Behold! A rare livejournal-esque moment! About 1154 of my facebook (join my NSTGD blog-network! woo!) friends have tagged me to complete another meme-thing, so, well, at long last, with far more commas and ellipses than could possibly be necessary, here it is…

25 random things about me:

1) I have freakishly short fingers attached to man-sized palms. This makes me an awesome high-fiver and a craptastic pianist.

2) fall > winter > spring > summer

3) On my 8th or 9th birthday, my mom bought me a miniature glass dachshund figurine, which I thanked her for, because I am nice and one should never slap the gift donkey.  But for the next 10 years, on every occasion that might possibly warrant gift-giving, I would receive a new breed of small glass dog: a shitsu for christmas, an irish setter for middle school graduation, a case in which to display my small-glass-dogs on my 16th birthday, a guide book to identify which small-glass-dogs were missing from my almost-complete small-glass-dog collection.  This continued until I refused to pack them for college.

4) In high school, I purchased an acre of land on mars (with some friends) where I hope to retire and hang out with teenwolf.

5) I try to never say “three times” when I could say “thrice”.

6) I’ve driven across the country thrice.

7) In 2000, my friend Christian and I drove from Portland, OR to Virginia Beach, VA in exactly 48 hrs. to the minute.

8) My great grandfather and I have the same birthday.

9) …and the same middle name.

10)  I collect stoop stories:  My building’s unofficial super, whose name is ’shorty’, lived with his grandmother in Puerto Rico until about 10 years ago when he moved here.  She made him promise that when he became rich in Brooklyn, that he would send her a chihuahua puppy.  After years, he had saved up enough money, got a deal on a puppy from an underground dog-dealer, found a way to ship it PR.  But a year later, he finds out from his sister that the dog is now the size of a horse and that his grandmother never wants to speak to him again.

11) I had a short-lived all-girl hair-rock/pop-metal band named “Cousin Larry Appleton”. Though we never actually performed in public, I refer to that month or two as my “glory days”.

12) The longer the time I spend away from the south, the more I identify as a southerner.

13) I could have probably saved hundreds of dollars in shirts over my lifetime if I had never stopped wearing a bib at mealtimes. no fallen food ever reaches the napkin in my lap.

14) I took an entire year of japanese in college. I only remember how to say three full sentences: “what is your name?”, “I have a small favor to ask” and “Is there an envelope on the desk?”

15) …and I am 95% certain that this knowledge will save my life one day.

16) The image at the top of the page is my current desktop background.

17) In 2003, my car hit the 123,456 mileage-milestone in the middle of GNR’s ‘patience’ (on the radio) as I passed a BB&T bank on first colonial road in VA Beach at noon. Does this mean anything? probably not.

18) God HELP you should you serve me thai peanut sauce. It is the devil’s playground.

19) But I adore peanut butter in any other context.

20) My eyes are hazel most of time, but they turn bright green when I cry, or get a sunburn, or when I cry because I have a sunburn, etc.

21 used to be my favorite number. I have since stopped being a number-bigot and have learned to treat them all equally.

22) …except when counting or calculating anything, of course.

23) My brother and I once played the Cyrkle’s “Red Rubber Ball” 15 times in a row on the jukebox (that lets you select the songs for the whole diner from the privacy of your own booth) at a diner, much to the annoyance of the waitstaff and clientel.

24) … later that year, at the same diner, I found a cooked shrimp at the bottom of my mostly-finished milkshake.

25) … after further investigation, it was a strawberry.

I saw this on heyokay the other day.

would that every goofus and gallant comic strip in every highlights magazine in every pediatric dentist’s office waiting room were this funny:

sometimes, I have this vision myself, circa 2060, hanging out on a porch with a swingy-bench thing, holding a glass of limeade and a shotgun, swearing at children with my southern-accent that has magically returned.  But ever since discovering Advanced Style (my favorite site of the moment), I have the same vision except I am also very dapperly dressed.

the site says it best:  “proof from the wizened and silver-haired set that personal style advances with age.”

some of my favorites: