50 More Things about Me...

So last year I wrote a list of 100 things about me. This year 100 seemed a little daunting so here's a list of 50. It's quite the challenge so anybody who's up for it should try and create their own list of things people might not know about them. The lists are pretty hilarious, and its a good way to document information for future generations.

50. I like it when people scratch my head...or play with my hair in general. Greg says I'm like a dog.
49. I read the news (CNN, MSNBC, FOXNEWS) about 50 times a day...hoping for something new...or just to try and read all the articles...
48. My pinky fingers are incredibly small...they come to just above the first joint on my ring fingers...they look a little sickly in comparison.
47. I always have to pull my hair up before I can sleep. I hate the feeling of random hairs brushing against my forehead.
46. I have to sleep with a fan on...always...no matter the temperature outside...
45. I once slept an entire winter with my window partly open...because I didn't know how to close it...in my defense the window was broken...oh and I still had the fan on when I slept. I had a hairdryer under the covers that I would turn on when I was cold.
44. My bedroom clock is perpetually fast...and not just a little fast...Greg and I like it at least 30 minutes fast...because you know, its fun to do math calculations when its 3 in the morning...I mean 2:30.
43. I can pop every single joint in my hand...well I'm not sure how many joints are actually in your hand...but I pop A LOT.
42. I can wink each eye individually.
41. I can curl my tongue...though I can't do any other lofty tricks like that cool wave looking thing.
40. I once took a class where I got to be a terrorist....purely fictional of course.
39. I graduated college by taking a intermediate Spanish class...the only reason I got a B+ is because my wonderful husband spent hours teaching me the language...and I don't remember any of it.
38. My car's check engine light comes during any change in weather.
37. I get gas in $10 increments because the price keeps going down.
36. I try and spend 4 hours a week volunteering for my church.
35. I teach 5 seven year olds every Sunday in church...this involves many games with the bribes of treats if they behave.
34. My favorite movie is Remember the Titans.
33. My favorite animated movie is Mulan.
32. I rely on my husband for any math equation solutions, except at 3 in the morning when I'm trying to figure out what time it really is.
31. Greg says that when I sleep my temperature goes up to 110 degrees.
30. I have been on the 2nd place National Mock Trial Champions Team.
29. I have competed in 2 State Swimming Meets.
28. My current favorite "sport" is bocce ball.
27. I have competed on the BYU Model United Nations Team and placed in the top Ten teams in the Nation. (National MUN competitions don't actually have place teams in order of 1,2,3..they just say you were in the top ten...kind of like kid's soccer where everybody gets a trophy.)
26. I spent a summer in California as a nanny.
25. I've been to a taping of "Whose Line is It Anyways?"
24. I've only gone skiing once and it was a horrible experience involving black diamonds...falling...and the vow of never returning.
23. Its a fact...I'm clumsy.
22. I enjoy any trivial pursuit game and often have Greg just read me cards so I can guess the answers.
21. I spent 4 whole months all by myself in Utah while Greg was away in Minnesota interning for Ernst and Young.
20. I love orange flavored popcycles....my sister-in-law just gave me a whole stack of them because I'm the only one she knows that likes the orange ones.
19. My favorite show on television are Law and Order reruns...which is good because they're pretty much on at least one channel 24 hours a day.
18. My microwave clock seems to perpetually slow down so every two weeks we set it 5 minutes ahead and two weeks later its 5 minutes behind...its a vicious cycle.
17. I'm moving to Minnesota at the end of April and finally getting out of Utah after 10 years.
16. I only get my hair cut once a year.
15. I have seen the back stages of Disney World...having gotten to practice on them before performing when I was in Show Choir in High School.
14. I enjoy yoga...however the funny names for the poses don't help my meditation practices.
13. Remember how last time I said I hate running...ironically thats how I first started getting to know Greg....now I love Greg...and still hate running.
12. I go to Ice hockey games just to see the fights...I can't actually keep up with the puck...but two or more mullet headed men pounding each other is what I call good entertainment.
11. I've recently become addicted to dum dum suckers...they're quite enjoyable and come in a variety of flavors and colors.
10. I've become a fanatical budgeter...this is mostly due to my obsessive accountant husband, but I find it fiercely satisfying to be "under budget" at the end of each month.
09. I once bumped my brother while we were jumping on the bed and he ended up with a huge gash in his head...we told my mom he fell.
08. I once went to roll my sister over on her side..because she was snoring...and she rolled completely off the bed...she woke and I told her she'd rolled off all by herself.
07. We used to tell Katelyn she was a boy named Thompson...she hates that name to this day.
06. My dad used to flick me in the head when I was little and began pulling the knobs off the radio...however, instead of actually stopping the naughty act...I learned to put my hand over my head before I pulled the knobs off.
05. My first word/words were "Whatsat"...my mom would say this to me every evening when my dad would be walking up the path to the door...so I began repeating it excitedly one day.
04. I once tried to do a high kick in a long nightgown, this ended with me landing hard on my bum...and being entirely embarrassed for having forgotten my nightgown had absolutely no "give."
03. I've woken up laughing.
02. I love making and eating homemade chocolate frosting.
01. I was born with under-developed lungs...however thanks to the prayers of many family members during those first few day...I have ginormous lungs and a huge rib cage...this helped dramatically during swimming but makes for an awkward time for shirts.

