I'm So Random

Hello friends,

I have been spending a great of time thinking about 2011 and looking forward to 2012. I want to make sure that I am making myself a better, smarter, and stronger person. I have been talking with others, reading, thinking, and trying to plan my next steps in life.

Remember when I reflected on how my life has been brought to you by the letter C? http://catherinegoestofitnessridge.blogspot.com/2011/02/carpe-diem.html

Well, now I just realize that it is so random. Based on @steveinaSpeedo 's website and blog, here are the 100 randomnesses (I know that is not a word) of my life.

1. I can not play any musical instruments - totally tone deaf

2. If I owned a wiener dog, I would name him Relish

3. I was born at 10am

4. I was sent home from elementary school early once for starting a riot on the snow hill

5. I wear glasses and hate it, but do not qualify for laser eye surgery

6. I look and feel better with a tan

7. I am not a morning or night person, I am a 12:35pm person

8. I wish the world wasn't "scent free" because I would be covered in CoCo Chanel

9. I loved the show Beverley Hills 90201 for years and still do "knuckles" with Lennie when we hear the theme song.

10. Lennie will be upset with me for telling people that he watched 90210 and still does the knuckles thing

11. I am addicted to coffee

12. I love the color yellow

13. I love to get mail of any kind

14. I love the smell of Old Spice cologne

15. If I lived in the US I would totally be one of those extreme couponers

16. I am a momma and daddy's girl

17. Knitting is one of my favorite things to do

18. People do not believe that I can knit - see #17

19. I had the best grandmothers ever and a sweet grandpa

20. I take a bath everyday

21. I had skin cancer on my leg and now bathe in suntan lotion

22. I collect seltzer bottles, hat pins, perfume bottles and letter "Z"s

23. I love the smell of bonfires

24. I was suppose to be called Zoe or Lorna

25. I'm cheap

26. Video games bother me

27. I once ate (OK more than once) an XL pizza myself while watching the Biggest Loser

28. I hate everything having to do with snow

29. I get seasonal effectiveness disorder so I lay in the sun on the carpet in our family room Sunday afternoons in February

30. My mom got my ears pieced when I was 6 so that people would stop thinking I was a boy

31. I sucked at school because I am sure I had ADD

32. My dad spell checked my thesis for my M.Ed and it turned into a total rewrite. He says he really enjoyed helping me, I say, never give a grammar expert your thesis the week before it is due.

33. I spend a lot of time and money on my skin so that I will not look my age as I get older

34. I once won a chili cooking contest by using canned chili and adding a couple more veggies and spices

35. I always get my suitcase out 1 week ahead of a trip and start the packing process

36. I give everyone a nickname

37. Plane turbulence scares the crap out of me

38. Lake Louise is the beautiful site I have ever seen in person, I am hoping that Kenya 2014 beats it

39. Skiing sucks

40. I only have 9 toenails - lost one permanently after an accident at the mall where my foot got run over by a wheelchair

41. I having hearing and a sense of smell like the bionic woman

42. Motorcycles scare me as I saw too many accident photos when I was an insurance claims adjuster

43. I don't trust horses

44. ...or lazy people

45. ...or door to door sales people

46. Cancer has changed me

47. ...so has marriage

48. ...and becoming a teacher

49. People tell me they like my laugh

50. ...and that I sound exactly like my mom

51. ..but look exactly like my dad

52. I married a person who LOVES talking on the phone

53. I hate talking on the phone

54. I once found a $100 poker chip on a casino floor and spent it

55. People say that I am bold

56. ...because my fundamental purpose in life is to tell the truth

57. ...so, if you do not want to know, do not ask me

58. I am afraid to swim in the ocean

59. I went to school in Paris and never went up the Eiffel Tower

60. Every December I pay the bill of every person behind me at every drive thru

61. I suck at grocery shopping because I just buy whatever

62. When I am scared or upset I imagine myself sitting on the beach in Cuba when we visited there during spring break.

63. I get a lot of things done while brushing my teeth - big time multitasker

64. Speeding tickets - 2, traffic violations - 1, parking tickets - lots

65. Flannelet pajamas rule

66. I can't leave my house unless my kitchen is clean

67. I golfed 9 holes the morning of my wedding because my mom and I set a goal to be so organized that we could

68. Easter is my favourite holiday because of it being spring, having chocolate, and a 4 day weekend.

69. I have very little body hair - helped when the thyroid meds made the rest of it fall out.

70. I screw up every day

71. Being a baker would be my dream job

72. Slippers are my favourite footwear.

73. Swimming in Potash Lake, Ontario with my family are some of my favourite memories growing up

74. The smell of diesel fuel makes me sick and that is why I always feel nauseous on plane trips

75. I have never been to New York City

76. ...or California

77. ...or the Grand Canyon and I really want to!

