29 Random Things About Me

Hi everyone, sorry for the accidental blogging hiatus.  I am dealing with a ton of stuff in my personal life and really needed a break from Internetland.  But now I’m back and hoping to resume blogging on a semi-regular basis!

Since I just turned 29, I decided to share 29 random things about myself.  Here goes!

1.)  My favorite actors are Jim Parsons (Sheldon on Big Bang Theory), Robin Williams, and Mayim Bialik.  Mayim Bialik is also one of my all-time favorite humans in general 🙂

2.) I love pickles

3.)  My favorite TV shows are Parks and Recreation, Cristela, Frasier, and Big Bang Theory, to name a few

4.)  My favorite singer is, hands down, Josh Groban.  His music has gotten me through some really tough stuff!

5.)  My biggest pet peeve is those little cards that fall out of magazines.  They come in my subscription copies asking me to subscribe!  Seriously?!  What is up with that?!

6.)  I love old-timey things

7.)  I speak American Sign Language as my second language.  I’m also learning Spanish and religious Hebrew (for reading Jewish prayer books and understanding Hebrew liturgy in synagogue services).  I hope to learn conversational Hebrew eventually.

8.)  I love all things Jane Austen

9.)  I’ve gone sea kayaking off the coast of Alaska

10.)  I’ve been to Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Florida, Washington DC, Washington State, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Alaska.

11.)  I’ve petted dolphins

12.)  I’ve been to Disney World twice

13.)  I reread “Little Women” at least once a year, usually in January when I’m trying to get back in the swing of normal life after the holidays.  It’s comforting for some reason.

14.)  When I was a kid, some of my favorite shows were Arthur, Mister Rogers, Magic School Bus, and Lamb Chop’s Play Along.  When I got older, like late elementary school, I got hooked on Home Improvement.

15.)  I started making YouTube videos a couple of years ago and I really want to film more often!

16.)  I loved making jewelry as a kid, and I’m trying to get back into it.

17.)  I love music.  I play piano, and I’m trying to get back into cello and guitar.  I played flute for years, but unfortunately I have to take a break from woodwinds because my O2 level is too low to play safely and comfortably.  Hopefully that’ll change now that I use supplemental O2 part-time!

18.)  I’m in the process of converting to Reform Judaism.  I’ll write another post on this soonish!

19.)  If I ever get to the point of being able to have a “normal” job, I’d want to work at a nonprofit I’m passionate about.

20.)  I live with mild autism, asthma, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Type 3, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, irritable bowel syndrome, and POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.)  The EDS is likely the root cause of most of my other conditions.

21.)  I also live with PTSD, depression, anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorder.  (The checking door locks and stove dial type, not the handwashing type.)  The mental illness stigma pisses me off to no end.

22.)  Some of my favorite foods are tacos, pizza, pasta, and ice cream.

23.)  When I was in kindergarten, I wanted to be a police officer when I grew up, because I wanted to gointo schools and talk to kids like they did.

24.)  I love love LOVE dried mango

25.)  I watch “You’ve Got Mail” when I can’t sleep

26.)  Sometimes I really want to do more traveling

27.)  I love the ocean and sometimes I wish I lived on the coast

28.)  I was diagnosed with non-celiac gluten intolerance 2 years ago

29.)  I started reading in preschool

Thanks for reading!  Hope you all have a great weekend! 🙂

 

 

Day 16: Awakening Game Series

Over the past week or so I’ve gotten hooked on the Awakening game series, which is available for Mac and iOS devices.  The first two games are available for Mac only, and the rest are compatible with iPads.  You play the role of Princess Sophia, who has woken up after being asleep for a century only to discover that she is the only human left in the world.

I love everything about these games.  The scenery is gorgeous, and the music is soothing and weirdly effective at reducing my pain level sometimes.  There are a bunch of puzzles and mini games you have to solve, which are more challenging than you might think.

If anyone has recommendations for other fantasy games I’d love to try them out!

BEDS Day 15:My Favorite Shows

I want to write a post, but thanks to the brain fog I have the thinking capacity of a Tupperware, so I decided a list might be a good idea.  Here are my current favorite TV shows.

1.) Parks and Recreation (2009-2015)

If you like Amy Poehler, you need need NEED to watch Parks and Rec!  Leslie Knope is the deputy director of the parks and rec department in Pawnee, Indiana.  I have contemplated making Lego and knitted creations based on this show.  If there was ever a show that deserved to be immortalized by yarn and plastic bricks, it’s this one.  The first two episodes move a bit slowly, but then it picks up and gets hilarious.

