2007-01-31
bio & 100 facts about cardiogirl
|My name is Cardiogirl and I consider myself a blogging observational humorist as I don't just write about my husband and three daughters. I have always noticed the details in life and find them interesting all on their own. My blog is a testament to that. And because there are details everywhere you go, I constantly have posts writing themselves in my head.
I do blog daily, but it's almost not enough to keep up with the things I notice. I'm not sure my Cardio peeps would want to keep up with me either, so I limit myself to one post daily.
Long ago in a land far away, I earned a Journalism degree from Michigan State University. I then worked as a reporter and a graphic designer for a couple of years.
I eventually ended up in the Marketing/Advertising Department of a national mortgage company. I did that for a good eight years before my first daughter was born, then I became the stay-at-home mom we all know and love.
Two cats, three kids and thirteen years of marriage later I have found my voice as Cardiogirl.
1. I am the youngest of six.
2. I have four sisters and one brother.
3. All of them are no more than two and a half years apart in age.
4. There are five years and three months between me and my closest sister. My mom had a miscarriage between us.
5. I've wondered about that missing kid on and off throughout my life - if it was a girl or a boy and if we would have been close as siblings.
6. I hated high school. Really hated it and was extremely happy the day I graduated.
7. I hold grudges. Very tight. I still can't stand a guy named P@ul Murphy because he was mean to me at the bus stop in middle school. I actively hated him during high school because he was a prick.
8. At our high school graduation he somehow fell out of his folding chair and I felt like karma smacked him in the ass -- right where he deserved it.
9. I have a bachelor of arts degree in Journalism from Michigan State University.
10. I really loved college. It felt like a chance to start all over again except no one had any preconceived notion of me.
11. I had two roommates my freshman year. One really hated me and the other one became my best friend.
12. I did not know the one roommate hated my guts until the middle of winter term. Then she was out with it and did not hide her feelings from me.
13. She wasn't very specific on why she hated me so much. I think it was one of those things where you either like someone or you don't. And she obviously didn't like me at all. Bitch.
14. I lived on campus for three years and my last year I rented an apartment with three other girls.
15. I cried when I graduated. I didn't want college to end.
16. After that I took a job in Indiana as a reporter for roughly three days. I actually had an apartment and a bank account. I hated the town and what I assessed of it.
17. The editor was really angry at me when I walked in on the third day and announced I was quitting.
18. I am really afraid of conflict. But the day I quit that paper in Wabash, Indiana I had made my mind up and there was nothing that man could say to shame me into staying.
19. While I was in Wabash I met a guy who looked like he was about 25. He was at a park with his family having a picnic. His mother explained to me that he didn't have a driver's license because he was hell on wheels on his banana seat bike and she wasn't about to let him drive a car.
20. His name was Leonard and he seemed okay with the fact that his mom wasn't letting him get a license. He was impressed that I had a driver's license and a job.
21. He had a paper route.
22. He followed me to my apartment on his bike the day I met him so he knew where I lived. Over the next two days he proceeded to leave me numerous notes jammed in between the screen door and the front door of my apartment.
23. This completely freaked me out and contributed to approximately 85% of my decision to leave the state of Indiana.
24. When I left Indiana, I was extremely happy to see the welcome sign at the border of Indiana and Michigan.
25. I worked in some dead-end jobs until I was 24. Then I worked for eight years at a mortgage company in the Marketing Department.
26. I had voicemail, e-mail and business cards and thought I was hot shit.
27. I bought my first car when I was 25. It was a white Plymouth Duster.
28. I didn't really date until after I graduated from college. I had a lot of bad blind dates and decided I was probably never going to get married.
29. I met my husband when I was taking the trash out of my apartment. I hadn't taken a shower in two days.
30. We talked for about twenty minutes the first time we met and I checked out his left ring finger to see if he was married.
31. He was single.
32. He moved into the apartment next to mine and up one floor the next week.
33. We dated for about seven months and then got engaged. We were married eight months later.
34. We never had a fight before we were married.
35. We had our first fight during our honeymoon on a boat headed toward Martha's Vineyard. I don't remember what the fight was about.
36. We made up before we flew home.
37. My husband is a first born. I am a last born (but if you were paying attention you remembered that from number one.) According to the "birth order" people this is the best coupling for a marriage.
