My 100 Factoids

I love reading other people's lists, especially when the facts are ridiculously trivial and inane. You've been warned. OK, in no particular order:

1. This blog would have been much more interesting before I went on medication. I have since developed a filter.

2. Thank god for that filter, or I'd be sued for something by someone.

3. I have been in 13 car accidents. I was never the driver.

4. I was in one moped accident in Bermuda and I was driving.

5. I spent 12 years in Catholic school. I have recovered. Mostly.

6. I've been in some form of psychotherapy since 1978. (see fact #5)

7. I have two sisters. I only speak to one of them.

8. I have been struck by lightning.

9. I was thrown and run over by a horse. I got back on.

10. My second wedding was a costume party, and a Nakota medicine woman named Grandmother Kitty married us.

11. My first wedding took place in Waimea Falls Park, Oahu. There were no guests except chickens. The JP who married us wore a Hawaiian shirt and his left arm was in a cast.

12. My 16-year-old self appears in the last segment of the film "The Groove Tube".

13. Since Chevy Chase was in that film, I can be used in the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game.

14. I gave birth to both of my children without drugs of any kind.

15. I am a certified childbirth educator and labor assistant, although I don't do either anymore.

16. I've had 14 jobs since 1972.

17. I've been in my current job for 13 years.

18. I do not have a college degree, although I went to NYU for awhile and also took online classes through Penn State.

19. I had my own business for 10 years. I was a printing and design broker.

20. At 19 I auditioned to be a bunny at the NYC Playboy Club, but the process was so humiliating that I turned down the job when it was offered to me.

21. The same year, I was offered a flight attendant job with American Airlines but turned it down.

22. I've lived in 13 different apartments/homes since 1973, all in NYC or CT.

23. I've had three husbands, but was never engaged.

24. My first husband moved in with me on the night of our first date. We were married exactly one year later.

25. I have never had the measles or mumps, but got chicken pox at age 33. Not fun.

26. I have never had a cavity.

27. I can write upside down and backwards.

28. I can write in cursive on an Etch-a-Sketch.

29. I can sing "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" backwards.

30. I have had an AOL account since 1994. I still have it, but don't use it.

31. I have worked on a Mac since 1984.

32. My first husband was an Art Director for CBS Records, so we met a lot of famous people in the music biz.

33. I have slept in Sting's NYC apartment.

34. At the premiere party for "Give My Regards to Broad Street", a crowd of paparazzi pushed me until my nose was touching Paul McCartney's. I'm sure there's a photo of it out there somewhere.

35. I gave Joe Jackson my Sonny Bono solo album to add to his collection of "bad music".

36. I attended the first MTV Video Music Awards, the one where Madonna sang "Like a Virgin" while grinding the stage in a wedding dress.

37. A good friend of ours designed the MTV logo. He was paid $1500.

38. I do the Sunday New York Times Crossword puzzle every week. It's available online at 6PM the night before, and my goal is always to finish before midnight.

39. I love Letterman. I hate Leno.

40. I had a MINI Cooper S for one year and returned it. The service department told me, "If you wanted a reliable car, you should have bought a KIA."

41. I learned to drive at age 23 on a 1974 Volvo with manual transmission. I can drive anything.

42. I'm a volunteer for Greyhound Rescue & Rehab of Cross River, NY

43. At 10 years old, I regularly wrote to Alfred Hitchcock and his secretary answered every one of my letters. I still have two of hers.

44. I was a member of the Pee Wee Herman Fan club, and still have my original t-shirt.

45. I was a member of the MST3K fan club. If you don't know what that stands for, forget it.

46. I love Ren & Stimpy, Rocky & Bullwinkle and Homestarrunner.com

47. My daughter's favorite movie at age 5 was The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

48. My kids are 9 1/2 years apart.

49. My third husband died of lung cancer in October 2003. Although we had been divorced for three years, I held his hand as he passed away. It changed my life.

