Messing With The Blog (and 100 things)

So you might notice little changes going on around here as I attempt to make my blog more "sticky." Meaning people will come and stay longer and come back again because of various little things. Sigh. I'm finding it somewhat annoying.

One of those things is the 100 Things About Me meme. Everyone says you should have it. I've avoided it like the plague, but, since I have nothing to write about today and am tired of getting really stupid marketing pitches from people I will go ahead and do it now. IF you actually bother to read it all, you will be rewarded with photos of me as a two-and-a-half year old and you can all marvel over how much Tori and I looked alike. And you can also wonder, as do I, where my giant nose came from because I used to have a very cute tiny nose, just like Tori (don't get me wrong--I love my nose. It's just weird).

100 Things About Me, the narcissistic blogger

1. I don't really like memes. Especially really fucking long ones, like this one.
2. I won't review your product, no matter how cool it is, if you don't bother to put my name in the email.
3. I love opera.
4. My love of opera is genetic, inherited from my maternal Grandfather.
5. My maternal grandfather's name was King. No, really.
6. I also love country music. Real, honest, country music. In other words, not any country music that is popular today (which I call either "bimbo country" or "if you frost your hair, you aren't really a macho country singer").
7. I also love folk music.
8. I also love classic rock. Including the bad stuff.
9. Like Journey.
10. I spent most of my childhood wanting to be a veterinarian.
11. I scared my mother by putting my hand down the throat of a choking dog when I was 8. I saved the dog.
12. My favorite toy for several years was a paper baby doll. When I lost the doll I cried bitterly for days, and when my mom bought me a new one, it was never the same and I never played with it.
13. I spent a great deal of my childhood alone.
14. I taught myself how to read before I was five.
15. Sesame Street, the Electric Company, and a grandmother who taught 1st grade helped me learn to read.
16. By five, I was able to read chapter books.
17. At six, I found school to be incredibly boring.
18. By ten, I quit bothering in school and just coasted, lost in my own head.
19. I read several books a week then.
20. I still read two or three books a week.
21. Plus about 200 blogs.
22. I'm kind of a speed reader.
23. When Sarah and I were first roommates, Sarah thought I only pretended to read books that fast. Sarah didn't actually like me very much. But now we're BFF.
24. Oh my god, I'm only at 24? Cheetos are my favorite food.
25. As a child, I even ate a friend's parrot's cheetos. They weren't very good.
26. In fact, I like all things artificially orange.
27. I love orange soda.
28. I love orange Popsicles.
29. I love mac and cheese. But only the orange kind.
30. I love orange sherbet.
31. I really, really hate this meme. Can I stop now?
32. My first pet was a german shepard named Hugo.
33. We put him down when I was 12 when he attacked the son of my mom's friend (who happens to be the woman I'm named after). I stopped the attack.
34. My name, Cecily, means blind. Isn't that AWESOME?
35. I love my name. Now.
36. When I was in elementary school, I was nicknamed Cricket by the girls at Girl Scout Camp (cause I read Cricket Magazine). I loved it.
37. In middle school, I "went" with a boy named Jeff. My friend Lisa went with a boy named Don. We saw, somewhere CJ + LD = Love and decided to call each other "CJ" and "LD".
38. No, really.
39. The summer I moved to Michigan, I met a boy named Jimbo at my uncle's place who I made call me CJ. He (and his mom) still call me CJ to this day, the rare times I hear from him.
40. If you are wondering how I watch so much TV and read so much, here's the secret: I read WHILE watching TV. Good shows I just read during the commercials.
41. I also read in bed before I fall asleep. I read about 80-100 pages an hour. I read for a least an hour before I fall asleep.
42. Also? I don't read anything anyone would call "literature". Mostly sci-fi and fantasy novels, many of which are classified as "young adult." Hey, some of the best fantasy novels are YA.
43. Whoo hoo! 43! My mom has brown eyes. Which surprises people.
44. It was my father who had these crazy big blue eyes. My sisters have them too. And so did my paternal grandmother.
45. My paternal grandparents stayed in touch with me throughout my childhood even though my father did not. I visited them every year in Carlsbad, NM.
46. My paternal grandmother had a huge pecan tree in their backyard. I was most impressed by this.
47. I am listening to opera while I type this. Earlier, I was listening to country music. The piece they are playing now is being sung by a soprano who has a voice like bells. It's an iTunes station.
