25 random things about me

This is a Facebook thing:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/fashion/05things.html

I worked on my list for a long time. I started with much more personal stuff, like "My dad was married 5 times." and "I've never met my older brother." But I kept tweaking it until I came up with something more appropriate.

1. When I was 5 years old, I broke my left leg playing in my neighbor's yard. I was wearing black cowboy boots that day and afterward, I thought they were haunted.

2. My left foot is 1 1/2 sizes bigger than my right foot.

3. I've studied 3 foreign languages - German, Spanish and Hebrew - and I don't speak any of them worth a damn.

4. I've been doing research of various kinds, in various places, for 25 years now. Wow.

5. My dream job is political pollster or working at the Brookings Institute.

6. I spent 12 years in the Army National Guard. It took me 12 years to get my Ph.D. and 12 years to pay off my student loans (12 seems to be an important number for me).

7. People who don't vote really drive me crazy - it's our civic duty as citizens of this great nation and it's the major priviledge of democracy.

8. Of all the housework tasks, the one I hate the most is dusting.

9. I have two tattoos, a butterfly on my back and a flower on my ankle.

10. I can't stand it when people litter, especially when they throw cigarette butts out their car window.

11. I think it's utterly tragic that my husband and kids never met my dad.

12. I'm all about the cinema. Before I had kids, I used to see *at least* one movie a week - in a movie theater, on the big screen, in the dark, as god intended. That rocked! Now I struggle to get to my Must See movies each year and I always miss many more than I can bear.

13. When I started riding the train to work at Temple University, I had so much time to read that I just worked my way down the fiction shelves at the school library. I so loved that. Someday (when I retire I suppose) I hope to again have that much time to read.

14. I prefer the mountains to the beach.

15. Before I die, I want to eat sushi in Japan.

16. I lived in Israel for 7 months in 1984. It was one of the highlights of my life. I can't wait to take my husband and kids there.

17. Another place I really want to see again is Greece (I wanted to go for my honeymoon, but we couldn't afford it). I also want to take my family to Costa Rica - what a gorgeous country, "the Switzerland of Central America."

18. All those years I lived in Arizona and I didn't go to Mexico until I moved to the east coast!

19. I've now lived more years outside of Arizona than I spent living there. That's really shocking to me - I never planned to be away this long.

20. I'm the kind of person who sticks to you, if you let me. My longest continuous friendship has lasted 40 years (yay, Diane!)

21. I have no musical ability at all. I'm in awe of my husband - he can play music by ear. I really hope my kids take after him.

22. In a couple of months I will have gone a decade without eating wheat. (That makes me sorta proud and sorta sad.)

23. I get choked up at television ads, like those Johnson and Johnson "a baby changes everything" ads.

24. I never wanted any pets, but I've adored all of them.

25. I just don't understand people who don't like chocolate.