8 more things about me

I keep coming up with "I should have used that!" ideas for that "8 things about me" post. Here are eight more:

9. Standing ovations make me cry.

10. I would often rather watch a movie I've seen before and loved than try a new one. Same deal with books. Comfort entertainment. And introducing other people to my old favorites is always a thrill.

11. I have recently discovered caramel Frappucinos, which pretty much makes me part of the Starbucks Nation. This is not an entirely happy development, since I had previously taken some pride in being a coffee rebel in the town where it all started. But it's not my fault! MJ and her friend Kyla, the rotten pushers, are the ones who gave me my first-one's-free sample.

12. I realized recently—thanks to a MySpace personality quiz sent by nephew Eric—that I no longer own a single t-shirt bearing the name of a rock band. This, too, is not an entirely happy development. I'd better head for Hot Topic!

13. The first boy I ever kissed was Jeff Wenzel in the 2nd grade. He lived on the next street over from me, and we used to walk to school together. I evidently had good taste in men even then: I met Jeff again at our 10-year high school reunion (some years ago now), and he's still a really nice guy, dad to a couple of girls, living back east somewhere.

14. I'm terribly appearance conscious. It's a perpetual struggle for me to overcome that enough to live my life the way I want to live it. I've been pretty successful, I think, but the struggle goes on.

15. I think it's immoral to: send a child to school against her will, drive a gas-guzzler, protest abortion while interfering with conception-prevention programs, hit a child, torture a prisoner, smoke in a crowd (unless it's a crowd of smokers), leave your dog's poop on my lawn, suspend habeas corpus, hog the left lane, water your lawn in such a way that the water runs down the sidewalk or street, buy an "American" car on principle even when it's manufactured in Mexico, restrict a kid's speech, park so you're crowding another car, talk about doing God's will when you're sanctioning war or murder or cruelty (or any combination of the three), or wear white after Labor Day. (This is far being from an exhaustive list, and that last is a joke!)

16. Two of my all-time favorite scenes from movies and literature are:

• Bartleby's orientation speech in "Accepted"
• Fred and George's flamboyant departure from Hogwarts in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"

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