Too Much Information

100 Things About Me (In No Particular Order)

1. I was married in May 1998, exactly one week after I graduated from law school.

2. I met my husband in torts class. Honestly.

3. We have two sons, who are 5 and 2.5.

4. This isn't exactly about me, but my older son has mild autism. We believe that it was caused by mercury poisoning.

5. My favorite city is Paris. Oscar Wilde said that when good Americans die, they go to Paris. I hope so.

6. My family moved to Campinas, Brazil when I was in the tenth grade. I loved it there. I graduated from the American school there and my family moved back to the States during my first year of college.

7. I speak some Portuguese, French and Spanish, but none of them even close to fluently.

8. Some day I hope to rectify that and become fluent in at least one of them.

9. I cannot sleep at night if I am not under the blanket. Even if it is really, really hot. I have to at least be under a sheet.

10. I quit smoking about nine years ago.

11. But I did have a cigarette at a wedding shower my girlfriends at law school threw for me. It was a pink Sobranie.

12. When I was smoking, I smoked either Marlboro Reds, Dunhills, or Silk Cuts. I had to go to tobacco shops for the Silk Cuts, and they cost a fortune.

13. I really miss smoking. Can you tell? If I go to heaven, I will be able to smoke all I want and never feel yucky. Hey, St. Thomas Aquinas said that heaven would be full of all of the good things on earth, so I don't think it's too farfetched.

14. I used to run, and then I got pregnant and quit.

15. I have good intentions about starting running again and exercising, but rarely actually do it.

16. I hardly ever knit with single point needles.

17. And never with double point needles, if I can help it.

18. I love music. Especially alternative rock, classic 80s new wave and alternative, classic jazz, world music, bossa nova, French cafe music, soul, and classical.

19. About the only kinds of music I don't like are metal and hardcore rap. And hair bands. And not really jam bands.

20. I couldn't name just one favorite song, or even ten, but two that I really like are "Let's Stay Together" by Al Green and "Stars Fell on Alabama". Also Miles Davis's recording of "Autumn Leaves".

21. I can't play any musical instruments and I can barely sing.

22. I was a double major in English and government.

23. After college, I worked as a legislative assistant for a member of the US House of Representatives. That was really cool.

24. I have never voted for a Republican for a national office.

25. I think the US Capitol is one of the most beautiful public buildings I have ever seen. Also the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress.

26. I got my driver's license when I was 28, and didn't start driving everyday until I was 32.

27. I went to Smith College, which is a women's college. Not a girl's school.

28. When I was in seventh grade I wanted to spell my name without the "u" -- thus, Lara. Ugh.

29. I hate air conditioning. It has to be extremely, miserably hot before I want to be in air conditioning.

30. I love to go to the movies by myself.

31. I have a lint trap of a brain for trivial bits of information.

32. Like the cast members of every movie I have ever seen.

33. My favorite movies are Amelie, American Beauty, The Apartment, Moonstruck, Casablanca, Manhattan, The Philadelphia Story, Sideways, and Black Orpheus.

34. But one of my most favorite scenes in a movie is in Lost in Translation, when Bill Murray gets out of his car and whispers in Scarlett Johannson's ear.

35. I used to think that blue was my favorite color.

36. But now I realize, by looking in my closet and at my stash, that my favorite color is green.

37. I color my hair, so that it is, as my hairdresser says, warmer. That means, redder.

38. My younger son is a natural redhead. So I'm dyed to match.

39. My first knitting projects (after a couple of scarves in college) were baby blankets. Every time I make a baby blanket I swear it will be the last one.

40. Most embarassing knitting story: for my first sweater, I bought some expensive thick and thin wool. I could tell after I finished the front and half of the back that I wouldn't have enough to finish. Not realizing that I could frog it, I actually threw those pieces away.

41. That was so stupid, I cannot believe that I have told anyone about it.

42. I started knitting seriously in October 2001, when we were on a vacation in Wyoming. I went to a yarn store looking for a "small project" and came out with the Ann Norling Fruit Hat pattern and some circular and double pointed needles and yarn. And the rest was history!

43. I am really grateful to that yarn shop owner for pointing me in the direction of circular knitting and doing something other than a rectangle. That's when I realized how fun knitting can be. It also gave me confidence to try something new.

44. If you're wondering, the shop was Knit on Pearl in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

45. I read my first Jane Austen novel after I graduated from college. Now I reread Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion on an almost annual basis. My favorite Jane Austen novel used to be P&P. But the older I get, the more I prefer Persuasion.

46. I starting reading when I was about three years old. And I basically never stopped.

47. I am one of those people who will read anything, including cereal boxes and phone books, if there is nothing else around.

