Eleven

My cute niece posted this game a while back and well, this is kind of my time frame of how I've been functioning lately...a few weeks behind.  It's a fun way to know something new and random about people.  And if you want to play along, please do!

Game rules:
1. Post these rules (or as I like to call them, guidelines, because it sounds less authoritarian).
2. Post a photo of yourself and 11 random things.
3. Answer the questions and tag people to answer them.
4. Create 11 new questions and tag people to answer those.
5. Go to their blog and tell them you've tagged them.

I was at work when I wrote this post so obviously I don't have any pictures of myself on my hard drive.  This is the result of a google search for "Nina Long".  Enjoy.

11 Random Things About Me:

1. One of my biggest pet peeves is when businesses use an upside-down "7" for an "L" or a "Z" for a "2" on their billboards...or any other letter/number to make do. I know it seems petty, but buy a second set of letters!

2. I think those two guys on American Pickers have the coolest job ever.

3. I always thought I would have 4-6 kids.  When I had been married for just over a year, I had a very strong feeling come over me in a moment that I would have 2 children and that this would be alright.  This came before all of the infertility issues.

4. I had a dream last week that Congress changed March to 33 days just for 2013.  Something to do with leap year messing up the calendar.  Then I dreamt that I was due to deliver a baby on March 33, 2013.  I am not pregnant.  I repeat, I am not pregnant.  This is not an announcement.  Just the 4th random thing about me.

5. I have one pair of red shoes that I love and are nearly worn out.  I would love to have several pairs of red shoes.

6. I hate using pens with blue ink.

7. I love greens that are such ugly shades that they are cute.

8. One day I would like to have a dog named Samwise Gamgee.

9. I would love to cohost What Not To Wear for a week.

10. April is National Grilled Cheese Sandwich month.  I would like to celebrate this to the fullest.

11. I cannot say Checker Auto Parts very fast or I mess it up.  I'm relieved they sold to O'Reilly Auto Parts.

So here are my 11 questions from Chelsea to me:

1. What is your secret passion?  Not sure if it is so secret, but it's for my children to be healthy both physically and emotionally and to be happy little beings.
2. What is your favorite season?  Autumn of course.
3. Favorite book?  Wild Swans by Jung Chang.  Highly recommend this.
4. What did you dream of being as an adult when you were a kid?  Let's see, first it was a school teacher, then it changed to a marine biologist and even after college when I made my fist visit to Sea World, I really wanted to be an orca trainer.
5. Least favorite chore? Mopping the floors.  And this is only because it's my own fault.  I get down on my hands and knees and use a rag.  No mops.  Should buy one, but it seems less thorough somehow.
6. Dream vacation? Right now it's really a toss up between some secluded cabin in the lush woods somewhere with no cell phone reception or anything else that is currently bugging me OR to take a cruise through the Scandinavian fjords.  The second seems like a lot of work to get there right now.
7. Your nickname as a child?  It's always been Nine.
8. One embarrassing moment.  What?  You only want one?  Um, let's see, when I was in college and dating this really cute guy, he took me home to meet his parents/family.  We were all watching a movie one night; he and I cuddled up on the couch.  He asked his mom to throw him some chocolate orange sticks.  Apparently one landed under my behind because when I got up from the couch, it looked EXACTLY like poo all over my sweatpants.
9. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be?  Like be any kind of grown up or just anything?  Well, if we're talking vocations, I would have to say, FBI Profiler (and I have wanted to do this long before all the crime show dramas on TV).  If we're talking anything at all...I would have to say a pedi with an extended foot massage and then a little shopping with free money and dinner at Ruth Chris Steakhouse.  That's not asking too much is it?  It bet there are all kinds of people out there saying, "Fly to Paris" and stuff like that.
10. Favorite food?  Uh, come on, I have to choose one?  Alright, foreign food.  I'm currently on a Middle Eastern cuisine craving.
11. Least favorite food?  Eggplant a.k.a. velour; pears; pork (minus the bacon); eggs (minus the cake and cookies); potato salad; cola.  It's my blog, I can list off more than one.

Here are my 11 questions for you:
1. What name did you want to have as your own as a child?
2. If you could have any kind of animal as a pet, what would it be?
3. If you could invent something and become famous, what would your invention be?
4. Ha. An embarrassing moment.
5. What is the name you picked out earlier in life for your first born?  And if you have a first born, what is his/her name?
6. What's your favorite day of the week?
7. Have you ever been thrown a surprise party?
8. If you were on a deserted island and could only bring one CD/album, what would it be?
9. Do you remember sleeping in a crib as a wee one?
10. What kind of car would you drive if you could have any kind?  And don't say a hybrid or I'll hurt you.
11. Name one of your guilty pleasures.


And I tag anyone who will do it.