48. I had my first taste of beer when I was six, when a bunch of us kids stole some mini-beers (do they still make those?) from the grown ups. I loved it right away.
49. I got drunk for the first time at my friend Stephanie's in 8th grade. I loved it right away.
50. I felt ten feet tall the first night I got drunk.
51. I'm really only 5'2".
52. No one ever thinks of me as short until they see me in person. Even then, they quickly forget.
53. I smoked pot for the first time when I was 13. It caused a massive drop in blood sugar and made me vomit a lot.
54. I didn't smoke pot again with any regularity until I was in my twenties, and then only because I had a pothead boyfriend. It still made me sick.
55. The first time I did a lot of cocaine I became obsessed with the coca-cola bottling factory and complained that they wouldn't give me a car (I was also very, very drunk). It also made my nose really stuffed up and I threatened to cut my nose off with a big kitchen knife. Charlie found this rather alarming and I then chased him around the house with the knife until he called 911.
56. I wasn't wearing any pants that night because I'd previously peed in them. And in my boots. I was still wearing no pants when the cops came.
57. I didn't do cocaine again for several years.
58. OK, maybe it was about a year.
59. Oops--that was actually the second time I did too much coke. The first time I slept with a guy named Jesse that I didn't actually like very much who was also the best friend of the guy I was dating that I did like. That went well.
60. Other than those few spotty drug episodes, most of my "gettin' high" career is around alcohol.
61. I drank pretty much every day from 13 to 27.
62. My severe drug use ran from about January of 1995 until December of 1995.
63. At first, it was just snorting coke with friends. That lasted until April of 1995.
64. Then I found out my roommates were snorting heroin. I was very angry.
65. And I was jealous.
66. In May of 1995, I snorted heroin for the first time. By June, I decided it was a lifestyle.
67. In July of 1995, I stole needles from the animal hospital I worked for and shot up for the first time with Sarah.
68. It got really, really crazy after that.
69. In December of 1995, on the 21st, I overdosed on IV cocaine.
70. I got sober the next day, and have stayed sober ever since. Sarah went into rehab about two months before that and is still sober as well.
71. October 19, 1996, Charlie and I got married.
72. We weren't sure if and when we'd have kids back then.
73. We'd already been together over three years when we got married.
74. We've now been together for over 15 years.
75. This means Charlie and I have been together since I was 24 years old.
76. Somehow, that seems crazy to me. 24 years old is so young! But I'd already lived three lifetimes by then.
77. I am grateful every single day that I am married to Charlie. Even when he drives me crazy.
78. ARG! Only 78? I hate this meme even more now.
79. When I first got sober, I got fake nails and painted them every single night. So I wouldn't think about using.
80. I think vampires are super hot.
81. I love reading urban contemporary vampire fiction. Even when it's classified as romance.
82. I tend to skip over the sex scenes, or read them very lightly when I read romance.
83. I don't know why, but after a while, the sex scenes all seem the same.
84. I also think werewolves are pretty sexy. All of the above applies to them as well.
85. I enjoy pornography occasionally. There is a marked shortage of vampire porn.
86. I am very sad that we are going to lose our babysitter in a few weeks, even though Tori will be in morning care after that.
87. I seem to still have a minor cold right now while I'm writing this. I only mention it because I am running out of things to say.
88. Good lord, this is the longest meme in history. I don't like it.
89. I love movies.
90. No, seriously, I really love movies. I would go, every day, by myself, quite happily and see everything that is put out.
91. Yes, even the horrible movies.
92. My favorite romantic movie of all time is True Romance.
93. Tied with Say Anything. Charlie, btw, is totally Lloyd Dobbler.
94. My favorite action/sci fi movie is Aliens.
95. I can't wait for Tori to be old enough to watch Aliens with me. Even if it's a remake with better effects. Although I'd miss Sigourney Weaver.
96. I'm almost done with this meme.
97. Sometimes I pick my nose. OK, I pick it a lot.
98. I am secretly irritated that everyone says my daughter looks just like my husband.
99. I worry that people say that just cause I'm so fat I've stopped looking like myself.
100. I want to lose about 100 pounds and see no chance of that happening anytime soon.

Yeah! Done. God, that was painful.

As promised, here are the photos!