78. My dad wrote me a letter every week that I lived in France and I still have them

79. I have never beaten Lennie at Checkers

80. ...or a thumb war but there is still time

81. Losing my thyroid has really sucked because of the side effects

82. Ricardo's Pizza in downtown London was the greatest pizza ever

83. If I am ever mad at you, take me out for dinner and you are forgiven

84. I need validation

85. Someone once said I was tenacious and I didn't know what it meant but I knew I liked being called it

86. I love the idea of social media - perfect for someone who wants to remain close with people without ever having to leave her house

87. I will run a 5:?? marathon

88. I have accomplished 1/2 the things on my bucket list

89. I never thought that I would be happily married

90. ...because I know I am "difficult"

91. ...not high maintenance, but complicated

92. I have never finished a Rubik's Cube

93. I will win a reality show one day

94. It takes me 37 minutes to get ready in the morning and it shows

95. Being a leader is hard work

96. ...and so is being a wife

97. ...and friend, but they are the greatest gifts I have been given

98. Our home gets a ton of magazine subscriptions

99. I hate surprises

100. I can't wait to see what the rest of my life brings

The Bucket List #42 stroked!

Many years ago my husband discovered this awesome group of guys from Victoria, Canada that had a website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Buried_Life.  They were really funny guys who created a list of 100 things they wanted to do before they died. 

Lennie and I both sat down and started to create our own "bucket lists" and as I was creating mine, I started to feel depressed.  Holy smokes did I have a lot of dreams, stuff to do and felt that overwhelming doom feeling.  So, I decided to make a 2 column chart. One column of all the stuff I wanted to do before I died and a second column of all the cool stuff I had already accomplished.  I promised myself that for every thing I added to column A, I needed to balance out the other side.  And so the list was created.  I make sure I revisit my list from time to time to update, change and check it out.

My favourite entry was the "run a marathon" one because after I completed the Chicago marathon last October I opened up my list to add it to the completed side not even realizing that I actually had set it as a goal in Column A.  I thought at the time of the list creation that I would NEVER be able to accomplish something like that and there it was, in column A - now in column B :)

Last weekend, after 18 years of listening to their music and following their careers, I got to stroke #42 off my list - "Meet the Backstreet Boys".  I had seen them in concert many times and but my real love of them started Christmas 2001 when my husband bought me their CD and had taped tickets to their Toronto concert to the back of the package.  I screamed like a 12 year old girl, called my teaching friend Sue (another 30 year old lover of BSB) and told her Lennie got me 2 tickets and I wanted to take her.  We went and ever since then, I have loved loved love them and followed their every move. 

In order to get my bucket list item to come true I needed to somehow get up close and personal with them.  This summer they were on tour with New Kids on the Block and were touring all over North America.  The closest city to us was Toronto so Lindsay, Lish and I got tickets to see them in June and we had a great night.  But, Lindsay texted me to say they added some dates and London was on the list as their last concert date.  Man, seeing them twice in one year sweet but it was sold out and I missed the ticket sales - Lindsay's dad surprised her and her sister with a pair so I needed Lennie to once again come through and he did.  He called some of his buds and got me a GREAT ticket.  I was so excited. 

Then, Lindsay shared with me that they have this cool thing called VIP passes where you get to go behind the scenes, have a sound check party and get a picture with the band.  Fantastic!!!! BUT!!!  It is really expensive and there was no way I could spend that amount of money to meet BSB, I would be the laughing stock of everyone. 

I thought and thought about it and a couple of days before the show in London, I decided that since we didn't do any big trips this summer that this would be my treat to myself .  Lindsay and I purchased tickets to the VIP event they were holding here in London before their final concert of the NKOTBSB tour.

For years, I had worshipped these guys and had survived years of mocking from my friends and colleagues (I have their poster up in my office at work and past concert tickets, pins and articles).  There was no way I was going to miss out to meet them and get a picture taken.  Even though I had crappy hair right now and am looking a tad run down from some of the summer's treatment stuff, I bit the bullet and went to the event. 

What a riot! It was a dream come true.  I had no idea what to expect from this kind of thing and Lindsay and I seemed to be the only ones who had never attended this kind of event before.  I thought I was a mega fan but these other 75 people were crazy!

As we entered the JLC they had 5 rows of chair set up and Lindsay and I with our gold VIP passes were placed in the 3rd row with the mic stands right in front of us - could it be that they would be 6 feet in front of us?  Lindsay and I had attended their last tour in London too with 10th row tickets but this was SO close. 

All of a sudden the Backstreet Boys came out one a time and I seriously was freaked out.  They were right there and were normal.  They sang, talked to us, laughed, told us about the final show and answered questions from the crowd.  Then, we lined up and had the opportunity to meet them, shake their hands and get a photo.  Again, they were so normal.  It is weird to meet people you have only seen from afar or through your TV for years and realize they are just people, with families and working like us.  I got a great photo and Lindsay and I were one cloud nine for the rest of the night. 

  

I came home from the concert and VIP day and immediately stroked this item off my bucket list.  Of all the stuff I have done, including the marathon, this was really the funnest one.  Thrilled to have done it with a mega fan like Lindsay and to have the photo posted up at work to really be mocked now makes me VERY VERY proud to be a lifelong BSB fan.  (it is also now my computer screen saver at work and home :)

I am just thrilled to be able to say to my former students who I told I would meet the Backstreet Boys one day that I did and if they work hard enough and dream big enough that they too will have their bucket list items stroked off.  But, it starts with making one.  What is on your list?