53 million minutes of me: family

A list~100 things...

in honor of one year of blogging...

which may be more blog-concentrated in my last 3 months, but who cares!?

I love hot coffee in bed.
I never drank coffee until I met Gregg.
Gregg brought me a vanilla latte from Starbux last year on December 1st, 2007 before the Peaks of Otter Christmas Classic 5K.

That's how I started drinking coffee. But before that, it was definitely skinny chai tea lattes for me.

Chai tea reminds me of my friend, Laura, who inspires me to be a better blogger and to copy her 100 Things list from her blog-a-versary.

The reason chai reminds me of Laura is because she used to live in the basement of this old lady's? house and I went there once and she made me chai and gave me a hand-crocheted scarf, which I still wear.

Her crocheting skills inspired me to learn how to knit...which I did...in 2005 on a snow day from one of my student's parents, Kay Collie.

Now I love to knit but I rarely get out my knitting bag. I have it next to the bed right now because I need to get started on some knitting Christmas presents. I have one scarf started. UGH.

I love Christmas! I'm so glad it's Christmas time right now! My favorite thing is a glass full of glass ornaments:
I love getting a real live tree and dragging needles through the house.

I love when you put the lights on the tree and it dazzles at night.

I can't wait to have the tree in the same room as the fireplace. That's pretty cozy.

I love to bake. My stack of recipes just for Christmas cookies is getting pretty high.

I love reading good books,

making delightful home-made Christmas cards,

and finishing a pile of ironing.

I'm a big fan of souvenirs from other countries, like this teapot from London and this globe from the Dominican Republic:

I love mental math. If you can do the math in your head, I'm all for it!

My favorite number is 49 because 7 x 7 = 49.

When I taught math to 2nd graders, I loved using things like buttons, keys, and bread tags (AKA: Junk Boxes) to count, sort, group, add, and subtract.

I want to own my own book store someday. It might be kind of like the book store in the movie You've Got Mail. Meg Ryan was the book shop owner. She dressed up like characters and read stories to children. That's what I want to do.

I would love to have a section of the book store devoted to book clubs where groups could meet, read, and chat about their books.

I would like this because I am a member of 2 book clubs and we like to find good places to meet: such as The Good Cherry in Forest, VA.

I would also have an area in the book store where there was a small stage and curtain and a big throne-like chair where I would have Story Hour and little performances (maybe poetry readings from a poetry workshop for kids, etc...).

If you've never seen the movie You've Got Mail, you should. Meg Ryan's character, Kathleen Kelly, has the shop I want: "Shop Around the Corner."

I'm currently reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

After I finish this, my next readings are to finish The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger,

and to read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch,

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls,

reread Great Expectations by Charles Dickens,

and Before I Wake by Robert J. Wiersema.

I'd like to finish all of those before February.

I would also like to do a lot of other things before February, such as: make Christmas cards and send them, visit a lot of schools for my job, and bake a lot of Christmas cookies.

I think goodreads.com is a great site for cataloging the books you read and reminding yourself why you liked them.

I'm also a huge fan of runnersworld.com's Training Log feature and I find it pretty convenient to map out each run I complete and log it in my training log.

Which brings me to the point that I REALLY love running. I wouldn't have met Gregg if it weren't for running.

I have personally best-ed myself in almost every race I ran this year. My current fastest 5K time is 25:09. I ran that at the Flemington, NJ Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving last week. You can see the results here! (PS: Look for Gregg Cavaliere and you'll see his amazing time, too!)

My boyfriend, Gregg, was a 5-time All-American for Lynchburg College in cross country, indoor and oudoor track. That makes me very proud. He was/is really fast! He's also in the Lynchburg College Hall of Fame.

He also has a lot of all-time track records at Lynchburg College. Can you tell I'm proud of him?

I want to do a marathon (26.2 miles) and maybe an Ironman (2.4 mile swim, bike 112 miles, run 26.2 miles) someday.

If I do either or both, I will feel very proud of myself. (Not that I don't feel proud of what I've done already.)

Pride, humility, joy, and love: feelings I like to have.

Too much pride, sadness, guilt, and pain: feelings I don't like to have.

Google, filibuster, sprinkles, and l'ananas: words I love.

I speak some French. Je parle le francais, un peu.

Je voudrais aller a France...peut-etre a Paris et le sud de la France a la plage de la mer Mediterranee. Peut-etre.

Translation for #46: use Google Translate.

