nablopomo 2009

Well, I started a nice long post this afternoon, then got sucked into work shenanigans, and then I looked at the clock and realized that it’s late AND I’m incoherent, too much so to finish my post. (The clock didn’t tell me that second part, I figured that one out all by myself).

So anyways, I’ve learned something interesting today, which is that apparently there ARE people out there who like Monopoly, but none of you happen to live HERE. Which simply means that I shall have to convene with each of you at some point for a rousing game. And now that we’re entering into holiday season which should hopefully bring with it lots of time to play games with friends and family, tell me, aside from Monopoly, what other games do you love, and why?

Up tomorrow, things I miss about living overseas.

© 2009, OneShoeOff. All rights reserved.

Otherwise known as, I thought of more bizarre things you might want to know about me after I made that last post. Also known as, 5+5+5=I can’t do math.

11) I have a frighteningly accurate and long memory. Arch Support and Mr. Shoe call it Stalker Memory. I prefer to think of it as more elephantine. In any case, it includes random, useless details like the name of the company that one of my best friends in elementary school’s father worked for. She was terrified surprised I remembered this when we reconnected on Facebook recently. I will admit that having a child has damaged my memory to some degree; however, it’s still a little unreal the sheer volume of useless information I hold onto.

12) I can pinch things and pick things up with my toes. They spread unusually far apart and are strangely flexible. Mr. Shoe is still a little freaked out by this trait as I often employ it to pinch the backs of his legs when he’s not paying attention.

13) I really like to play Monopoly and I can NEVER find anyone who wants to play with me. In fact, it’s been so long since the last time I played, that if I played it again, I might actually discover that I hate it now, but it’s impossible to tell for sure since I’m surrounded by giant party-poopers.

14) I get wanderlust and want to move every 2-3 years since that was about how often we moved into a new apartment when I was a kid. Poor Mr. Shoe just gets settled in one place before I’m looking at real estate listings for the next place. In fact, it’s actually about time for me to start perusing once again.

15) I get hungry at the same time every night, 10 p.m., regardless of what time we had dinner. I’m almost always hungry for something savory NOT sweet (unlike Mr. Shoe who adores his sweets), and usually I’m hungry for protein, typically chicken. I’d sooner go for some leftover baked chicken than I would for just about anything else in the house. So in summary, I get hungry at 10 every night usually for chicken. Sheesh, when I say it like that, it sounds downright weird.

Oh, and let’s face it. There’s no way I’m often going to get these things published before midnight. But either way, I’m pretty excited about basically having posted 9 days in a row, even if it’s not always the most exciting material out there.

© 2009, OneShoeOff. All rights reserved.

Still in no particular order:

6) I’m a type-A, vaguely neurotic, perfectionist and hands down my own worst critic. Having a child has changed mellowed this personality trait significantly, but perhaps not surprisingly, I am the hardest on myself these days ABOUT my parenting.

7) I love to eat, and I specifically love to eat out. Nothing strikes me as more fun than trying a new restaurant, especially in a new cuisine. If I had to name a favorite cuisine, however, I would go with Japanese food.

8) This falls into the category of random, but I’m one of those people who needs a lot of sleep to be functional. Like optimally 9-10 hours per night. Do I get that? Not often. Does it make me grouchy sometimes? Absolutely. But I figure I’ll have plenty of time to sleep when I’m old. And also dead.

9) I read voraciously. Grad school made reading for pleasure deeply unpleasant for a long time. There’s really nothing more unpleasant than being force-fed books. In fact, it wasn’t until about a year after I graduated that I finally was able to pick up a book and read for fun.

10) I dream of having the means to travel extensively throughout Sweet Girl’s childhood and into our retirement years. I’ve already had the opportunity to do so thanks to growing up where I did. I’d love to give my daughter the same opportunities, including time spent living overseas. We’ll see how that works out.

More answers to your questions coming up this week.

© 2009, OneShoeOff. All rights reserved.

American Family asks: “As a new reader, I don’t know enough about you to ask an intelligent question, so how about this: Can you tell me ten things I should know about you?”

That’s totally fair. Let’s start with five today (mostly because I find these kinds of things incredibly hard to write).

In no particular order:

1) I am Taiwanese-American, and I lived in Taiwan and Hong Kong until I was a teenager. Obviously, that informs a great deal of who I am and how I see the world.

2) In a previous life, I thought I was going to play the piano professionally. A performing arts high school education killed that right quick by completely burning me out.

3) I instead wound up pursuing a graduate education in English Literature thinking I would be a college professor. I didn’t get any farther than a Master’s degree, and I’m grateful I didn’t pursue that avenue any further (but I’m very happy for those who may be reading this who continued down that path).

4) I currently work for a company, which shall remain nameless, that allows me the privilege of working from home while taking care of my daughter. It’s complete insanity, but the job combines my skillsets and education in a way I never would have dreamed possible, and for all its quirks, I do generally enjoy what I do. Sorry I can’t say too much more about this, but it is, in part, why I’m blogging anonymously. No need to jeopardize a perfectly good thing.

5) I’m mama to a terrific, challenging, headstrong, clever, willful, beautiful 2 going on 13 year old. She alternately makes me weep for joy and for agony.

More tomorrow, but for now, bedtime.

© 2009, OneShoeOff. All rights reserved.

Yay for more questions, and really wonderful ones at that. I’ll be working on answering them over the course of the next few days, but as you can see in the mean time, I totally fell off the NaBloPoMo bandwagon today. In my defense, I was working on a post for y’all in response to one of your questions, but there was a birthday party, play time, football, and merriment with Arch Support this evening, and before I knew it, it was after midnight Since nobody’s really keeping score, I suppose it doesn’t really matter, and I will press on. How about I shoot for 30 posts within the month of November and see how that works out?

© 2009, OneShoeOff. All rights reserved.

Seriously? One question from yesterday’s post? One burning question from the lovely Priscilla? Which, by the way, was a very thoughtful question, and one I plan to address soon, but will take me a good long while to write out coherently, so give me a day or two on that, please. Surely the rest of you have more burning questions to ask! And they don’t have to be nearly so deep as Priscilla’s. I’m happy to share what I had for breakfast this morning (Raisin Bran). Or what music I’ve been listening to lately (Yo Gabba Gabba. Yeah, I know, shoot me already.) Or how I feel about…world peace! (I’m for it!)

So please, pretty please, can I tell you something about myself? Or about other subject matters in which I may have little to no expertise? Because I’d love to share some misinformation and random tidbits!

In the meantime, I thought I’d share this particular news story with you about a civilian who accidentally ejected himself out of a South African Air Force plane. Seriously, I almost peed myself laughing while reading this (which if you follow my Twitter isn’t perhaps so remarkable, but still, it was funny).

© 2009, OneShoeOff. All rights reserved.

So, tell me what you want to know.

(And yes, this counts as my blog post today.)

© 2009, OneShoeOff. All rights reserved.