Back in the Days of BYU Landlords

Now let the story begin.....oh and I hope you don't expect this to be some life changing event cause....well we all know I don't write those kind of stories....

I used to have a landlord whom we shall call Larry...partly because that's his name and partly because it rhymes with scary....now over the two years which I lived in the house there were many rumors circulating about Scary Larry (SL). Let me first describe him...

Larry stood about 5'5 and weighed approximately 85 lbs. He had a high pitched voice and claimed to be a Mr. Fix-it....which of course was not true. Think Mr. Roper from Three's Company.

Many of the rumors began when Larry started bringing his "representative" with him on surprise inspections for the house. Now his representative's name was Harold....and he was a Bounty hunter.....no I am not kidding...thats actually what he told us. I'm not sure if it was supposed to scare us or what but the first time my roommate heard this audacious lie she burst out laughing....he didn't appreciate that and told her so. She apologized and explained that she didn't know there was a big need for bounty hunters in Utah. He explained that he wasn't really a bounty hunter but a repo guy, and then he showed her his gun. (none of this is made up) She looked at him, looked at the gun, and then looked at Larry who was beaming. Thus the rumor that Larry was gay began.

Now over those years many things fell off, broke, or became stopped up in that house and each time we would try to fix it ourselves before calling SL because we really didn't want him in our house. But on the occasions when we couldn't remedy the problem we would call and politely ask for him to come and "take a look." Here are a few of his "quick fixes" or excuses for not being able to fix the problem.....

1. The shower head in the upstairs bathroom broke and literally would fall on our heads when we showered...not pleasant at 7 am...or ever really. We MacGyvered it with a bobby pin and a bic razor for about 6 months before he came to "fix it"...he ducktaped it to the shower wall.

2. The downstairs shower's drain became clogged. We used Draino and a coathanger and all sorts of other techniques to pull out years of hair and general grossness before calling him to let him know that the shower wouldn't drain. He came over called a plumber (which was nice of him) and the plumber informed him that his pipes needed to be replaced...I was standing there when the plumber told Larry this....so Larry told us that we would have to wash our hair upstairs and wear a shower cap in the shower downstairs so no more hair would cause stoppage. Yes...thats what he told us.

3. He put a deadbolt on the back door...because one of my roommates didn't feel safe without one...this is dumb for two reasons....1. The back door is mostly a big window and 2. Larry put the deadbolt on backwards....and no I am not kidding....we had to get a guy to come and put the deadbolt on correctly and then Larry tried to charge us for the labor.

4. My window did not have a screen on it so the summer months became almost unbearable because we didn't have an air conditioner. I called him and asked him if I could get a screen. At 6:30am on a Sat. morning Larry came and stapled chicken wire to my window. It was not stapled in any type of order and there were gapping holes in the "screen."

So when we decided to finally move out a couple of my roommates decided to go ahead and take their deposits out of their last month's rent knowing that they would never see the money again otherwise. Two days later I get a call on my cell phone informing me that I need to call Larry immediately. IMMEDIATELY!!!

So I called him back...not knowing what could be so important. Larry then begins to describe what a "nice workable landlord" he has been to us and that we have literally destroyed his trust in us. I ask him what the heck he's talking about. He said that when he came for cleaning inspections nobody was home and we had blown him off. I asked him what time he had come for cleaning inspections and he said he was there at 10:30 pm just like he had told us he'd be. I told him that we had all made appointments with him at 6:30pm and when he hadn't shown we had all gone about our business. He apologized then and told me that he thought he had called to reschedule but must have forgotten (enter great rolling of eyes) He then asked me how he could get ahold of Rachel and Melanie two of my friends/roommates. I told him I didn't know...because Mel was in China and Rachel didn't have a cell phone. He then told me that his "representative" had told him that they had taken their deposits out of their last months rent and this was against the Honor Code and he would be pressing criminal charges against them if they didn't immediately pay the remainder of the money to him. I told him that it wasn't my responsibility to tell them any such thing and that he would have to inform them of that himself. He said he understood and then hung up.

Following that conversation, I went into the living room and told Rachel what had just happened. (yeah she was sitting there the whole time :) And Rachel just started laughing. It seemed Larry had known that she and Mel had taken their deposits out of their last month's rent already and in front of Rachel's parents had told her that that made his job a lot easier and that was fine.

So Rachel decided to take her chances with the law and Melanie being in China said "Let Larry try and find me." And we haven't heard from the Scary Larry since.

The End