38. We were married almost six years before we had our first daughter.
39. We were going to start trying to have children in 1997 but I had thyroid cancer instead.
40. Having cancer messed me up big time, emotionally speaking.
41. I have mostly come to terms with that, but I still get extremely freaked out waiting for test results.
42. We have three daughters.
43. We both have no desire to have a son.
44. We have been married 12.5 years.
45. When I write stuff in Microsoft Word I like to make the text different colors - mostly shades of pink, slate blue, sage green and purple.
46. I do not like typing with black text on the screen.
47. As a child I had very blonde hair until I was about 16.
48. From 16 until my mid-20s my hair was light brown with natural blonde highlights.
49. Currently my hair is mousey brown and I don't like the color.
50. I am afraid to dye my hair and have never done it.
51. Until I was about 35, my mental image of my hair color was blonde. Every time I looked in the mirror I was shocked to see that my hair was really brown, no longer blonde.
52. I have accepted the fact that I have brown hair.
53. I just wish it was a nice chestnut brown.
54. I like to wear a bright shade of fuchsia lipstick.
55. I love wearing Converse low tops and my husband and kids usually get me a new pair for Mother's Day.
56. I don't like milk. I can drink it with cake or cookies and I will eat it with cereal. But I could never sit down and drink a glass of milk on its own or with dinner. Yuck.
57. I love coffee. I use a lot of cream. Approximately 25% of my coffee is made up of cream.
58. We purchase half gallon containers of cream at Costco. Four or five each time we go.
59. We go to Costco every three to four weeks.
60. When I go to McDonald's to get a medium coffee I ask for eight (8) coffee creamers. Yes, that's right. I own it. I like cream in my coffee.
61. I don't like the food at McDonald's. I prefer Wendy's or Burger King.
62. I started drinking diet pop when I was 23.
63. I was a Diet Pepsi girl until about five years ago.
64. That's when I decided it was silly to have a preference between Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke.
65. I don't like to drink regular pop (yes pop, not soda) because it tastes too sugary and I'd rather have those calories in the form of chocolate.
66. Now I drink whatever diet pop is on sale.
67. I don't drink alcohol. I drank enough in college.
68. Now if I have a drink it puts me to sleep.
69. I never thought I would have children.
70. In college I always said I wanted a hysterectomy for Christmas.
71. I don't like seafood. At all.
72. I bought and ate one fish stick two years ago because my oldest daughter wanted to try them.
73. I tried to act like I wasn't completely disgusted because if my daughter liked them I didn't want my reaction to change her mind. She hated them and we threw the rest of the box away.
74. I never thought I would quit my job to stay at home with my children.
75. When I had our first daughter the decision to quit my job was very easy.
76. I am nervous about going back to work.
77. I won't go back to work until our youngest is in first grade.
78. I had all three daughters with no pain medication because I was afraid of having a needle placed in my spine for an epidural.
79. It hurt but as I was in labor it became a contest between my mind and my body. I wondered if I could actually do it.
80. I now have hemorrhoids.
81. Kellogg's All Bran Yogurt Bites helps with that problem.
82. I like to workout at the YMCA.
83. I usually do cardio three days a week and lift weights three days a week.
84. I am having difficulty getting back into the swing of things.
85. I still have about 15 pounds left to lose.
86. I would like to lose those pounds before summer. This year.
87. I try to be careful not to talk about dieting in front of my daughters. I don't want them to have body image issues, like I do.
88. My favorite color is purple.
89. I love making lists.
90. I have run two 5Ks.
91. I still sort of want to run a half marathon, but when I was into running (about two years ago) I had some issues with black toenails.
92. I have lost at least five or six toenails in my life due to running (and presumably ill-fitting running shoes).
93. Once I lost the big toenail. That really freaked me out. But it did grow back.
94. Just last year I reconciled my long-standing issue with my feet and toenails. I painted my toenails all summer long and actually wore sandals.
95. That would be the first time I bared my feet to the public (and my husband) in all of my life.
96. I always check out other people's toenails when I see someone wearing sandals. Usually I am disgusted.
97. I classify people's toes as "sandal toes" or "non-sandal toes." I think I am somewhere in between, hopefully skewing more toward "sandal toes".
98. My kids don't know I have issues with my toes and other people's toes. I'd like to keep it that way.
99. I wear a size 10 shoe.
100. I love quoting Jack Nicholson from "A Few Good Men."
2007-01-31 at 5:25 a.m.
