100 Things About Me

I got this from Gwen, who got it from various other people. I thought I'd give it a shot.

I was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario on November 5th, 1977. I feel an affinity with Star Wars (released the year I was born) and Elvis (died the year I was born). They both clearly have something to do with me.

I’m a Scorpio. I’ve always felt that I was a typical Scorpio. I also think it’s the coolest zodiac sign.

My middle name is Elizabeth. About ten girls in my grade in school had the same middle name. It wasn’t until I moved to England that someone mentioned to me that it probably had something to do with the silver Jubilee. My dad was surprised that I didn’t know that.

I have a scar on around wrist that I got when I was two years old. Boiling water from a teapot spilled onto my wrist, and the cuff of my shirt held it there. I like my scar quite a lot. I think it has character. Most people don’t notice it at all, or assume that it’s from a watch. If I had the option of getting it removed, I wouldn’t.

I have a younger brother named Peter. He’s 18 months younger than I am. According to my grandmother, when I was about 10 or so, I decided it wasn’t cool to be friends with my brother and started being mean to him. I don’t remember that, but I still feel bad about it.

We moved when I was 9. I don’t remember the Soo that well, but it has that idyllic childhood feel. I do remember that I didn’t want to go to my going away party because I was sulky.

19 years later, I am still often sulky.

I lived in Goderich, Ontario from the ages of 9 to 18. It’s a lovely town, and since my parents don’t live there anymore, other to go to weddings, I probably won’t be back.

That makes me sad. I have a fondness for Goderich that I didn’t have when I lived there.

My first job was at a bowling alley. I made snacks, untangled the strings that held the pins, rented and cleaned shoes and served behind the bar. Or at least, I served behind the bar until they realized I was only 17 and it was illegal.

I wanted to get a job when I was 13, but my parents wouldn’t let me. Then, when I was looking at 16, I couldn’t find one because everyone my age had experience.

I went to summer camp every summer from the age of nine. I didn’t like it much, but loved it when I became a counsellor. I made some really great friends there, and but I’ve lost touch with most of them. I think that’s really too bad.

I was a smart kid slacker in high school. I was in gifted classes, and got okay grades without doing any work.

My mom once told me that if I spent as much time studying as I did working out what percentage I needed to get on final exams in order to get the grade of my choice, I’d probably get straight A’s.

She was probably right.

I moved to Toronto after the first semester of my OAC year (grade 13, to you non-Ontarians). I lived with friends of the family in their basement, took pottery and paper mache classes, went to foreign films, hung out with my camp friends and did very little. That was an awesome time.

I still get introduced by those friends of the family as “This is Alice, she used to live in our basement”

I dropped out of university after two years. I planned to only take a year off, but that was six years ago, so I really don’t think I’m going to go back.

It doesn’t bother me that I don’t have a degree. I work in TV. No one cares.

It bothers me when people find out I don’t have a degree and are shocked and/or appalled. I don’t get that. It seems to me to be a kind of intellectual snobbery that really irritates me.

I’ve been dying my hair since I was fourteen, and I’ve had the following hair colours: every shade of blonde imaginable, purple, pink, auburn, orange, dark brown and mahogany. I’m not entirely sure what my natural hair colour is. I suspect it’s a medium brown.

I have been a maid of honour twice, a bridesmaid once, and a witness at a non-church wedding once. I love weddings. They’re so fun! This year was the first time I’ve been at a wedding I wasn’t involved in. It was much more relaxing.

I’ve done the makeup for four brides. I seem to have a lot of friends that never wear makeup. This is a mystery to me. But I think I’m pretty good at it.

I’ve worn glasses since I was 10. I wear contacts sometimes, but always feel more comfortable with glasses. I don’t think I’d ever get laser surgery or anything like that.

I can’t imagine what it would be like to wake up and be able to see immediately.

I love sleeping. If given the option, I’d probably sleep for 10 or 11 hours a night. Mmmmmmm, sleep.

27 is my favourite number.

I set my alarm for an hour before I get up, and press the snooze button 5 or 6 times. I’ve tried to just get up, and it doesn’t work for me unless I have something specific I need to get up for, like a plane or something like that.

I’m a Canadian size 8.5 shoe, a UK 6 and a European 39.

A guy once bought me shoes on the second date. They’re sparkly pink trainers and I love them, but I can’t wear them because they pinch my toes.

I never told him that when we were going out.

I still have them, though.

I miss having a cat.

Foods I hated as a child but now like: broccoli tops, spinach, and Brussels sprouts.

Until about thirty seconds ago, I thought they were called “brussel sprouts”.

I am a very good speller. I was told by a teacher when I was a kid that it was because I read a lot.

I read a lot.

No, really. A lot.

I consider myself generally well read, and read lots “good” books, but I read a lot of crap too. Sometimes, I like books and movies you don’t have to think about.

I always have a song running through my head. It usually stems from an outside influence, but sometimes it’s totally random.

I love to people watch, and especially enjoy eavesdropping on other people’s conversations. I like hearing little snippets of stranger’s lives.

I regret giving away my Barbie dolls when I was a teenager. I wish I had them to give to my kids one day.

I’m not even sure I will have kids. I wish I had them so I could play with them.

I’m very bad at confrontation, and tend to cry during fights.

This makes my arguments less effective.