Just to compare:

I see Charlie in there, but still. Damn she looks like me. :)

Comments

[christina in mo]

http://longjourneyhome.wordpress.com/about/

you showed me yours...

I'm showing you mine...

that's fair right?

by the way.. I know it was painful.. but you answered all of them!

[Debby]

Regarding opera:

Do you know that the Metropolitan Opera does live HD simulcasts into movie theatres? This season they're doing 10, Saturday matinees (1:30 EST but 10:30 AM in California). You really see more than you would at the live performance because it's really up close. Interviews backstage during intermission.

I think it's a great way to get people to experience opera (not just listening) at a more reasonable price point.

Check the Met's website to find out where in your area they're participating.

[Lisa]

She has Charlie's eyes, which is what people notice first, but they rest of her face is all you!

[Mental P Mama]

I have always thought she looks like you. Now I am convinced;) Good job on your 100 things...I cannot even imagine it.

[Janice]

I too like Opera and Classic Country. I LOVE the fake orange flavor and even though it gives me heartburn I eat it all the time...and Tori DOES look sooo much like you!! It's unbelievable!

[Kristin]

She looks so much like you. BTW, I emailed you a list of authors/books that I think you will like.

[JuliaKB]

Wow-- that really is very close resemblance.

And I see how painful that was for you. Reinforces my decision to stay the hell away from that particular meme. :)

[Essie]

Wow, she really does look like you! But definitely Charlie's eyes.

[Lisa]

Wow, Tori really does look a lot like you! I liked the meme even though I'd already known a lot of this -- I did NOT know you loved orange food. So you learn new things every day! Ohhh and it also reminded me to ask -- have you read Twilight? You must have, right? It's teen lit, vampires, werewolves and it's romance. Anyway, it's awesome. I'm waiting for Amazon to deliver New Moon to me any day now.

Also, have you read the Stephanie Plum series? Seriously cheesy but pretty good. With a kick-ass heroine.

[Krista]

WOW! Tori looks a lot like you. And yay to finding out someone else reads while watching tv. Drives DH crazy, but I think it is easy. But after being with the kids all day, JUST concentrating on the tv, husband, and my book is a piece of cake. ;)

[Beret]

She looks like a clone of her mom Cecily! Just beautiful.

My son's and my baby pictures are identical yet everyone says he looks *just* like his father. He does, but if they could see me back then, they'd know he's way more like me.

[ls]

Wow...no doubt about the apple falling pretty close to the tree! 100 things...seems like about 75 too many. But I read them all!

[porter]

i never said that tori doesn't look like you! she does...but she totally looks like charlie MORE!! :)

[birdie]

Yay! I really enjoyed reading this...I've been stopping by here since a little before Tori was born, I think, and I didn't know a lot of this.

Some questions:

What is your favorite opera? (Mine is La Boheme...mostly, I think, because its one of the few operas I've seen performed live)

And (this might be too personal, or maybe you've addressed this in a post I missed) Getting sober seems like an incredibly major life change and I am in awe that yours and Charlie's relationship weathered such a storm...were there unexpected challenges, relationship-wise?

And yeah, you and Tori: both beautiful girls!

[birdie]

Oh, and have you read Bloodsucking Fiends (http://www.amazon.com/Bloodsucking-Fiends-Christopher-Moore/dp/0060735414) I'm sure you probably have...my husband and I read it aloud to eachother on our honeymoon :-)

[Sheri]

I've really got to this 100 Things as well. I'm so lame that I don't think I could think of 100 different things about myself. I lvoe the pictures you shared at the end! Tori DOES look like you! wow. The noses are identical... so cute!

I've been reading you f.o.r.e.v.e.r and it keeps getting better. You're one of the only bloggers I 'know' that I feel I 'know'. I don't know if it's becuase you always answer back to my comments, or because you write so honestly and open....but you seem very real to me and not just some website that I read and my comments go into cyberspace. You definitely are the type of person that if I knew IRL, would be a pal o'mine.

[Jen]

if it makes you feel any better, people say my daughter looks a lot like my partner. my LESBIAN parter! hello, no genetic contribution, i say...they don't care. they say it's uncanny. i'm chalking it up to good donor choice. :)

OH and not to come off like a stalker but you were totally in my dream the other night. i was in high school and you were tap-tapping away on your laptop in the auditorium. i said hi, you said hi, i moved on to whatever else happened. i guess technically it was a cameo but when i woke up, i was all, hey that was cecily!

