So originally these lists just had ten things, then sixteen, then seventeen – and now 25. I’ve already written a sixteen-item list so I’m only adding nine more items here. So there.
1. I’m nocturnal. I’ve always been nocturnal. The first time I ever stayed up all night I was 9 years old (it was the last day of third grade and my brother and I drank a lot of Pepsi). My body clock is 3-4 hours offset from that of almost everyone I know; left to my own devices (and I generally am, since I work from home and most of my co-workers are on the west coast), I sleep from 2 – 11 AM, or later.
2. Speaking of sleep, I need a lot of it – at least 9 hours per night. ‘Tis a difficult admission in an age in which the amount of sleep one requires is inversely proportional to the admiration one receives, but I’m no Napoleon. (The amount of sleep I need combined with my nocturnal schedule makes me think with fear and trembling of someday having diurnal children.)
3. I loathe television with an abiding and soul-consuming passion. I haven’t owned a TV set for about 12 years, and have been truly fortunate to live with like-minded people for almost all of that time.
4. I’ll try any food once, no matter what it is. I usually end up liking it.
5. I almost never cook or have a formal breakfast, lunch, or dinner. When I get hungry I snack on hors d’oeuvres until I’m (temporarily) full – my favorites are Triscuits with avocado, grapes, carrots/pita bread/celery/etc. with hummus, rice crackers with seaweed, string cheese, and oval crackers with a tiny bit of ham, cheese, and spinach.
6. I skipped the fifth grade – which means that I went straight from fourth grade to junior high in a small Arkansas town where we had just moved a few months before (from southern California, no less). That and my insufferable 10-year-old “I’M smarter than YOU are” attitude made me – well – rather less popular than average at Redfield Junior High School.
7. I lived in Arkansas 18 years and never developed a Southern accent (thanks to my accent Nazi dad), but now I find myself falling into one when I visit. I also develop a Boston accent when I talk to native Bostonians. It’s kind of embarrassing, actually – it makes me feel like I’m patronizing people.
8. I LOVE to travel and hence have some really, really good travel stories (horror and otherwise). One of my worst experiences was getting sick and eventually throwing up into a revoltingly clogged toilet on a crowded, smoky, stinking overnight train in Zimbabwe. One of the best was climbing to the top of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and watching the Eiffel Tower twinkle while the cars madly careened around the roundabout below.
9. I have always loved writing and am generally much, much, MUCH more verbose than is technically necessary. For cases in point, see items 1-8 above (except #4, in which I am uncharacteristically succinct).