2.)  Frasier (1993-2004)

Frasier Crane is a radio psychiatrist who dispenses decent advice over the air, but fails hilariously at basic things like fixing a toilet.  His brother, Niles is an absolute hoot!

3.)  The Golden Girls (1985-1992)

Blanche, Rose, Dorothy, and Dorothy’s mother Sophia live together in Miami.  They may be getting older, but they’re not dead yet, and they have plenty of hilarious misadventures!

4.)  The Big Bang Theory (2007–)

This show is an absolute gem, to say the least!  Leonard and Sheldon are geeky scientists who excel in their fields.  Their relationships, however, are quite a different story.  The thing I love about this show is the writers don’t seem to be running out of material.  They just started filming the 10th season, and it’s stayed hilarious all this time.  The other thing I love is how the actors genuinely like each other in real life.  You really see that chemistry in the show.  I won’t be surprised if this winds up being the last season.  But it’s been a great run!

Okay, I’m officially out of brain power for tonight.  I’ll be back for Day 15 ASAP!  Peace out!

BEDS Day 12: Guess What’s In the App Store?!

The best thing that could possibly happen today has happened:  I discovered Cluefinder games in the Mac app store!  My sister and I were obsessed with these games when we were kids.  I downloaded 4th Grade Adventures and I was slightly disturbed to realize I still have most parts of the game memorized.  My sister’s impression of the villain was absolutely hilarious.  While I’m glad I found a way to play the games on my Macbook Air, I’m slightly disappointed that I don’t have an excuse to get a vintage iBook, since those things are so adorable!

Okay, arthritis pain in my hands is skyrocketing so I’m going to end this here. Woohoo I’m actually making headway on the BEDS posts!

BEDS Day 9: My favorite movies

When I was in high school, a friend and I got hooked on making lists of things like favorite books, favorite movies, etc.  We’d make lists on sheets of notebook paper and exchange them to write comments.  (This was back in the pioneer days before text messaging and all :p.)  It was a lot of fun and I thought it might be a great way to generate more posts and hopefully get caught up on BEDS posts.  Today I’m going to make a list of my favorite movies.

1.)  Little Women (1994)

Starring: Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, and Christian Bale

My dad bought the movie used on VHS when I was 12.  He had no idea that I would fall completely in love with it!  The tape in the cassette broke the week before I moved out for college.  I bought the movie on DVD to take with me.  That was ten years ago (eek!) and I’ll have to replace the DVD soon.  Little Women follows the four March sisters through all their ups and downs during the Civil War.  It’s such a good movie!  It takes a lot of departures from the book, but it’s very well done.  I love watching it in the fall and winter.

 

2.)  Julie and Julia (2009)

Starring: Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, and Stanley Tucci

This movie follows Julia Child’s journey to cooking fame as well as Julie Powell’s quest to cook her way through “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”  This movie was what inspired me to create the BEDS challenge.  The lobster scene will never stop being funny!

 

3.)  The Emporer’s New Groove (1999)

Starring:  David Space (Kuzco), John Goodman (Pacha), and Eartha Kitt (Ezma)

Kuzco is an egotistical emporer who has a little mishap and gets turned into a llama.  He embarks on a series of misadventures as he tries to get turned back into a human.  There is no such thing as being too old for Disney movies, and this is by far one of their best hand-drawn animated movies.  If you haven’t seen it, fix that!  You won’t be sorry!

 

4.)  You’ve Got Mail (1998)

Starring: Tom Hanks (Joe) and Meg Ryan (Kathleen)

This is a really good movie for when life is being stupid.  Kathleen is trying to keep her bookstore afloat while chatting online with a business tycoon.  I’m afraid to say too much more than that because I don’t want to give anything away!

 

5.)  Arranged (2007)

Starring Zoe Lister-Jones (Rochel)

Two teachers in an NYC school become good friends, despite the fact that one of them happens to be a Muslim and one is an Orthodox Jew.  It’s so well done, and as a woman who covers, I can relate to a lot of the ignorance and comments the women face.

If you’ve seen any of these movies I would love to hear your thoughts!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 8: Things That Make Me Smile

I’m still trying to get caught up on BEDS posts.  I had a rough few days but I’ll try to get two posts up today and two or three tomorrow, and then I’ll be caught up! For my next several posts, I’m going to share some of my answers to questions in the Start Where You Are journal by Meera Lee Patel.

5 things that always make me smile:

1.) My cat Esther

2.) seeing my friend’s photos on social media

3.)  sunrises

4.)  Beautiful tichels (scarves)

5.)  Chocolate!!!

