20 Random Facts About Yer Mom

Hey kids.  It's your mom.  Once upon a time, I used this blog so that people could be like, "Man, she's funny.  She should come write for my popular NBC sitcom."  Then, I started talking about ghosts in my kitchen, and so I stopped blogging altogether, so that the government didn't come take you away from me (for being a crazy woman who thinks her grandma, who died a long time ago, would care that her granddaughter would make cake.)

But I'm back!  I have a good friend named Keiko who has been loyally updating her blog about her own kids, and she started a series of 30 Things She Wants Her Kids To Know About Her.  I thought it was a good idea, so I'm stealing it.  If for some reason, you want to know about Keiko instead of your own mom, you can read her blog here.  If you wish she was your mom instead of me, don't tell me that to my face, or I'll probably cry.

This 30 Things series starts with me writing out 20 Random Facts About Myself.  I'm no rule-breaker, so that's what you're going to get.  Oh yeah, and I'm including stuff about your dad.  Because he doesn't write blogs, but he should.

1.  I like mimes.  Your dad has little patience for them.

2.  When I was a little girl I spent a lot of time playing alone in my room with dolls and little animals.  I made up personalities for all of them, and some of them even had different accents.  I wasn't athletic, or easy to get along with, so about 90% of my memories as a kid are of me playing in my room.  I consider it time well spent.

3.  Your dad, I'm told, was pretty much the same way.  He used to play with Legos and stuffed animals too.  When he was a little older, he became pretty obsessed with basketball, and later, playing the guitar.  What I think I'm saying is, you poor kids have the DNA of introverts, and if either of you ends up being an extrovert, we apologize for how weird you must think we are for giving you so much alone time.  (I'm pretty sure neither of you are extroverts, by the way.)

4.  Ten years ago, your dad and I started working on watching the Top 100 Films, according to the American Film Institute.  We're almost through the list, but it's taking us forever because so many of the movies are way boring.  For example, we both ha--aaaated Yankee Doodle Dandy, and we still don't get why it made the list.  Hopefully it's been bumped by the time we make the attempt to watch all of these again with the two of you.

5.  I never really learned to drive, and your dad was 18 when he finally got his driver's license.  I have a really good excuse, but your dad doesn't.

6.  I used to be really obsessed with TV theme songs.  I can still tell you how the theme song goes to any show made between 1960 and 1995. My favorite is probably the theme to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, although the theme to  Good TImes or Laverne & Shirley is pretty high up there.   Let's be honest, with themes like The Golden Girls, The Jeffersons, Facts of Life, Full House...  how do you really pick a favorite?  I don't know this for sure, but I bet your dad's favorite would be the theme to the Dukes of Hazzard, or maybe Sanford and Son.  My least favorite is the theme to Law & Order.

7.  The obvious choice for favorite theme song would be the theme to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, because that is still my all-time favorite show that has ever been on television.  I love the way Mister Rogers speaks to people.  I see him as my own personal hero.

8.  I have no idea who your dad's personal hero is.  Probably me.  (I'm joking...)

9.  My favorite sport to watch or play is baseball.  If I had better vision, I think I'd be pretty decent at it, because I'm good at guessing what other people are going to do.  Instead, I settle for being good at Rock, Paper, Scissors.   Your dad's, like I said, was basketball, but now he loves nothing more than taking you kids to baseball games.

10.  I am pretty good at baking, and your dad is pretty good at cooking, but neither of us think of the kitchen as the most favorite room in the house.

11.  Dad grew up in Utah, and I grew up in Arizona.

12.  Your dad's (and now Harrison's) middle name is Bradford, after the Bradford side of his mom's family, which goes back to William Bradford who was on the Mayflower.  I think this is a pretty cool Fun Fact, but your dad always seem less than impressed by it.

13.  The first argument your dad and I ever had was because he said that the song "Glory of Love" (from the movie Karate Kid Part II) was from the band Chicago, and I corrected him and told him it was Peter Cetera.  I don't remember how long we argued about it, but we all know that I won, because duh, it was Peter Cetera.  But also, he won, because correcting people, no matter how right you are, is an annoying thing to do.

14.  For our wedding dinner, we ate Kentucky Fried Chicken in a shopping center in Edinburgh, Scotland.  The next night we ate pizza in Liverpool.  I apologize that your taste buds were determined by our genetics.

15.  I prefer colored lights on a Christmas tree.  And I like live trees.  And I like stars on top, instead of angels.

16.  Your dad is really photogenic.  I'm not.  At all.  I usually have to apologize for ruining people's perfectly good pictures.

17.  If I could be a teenage in any era, I would have picked the 1950's.  I think I would have been a beatnik.  Your dad and I have talked about this, and we both agree we would have been awful at being hippies in the 1960's.  Except for the Loving Everyone part.  We'd be super good at that (unless they were annoying us with their self-involved hippie dancing.)

18.  When I was a kid I really wanted to be a lawyer.  Then I found out other people don't like lawyers, and it was kind of boring.  So I wanted to be a filmmaker.  Then I found out filmmakers have to be good at filmmaking.  So I wanted to be a character voice for animation, or a puppeteer (or, to be more specific, a muppeteer).  Then I found out I don't really have a good voice for that.  Then I wanted to own a bed and breakfast in England, or a record store.  I still secretly want to do all of the above.

19.  Dad really loves old pickup trucks.  I think it would be the first thing he would buy if he ran into a lot of money.

20.  Ever since I was little I wanted a blond daughter and a dark-haired son.  When I drew pictures of kids, that's how I would draw them.  Whenever I got a baby doll, I would ask for one with blonde hair and blue eyes.  My dollhouse dolls had a blonde little girl and her younger, brown-haired brother.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would actually have kids that looked like that.  I guess it was meant to be.