If you have grade school kids you may be familiar with 100th day of school celebrations. Students are invited to bring in 100 of some ‘thing‘ and they happily spend the day gluing 100 pieces of Ziti or 100 Cheerios onto a big poster board. Like so many other child and school related scenarios, it sometimes turns into another example of bored mom one-upmanship. 100 Q-tips? BTDT. 100 buttons, Lego pieces, paper clips? So early naughties. I don’t even know what kids bring in nowadays. 100 pieces of sushi, perhaps. 100 organic Kale chips. 100 nut free, dye-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, vegan, tastes-like-the-cardboard-you’d-glue-them-on cookies. But I like the idea of 100. 100 is a celebration. 100 appeals to my sense of neatness and order and even numbers. 100 is the end and the beginning.
And guess what? This is my 100th post. I felt like doing something silly, something frivolous, something goofy. The written equivalent of gluing 100 elbow macaroni pieces onto a piece of glittered poster board. Something that exists for no real reason other than it encompasses an ending. And a beginning. 100 Shades of Me.
It’s not so easy to come up with 100 random facts about yourself. Truthfully, I had trouble with ten. Because most of my writing is personal, because I am an open book, because I don’t hide much of anything from my family, my friends, my pen or my blog, it was a challenge to come up with 100 new things that maybe I’ve never mentioned on here before, that perhaps you may not have known. So I’ve cheated a bit and broken it up into bite-sized chunks of random-ness and favorites and never dones and someday hope I cans. Hopefully somewhere in this century sized list there will be a few “I didn’t know thats” and “Me toos” and perhaps even an “I thought I was the only one” or two.
Or maybe it’s just 100th in a long line of self-absorbed writing exercises. In any event, it’s the way I chose to celebrate. It’s my party and I’ll cry narcissist if I want to.
11 things that may surprise you. Or maybe not.
I took tap dancing lessons for 12 years and can still do a mean time step.
I have a weakness for marching bands. And bagpipes.
High fives with adults make me feel kind of icky and awkward. I avoid them at all costs.
Office supply and stationery stores make me giddy. I could happily spend the better part of a day perusing notebooks and filing supplies.
I own more than one pair of yellow shoes.
I’ve read all four Twilight books. More than once.
I’ve never had a pet.
I was a cheerleader. When I was 8.
I can say the alphabet backward in under 5 seconds.
I once, when working at Dairy Queen, knowingly whip-creamed over a very small gnat that stuck to an ice cream cone. (They were very strict about not wasting ice cream).
I used to eat relish out of the jar.
10 movies I have never seen, and probably never will
Apocalypse Now
Reservoir Dogs
Chariots of Fire
The Deer Hunter
2001: A Space Odyssey
Raging Bull
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Easy Rider
Slumdog Millionaire
Ghandi
6 movies that make me cry. Every time.
ET
Rudy
Cider House Rules (actually I’ve only seen this once because it was so distressing to me that my husband had to stop the film so I could compose myself)
The Champ
Life is Beautiful
The Pianist
5 Last Meal Requests
Bacon and blue cheese burger
Really good french fries
A can of coke
A bottle of Pinot Noir
A pack of Marlboro
5 favorite television characters
The entire cast of The West Wing (with the possible exception of Toby Ziegler. Though as my husband points out, he is a necessary counter balance.)
Spike, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Lucy Ricardo
Laverne DiFozio
Ari Gold
7 things I like the idea of but don’t like in real life
Yoga
Bloody Marys
Sushi
Running
Skiing
Snorkeling
Nature
10 simple sensory moments
The smell of fresh sawdust
The crisp sound of new notebook pages
The scent of wood smoke
The feel of clothes right out of the dryer
The touch of my husband’s lips on my neck
The taste of a sour pickle
The sound of my sons laughing
Sleeping with my head in a patch of sunlight
Pictures of my father
The sight of books on a bookshelf
6 Songs that will make me change the channel
Ebony and Ivory
We Built This City
Easy Lover
Sussidio
Maneater
When the Going Gets Tough
5 careers I would be happy with
Socio-linguist
Egyptologist
High School English teacher
Urban Planner
Lay about novelist
10 entertaining fictional dinner party guests
Amelia and Emerson Peabody
Professor Severus Snape
Rhett Butler
George Smiley (This one is for my husband. It was a toss-up between him and Daenerys Targaryen, but she is underage….)
Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Scheherazade
Biff
1 thing that makes me crazy
Untidy piles of paper
5 things my husband would miss about me if I were dead (even though they drive him crazy)
Leaving my shoes exactly where I took them off
Tapping my food before I eat it
My penchant for asymmetrical decorating
My loud typing
My get everything out of every cupboard, closet, drawer, box and throw it into a big pile in the middle of the floor way of organizing.