50. I'm a rabid doodler.

51. I love to play word games of any kind. I play Scrablle online.

52. I currently subscribe to Allure, InStyle, Tennis, Fitness, Entertainment Weekly and Premiere Magazine.

53. I subscribe to the New York Times and Salon.com online.

54. I am unapologetically liberal.

55. I hate beans of any kind. I was tortured with beans as a child and never got over it.

56. I don't eat meat except for fish. I don't eat much dairy, potatoes, tomatoes or white flour.

57. I love Japanese things.

58. I love books. My bookshelves are like family pictures. I have a deep emotional attachment to things I've read.

59. I buy books and keep them, rather than use the library or borrow from friends.

60. I wholeheartedly subscribe to the concept of non-sexist childrearing and have witnessed the clear benefits of it.

61. My 11 year old son is an amazing golfer and chess player.

62. My 20 year old daughter is a terrific writer and does beautiful web design work, but works in a bookstore for minimum wage. I know she'll find her own way, but it's hard to watch.

63. My kids are exceptionally smart. My son read the first Harry Potter book when he was 4. My daughter's IQ could not be measured in middle school because their test only scored up to 155. Yeah, I'm bragging. But they're good people too, which I'm even more proud of.

64. I've been arrested. It was fun, actually. I was 19 and the charges were reduced from a misdemeanor to a violation so I have no criminal record.

65. I sat in a "shooting gallery" in Brooklyn when I was 15 years old with my 22-year-old heroin addict boyfriend. Thankfully I was terrified of needles.

66. I've had acupuncture treatments for various things, including asthma.

67. I frequently rode the NYC subway alone or with friends starting at age 13.

68. I was often the victim of frottage.

69. I was raped at knifepoint at age 16. I did not report it to the police, and did not tell my parents.

70. My mother taught us that it was impossible to be raped if you kept your legs closed.

71. My mother is a little bit nuts.

72. My father was my mailman. He was not merry most of the time, at least not to us.

73. As a kid I kept collections of my dog's teeth and my father's toenail clippings. I was weird.

74. My hairdresser is someone who has been my friend since we were 5 years old.

75. One of my closest childhood friends died of AIDS in the "first wave" in 1983. We didn't even understand what he had until the New York Magazine article earlier that year.

76. I once had two parakeets named Guido and Rudy. I will save the stories of their deaths for a blog entry. It's hilarious. (I know. It doesn't sound funny.)

77. I had a dog named Stymie. She was neither black nor male.

78. I can recite some segments of The Little Rascals episodes verbatim.

79. I can throw a perfect spiral.

80. I love to play tennis, and go to tennis camp once a year. I'm also a beginner golfer, and want to go to golf camp.

81. I am a rabid Yankee fan.

82. I love to watch football, but not live.

83. I hate the cold.

84. I have only skied once.

85. I have only been to Europe once.

86. I have never been to Italy.

87. I have driven a boat and used a LORAN.

88. I have been on the news, local and national.

89. I have several friends who are published writers.

90. I met one of them online.

91. I have met several people online who have remained good friends.

92. I have met several very weird people online. Some were men and some were women I met through pregnancy chatrooms.

93. I spend WAY too much time online. This blog isn't helping.

94. I'm allergic to cats. I had four cats at one point in my life. I nearly died from an asthma attack as a result.

95. I love sushi and could eat it every day.

96. I have incredibly detailed dreams, often involving obscure celebrities.

97. Most recently I dreamed about Julian McMahon. OK, that's understandable. Grr.

98. The Today Show is my morning news show of choice. That will change once Meredith Viera takes Katie's place.

99. My hair was 36" long in High School. I missed the "Longest Hair" award by one inch, so I got "Straightest Hair" instead. The unofficial award I got was "Best Ass on a White Girl."

100. I would be totally amazed if anyone read all of the 99 previous things on this list.

101. I'm a rebel, so I'm adding one that occurred to me as I wrote this: How ironic is it, in light of my nuptial history, that my name is actually "Marian"?