Queen Mother Blog

image by Pamela Haywood

Hooray! My 100th post! It went by really quickly, I guess I am a very prolific blogger. Not only is it a kind of blog tradition to celebrate your 100th post, but it is customary to post a list of 100 totally random things about yourself. This is where my mom is reading and getting very nervous, lol. Feel free to just skip over this if you're tired. I understand.

1. My favorite color is brown.
2. My first job ever was working under the table for a now-defunct Indian food caterer. Food was great, but always made me sick.
3. When I was a teenager everything used to make me sick, I couldn't eat french fries.
4. When I was pregnant I loved me some french fries. Especially pizza fries.
5. I have been to Washington DC three times.
6. Star Trek, the original series, is my favorite show of all time.
7. Lost is my current favorite show.
8. I have to go on message boards after each new Lost episode so I can see all the easter eggs I missed.
9. In the Star Trek episode "Requiem for Methuselah", Kirk falls in love with a "perfect" woman (really an android) named Rayna.
10. I had already liked the name Reyna, but chose the Star Trek spelling instead.
11. Marc was not aware of this until after the name was chosen.
12. My coffee table top is made of tiles so you never need to use a coaster or a hot pad.
13. I used to be in love with David Cassidy.
14. It didn't make me popular, considering this was the 90's, not the 70's!
15. I have a Master's degree. Just threw that one in to impress.
16. My all-time favorite movie is The Scarlet Pimpernel with Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymour.
17. I first saw it on the last day of school my junior year of high school. How's that for a memory?
18. I wear jeans almost every day.
19. My favorite cereal is Lucky Charms.
20. I can't eat just one bowl.
21. I once rescued a goldfish. I worked next to a preschool that shut down, and the goldfish was left in his tank, and everything else was cleared out. Once I discovered him, I took him home.
22. I called him Libaninho.
23. My first car was a light brown '87 Thunderbird.
24. I liked to look 'goth' in high school.
25. That generally doesn't fly in Christian school.
26. I could watch the Food Network all night long.
27. I really watch almost no tv, however, except for scheduled shows.
28. I love dalmatians.
29. Mojitos taste even better to me when in Miami.
30. I've never been to California.
31. My honeymoon was in Mexico.
32. My makeup collection is huge, but I almost never wear the stuff.
33. I love to play games.
34. My favorite are card games, like rummy 500.
35. When my friends are getting married or having a baby I stalk their registries and make suggestions.
36. My wedding dress was white and red.
37. When Marc proposed I never said yes.
38. The ring didn't fit, so that was my main concern.
39. I have an addiction to cheese. Especially stinky ones.
40. A perfect meal for me might just be cheese, crackers, wine and chocolate.
41. The saddest movie I can think of is Imitation of Life.
42. My mom always had me watching a lot of old movies.
43. My first-ever internet handle was Dragongurl.
44. I cried a lot when Sonny Bono died.
45. I look like my dad. It was more obvious before I started having my brows waxed.
46. Every season I watch Survivor.
47. I wasn't allowed to listen to the Beatles as a kid, but I did anyway.
48. My mom says I have a problem with authority.
49. I do not dispute that.
50. Frida Kahlo fascinates me.
51. I have the same birthday as Frida.
52. And George W. Bush, Sylvester Stallone and 50 Cent.
53. I only wear really long earrings.
54. It took my husband a long time to realize this.
55. Marc is a notoriously bad gift giver.
56. The nickname Bay is short for "baby".
57. I was the baby of the family.
58. I only like cooked onions.
59. My bedroom furniture is from Ikea.
60. I could play the original Nintendo Legend of Zelda for hours.
61. I know that I am a huge nerd.
62. I think nerds are cool.
63. The only food I really don't like is blueberries.
64. Everything I like gets discontinued.
65. My Starbucks drink is the White Chocolate Mocha.
66. Getting comments on my blog are as exciting as presents on Christmas.
67. I have an all-too-strange fascination with the Borgia family.
68. I do not have a set opinion of Lucrezia Borgia.
69. If I were making a Borgia movie, Ryan Reynolds would be Cesare and Scarlett Johanson would be Lucrezia. I also think that makes it more interesting.
70. The only celebrity I'm told I look like is Phoebe Cates.
71. If I could go any place it would be Rome, Paris and Disney World. In that order.
72. I don't know if there is anyone who loves Epcot's World Showcase more than me.
73. My first trip to Disney wasn't until I was 18.
74. Marc and I met in a mall.
75. I used to see him everyday when I bought my large Cherry Coke.
76. He initiated conversation by showing me a special nickel.
77. He will be very mad that I wrote that here.
78. When I was little, my brother and I used to play Nintendo together, but he'd have to have some type of serious handicap to make it fair.
79. I could also just watch him play for hours.
80. A Dyson vacuum is worth the money for its bug-sucking-from-a-distance capability.
81. I used to cue up Dark Side of the Rainbow and watch it with my dad. It is now available easily on youtube, saving lots of effort, but lacking the theatrics.
82. My favorite part is "Great Gig in the Sky" with the tornado. Rocks my world.
83. I get "rocks my world" from Bret Michaels. Watching the Rock of Love shows is my one guilty confession.
84. The heat doesn't work right in my house and the kitchen is refrigerator-cold in winter.
85. I was never any good at sports.
86. Or music.
87. I didn't like school until college.
88. My first class was History 101. I was 16.
89. I somehow managed to scrape through all of my college with only one math class, and I got a D grade, no less!
90. I never took the SATs.
91. When I was 17 I sold a beanie baby on ebay for $300.
92. I own 3 red coats.
93. Reading is my favorite thing to do.
94. I am really bad about communicating with friends.
95. I still sleep with my blankie!
96. I don't ever take the "biggest and best" for myself. Thanks to a little childhood story called The Hollow Pie.
97. One time I pulled my sister's earrings right out of her ears. You might say I have a temper.
98. My baby has the same temper.
99. I love monkeys.
100. I really didn't think I would reach 100. I kept thinking, I'll just do 33. 41. 66. I made it!