7 songs I always sing out loud to
I’ve never been to me
Ring of Fire
Walking After Midnight
Fools Rush In
Annie’s Song
That song from Les Mis
Fire and Rain
8 Books I couldn’t finish
The Crimson Petal and the White
Suite Francoise
The Inheritance of Loss
Barnaby Rudge
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter (I finished it, but wish I hadn’t)
Art and Lies
50 Shades of Gray (I actually never even started it)
5 things I will miss as my children get older
My oldest son whistling while he plays
My youngest son’s hugs
The way they crawl into bed in the morning, squirmy and warm
The effect of an ice-cream cone.
Choosing me to be on their team.
So there you have it, my 100th post filled with 100 random facts. They would be hard to glue on a piece of cardboard. Cheerios would have been easier, no doubt.
Thank you to those of you that have hitched a ride on this journey. Here’s to the next 100, whatever they may bring.
X.
Wine and Cheese (Doodles) 
Wonderful, wonderful post! Am so with you on so many things, but have to give you kudos for mentioning The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. I had the same experience, and I never have those hours back!
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That was one of the most God awful books with good reviews I’ve ever read. But at least I did finish it–The Crimson Petal was so vile I couldn’t even get halfway through. But see, I’ve read Twilight, so I’m not a book snob! Where have you been???
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Back from vacation and it was non-stop—now I get to do the reading I thought I’d do during “hammock time” Getting stuck in to Patti’s Smith’s “Just Kids” and her voice is nothing like I imagined. Have you read it? I’m dying to know what you think!
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Congrats on your 100th post! You are awesome!
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Why thank you. I can only hope to achieve the recent adverbial usage of my 5 year old and strive for being ‘epically awesome’ in the next 100.
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That is a lofty goal, but I believe you can do it.
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Well done, you! Hey, you know, I am both an eater of organic Kale chips and a layabout novelist, and believe me neither of them are at all like what they’re cracked up to be…although I couldn’t agree more with you about Sussudio ( Phil Collins generally makes me retch).
I must admit, however, I was a bit appalled that your husband has let you get away with not seeing that list of guy films ie Raging Bull etc (I’ve seen every film you named but Slumdog Millionaire and possibly Ghandi, my memory is vague on this point).
Whatever. I put forward the notion that for your 200th post, you upload a YouTube video of your greatest tap dancing moves. What do you say?
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Well now you’ve gone and done it and put the idea of a tap dancing YouTube video in my head. If only I still had my tap shoes…You know, I’ve enjoyed your poetry since I found your blog, but now that you say that Phil Collins makes you retch, I think maybe we were meant to blog meet, because I can’t stand him. My husband and movies….he just watches all that stuff when I’m not around. And then watches it again. While I re-read favorite books, he re-watches favorite movies. As for Kale chips…well, ew.
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CHAMP!! OMG Yes!
and I organize like that too. 🙂 LOVED this Dina!
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Thanks, Debbie! Does it drive your husband crazy too?
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Tapping your food before you eat it?! What’s that all about then?
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Strange quirk. I never even noticed it before my husband pointed it out. It’s only finger foods, mind you. I don’t tap my fork ;-).
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I wish I hadn’t finished memory keeper daughter either. And I’dfor sure take the bottle of Pinot Noir and a pack of Camel Lights, actually. Fire and rain. Ditto. Xx
PS hope you and reed (Rowan too) can sneak away on Saturday for a bit!
Sent from my iPhone
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That book just sucked. One of these days I am going to throw caution to the wind and lay about (as a novelist) with a bottle and a pack. Oh wait, I already do that…almost ;-). See you Saturday.
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congrats on reaching 100 and i love the 100 facts )
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Thank you (x100)!
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Dying over 100 organic kale chips and Biff over for dinner.
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Seriously. Biff and Snape, how cool would that be. Rest assured, I would not serve them organic Kale chips.
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Congratulations on your 100th post, Dina. This was a really creative way to celebrate. I have to ask: why do you tap your food before you eat it?
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Thanks, Andra. I don’t know why I tap–in fact, I wasn’t even aware I did it before my husband pointed it out. It’s not all foods, mostly finger foods. I’m sure it’s a sign of OCD. Or cancer. Or dementia. Or just a quirk. 😉
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Hold on, I’m laughing so hard(6songs change channel) this comment is going to take a while…..
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I find it hard to believe that I’ve never written about my extreme, probably unhealthy, dislike bordering on hate, of Phil Collins.
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10 movies; seen them all, except Slumdog & Chariots(never will). Life is Beautiful made me cry, and ET(way back). Laverne & Buffy, yes. Absolutely love this post, Dina, it made me laugh, smile, feel, and like you even more – but stop tapping your food, please. This 100th post – congrats – has cemented your blog/street cred. Fantastic. Looking forward to the next 100. Cheers.
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You know what? This sucker was hard to write! I wanted it to be fun and it was, but it wasn’t easy! I’m not sure I can stop tapping my food (see response to Andra above). Also, have you noticed how ‘male’ the movies I listed were? (With the exception of Slumdog and Ghandi)? It’s probably why I haven’t seen them. I also have an aversion to a lot of 70s movies, not because of the subject matter, but because of the actual film quality (not story content, the ‘film’ itself). Yes, I’m weird. It’s why I tap my food. 😉
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