I’m crap at doing accents. People always think I should be able to do a British accent, since I’ve lived here for so long. I cannot. I do a passable Southern US accent. That’s all.

I’ve lived in the UK for just over four years now.

I’d only planned to stay for a year.

I should know better by now about planning things for a year. They tend to become permanent.

I love London. It’s a city I feel incredibly comfortable in, and I can imagine myself here for the foreseeable future.

When I think now of moving here knowing absolutely no one and having nowhere to live, I can’t believe I had the courage to move here.

I don’t think I’m that brave now.

I have a collection of books with “Alice books”. My parent’s friend Charlotte has bought me books with Alice in the title or as a main character since I was a kid. She still sends them to me.

That’s incredibly cool, and I can’t wait to do the same for my friend’s kids.

I can’t wait for my friends to have kids. I’m going to be such a wicked Aunt Alice.

Sometimes I’m not sure that I’m really a grown up. I’m almost thirty. That doesn’t seem right.

I’ve never had a nickname, other than at camp where all the counsellors had nicknames. For a brief period when I was ten, I was “Allie”. My dad and brother call me “Al”. In the past five years or so, more and more people call me “Al”. I’m not sure why, but I don’t dislike it.

I’ve always like the song “You Can Call Me Al” by Paul Simon.

I loved the show “Kate and Allie” when I was a kid. That’s some quality comedy, right there.

I have a not-so-secret fondness for sitcoms of the late seventies, eighties and early nineties.

I also can describe the set of any of those sitcoms to you in great detail.

That part of my brain is where things like “remembering my keys” should go.

I’d like to do more travelling. I need to get off my ass and sort that out.

I’ve lived in the following countries: Canada, the UK, the Bahamas.

I’ve been to the following countries: the US, Mexico, Cuba, France, Portugal, the Czech Republic.

The New Kids on the Block was my favourite band when I was 11 & 12.

They were the first group I saw in concert.

Donnie was my favourite, but I had a crush on Joey because he was closer to my age, so it was therefore more feasible that we could date.

When asked to pick a favourite movie, I can’t ever think of one. My fallback is “The Shawshank Redemption”, but I don’t know if that’s true. I love it, but is it my number one favourite? I’m not sure.

I have a desperate longing to own the complete ten seasons of “Friends” on DVD. Although it costs £129.99, which I can’t afford, I’ll probably get it when I’m rich with mortgage money.

Being rich with mortgage money makes me nervous.

I’m looking forward to decorating my new place. I’ve already chosen my colour schemes.

My soft drink chain of preference is Diet Coke, regular Pepsi, regular Coke, Diet Pepsi.

I think Diet Pepsi is gross like poison.

I am a movie wuss, and get scared and jumpy in scary movies.

I still love them, though.

I didn’t watch horror movies until I was 18, because I thought I’d be too scared. That’s because “Gremlins” terrified me when I was a kid.

I am now aware that “Gremlins” is a comedy. I did not know this at the time.

I love that I live in a country that has fireworks on my birthday.

I dislike it when the aforementioned fireworks get in the way of my birthday plans.

I love having parties, and going to parties, but I hate planning them. It’s very tense, and my worry that no one will turn up gets me all stressed.

I love holidays, especially my birthday. I also love Christmas and Halloween, although I haven’t done anything Halloweeny in a few years.

I’m very excited about getting a Christmas tree this year.

I cry during TV shows. I’m what they call a “sucker”. Every other episode of “Scrubs” makes me cry.

I’ve read the book “Love Story” about forty and it makes me cry every single time.

I’ve never seen the movie.

I don’t like to see movies when I’ve read the book. They never measure up. I will, however, read the book if I’ve seen the movie first.

I’m a book snob, and don’t buy books with movie covers.

I’m friends with lots of poets, but I don’t read poetry. I read too fast, and skim when I read. That doesn’t work with poetry.

I love musicals, both movies and plays. It’s my secret dream that I will one day be somewhere and everyone will burst into song and dance. That would be so freakin’ awesome.

I wish I was more artistic. I’d like to be able to paint.

My grandmother is a painter, and I have three of her paintings in my flat. Two are of burning buildings and I think they’re amazing.

That is not because I’m a pyromaniac. One time you set a receipt on fire at a restaurant, and you’re labelled for life.

This is first time in my life that all my family – parents, brother and all grandparents – live in the same city.

I have two rings that I wear everyday. One is a $5 silver ring I bought in Cuba with a polished stone in it. The other is a Navajo silver ring with turquoise that my grandfather bought for my grandmother in the seventies. They’re both cool, and I feel naked when I leave my house without them.

I also wear earrings and bracelets every day, but I rotate them according to my outfit.

I have four stuffed animals on the top of my TV. A Cheshire cat from “Alice In Wonderland” that I bought at Disneyland when I was 16, a white polar bear my mother sent me for Christmas the first year I lived in the UK, a multicoloured bean bag type lizard she gave me last year and a Husky dog my grandmother gave me. The polar bear has two badges on it.

I don’t think of myself as the kind of person that keeps stuffed animals.

I think I look really good in a tiara, and I am sad there aren’t more excuses to wear them in real life.

I’m about seven films behind on the Guttenberg Project and it’s making me feel guilty.

Finished! Man, that's harder than you'd think.