100 Things

1. My name is Erin.
2. Allegedly my grandmother came up with the name after Erin Gray.
3. I am the oldest child in my family and the oldest grandchild on both sides of my family (once you throw in the step-sibs, this is no longer true)
4. My parents got divorced when I was twelve.
5. They are both remarried — so this leaves me with 4 parents, one brother, one sister, two step-sisters and step-brother on my dad’s side, and 3 step-brothers on my mom’s side. Yikes!
6. My husband’s name is Ted.
7. We got married on May 30, 2004.
8. We have two dogs, Rufus and Kaya.
9. I have a B.S. in Early Childhood Education and an M.Ed. in Early childhood special education.
10. I am a teacher, amazingly enough.
11. I teach preschool special education.
12. I really hate it when I tell people I’m a teacher and they respond with “Oh, good for you.” What exactly does that mean?
13. My favorite color is purple.
14. The reason my favorite color is purple — I was teaching at a summer camp. One of my little kiddos was painting with blue and red paint. She turned to me and said “Look Miss Erin…it’s like magic. Red and Blue together makes Purple!”
15. Ted and I tried to join the Peace Corps — but it didn’t work out…still a little bitter.
16. I think whoever invented TV on DVD is a god.
17. I love the Gilmore Girls.
18. I am an early bird — I get to work 2.5 hours before my contract says I have to. It’s quiet at school at 7 a.m.
19. I really do like to sleep though.
20. I know the words to way too many songs by the Wiggles…and I can dance to them as well.
21. My favorite food is cheese…
22. And chocolate…
23. And potatoes…
24. And salad. I really do love a good salad!
25. I believe there is nothing better than a good cup of tea for your headache, stomachache, bad day, heartache, etc.
26. I have an underactive thyroid — which several doctors tried to diagnose as brain tumors before I found a doctor with a brain who got it right!
27. I am a Harry Potter junkie.
28. I really love Ron.
29. If Alan Rickman showed up at my door…I might run away with him.
30. The same is true for Alton Brown.
31. And if it was Christian Bale…well…sorry Ted.
32. Well, and also Anthony Stewart Head
33. I am an Anglophile.
34. Ted and I went to London in 2006. It was awesome.
35. If I wasn’t a teacher….I think I’d be a neurologist or neurosurgeon…I think brains are cool.
36. I stayed after school in high school to dissect a shark’s brain.
37. I went to an all-girls Catholic high school.
38. I’m not Catholic….but I am a girl.
39. I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A lot.
40. After years and years of my mother trying to teach me to knit, crochet, or sew…I have recently taken up knitting.
41. I really enjoy it.
42. I have also recently taken up scrapbooking, which I used to think was lame, but I am way into it!
43. One of my idols as a child was Helen Keller.
44. I taught myself to sign the alphabet in 3rd grade.
45. I guess the interest in people with special needs started early.
46. I can play the oboe fairly well.
47. I almost majored in music performance in college.
48. I love Grey’s Anatomy….but I really don’t like Meredith Grey.
49. I am a voracious reader.
50. We have books in every room of our house…except the potty.
51. It’s a good thing my husband works at a bookstore.
52. I read anything and everything.
53. My favorite genres are children’s literature…and African history.
54. I love Lost.
55. I have really horrible allergies all year round.
56. I pick my nose.
57. I think that poop is very amusing…and I bet you do too!
58. I thought it would be a lot easier to come up with 100 things…but I’m only halfway through.
59. My birthday is on Halloween….October 31, 1980.
60. I expect presents.
61. Big ones.
62. I’m a Mac kind of girl….but I don’t look down on PC users.
63. I love Ellen.
64. I really wish she would buy me a school…
65. I have a belly button ring….but I’m thinking about taking it out.
66. And a tattoo.
67. My tattoo is a goddess symbol representing the three phases of womanhood — maiden, mother, and crone.
68. It looks something like this
69. I cry when I’m angry….it’s really annoying because I feel like it makes me look weak.
70. I love musicals.
71. When I was in high school, you could catch a one-woman production of Les Miserables in my bedroom every night.
72. Now it’s a one-woman production of Wicked…or sometimes Once More With Feeling.
73. I really really love the internet.
74. I met my first serious boyfriend online when I was sixteen.
75. It didn’t last long.
76. I believed in Santa until I was in the 4th grade.
77. I asked my dad about this whole Santa gig and he told me a really nice story about St. Nicholas and all that jazz.
78. I hope my kids believe in Santa.
79. Santa still brings me presents.
80. I hate cleaning, but I love a clean house…it’s the bane of my existence.
81. I really like to say that things are the bane of my existence.
82. I also like to say that something really burns my cookies.
83. I hate cooking in general, but I love baking.
84. I love eating baked goods as well.
85. I’m a huge fan of pie.
86. My favorite kind of pie is Banoffee Pie. We had it on the plane home from London.
87. England is apparently the only place on earth you can get Banoffee pie, so I’m really sad that I ate it on the way home because I could have spent our entire trip eating it!
88. You make Banoffee Pie by heating cans of condensed milk in your oven — since this could lead to explosions (and it would certainly happen to me) I have not attempted to make the Banoffee pie.
89. I don’t give my dogs people food.
90. Except for the occasional piece of popcorn…or a wheat chex.
91. I took ballet classes until I was 16 years old.
92. I really wasn’t ever any good.
93. Maybe it’s because my parents put me in ballet because I was a huge klutz.
94. I really enjoy annoying my husband.
95. I call my husband “pants”
96. It’s not because he wears the pants in the family.
97. It actually came about because I turned a song from a Quizo’s commercial into a song called “I love you…PANTS.”
98. There are many variations on pants….man-pants, panta, santa(for the holidays), panties, manny-panties (his personal favorite). He calls me Pants too.
99. I have a serious anxiety problem.
100. I can lay awake all night worrying about anything and everything

Whoa, I’m done! I can’t believe I made it to the end….I’m very impressed with myself. Well, now you know all these things about me…I’m sure you’re a better person for it.