Thursday Thirteen #1

So I'm starting a new "thing." Thursday 13 is a weekly meme with one goal in mind: Write/blog a list of 13 things every Thursday. There's a gang of people doing this, although I really only follow one. Her blog's a fun read, especially if you have lofty running ambitions. I don't know her, don't believe we've ever had any discourse even by way of blog comments, but I really admire her. Anyway, here goes:

Thirteen Things About Me: an introductory Thursday Thirteen

13. I have a wicked memory. I remember birthdays of friends I haven't seen since the 6th grade. I remember the date of my parent's first date. (Sept 19th.) I remember crap other people forget about, like the Saturday night TV lineup in the late 1970s (Emergency; Love Boat; Fantasy Island) or the fact that the in the first few episodes of the Cosby's, there were four kids, not five.

12. Speaking of TV, I love it. It's been a friend to me. Different Strokes told me that I was not, in fact, the only black child being raised in a white family. A Different World befriended me as I worked three jobs and 16 hours a day in order to pay off my college debts so I could go back, buckle down and graduate...it was the ONLY show I watched that one crazy fall of 1992. I will probably never kill anyone for many reasons, one being that I'd hate to think I got away with it, only to be caught by the teeth impressions in my gum that I threw away at the scene of the crime, like on Forensic Files.

11. I'm adopted. I'm black (ok, black and white). My adopted family is white. Hilarity ensues.

10. I like Christmas Carols. I'm the annoying one who listens to those "all Christmas Songs, all the time" radio stations in between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

9. I secretly love the bitter cold. There's something about going about your day with single digit temperatures and below zero wind chill factors that makes you feel like a total bad ass. There's no room for error, you get in, you get out. Or you get frostbite. Plus, you're focused so hard on the mechanics of dealing with the cold that you forget about other trivial things like "I hate work," or "Mondays suck."

8. I bake cookies. And sell them. It doesn't pay the bills just yet (ok maybe a small bill or two), but who cares. This weekend I'm appearing at my first ever Farmers Market, I'm so excited!! (Indoor market!) I'm on the verge of signing an agreement with a commercial kitchen. Things are looking up? Got a holiday gathering or birthday or something coming up? Think about ordering some cookies. (Personally, I like my Valentine hearts the best.) Ok ok, enough of the shameless plug. (Sorry!)

7. I like/hate to run. I've run two marathons and a host of other shorter distances. Most of you already know this, as the initial purpose of this blog was to track my running. And weight loss. Several times over. I go in spurts and I'm not a very good runner. I think deep-down I don't consider myself a "real" runner.

6. I'm a slow runner. This is part of the reason I have this complex about whether or not I'm a "real" runner. I have other friends who run just as slowly, but aren't struggling. I have other friends who run marathons at a 7:45 pace. That makes me feel like a JOKE. Those Pearl Izumi ads didn't help that much, either. Someday I'll get over it.

5. Weight loss. I'd like to tell you that I spent most of my 30's overweight, which would be true. Got married at 32, pregnant within a month (not the plan) and the scales went up (and a little down) ever since. Two kids later, and five years after the last kid, I'm still way over weight. And let's be real, I had moments on the scale in my 20's that resembled a car ride in the mountains. Up and down, up and down. I'd like to enter into my 40's as fabulous as ever...and just stay there, once and for all. Sheesh! p.s. I remember joining WW the first time and I weighed 153 pounds. Lost 15 pounds, too. Damn.

4. I love cities. I grew up outside of Chicago (west suburbs) and always dreamed of living in Chicago. For many years I dreamed of going to NYC. I now live in Chicago, and went to grad school in NYC. Whenever I take time off from work, it usually includes at least a short trip to NYC. Before having kids/married, I went back at least once every 2 or 3 months. My favorite vacations have been in urban areas, as opposed to camping or beaches or deserts. I studied urban planning in graduate school, and history in undergrad (where I most enjoyed learning about how cities developed.) Some of my favorite cities besides Chicago and New York include: New Orleans (been there 3 times), London (once), and Denver (once). Cities on my to-do list include: Boston, Seattle, SanFran (as an adult, this time), Paris and Amsterdam.

3. I love sports. Some of them, anyway. Since I can remember, I've loved the Chicago White Sox (baseball). I vaguely recall being told that my dad got me into sports because I showed some sort of interest (read: stepped in the way of the television during a game) when my older brother showed none. Unlike any of my friends, I will listen to an entire game on the radio or watch one on tv. I have admitted that the moment the Sox won the world series was one of the top five best moments in my life. I am also an avid football fan, though I love several teams. I also like to bet on teams. (In a harmless, non-losing my house kinda way.) In 1999, I ran an illegal football pool at work (city government, mind you,) in which I corralled over a bunch of players from this cheesy "numbers" game they played that required the luck of landing on the right number at the end of the game. (e.g. As #3, you won if the home team had 3, 13, 23 points at the end of the game. Color me unimpressed.) So "The REAL Football Pool" went on for 4 or 5 years until I left that job. A highlight in the unauthorized pool was wrangling in participants from the mayor's office. I currently play a small, 3-person pool that consists of me and two friends from college, they're like my brothers. We shoot-the-shit every week as we make our picks, and it's a good way to keep in touch.

2. I am addicted to diet pepsi. Morning, noon and night. Please, no speeches about "you should get more water," because quite frankly, I drink more water than I do diet pepsi. I still drink way too much. And I'm ok with that for now, although I've been known to swear off of it. I gave it up for lent once...and started drinking Hawaiian Punch. Another time I gave it up for NINE FRIGGIN WEEKS. But then one day the Cubs beat the Sox in the Crosstown Classic and it drove me to drink again.

1. I like to write. Ok, that is super lame. 13 things can be hard to come up with when it's about myself. But i DO like to write, and sometimes I'm actually ok at it. Hmm, this 13 things thing is going to be as much a writing test as it will be fodder for my blog. My friend Lou is a fabulous blogger and writer, and I have another friend who writes very well in the hopes of writing a script someday. He tells me all about his ideas and what he's working on. But he won't show me the actual work. That makes me mad. A little, anyway.