I would also like to visit: Egypt, the Czech Republic, Yugoslavia, Slovenia, Poland, England, Sweden, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Turks & Caicos, Alaska, and Mexico.

I lose my 2nd toenail on my right foot when I run long races.

It hasn't grown back the same since I first lost it.

I love ice water and white wine. Not together.

My favorite white wine ever is any kind of Gewurtztraminer.

I love reading about the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. It's SOO interesting. Books like Number the Stars, All But My Life, and The Diary of Anne Frank are some of my favorites.

I used to count calories on everything and throw up sometimes. I don't do that anymore.

I'm usually pretty happy in my body these days. That's a big step from my college years.

Gregg always points out that I, too, am a huge proponent of efficient movement around the house. If I'm moving through the house, I probably have something to move with me. Laundry, dishes, etc.

I have a shoe problem. It's very convincing when you look in my closet or if you refer to another blog of mine, Shoes: My Stomping Grounds.

I once sewed my own patchwork quilt. I want to learn how to quilt for real, and I want to make a t-shirt quilt for Gregg.

I like the following names: Kyria, Persephone, Carrington, Easton, Tellulah, Tucker, Alden, Aiden, Asia, Madison, Zoe, Noah, Jakob, Eva, Thomas, Eden, Harry, and Marisol.

I don't think Gregg likes any of them.

I love coupons...online kind or paper kind...whatever you've got, I want it. Especially coupon CODES!

I am convinced that learning the dance from the video below would make me feel happy everyday. When I needed it, I'd just start doing this dance. Beyonce must be a happy gal.

I met a guy at the running store today who is a senior at E.C. Glass. He runs track, but his first obsession is dance. He can do the whole Beyonce Single Ladies dance. Wow.

I don't have cable. We get like 3 major channels. You won't get those channels with an antenna anymore unless you order the converter box before February.

You can apply for a coupon for the converter box here.

My favorite subscription: National Geographic.

My favorite country: USA.

My favorite famous American: Susan B. Anthony.

She and I share a birthday and she's got her own dollar coin. How cool is that?! Plus, she helped pave the way for my suffrage. Sweet, huh? Don't know what I'm talking about? Read about her here.

I am a huge fan of Wikipedia. I know everything isn't accurate, but I still love it.

I'd love to write several books. One will be My 492 Prince Charmings about the dating story of my life.

Another book will be a biography of a man named Tommy Harris. He is a very famous guy in Lynchburg.

I would also like to write several children's books. One of them would be about Belize, a country I visited twice in college.

Another children's book I'd write would be about Christmas and traditions.

Which reminds me, I really want Elf on the Shelf (the book and the toy) for my Christmas traditions collection.

I also have a list of other things I want someday: a decanter, a candle snuffer, a really nice nativity, my own nutcracker tree like Sarah's, and a vintage ornament tree.

I also want to marry Gregg. So I kinda want a ring. Like this, or this, or this. I also like this, this, and this.

I feel very happy about wearing Smartwool socks. They are warm and snuggly.

I also really like socks made by the sock guy and gizmo. I really want the "flying pig" and "pinky" pairs from the sock guy.

I have a recent sock obsession. It might be from working at Riverside Runners.

I also have a shoe obsession. Oh wait, I already told you about that. My new aspect of obsession de la shoes is with running shoes. I just got a pair of Nike Vomeros...and I love them. But I also want a pair of Nike Lunar Racers, and a new pair of Asics Nimbus, another Mizuno Wave Creation 9, and a pair of track spikes. I never really liked these shoes that much before. WOAH!

I would love to have a dog someday. If I did, I'd own a pug, a mastiff, or a boxer.
I've never had a pet in my life.
My little sister had 2 goldfish, but she fed them Oreo crumbs, and they died.
She also had a hermit crab named Sandy, but like all hermit crabs, she died too.
My parents have a kitten named Joy now. It is anything but joyful. I call her Lucy (short for Lucifer) because she spits at people and hisses.
I am ultra-emotional.
That explains why I sometimes cry with just a change in the tone of one's voice.
Though I do try to hold back, it never works.
I'm also a big fan of jewelry.
I like loud, silly rings in bright colors that my mom rolls her eyes at.
My mom rolls her eyes/sighs at me a lot.
But that doesn't mean we aren't close and that she isn't really important to me.
Because she is.
She's very inspirational.
I hope that I can be a mom like her someday.
Then I'll know I've given something to this world.
If only I could work on getting that ring I wanted.
So that then Gregg and I can get married.
And then we can have our own little miracles to teach, love, and enjoy.