100 Things About Me

Because it seems to be de rigueur:


1. I was born at 11:35PM.

2. According to my parents, I liked to stay up late even as an infant.

3. I watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. I don’t remember it, as I was only 3 months old.

4. My favorite Angel was Sabrina.

5. I grew up in rural South Carolina.

6. I love the sounds and smell of the ocean.

7. Before I decided to become a veterinarian, I wanted to be an archaeologist.

8. I decided to become a veterinarian at age 12.

9. I learned to read at the age of 4.

10. I started 1st grade at the age of 5.

11. In 6th grade and in 8th grade, I made it to county spelling bee finals. I don’t remember which words I misspelled.

12. My brother knocked out one of my bottom teeth on Christmas Eve, 1981. It was 19 years before I got an implant. I still rarely show my teeth when I smile.

13. After I studied in Spain in 1988, I found that my spelling got worse.

14. While I was studying in Spain, I began forgetting English words.

15. I think that everyone should be able to speak at least two languages.

16. I went to my senior prom.

17. The theme song was “Cherish”, by Kool & The Gang.

18. I didn’t particularly enjoy high school.

19. I spent the summer after I graduated from high school with my paternal grandparents in Maine. When I came home, my parents had turned my bedroom into a storage room, and I had to sleep on the couch for three weeks before I went to college.

20. I started my undergraduate career in South Carolina because my mother didn’t want me to move out of state. At the end of my first semester, my mother took a job in Maine.

21. I could have completed my undergraduate degree in three years if I hadn’t gone to Spain.

22. I moved to Minnesota for vet school because all the northeastern schools were really expensive.

23. I came out of the closet while I was living in Minnesota. The Twin Cities are very gay-friendly.

24. My last relationship lasted 4.5 years. Before that, none had lasted more than two months.

25. I have always been the dumpee.

26. I was too trusting in my last relationship.

27. My spinning wheel is the best thing I got out of my last relationship.

28. I met my current partner, David, just after I moved back to Maine in June, 2005. I was told by mutual friends that I should meet him.

29. David remembered that we’d had a blind date 12 or 13 years before in Minneapolis.

30. I’m really, really bad at remembering people.

31. My dad’s parents were married 59 years before my grandfather died. My mom’s parents have been married 69 years. It makes me a little sad that I’m unlikely to get to spend that much of my life with someone.

32. I think that I would like to adopt a child, but I don’t know that I’d feel incomplete if I don’t.

33. I love dogs, but at heart I’m more of a cat person.

34. My grandmother taught me to knit and purl when I was 9, but I didn’t start knitting seriously until I was 33.

35. I knit continental (yarn in left hand).

36. As a child, I liked trying to spin thread from cotton balls. I still do sometimes.

37. I love visiting cities, but not being able to see the stars at night makes my heart ache.

38. I lived in cities from the age of 21 until just a few months ago.

39. My roots in Maine go back over 350 years. My roots in South Carolina go back over 200 years.

40. Even though I grew up in the South, I don’t like hot, humid weather.

41. I love the sound of snow falling.

42. I love the sound of snow scrunching under my feet.

43. My favorite color is blue.

44. My favorite number is 4.

45. I always prefer even numbers to odd.

46. My ancestry is Scottish, Irish, English, a very tiny drop of Seminole, and anybody’s guess as to what else.

47. I have been asked by several people if I’m mixed race.

48. My favorite facial feature is my eyes.

49. My hair is thinning on top, but I’m not terribly distressed by it.

50. I prefer to wear sandals in the summer.

51. Foot fetishists really seem to like my feet.

52. I find the whole concept of fetishes strange.

53. Bondage freaks me out. Even the thought of being tied up is enough to give me an anxiety attack.

54. I'm claustrophobic, but not so much that I can't be in a closed room.

55. On April 9, 1997, I was in a head-on collision. Until that time, I had never had a broken bone, but it was my third whiplash injury in as many years.

56. Since that time, I have had constant back pain.

57. I would rather have chronic pain than an addiction to narcotics, though I suppose it would depend on the level of pain.

58. I have inhaled, but I decided not to anymore after a very disturbing trip to the Mall of America.

59. Two alcoholic drinks is my usual limit.

60. Rieslings are my favorite wines.

61. I make excellent salads.

62. I stopped eating all land-based meats in June of 1993 after a school trip to a slaughterhouse. It was a kosher slaughter day when I was there.

63. I stopped eating seafood at the beginning of 1995 when I was living in Charleston, SC.

64. When I do surgery on fat dogs, I think they smell like raw steak.

65. I’m a fairly good soft tissue surgeon, but it’s not something I really enjoy.

66. I don’t do orthopedic surgeries, but I do make lovely splints.

67. I still eat eggs and cheese, but I feel a little bit guilty about it.

68. I have not kept in touch with anyone from my high school or from college.

69. The first video I ever bought was “My Fair Lady”.

70. I didn’t think I was susceptible to Seasonal Affective Disorder until I lived in Pittsburgh.

71. I have lived in 6 US states – South Carolina, Tennessee, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

72. I have visited every state in the US except for 3 – Alaska, Hawaii, and Arkansas.

73. I will visit Hawaii in July of 2006.

74. I can’t think of a reason to go to Arkansas, other than being able to say I’ve visited every state.

75. I’ve also visited 5 Canadian provinces – Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia.

76. I enjoy listening to Quebec radio and watching Quebec TV, even though my French is really poor.

77. I wish I got to use my Spanish more.

78. I would consider emigrating if it were economical to do so or if the political situation here got too scary.

79. Ideologues of any stripe make me very nervous.

80. I was raised Presbyterian, but I now consider myself Buddhist.

81. I don’t believe in an afterlife. I feel this makes our time here that much more precious.

82. It infuriates me when journalists refer to “Intelligent Design” as a theory. It is, at best, an untestable hypothesis. That it cannot be tested renders it scientifically worthless.

83. When I die, I want to be cremated and my ashes scattered on Frenchman Bay in Maine.

84. Someday I want to visit the Shetland Islands.

85. In the winter, my toes are usually cold.

86. I am skeptical of many holistic medical practices, but I have found that acupuncture helps my back pain.

87. I wish I were a better writer.

88. I used to play flute, but I have not - with a few rare exceptions - for 18 years.

89. I don’t like okra, but I will eat it in my grandparents’ homemade vegetable soup.

90. I love grits – preferably with butter, salt, pepper, and cheese; never with sugar.

91. I love boiled peanuts (Southerners know what I’m talking about).

92. I have spent most of my career working in emergency clinics.

93. I don’t see myself spending my entire career doing this.

94. I want to be able to retire at 60.

95. Within the next 10 years I want to have a farm and spend most of my time with my alpacas.

96. I’d also like to have a small flock of sheep.

97. I have moved 20 times in my life. I’m hoping my next one is my last.

98. I’d love to weigh 170# again, but I’d settle for 180#.

99. I have one gay cousin and one elderly lesbian relative on my father’s side. I don’t know of any others in my family.

100. Most spinners looked at me like I had three heads when I talked about learning on alpaca, but I’ve found it fairly easy to work with.