout of depression and cancer.
60. Aging doesn't really bother me any more.
61. As a side effect of my cancer treatment, I developed claustrophobia. It was from all the MRI-like testing needed in the beginning.
62. I used to like small spaces, now I get fidgety just thinking about them
63. I can't even watch someone in a coffin on TV
64. I'm allergic to Demerol
65. It makes me itchy and jumpy and twitchy.
66. Those things are not good to be right before going into surgery
67. My eyesight is truly abominable and I wear contacts
68. I'd get surgery for it, but I'd still need to wear glasses, so why bother
69. I've never had a pair of glasses that look good

Quirks and hobbies
70. I consider myself a feminist
71. I am incapable of picking my one most favorite of anything, book, movie, music, person, whatever.
72. I have over 400 books in my house at this moment.
73. I like books.
74. I like punk, ska, female singer-songwriters and poppy 80's music.
75. I was a DJ on my college radio station with my best friend
76. Our show was called the Eclectic Approach and was on from midnight to 2 am on Wednesdays.
77. You do weird things in college, like activities that start at midnight.
78. I can't count the number of concerts I've been too, lots and lots
79. I once saw 4 shows in one week
80. I've been in a mosh pit and survived
81. I store all my yarn in the living room.
82. If it was organized, it might look pretty. Instead it just looks like a pile of yarn.
83. I learned to crochet in 2003.
84. I was going to take knitting lessons but I couldn't find a class that fit my schedule
85. I now know how to knit but I'm very slow and tend to gravitate towards crochet.
86. I think crochet is cool and anyone who thinks knitting is the only fiber-related activity worth doing can go suck a big fat egg.
87. I get very nervous when I have to do new things or meet new people
88. I can be ridiculously shy
89. My idea of hell is having to make innocuous small talk with strangers
90. I've been in Arizona for 6 years.
91. I ended up in Arizona by believing in True Love
92. That didn't really pan out
93. I still believe in True Love, I just haven't found it yet.
94. I hope it happens in the near future, I'm becoming a Crazy Cat Lady with all the living alone
95. I'm allergic to cats
96. I procrastinate a lot
97. I believe dessert is a part of this sensible dinner
98. I have a tattoo on my left ankle. It's a double helix, because I'm a genetics-loving nerd.
99. I think it's important to laugh loudly at least once a day.
100. And it's doubly good if you're laughing at yourself.