Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Jan. 30, 2003: 100 Things About Me

I stole this idea from Go Fish.

1. I used to have a "War is Stupid" T-shirt.
2. When I wore it to school, someone left a note on my desk that said "Your stupid."
3. I used to think that Heaven was a procession of nuns walking across clouds.
4. I didn't think Heaven would be fun, but I figured I'd like it once I got there.
5. My favorite color used to be gray.

6. I started to like purple because of a purple candle that smelled like mulberry.
7. When my friends said their favorite color was purple, I thought they were copying me.
8. When my sister was young, I tried to convince her that her favorite color was red, so she wouldn't like purple.
9. I spent New Year's 1991 in Trafalgar Square, London.
10. We got lost on the way back to our hotel and wandered the streets for three hours.
11. Other places I've spent New Year's: Central Pennsylvania, Colorado, Philadelphia.
12. Sometimes I have clairvoyant dreams.
13. I dreamt about JFK Jr's death before it happened.
14. I didn't dream about 9/11 before it happened.
15. For years, my Nana showed up in my dreams after she died.
16. She went away when I finally did what she wanted, which was to tell my Mom that she's okay.
17. Everyone in my family sees ghosts.
18. I was jealous until I was 26 years old and it happened to me.
19. It happened in an old farmhouse while I was sleeping in the attic.
20. I've always been afraid of attics, apparently for good reason.
21. The ghost, which was a faint white mist, made stomping noises up the stairs, then made a crashing noise before growling like a tiger.
22. When I turned on the light, nothing was there.
23. The attic in my Mom's childhood house was also haunted.
24. I used to have dreams that the ghost of Bruce Lee lived in our attic.
25. While in grad school, I took Jung Sim Do (Korean Karate).
26. My highest rank was an orange stripe.
27. I had a crush on the instructor who, I thought, looked like Bruce Lee.
28. In second grade, I was vaccinated against smallpox.
29. The vaccination scar, on my upper right arm, looks like a suck mark.
30. I wear suntan lotion in the winter to protect against wind burn.
31. When I was little, my grandmother had a beach cottage in Virginia.
32. I was swimming there once and was stung by a school of jellyfish.
33. My grandfather put meat tenderizer on it to soothe the sting; it worked.
34. I've never had a nickname I didn't give myself.
35. Over the years, I've had crushes on the following celebrities: Michael Jackson, John Ritter, Peter Tork of The Monkees, David Bowie, Graham Chapman of Monty Python, Johnny Depp.
36. Some of my best friends have been cats and dogs.
37. I started piano lessons in fourth grade; this was considered late.
38. I quit piano lessons in seventh grade because I didn't like my piano teacher.
39. In ninth grade, I started again, with a teacher I liked.
40. Every time I play piano, I start by playing Scott Joplin's "Weeping Willow."
41. For several months in high school, I tried to teach myself guitar.
42. I then discovered I was holding the neck of the guitar in the wrong hand.
43. A few years ago, I started teaching myself guitar again.
44. I can play "Five Years" and "Ziggy Stardust" by David Bowie; "Nights in White Satin" by the Moody Blues; "Angie" by the Rolling Stones; "Blowing in the Wind" by Bob Dylan; "Puff the Magic Dragon" by Peter, Paul and Mary; and "American Pie" by Don McLean.
45. My first rock concert was seeing Jan & Dean, The Mamas and the Papas and Don McLean at the county fair.
46. The rudest people who ever autographed anything for me were Boxcar Willie and Tasha Tudor.
47. When I was 14, I had a poster of Boy George on my bedroom door.
48. I said it was to scare my brother away, but really, I wanted to look like Boy George.
49. I also wanted to look like Molly Ringwald.
50. My style today is still somewhat influenced by Boy George, Molly Ringwald and Cyndi Lauper.
51. One year, I dressed as Cyndi Lauper for a "Punk, Preppy, Nerd" day at school.
52. Everyone kept asking me if I was dressed as a nerd.
53. I like to pick obscure Halloween costumes that usually involve makeup.
54. Over the years, I've dressed as Wonder Woman, Marilyn Monroe, a vampire, the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz, the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, a geisha, a faerie, the Snow Queen, and fire.
55. In high school, I wore a peace sign necklace.
56. I lost it three times but found it each time.
57. When I was in second grade, my parents gave me a tape recorder for getting good grades.
58. I used it to record "radio shows" where I made up stories or interviewed friends.
59. It was the only time I ever was rewarded for my good grades.
60. Even when I weighed considerably less, I thought I was fat.
61. The first thing I ever had published was a fiction story that ran in the local newspaper in 1979.
62. The first time my picture was ever in the paper was when I was 10 months old.
63. I was photographed looking down the well at a miniature fort.
64. I thought faeries lived in the miniature fort and would come out at night.
65. When I was younger, I was afraid that the Big Bad Wolf lived in our woods.
66. The first time I saw The Muppet Show, I was afraid of the pigs.
67. I began ballet lessons in second grade; this was considered late.
68. For 10 years, I took ballet lessons, making it to the highest class.
69. I quit after seeing a videotape of myself performing in a recital.
70. The first nightmare I can remember was about being eaten alive by ducks.
71. The most recent one involved walking around town in a bridesmaid dress.
72. I was initially afraid to drive because of watching gruesome driver's ed movies.
73. The only time I've thrown up after watching a movie, it was a Christian film about the evils of rock music.
74. I used to think I would make up for being picked on in school by becoming famous.
75. Despite evidence to the contrary, I still believe this.
76. My parents tell me they once saw a flying saucer.
77. I thought I saw one once: it was a plane.
78. In the high school band, I played the clarinet.
79. Once I went to college, I used to have dreams about playing the clarinet.
80. I was married once, for a year and a half.
81. A lot of my current friends don't know this.
82. Sometimes I still get mail in my married name.
83. Some of my favorite films: The Princess Bride, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Shakespeare in Love, Magnolia.
84. On my 16th birthday, my parents gave me a jean jacket.
85. I covered the jacket with pins and wore it until I had to patch it.
86. Leechboy convinced me to throw it out.
87. I couldn't make myself put it in the Dumpster, so I hung it on the side.
88. I still hope that somewhere is a vagrant wearing my jean jacket.
89. Recently, I saw a panhandler who looked like my ex-husband.
90. I believe that in past lives I've lived in India, Greece and Eastern Europe.
91. I don't believe I was ever anyone famous, but I would have liked to be Emily Dickinson.
92. I've never been to Disneyland.
93. In eighth grade, I went on a ride that turned you upside down, and watched the necklace of the guy across from me fall upwards.
94. If I had a band, it would be an all-girl band and be called either Jo Mama or Pandora's Box.
95. I could have interviewed Douglas Adams before he died, but I chickened out.
96. I never let things like that go but keep torturing myself with them.
97. I once stopped to buy chocolate donuts while trying to get home during a tornado.
98. Celebrities I've met in dreams include: The Beatles, David Bowie, John Cusak, Conan O'Brien, Rowan Atkinson, Roseanne.
99. I was once 300 pages into writing a novel before giving up on it.
100. I have trouble ending things.

Moral:
When it's late and you can't think what to write, steal someone else's good idea.

Copyright 2003 by Alyce Wilson

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