Random things about me #17-#18

17. I lived in Sapporo for three years and it was a fabulous experience. Friendly people, awesome sights, incredible food, and some great friends. The city also gets 18 feet of snow a year, and surviving three winters of snow, snow, snow and ice, ice, ice was a great learning experience. People can truly adjust to just about anything.

18. I had numerous babysitting jobs from middle school throughout college, and I really enjoyed them. I taught day camps for four-year olds during summer vacation, nannied at Halloween parties, worked in a church nursery on Sundays, etc. I am also a Red Cross-certified babysitter and have the ID card to prove it. :-) I often wonder about the kids I babysat and what they are doing now.

Random things about me #14-#16

14. Living in Japan was at first a bad influence on my body image because I couldn't find clothes/underwear/shoes/anything that fit me like it should, but I have stopped worrying about this and have found ways to get around it (certain stores with clothes cut to fit me, shopping in the US/Guam, etc.). I now have a much better body image than before.

15. When I am hungry I get cranky. Very cranky.

16. I used to hate coffee. Now I have to control myself.

Random things about me #11-#13

11. I work in a field (finance) I swore I would never work in. This has turned out to be quite challenging and interesting, though, and I somewhat enjoy it (despite myself).

12. The movie "Nothing to Lose" makes me laugh no matter how many times I see it.

13. I started pilates a year ago and I love it, but I am the least flexible person in my class.

Random things about me #10

10. My family always had pets when I was growing up, and I love dogs and cats. We bought a TV recently with a hard disk recorder and the first show I programmed it to record was "Pochi Tama," a show on Friday nights all about pets (last week's show included a French Bulldog who uses a wheelchair, a toy poodle who could do slam dunks, and a 28 year old cat named Kuro who is still as healthy as ever). I am a sucker for this stuff.

Random things about me #7-#9

7. I can't stand blood and guts in movies. I cover my eyes. I also can't take horror movies.

8. I am horrible at keeping up with email. Most of my friends already know that.

9. I am an only child.

Random things about me #6

6. I played the flute from third grade through high school graduation. I still have my flute, but I just don't get the chance to play it, mainly because I don't think my neighbors would appreciate that. I'm sure the pads in the keys are moldy now, and it pains me a bit every time I see the case. I wish I could practice somewhere without worrying about neighbors.

Random things about me #5

5. One of my fondest memories from elementary school was getting free tickets to a Phoenix Suns game (we were living in Phoenix, AZ at the time) because I participated in the "Principal's Challenge" and recited all 50 states and their capitals.

Random things about me #4

4. I excelled at math up until high school graduation. I was one of five people in my high school who exhausted our school's math class offerings by junior year, so our senior year of high school we took math at a university nearby. I don't know what happened after that...but now I can only remember the basics.

Random things about me #3

3. Until I went away to college I could always see mountains in the distance from whatever house we lived in. After going to college in New York City I realized how much I missed seeing mountains, even if they were far away. Now we have an awesome view of Mt. Fuji (especially in the winter) from our apartment, and the first thing I do every morning is to look outside at Mt. Fuji.

Random things about me #2

2. No matter how tired I am I take a multi-vitamin before I go to bed. I always used to forget to take my vitamins, and then I challenged myself a few years back to taking my vitamin every night for a month. Now I don't even think about it.

Random things about me #1

I can't seem to keep up with my blog, so I have decided to try to give myself a bit of a chance to "catch up" by republishing something that is going around on Facebook (anyone else on Facebook?). I will try to publish one item from my list every day (please bear with me if I fall behind...). Warning: some of these are really random and not very interesting! :-)

1. I am perpetually late, though I have gotten much better about this in recent years. I do somehow manage to make it to work on time.