25 Random Things About Me
Feb. 3rd, 2009 09:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hermionesviolin1. I am currently affiliated with 4 churches (in 3 denominations) and attend worship services at 3 of them every week (2 of which I have been attending for over two years) and weekly discussion group at the fourth. I have still never officially joined any church, ever. (When I was a teenager, the pastor of the church I'd grown up in asked me if I wanted to get confirmed, and I declined -- feeling like I didn't know what I believed nor what I was supposed to believe to be a member of that church.)
2. I have attended worship services at at least 36 different churches in various denominations/faith traditions (3 different non-denominational, UCC, ABC, UCC/ABC. Lutheran-Episcopal, Anglican, Episcopal, Roman Catholic, [Greek] Orthodox, Lutheran [ELCA], UMC, PCUSA, 2 different college chapels, Quaker, 1 Southern Baptist?, MCC, UU, SSJE). I haven't attended a Jehovah's Witnesses service, though I did got to a Bible Study once when I was in high school (and felt REALLY uncomfortable there).
3. Making this list makes me want to hit the denominations/faith traditions I haven't yet.
4. I frequently get hit on by random guys on the street and actually enjoy this.
5. I have been on exactly one date in my life.
6. I once got offered weed by a complete stranger.
7. I had my first real crush on a boy when I was in 9th grade. I had my first real crush on a girl when I was in 12th grade. I prefer to identify as "queer" rather than "bisexual" for a number of reasons, but I will often identify as "bisexual" for maximal concision/clarity, and I am solidly a Kinsey 3.
8. Despite gong to Smith (a super-liberal, super-queer, women's college), I didn't so much as kiss any girls until two summers after I graduated (at a strip club -- aimed at straight men -- in Atlanta, Georgia).
9. People keep telling me I should go to div school.
10. I'm more than twenty-five-and-a-half years old and have never made any attempt at learning to drive.
11. I have successfully given blood twice in my life (and unsuccessfully attempted three times).
12. I've been a vegetarian since the spring of 10th or 11th grade. When I told my mom, she said, "But you don't eat any vegetables." I said I would make it work. (I'd been considering it for a while for ethical reasons, but it was spending a week with my aunt and uncle -- who were then vegetarian for health reasons -- that made me realize it was actually feasible for me.) I'm still a picky eater, but I don't often have the plates of beige food for which my friends at college would tease me (at least not the meals I eat at work).
13. I acquired a taste for cheese around the time I first seriously considered going vegan. And really, I just don't have the discipline to make sure I was sufficiently nutrified (and to check labels and have integrity -- I mean, I still often knowingly cheat when it comes to gelatin in sweets) were I to try to go vegan.
14. I stopped shaving the summer after 10th grade.
15. My senior year of high school, I began insisting that people call me "Elizabeth" rather than "Liz." I will accept nicknames based off of my name only if they are organic to the particulars of the person doing the nicknaming and their relationship with me (not wanting to say all 4 syllables is unacceptable).
16. I've only worn makeup twice -- both times when my then best friend gave me a makeover (back in junior high/high school).
17. I have seen the entire run of 7 shows (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Wonderfalls, The West Wing, Blackadder, Star Trek: The Next Generation). The first four of those I watched since they started airing (though the second two of those four had to be finished on DVD due to cancellation by FOX).
18. My dad used to watch WWF pro-wrestling while he was up with me in the middle of the night when I was a newborn. This led to me and him watching it on Saturday mornings when I was a kid. We stopped watching when it moved to cable (because we never had cable), though we watched Smackdown off and on. I still have strong nostalgia around the WWF, even though I haven't watched it in years because it went so downhill.
19. The first wedding I got invited to as my own person (rather than as part of my family) was a "hippy pagan ren wedding" with Jewish elements.
20. I never got Christmas gifts labeled "from Santa" and don't feel that I've missed out on any magical enchantment (I also have Serious Issues with lying to your children), though I do remember wanting to believe that Santa was real, for the kids whose families couldn't afford to get gifts for them.
21. The summer after I graduated college, I took a massage therapy class and a bartending class.
22. Over three years later, I am still in the first permanent job I got after college (which was my 4th temp gig in a round of 3 departments and 2 buildings at the same School in just over 7 weeks).
23. The first time I went to NYC on my own, I stayed with people I knew only from the Internet (and meatspace met up with another person I'd been pen pals with).
24. I have been to a casino once, and I was really bored by it.
25. My mom's boss gave me a Tiffany necklace as a gift once and I wanted to ask him to return it and write me a check for the amount it cost because I barely ever wear jewelery, and I already had plenty of necklaces for when I did, and Tiffany jewelry is EXPENSIVE. (The pendant was a cursive lowercase "e" -- for my name -- which I thought looked incredibly stupid. My mom wouldn't let me ask him to return it for the cash value, but we did exchange it for a pendant I actually liked.)
2. I have attended worship services at at least 36 different churches in various denominations/faith traditions (3 different non-denominational, UCC, ABC, UCC/ABC. Lutheran-Episcopal, Anglican, Episcopal, Roman Catholic, [Greek] Orthodox, Lutheran [ELCA], UMC, PCUSA, 2 different college chapels, Quaker, 1 Southern Baptist?, MCC, UU, SSJE). I haven't attended a Jehovah's Witnesses service, though I did got to a Bible Study once when I was in high school (and felt REALLY uncomfortable there).
