I have been pretty negligent in my posting so thank you to miette at Running with Scissors for tagging me and thus prompting me to write again. So here we go - 20 random things about me.

1) When I was a kid my favorite place was a big old poplar in the middle of a field about two blocks from my parent's house. The town I grew up in was pretty small and we lived near the edge. There were cows half a block to the west and a wheat field two blocks to the south. The tree grew along a branch of the irrigation canal and was great for climbing. During the summer I would crawl up onto the thick branches; read, hide and stare through the leaves. Occasionally I would nap, probably not the best idea 10 feet up.

2) I am in the middle of reading about 4 books. Two I started during my honeymoon last December, one I started about 3 years ago shortly after I quit my job and went back to school. The other one was cracked somewhere in between.

3) My favorite colour used to be blue. If I was forced to pick a favorite now it would probably be green.

4) I hate picking favorites. I think my mood is too changeable to pick a favorite anything that would suit all occasions.

5) I was married one year and 2 days ago. We celebrated our first anniversary in Lake Louise.

6) We have two cats. My husband named the first one Mattisse because she likes to play with paper. I named the second one Findley after Timothy Findley because he is a dignified older gentleman. He is sleek but a little over weight.

7) I have lived with my husband for 7 years, 3 years longer than we have been a couple. We managed to stay roommates across the hall for that long before fate, in the guise of an open bar, brought us together.

8) I don’t believe in fate.

9) One reason I quit my job was because I kept picturing myself trying to explain to my future grandchildren why I worked for an oil company, something that I hope will be considered reprehensible and archaic by the time they ask me what I did with my life; like anchormen smoking during newscasts or child labor (if only there wasn’t still child labor).

10) I always jump at the cheap scares in horror movies.

11) I love the podcasts Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me by NPR and This Week in Science.

12) I really don’t like Facebook. I know that I risk the cold shoulder by slamming such a massive and popular web 2.0 phenom, but everything about it just drives me nuts; the design, the function, the useless chatter. I also don’t like MySpace.

13) I am a pretty good cook. At least that is what my husband tells me. My specialties are anything with lamb, a 20 min meal from whatever is left in the fridge and BBQ ribs.

14) I am way more attached to my laptop than I thought I could be to any material object. It is probably the only thing that I would be truly devastated to lose. Which is bad considering it will probably self-destruct in less than three years, or at least be horribly outdated by then.

15) I drink way too much coffee, but I think that is hereditary. My parents both measure their daily intake in pots, not cups.

16) My optimistic naïve side thinks that most of the problems of the world could be resolved (or at least made a lot more manageable) if people spent more time thinking about the consequences of their actions on other people.

17) The worst job I ever had was house painting during the summer between highschool and first year university. For some reason, I was always sent up the ladder to do the highest parts. I think the manager thought that, since I was the smallest, I wouldn’t fall as hard. His math was faulty in general. He always underbudgeted the jobs so we usually made about 3 dollars an hour.

18) A friend of mine made up a 'punch list’. The punch list is three people who you would want to punch if you ever met them. Once they are on the list you are obligated to punch them if you do meet them (which led to an awkward situation between Alan Rock for one of our friends). Ralph Klein, Dick Cheney and Jeff Collins (the CBC afternoon guy) are on my punch list.

19) The farthest from home I have ever been is Thailand.

20) I jumped into medicine with both feet not knowing if I would like where I landed. I can't say that I knew enough about being a doctor to really be prepared for all of this. Thankfully I am enjoying med school even more than I thought I would. I am particularly enjoying communications and anytime we get to go talk to real patients. I am hoping that is a good sign.

Now to pass along the tag. I pick Anna, Tall Medstudent and sparkydoom.
Have fun.