[jenn]

This was fun. Excruciating for you but fun for us. :) We have a lot in common, as I suspected!

Those photos of you & Tori - WOW. I see Charlie around the shape of her eyes, but lots more of you.

[Heather]

Ok-Tori is your Mini-me!
But something still looks like Charlie, so that begs the question 'Do you and Charlie look alike?'
I say this because it is my same situation, Paddy is my clone, except for his boy parts, but still somehow he looks like his dad too. We compared our baby pictures and they look enough alike for us to have been related, but we aren't. Lawd that would be creepy, and we got enough problems!

[Tiffany]

It is kinda scary how much you both look alike.

[Laura]

Holy shit batman! That was painful to read LOL 100 things good lord ! Ok on to questions...you and I lead very simular lives in some ways and thats pretty cool! ok so that was a comment. do you read DARA JOYs books? they are fun and she takes sex to a new level th first time you read it after that like you I skim those as they are rather boring blah blah... looks like you read as much or more and as fast as me LOL. What beautiful eyes and I see you in Tori but I guess that means you need to find and post a pic of charlie at that age for us :)
Hugs Laura

[Dara]

That was awesome, even if it was excrutiating for you - Tori looks so much like you. Neither of my kids looks like me - twins - one looks like my husband's 'people' (American Indian, Irish) and the other looks like 'MY people' (totally Dutch!).

I adore you and wish we lived closer so the boys could play with Tori - and I don't mean that in a weird stalker-y way! Hey - did she like the cable car with the chocolates? Or without the chocolates?

[kathleen999]

Tori is really a combo of both of you...but I am guessing that they say she looks like Charlie is because I think she has his eyes in terms of shape and the whole brow thing seems to be his. Nose and mouth and face shape look like yours though at least for now.

My boys are a combo too. Everyone says Zacky looks like me because he is blonde and blue-eyed but they are not catching the fact that except for his smile, he looks exactly like my husband. Exactly. Oh my god, he's going to be gorgeous. I'm scared.

[Dea]

Tori totally looks like you, with Charlie's eyes, which seems to be the concensus here....

[Deanna -Away2me]

Damn she looks JUST like you. WOW.
Can I be honest.... I didn't read the 100 things, just skipped to the photo. I'm so not into the meme things. LOL I'd read a 10 thing. LOL

Take care!

[Joanna]

I love Alians too! It is my favorite action movie of all time. Also, I've read your blog almost every day for the past couple years - there's only one other blog I can say that about. So it's you, chookooloonks and the new york times. I love your writing.

[Dramalish]

I've always thought Tori looked like you. And I know that the meme was hard, but it makes me love you all the more.

Hey, did you know that the video of the IF Blogher panel is on Pamela Jeanne's blog?

(http://coming2terms.com/2008/07/30/blogher-video-when-the-road-to-motherhood-is-anything-but-smooth.aspx)
-D.

[Chris]

Did your mom trim your hair at home like mine did? Cuz those bangs look like mine used to when I was little and I would hate to think a hairdresser did that to you! :)

[thalia]

Umm, why do you have to have one of these? Do I have to have one?

She definitely looks like you. Of course, part of it is the haircut...

[Maria]

I love movies too!
And this meme is hard as all hell.
My septum piercing both encourages me to pick my nose, and deters me. I'm at a loss....

You were a cute kid!

[sharon]

She looks like Charlie around the eyes, I think, but her nose and that mouth - all you, sweetie.

[Tyanne]

I think Tori looks like you. I liked the meme, even though it was a rough one for you.

[MEDEA]

So do you read Sherrilyn Kenyon? Are you going to get/borrow Acehron when it's released?
Acheron has a trailer, which I think is pretty cool. I would like it if book releases were as cool as movie releases, with red carpets and stuff.

[Dianna]

OK, so I totally thought she looked like Charlie until I saw your picture. She is SO you. With Charlie's eyes, but other than that, she is your mini me. :)

[Leaner]

I have brown eyes, my kids are both light-eyed. Pisses me off. (In a silly way.)

I also LOVE YA sci-fi fantasy books. Actually I love all YA stories, even the sappy love ones. Don't know why. I read a lot. Especially when my hubby is away.