BEDS Day 7: An adult-sized child

I decided to make a list of things that solve any problem and just generally make me feel a little less craptastic when life is hell-bent on giving me the middle finger.  I realized that I’m basically an adult-sized child, haha!

Here’s my list:

1.) Disney movies

2.)  Legos.  Don’t judge me :p

3.) Coloring.  I repeat my statement about not judging :p

4.) Stuffed animals

5.) Cats

6.) Snuggly blankets

7.) Ice cream

8.) Chocolate

9.) chocolate ice cream

10.) Plaintain chips.  I thought they would be gross since they are such a hippie food but they are amazing.  Plus, now that I have POTS there is no such thing as too much salt, so it works!

11.)  The Golden Girls.  I thought it would be absolutely not my kind of show, but I love it more than I care to admit.  I also think like Dorothy more than I care to admit :p

I’ll be back with day 8 as soon as I can!  (Still catching up on posts and life in general after my body gave me the business end of a hissyfit.)

 

BEDS Day 6: Rules My Cat Lives By

Sorry for the unintentional break from BEDS posts.  A huge part of chronic illness management is listening to your body, and my body was sending me frantic memos along the lines of “Don’t even think about turning on the computer today!”  But I’m feeling somewhat better today, and I’m going to write three more posts to get caught up to Day 8 as soon as I can.

Today I thought I’d write about my cat.  Esther is 15 and definitely acts like a teenager.  She’s perfectly flexible as long as everything is exactly the way she wants it.  (What Do You Mean That Reminds You of Someone? :p)  She was a stray before we got her from a shelter, and in some ways she acts a bit more feral than most domestic cats.  She hates canned cat food and brightly colored cat toys.  The hubs and I assume this is because those aren’t exactly natural and she’s not used to them.  When she needs pills, the hubs and I have to mash them up in tuna because that is the closest to canned food that she will eat.

I thought it would be funny to write a list of rules Esther lives by, since the Internet is extremely short on cat humor and all :p.  Here goes!

1.)  My butt belongs in Mommy’s face.  The more she tries to get my butt out of her face, the more it needs to be there.

2.)  If the humans get out ice cream or organic jerky, immediately throw personal boundaries out the window!

3.)  Never use the $35 cat bed under any circumstances.

4.) Go crazy whenever a plastic bag makes a noise, because the only reason humans should open a plastic bag is to give me treats!

5.)  Play with electric cords, especially when they’re plugged in.

6.)  Howl loudly when the humans refuse to open the glass patio door.

7.)  Growl fiercely at heavy snow.  It has no business being here!

8.)  Growl fiercely and flatten ears at organ music on TV or YouTube.

9.)  Glare at the humans when they come home smelling like a strange dog or cat.

10.)  When the humans have been gone for longer than a couple hours, sit on them and growl when they try to get up.  This is a huge transgression and they must be held accountable!

Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back with day 7 soon!

 

 

BEDS Day 5: Cracker-less s’mores

I’m super exhausted and hurty tonight, so this will be quick.  Today at the barbecue with my mom and stepdad, we all came up with the idea of sandwiching a marshmallow between two pieces of chocolate, due to the graham cracker hostage situation I mentioned yesterday.  We all forgot that chocolate can melt until the chocolate started melting from the marshmallow heat!

See you tomorrow for day 6!

BEDS Day 4: Thrift Store Finds and Graham Cracker Hostages!

So far my BEDS posts have been more anecdotal than tackling major issues, but I guess I’m okay with that.  I think I need a break from writing about chronic illness and whatnot.  Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s very important to write about those things, and I plan to do so once BEDS is over, but I won’t force myself to do it before then.

Today I went to the thrift store with the hubs.  It’s one of many places I’m not allowed to go “just to look.”  But seeing as we donated five bags of stuff and only walked out of the store with one, I think I did okay!  The pictures were $8.50 (top) and $2.50, compared to their original prices of $35 and $10.  Scarves were $2.50 each.  Huzzah for bargains!  (Side note: The fact that I am using words like “huzzah” in sentences means I have lived with my hubs too long! :P)

Tomorrow, the hubs and I are having a barbecue with my mom and stepdad.  I was going to bring gluten-free graham crackers for s’mores, but that’s out the window since the graham crackers are being held hostage in our building’s office.  I ordered the crackers on Amazon Prime on Friday right after the idea of s’mores came to me.  However, I totally forgot that a) the staff is rarely in the office on the weekends in the summer because that is when they have the most people moving in and out, and b) the office will be closed tomorrow so I can’t pick up the graham crackers then.  Whooda thunk there was this much to write about graham crackers?

I hope everyone is having a safe and fun holiday weekend, and I’ll be back tomorrow for day 5!