48. My favorite reads are mysteries and literary fiction. I prefer the cozy and police procedural type of mystery.

49. But I also love poetry. Especially Billy Collins, W.B. Yeats, W.H. Auden, and Elizabeth Bishop.

50. And this summer I started reading the Horatio Hornblower novels and watching the DVDs.

51. I assume that, most of the time, people are acting out of good intentions or motives.

52. I honestly am not that good at staying in touch with people. That fact really bothers me.

53. On the other hand, my best friend is someone I met in my last semester at Smith.

54. I moved around a lot when I was growing up.

55. For me, I think it was a good thing.

56. Politically, most people would probably consider me a socialist, if they knew how I thought things really ought to be.

57. Because I am a big believer in the power of governments to make things better for people.

58. In theory.

59. But practically speaking, I know you can't always get what you want.

60. When Bush fils was elected, I was afraid that things would get ugly.

61. But I never imagined it would be this bad.

62. If that offends you, I am sorry. Really.

63. Because I generally avoid confrontations at all costs.

64. I think I might be the last person in America who still likes President Clinton. Not that the Monica thing didn't bother me.

65. Sometimes, my sister Lisa makes me laugh so hard, I can barely breathe. My sister Amy is the most amazing mom I know. She nursed twins. Exclusively. No formula. For a whole year. She rocks. I just love my sisters.

66. My mom is one of my best friends. I talk to her practically every day. My dad is an amazing guy. I actually like to hang out with my parents.

67. I lived in the Washington, DC area until about 2 years ago, when we moved to Cleveland.

68. I LOVE Cleveland. It is a completely and shamefully underrated city.

69. But, I can be happy almost anywhere that I am living. One of the benefits of moving a lot as a kid. (See #s 54 and 55.)

70. I am a practicing Catholic.

71. And, trust me, I need the practice!

72. I believe that God has a plan for me, and my family. And I work hard at trusting that it will be really good.

73. My favorite passages from the Bible are Isaiah chapter 55; Jeremiah chapter 29, verses 11-15; and Luke chapter 1, verses 46-55.

74. When I was working as an intern one summer, I went through a phase where I had two cups of coffee and a bag of plain M&Ms every morning for breakfast. Now I like oatmeal, or peanut butter toast.

75. When I was little, my favorite sandwich was peanut butter and Miracle Whip. That is not as gross as it sounds. Now my favorite is tomato sandwiches with real mayonnaise. But only in August and early September.

76. If I had to look like someone else, I'd pick Scarlett Johannsson. Or Salma Hayek. But I'm pretty ok with how I look.

77. A pot of tea almost never fails to cheer me up. Especially if I am also knitting, or reading a good book.

78. I love winter and cold weather. I sometimes wish I were living somewhere even colder than Cleveland, which is pretty darn cold. Like Maine, or Iceland.

79. If we could, my husband and I would move to Canada in a minute. But we can't, because of our older son's need for specialized therapy and the fact that my husband is an attorney. Which sort of would be hard to do outside of the United States. Law degrees don't transfer that well.

80. I'm pretty much of a shameless Anglophile. And Francophile.

81. And I realize that there is something sort of inherently wrong about being both.

82. I had my first boyfriend at age 15. He was the 19-year-old brother of a friend, and he was French. And really cool.

83. I once (briefly) dated someone who is now kind of a celebrity in the blogosphere. But I'm not telling who it was.

84. I think I could really get hooked on anything that might make me feel as though I could get more things done. Like coke, or meth. So I better never try it.

85. I have never taken an illegal drug, unless you count underage drinking. Never tried pot. Not even once.

86. When I was practicing law, I did corporate tax work, with an emphasis on financial instruments. It was actually kind of fun.

87. But I hated working in a law firm.

88. Someday, I'd like to find a way to have a job that combines the three things I love most to do: read, write and knit.

89. I am a terrible housekeeper.

90. But I'm not a bad cook, and I'm even better at baking. I just don't do it enough.

91. I have resigned myself to the fact that I will never be an enthusiastic gardener.

92. I currently have a hole in the ceiling in my living room. (Cracked shower pan in bathroom above.) So I am currently using my master bath as a place for some of my stash.

93. I always leave a big tip. Especially at breakfast. Unless the server was intentionally rude.

94. I prefer showers. I take a bath about twice a year.

95. I love chocolate, especially Lindt milk chocolate.

96. I hate reality TV, but I love American Idol. I was a Constantine fan.

97. I love shopping. I especially like Target.

98. I have a little problem with shoes, and handbags. And ice cream. And diet Coke.

99. I don't understand why shoppers encounter snottiness so often in yarn stores.

100. I knit English style, and I am totally okay with that.