Tori does look a lot like your baby pics. I look at my kids and see my hubby though. I read or heard somewhere that babies almost always look more like the father at birth and into toddlerhood so that the father will accept them more easily. For the mother its usually automatic, but for men they need to know the babe is there. I think it sounds like a good theory.

And damn I can't imagine writing 100 things about myself, on a blog that my mom reads. Gah!

[Leaner]

I meant "the baby is THEIRS" not "the baby is there." (Damn I forget to proofread. Grrr. Makes me crazy.)

[Fashion Paramedic]

FINALLY! Someone who likes Journey!! Here's my 100:

http://fashionparamedic.com/?p=91

[Clover]

When i first read it, I thought you said you were going to do write "100 Things that Annoy Me." I was secretly disappointed that it was "about me" cause I thought "annoy me" would be funny as hell.

She does look like you, but the shape of her eyes are charlie's and I think that's what throws me.

[Jenn]

I think Tori is a perfect mix of both of you. When I see a picture of you and her together, she looks just like you. When I see pics of her and Charlie together, she looks just like him.

[Lauren]

Holy crap-- you gave birth to a tiny you! A bit narcissistic, don't you think. :)

I love opera, too. I trained to be an opera singer for awhile, but it's one of those things that's either in your DNA or it isn't- and it just wasn't there for me. But I can still love to listen to the people who were born to do it!

Sometimes I think I'll do a "100 Things" thing... but it seems really, really painful.

[Julie]

Speaking of vampires and sex scenes, have you ever read any Poppy Z. Brite? It seems like I missed the boat since I just discovered her. I was really intrigued by her blog, and I now have her first vampire book on reserve at the library. Just wondered what your thoughts were...

[Amyinbc]

She is SO both your child...

[Madame X]

Tori really does look a lot like you.

Eating the parrot's cheetos? I have two parrots. I share with them. So do my kids (against their will). The parrots love spaghetti. And cheetos. So do the kids, I suppose.

[The Aitch]

I loathe 100 thing meme's and never read them when they're linked on a sidebar...you totally tricked me by making them in your body content area. For that trick you will pay the price and I'm gonna call you out so to speak. I don't think the following items does not count as 100 things and I insist you re-do them and make them legit. Thanks!

9,14-22 (I get it, you like to read!),31,38,41-43(I get it, you like to read!)78,88,96.

See? You totally cheated! Reading all through that was fun though, even if I loathe meme's. I learned something new and that's important and the pics at the end were so worth it, even if I skipped the 100 things to see them first! Tori is totally your twin.

[Siri]

That was great. Not sure I could do it though!! And yes, Tori looks JUST like you although I agree with the other commentors that she has Charlies eyes and that is what people notice first...

[Jennis]

Ahhh! I read while watching TV too... in fact TV, even though I love it, can never really hold my attention. I HAVE to be doing something else... drives the Boy nuts!

I'm so glad I'm not the only one!!

PS I had the reverse of the mother-daughter resemblance. As a baby I looked EXACTLY like my dad's side of the family and now I look like my mother's mother. It's CREEPY.

[ll]

HOLY CRAP!!!! Does she ever!!!!
I would have sworn she was all Charlie.

[Rachel]

Cecily, those were frigging awesome, and Tori looks stunningly like you!

I'd have a damn hard time thinking up 100 things about me. Poo to dictatorial memes.

[Ellen]

Wow! I've always thought she looked like a mini-Charlie, but now I see what you mean.

[Chickenpig]

Hmmmm....I also taught myself to read around 3/4 years old, and read almost exclusively sci fi and fantasy until a few years ago, when it all started to get very old hat to me. I also love to drink, and although I never became addicted, I was seriously close in college and the few years after it. I credit meeting and then marrying my husband for saving me from falling into a deep dark pit of drunken despair. I have, however, managed to avoid the allure of vampire fiction...although I think that a lot of fiction being written for young adults beats the literature stuff out there for adults, these days. I enjoyed your meme, I know now why I like your blog so much. You remind me of me. ;)

It is scary how much you look like Tori, she does have moments where she looks a lot like Charlie, but I think she looks more like you the older she gets.

My last baby arrived on July 31, and I looked forward to being in the hospital so I could have a chance to read. And I did, even when I was supposed to be resting, when they were taking my vitals, and when I was breastfeeding. Which I think I have to go do more of now...while I read :) Books...yum! I can't wait to read YOURS!!!!!! so get cracka a lackin'!