Are you sleeping? Lol...Love, Bay

I know that my blog tends to be pretty bogged down with "deals" and a great many posts about coupons, cleaning or things that you may consider to be less than fun. (Who doesn't think organizing drawers is fun?)

I've seen memes on other people's blogs before, but if you don't know what one is, here is a very rough little explanation. Meme (pronounced 'mem,' or sometimes 'meem', but never 'mimi' lol) is a word coined by author Richard Dawkins to define a 'unit of imitation.' It real definition is much longer, but in the blog world, a meme is pretty much a set of questions that different people answer so you can learn more about them. I found this meme on a good blog called 'Patrick's Place' and here it is.

Here is his 'Saturday Six' post and here's my answers to the six questions.

1. Have you ever been asked to speak in front of an audience? If so, what was the occasion and how do you feel you did?

I've had to speak in front of groups before for school related things, like student teaching and public speaking classes, but for an "audience" I guess I would say having to give a speech at my sister's rehearsal and wedding. I gave a really good speech for the rehearsal and then I couldn't come up with anything good to say for the wedding (I couldn't just re-use the speech, because it was the exact same crowd). So I guess it is a mixed bag for me.

2. If you were asked to appear on David Letterman’s show, do you have a “Stupid Human Trick” you could perform?

The only little trick I have is that I am double-jointed in my hands, especially my right one. I can bend my fingers at the top knuckles, ew!

3. If you were asked to be in a circus, would you be more comfortable as a clown, a trapeze artist, a tightrope walker, a juggler, an animal trainer, or the ringmaster?

I guess an animal trainer so I be with the animals and treat them humanely. But I am very anti-circus, so this whole theme of the 6 questions doesn't really appeal to me! lol

4. Take the quiz: What Circus Act Should You Perform?

You Should Be a Puppeteer

You are an entertainer - pure and simple. You know how to engage an audience. You are a natural storyteller. You are naturally dramatic, even when life doesn't call for drama. Luckily though, you save most of your drama for your stellar performances.

5. How old were you the first time you visited a circus? How did you like it?

We were living in Rhode Island, so I would have had to be about 5, and I didn't particularly like it. I remember there was excitement about being at the circus, but some guy sprayed us with a water bottle (it was hot) and I remember it got into scrapes I had on my leg and stung! So that is the memory I took away from the circus.

6. How often would you describe your real job as a “circus?” Do you think it seems to be getting more or less like a circus?

My real job here as a stay-at-home momma is definitely a circus, most of the time. If keeping up with my little acrobat baby (she'd be the expert roller) isn't enough, I have a wild man of a dog that is acting more crazy by the day. So it seems to be getting more and more circus like!