25 Things

Shaunna at Perfectly Imperfect is holding a 25 things link party this week.  I love reading these lists of random facts and thoughts, and learning more about fellow bloggers.

Here's my 25:

1. I love riding roller coasters, especially ones that go upside-down and involve corkscrews. 

2. I'm highly irritated by all the grey hairs that are suddenly sprouting from my head in the last few months.

3.  Same goes for the brown hairs on my chin.   Hello, tweezers...

4.  I'm an inherently optimistic and resilient person. 

5.  I still miss my beloved Persian cat, Beezey, who went missing two years ago today.   Sniff.

6.  I'm learning how to crochet and I can't wait to make granny squares and dishcloths. 

7.  I wish I hadn't spent as much time out in the sun without sunblock as a teenager.  It's showing now.

8.  I love being in my 30s and feel like life keeps getting better as I get golder.  You couldn't pay me to return to my teens or 20s...well, maybe unless I could take the knowledge I now have about myself and life with me.

9.  I believe we have to seek out and choose happiness in our lives and that with enough therapy and self-work, people can move past damaging events/situations with grace and dignity.

10. Getting new pens and pencils makes me insanely happy.   

11.  I lack any career ambition.  I'd like to eventually work at a public library, but as for having a "career?"  No thanks, I think "just" having a job is perfectly okay.  My ambitions lay elsewhere.

12.  Every so often, I consider having another baby.  But then I worry how my son's already 5 and wouldn't having another be like having two only children?  I was also told by a palm reader in New Orleans when I was 21 that I'd only have one child, a son.  All the other major life things she told me have come eerily true in the ensuing 10 years, and as completely batty as this sounds, I feel like by trying to have another baby, I'd be challenging the will of the universe. And that seems like a terribly dicey thing to do. 

13.  I love the Internet and my laptop, but despise most other current forms of technology like e-readers, GPS systems, and smart phones.  I'll admit, I have a cell phone, but only because my husband insisted.  I hardly use it because I'm spiteful like that.

14.  I think it's important to volunteer in one's community in some capacity.  

15. Besides riding a roller coaster or a galloping horse, there's nothing more exhilarating to me than being on the road and traveling.  I love car trips and the best one I took was in 2004 with my friend Linnet. We drove across the country, camped in numerous national parks, visited friends and family, were on the road for two full months, and logged 12,000 miles.

16. I wish I could do one of these things really well: sing or play either the piano or violin.

17.  Dollhouses and miniatures fascinate me.  I would love to build a doll house like this one day.

18.  I don't express it enough, but I'm very appreciative of my husband's ability to provide for me and our son. He's a man's man, and is resourceful, handy, dependable, and can kill, butcher and cook any kind of animal. That sounds so old-fashioned, but it comforts me nonetheless.

19. I secretly hope that time travel is possible and that parallel universes exist.

20.  I can't handle having long finger nails.  They're impractical and dirt gets under them too easily. 

21.  One of my lifelong dreams is to own a racehorse, be present when it wins a race, then lead the horse to the winner's circle for the photo. 

22.  I believe in equality for all people and can't wait to vote against the same-sex marriage ban amendment that will be put before North Carolina voters this spring. 

23. I'm a homebody.  I do leave the house nearly every day, but there are many times where I'd be completely content to simply putter around the house and property. 

24. I think your gut instinct should never be ignored.  I also think that people always tell you who they are through their actions whether you want to acknowledge it or not.

25. I can honestly say I'm happy right now with where I am in my life. 

 -Erin