The "25 Things" Thing

Okay, for those of you who aren't on Facebook or don't check it very often, this is sort of the new, social-networking equivalent of a chain letter. (And actually kind of similar to my second post.) In middle school and high school, extensive surveys with completely random questions (from "What's your favorite flavor ice cream?" to "Do you believe in ghosts?") are more popular and - at least in my time (it's depressing that I can say that in all seriousness...) - got sent around to everyone's email lists and often generated rumors about who had a crush on whom, or who might be dating or start dating soon or have recently broken up without telling anyone.

The deal with this Facebook version is that you write 25 things about yourself, covering whatever topics you want, then tag 25 people (including anyone who tagged you - 'tagging' is basically putting them on a list of people you want to read what you're posting), who are all supposed to then do the same.

There's no real point to it, but it's fun - thinking of 25 things about yourself that everyone doesn't already know can be challenging, especially if you talk as much as I do! So consider yourselves tagged, and do with this (your answers, not mine!) what you will: post it on your blog, email it around, go around the dinner table and think of things you may not ordinarily tell your family about yourself or each other...or don't do anything at all, it's up to you!

1. "I hate peas." Not really, but I do love the movie 10 Things I Hate About You. It might be an addiction.
2. If I could move to a French-speaking country (or a handful of European countries) tomorrow, with a job or scholarship lined up and none of the hassle of visas, shots, moving things and getting rid of furniture, I would do it in a heartbeat. I have no idea whether or not I'd want to stay forever, since I love the U.S., but I'd definitely enjoy a few more years of living in another culture that feels like home.
3. I'm something of a hermit. Put me someplace comfortable with books I like, a computer and/or writing implements, and creative things to do (musical instruments, things for knitting, sewing, scrapbooking, etc.) and I would be perfectly happy for at least a week. Probably a month.
4. But, I also love spending time with my friends. In a perfect world, I would spend every evening at a café, à la française, with a group of friends and talk for hours.
5. I can't stand the idea of someone not having a positive opinion of me. Whenever I'm afraid someone might think poorly of me, I get really flustered and guilty (I never said it was logical!), and am upset until I can figure out a way to prove to them I'm a good/productive/whatever-positive-adjective-applies person. This makes teaching nerve-wracking for at least the first half of the semester.
6. I'm really surprised whenever someone pays me a compliment, and my knee-jerk reaction is to deny whatever positive thing they've said (again, not logical). I've been getting better about it in the last few months, but it's still difficult for me to take a compliment.
7. I would love to live in the same metropolitan area as my family. Our family is small but has generally been very spread out, geographically, and I think being able to do something ordinary like drop by for Sunday lunch or to lend a movie would be amazing.
8. Books are my addiction. Don't get me wrong, I like clothes and shoes too, but books are less expensive, give you more and last longer. Plus, bookstores are usually fairly quiet, and no one cares how long you spend browsing. Department stores echo, boutiques usually blast headache-inducing music and salespeople try to hurry you along every five minutes.
9. I want kids, I don't feel like my life would be complete if I didn't have or adopt kids at some point, but I'm not totally sold on the idea of getting married. I think it's a wonderful institution and works amazingly well for couples who genuinely love one another and have solid pre-marital relationships as well as well-established individual identities (of whom I'm lucky enough to know several who've been married for years, and some who are getting married in the next few), but I also think far too many people get married because they're afraid of being alone or think it's just what you do once you've gotten to a certain point in your life or in a relationship.
10. I hate being sick, and am usually convinced I can ward off illness with willpower alone. I deny that I actually am sick until I've gotten to the point where I can't possibly stand another minute without medicine, then I take the medicine and go back to trying to pretend I'm not sick. By the time I admit that I'm sick, I'm usually carrying a box of tissues and a cup of tea around with me everywhere I go. (This weekend and yesterday being a case-in-point. Ick.)
11. I can take a ridiculously long time to make decisions and often overanalyze to the extreme, but once I've definitively made up my mind, I'm completely convinced I've made the right choice.
12. In the same vein...I'm very, very stubborn. About just about everything.
13. I hate, hate, hate, HATE hot, humid weather (tough luck for 3 or 4 months of the year in DC, right?). I dislike temperature extremes of any kind, spoiled child of the Southern California beaches that I am, but if I have to deviate from 65 degrees and sunny and it involves humidity, I usually prefer 20 degrees colder to 20 degrees warmer. At least when I'm cold, wearing sweaters and drinking hot things can make me warm. Although take away the humidity, and you can flip that. (N.B.: My body gets a little more used to gross DC summer every year, and this past summer didn't actually bother me that much - in part because it was pretty mild - so I may have changed my mind about this by next winter. We'll see.)
14. Totally at odds with my hermit side... I love talking to people. It stems from being a people person and generally interested in what makes them tick, and is why I actually enjoyed waitressing, particularly in cocktail (that's the tables near the bar, for the uninitiated), because people who sit there tend to be in less of a hurry and are often happy to engage in conversation with total strangers.
15. As a direct result of that, I'm one of those people who can't mind their own business and will answer a question I overhear in someone else's conversation if no one who's part of it can (like, "How many more stops to the Smithsonian?", "What's the deal with the changing of the guard at Arlington?", "Why are there so many people on the Metro at 5pm??", "Do you think the weather will be better tomorrow?").
16. I'm a culture junkie, and I mean that in the broadest sense of the word. Plunk me down in the middle of a city or town and I'll happily wander around, people-watching and absorbing the feel of life there for as long as you'll let me.
17. The first thing I do when I go somewhere new (if it's up to me) is go for a long walk and soak up the sights and sounds of wherever I am. Actually, that doesn't apply only to new places. I walk more or less the same route through Paris right after I get there, whether it's been a month or several years since the last time, just because it feels like Paris, and I love it. And I do the same thing in Manhattan Beach whenever I'm there.
18. The second thing I do when I go somewhere new is usually decide that I'd love to live there for awhile. So far, the list includes Paris, Arles (even though I can't pronounce it convenablement), New York, Seattle, Victoria (B.C.), Prague, London, San Francisco, Monterey... I think the logic behind that is that during the #17 wanderings I end up falling in love with wherever I am, and want to feel like I belong there.
19. I was really shy as a little kid (ex: it took me more than two years of attempts to actually join the K-3 kids' choir at church, because I didn't really know anyone and it terrified me), and still have random moments of inexplicable shyness.
20. Dating completely baffles me and I'm terrible at it, except for the talking to people part.
21. I desperately want a dog, but don't live in a big enough apartment to have one, or know enough about where I'm going to be for the next few years to be able to think about getting one yet.
22. My favorite thing about living somewhere with four actual seasons is seeing daffodils (and cherry trees!) bloom in the spring.
23. Inconsiderate/oblivious people are my pet peeve, and it drives me nuts that there are exponentially more of them in large metropolitan areas than there are in small towns. You'd think living practically on top of each other would induce politeness, because everyone deals with large groups of people on a regular basis. Instead, it makes people more self-centered and prone to stepping on one another, not holding doors, cutting people off, ignoring people who clearly need help, etc.
24. When I cry for an extended period of time, my eyes get really intensely blue. If they were that color all the time, without the crying, it'd be awesome.
25. This thing took me a ridiculously long time to finish. Possibly because some of my answers were much more involved than was necessary...