3. Making this list makes me want to hit the denominations/faith traditions I haven't yet.
4. I frequently get hit on by random guys on the street and actually enjoy this.
5. I have been on exactly one date in my life.
6. I once got offered weed by a complete stranger.
7. I had my first real crush on a boy when I was in 9th grade. I had my first real crush on a girl when I was in 12th grade. I prefer to identify as "queer" rather than "bisexual" for a number of reasons, but I will often identify as "bisexual" for maximal concision/clarity, and I am solidly a Kinsey 3.
8. Despite gong to Smith (a super-liberal, super-queer, women's college), I didn't so much as kiss any girls until two summers after I graduated (at a strip club -- aimed at straight men -- in Atlanta, Georgia).
9. People keep telling me I should go to div school.
10. I'm more than twenty-five-and-a-half years old and have never made any attempt at learning to drive.
11. I have successfully given blood twice in my life (and unsuccessfully attempted three times).
12. I've been a vegetarian since the spring of 10th or 11th grade. When I told my mom, she said, "But you don't eat any vegetables." I said I would make it work. (I'd been considering it for a while for ethical reasons, but it was spending a week with my aunt and uncle -- who were then vegetarian for health reasons -- that made me realize it was actually feasible for me.) I'm still a picky eater, but I don't often have the plates of beige food for which my friends at college would tease me (at least not the meals I eat at work).
13. I acquired a taste for cheese around the time I first seriously considered going vegan. And really, I just don't have the discipline to make sure I was sufficiently nutrified (and to check labels and have integrity -- I mean, I still often knowingly cheat when it comes to gelatin in sweets) were I to try to go vegan.
14. I stopped shaving the summer after 10th grade.
15. My senior year of high school, I began insisting that people call me "Elizabeth" rather than "Liz." I will accept nicknames based off of my name only if they are organic to the particulars of the person doing the nicknaming and their relationship with me (not wanting to say all 4 syllables is unacceptable).
16. I've only worn makeup twice -- both times when my then best friend gave me a makeover (back in junior high/high school).
17. I have seen the entire run of 7 shows (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Wonderfalls, The West Wing, Blackadder, Star Trek: The Next Generation). The first four of those I watched since they started airing (though the second two of those four had to be finished on DVD due to cancellation by FOX).
18. My dad used to watch WWF pro-wrestling while he was up with me in the middle of the night when I was a newborn. This led to me and him watching it on Saturday mornings when I was a kid. We stopped watching when it moved to cable (because we never had cable), though we watched Smackdown off and on. I still have strong nostalgia around the WWF, even though I haven't watched it in years because it went so downhill.
19. The first wedding I got invited to as my own person (rather than as part of my family) was a "hippy pagan ren wedding" with Jewish elements.
20. I never got Christmas gifts labeled "from Santa" and don't feel that I've missed out on any magical enchantment (I also have Serious Issues with lying to your children), though I do remember wanting to believe that Santa was real, for the kids whose families couldn't afford to get gifts for them.
21. The summer after I graduated college, I took a massage therapy class and a bartending class.
22. Over three years later, I am still in the first permanent job I got after college (which was my 4th temp gig in a round of 3 departments and 2 buildings at the same School in just over 7 weeks).
23. The first time I went to NYC on my own, I stayed with people I knew only from the Internet (and meatspace met up with another person I'd been pen pals with).
24. I have been to a casino once, and I was really bored by it.
25. My mom's boss gave me a Tiffany necklace as a gift once and I wanted to ask him to return it and write me a check for the amount it cost because I barely ever wear jewelery, and I already had plenty of necklaces for when I did, and Tiffany jewelry is EXPENSIVE. (The pendant was a cursive lowercase "e" -- for my name -- which I thought looked incredibly stupid. My mom wouldn't let me ask him to return it for the cash value, but we did exchange it for a pendant I actually liked.)
no subject
Date: 2009-02-04 03:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-04 08:01 am (UTC)Still in awe of your ability to attend so much church. I barely have the discipline to attend two events at my church on a weekly basis. I'm generally glad when I do, but it's still essentially a matter of discipline to get myself to go.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-04 08:29 pm (UTC)I was thinking last night about how people have told me about the value of going to church even where you're not really "feeling it" because then it's there when you do need it, and how in recent days when I'm feeling drained and wanting positive social interaction, I'm grateful that I have so many standing commitments to go to church. Of course, it's not always a guarantee that church is gonna provide that, and I really want some solid quality one-on-one time with good friends, but my church stuff mostly provides at least some degree of that nurture. And it helps, I think, that largely I'm not going to actual "events" -- I'm going to 3 worship services, plus one small group dinner+discussion (it's a bit more of an effort to make myself go to one-off things like the Lenten Worship Planning meeting, or even non-CAUMC game nights, since I have less of an established history to (a) make it feel natural to just go and (b) assure me that it will be worth the going).