Lucky, Lucky, Lucky Turkey

That's me! Listen to what happened to me today!

I was at a martial arts tournament, and I was helping clean up afterward and I found a lottery ticket on the floor. I thought "What the heck? Stranger things have happened." This was a couple of weeks ago. I put the ticket in my purse and forgot about it.

Today, I was cleaning out the old receipts and stuff from my purse and I came across the ticket and thought I'd go online to see if I won anything. Well, I matched three of the Kicker numbers in a row and won $100! Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!

Mark your calendars

There are a couple of important dates in November of which I would like to remind all of you who read this. Some of these may not apply to you.

1. NOV. 16 – The full moon. I know, this doesn't seem like an important date, but weird things start to happen around this time of the month, so keep in mind that tomorrow is the height of weirdness for November and don't act surprised – you have been warned. Weird things have already started happening to me. Here's hoping they don't come to a head tomorrow.

2. Nov. 18 – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire! The second of the films that I have been eagerly anticipating for this half of the year. It was my favorite of all the books, and judging from what I've seen of the film from the trailers and the official website, this film will not disappoint. I hear is "darker and scarier" than the previous three – the first one to get a PG-13 rating.

3. Nov. 24 – THANKSGIVING, of course! Do I really need to say anything more about this day? I love it – more than Christmas, even. You get the benefit of family, without all the stress of the "season" for 6 weeks (at least) beforehand. Plus, being single has its privileges. You ALWAYS get invited somewhere, so I never have to cook. (the fact that I'm a terrible cook would scare people away from my house after one year anyway!) I always help clean, though.

4. Nov. 25 – Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving. Whoever ventures out on this day is certifiably NUTS! Have you gotten a gander at 224? Insane. Insane. As for me, I'll be at home putting up my Christmas tree (maybe) while watching the dog show.

5. Nov. 26 – ROB AND ELIZABETH'S ANNIVERSARY! Five wonderful years, folks! FIVE YEARS. NOVEMBER 26, ROB!

6. Nov. 29 – Tim Harker's birthday (my wonderful brother-in-law). I never know what to get him. Music is always a good gift. He always has quite a long CD wish list. Though I feel like I should be more creative.

That's November highlights in a nutshell.

A small peak into the life of me.

I decided to answer all the questions, too. I've already answered most of the end questions during the comment barrage at Kimmy's blog, but for those of you who did not participate *guys*, I'll answer them here for you.



1. What is the geekiest part of your music collection? Neil Diamond. Refer to question #24 at the end for an explanation.

2. What do you eat when you raid the fridge late at night? I don't raid the fridge.

3. What is your secret guaranteed weeping movie? Life is Beautiful

4. Do you have a completely irrational fear? Injections. I actually cry whenver a Dr. mentions that I have to get a shot.

5. What is the little physical habit that gives away your insecure moments? I stammer when I speak.

6. Are you a pyromaniac? No

7. Do you have too many interests? Some say I do, but it's only those who want to monopolize my time and feel I don't give them enough of it.

8. Do you know anyone famous? No.

9. Describe your bed. Oak, queen-sized pencil bed with the best bedding, EVER! I love my bed! Wish I was there, now.

10. Spontaneous or planned? Both.

11. Who should play you in a movie about your life? Probably Uma Thurman, since she looks so much like me :)

12. Do you know how to play poker? Nope.

13. What do you carry with you at all times? My head.

14. What do you miss most about being a kid? Having my biggest worry being whether or not my mom put bologna on my sandwich.

15. Are you happy with your given name? Sure. Why sweat the small stuff?

16. How much money would it take to get you to give up the Internet for one year? None. I don't have it at home, so it wouldn't be a huge step not to have it at all. But if I thought I could get any money to give it up, I'd set the stakes quite high and go from there.

17. When's the last time you cried? Last Wednesday.

18. What color is your bedroom? Deep colors – reds, oranges, greens, plums and maybe even some more. These are the colors in my Moroccan-looking bedspread that covers the bed I so love.

19. What was the last song you were listening to? Whatever the last song is on Andrew Peterson's "The Far Country".

20. Have you ever been in a play? A few.

22. Do you talk a lot? Do I talk a lot? I don't know sometimes I do, I guess. But only when I have a lot to say otherwise i just don't say much at all but if i have a lot on my mind or if i am just feeling kind of funny on any given day i might spew out a lot of nonsense like when i'm answering a lot of questions so i have some sort of excuse to put off doing my work did i mention that i'm working on a golden lotus shell? that's a firework. i'm an artist and my current job is desinging fireworks packaging among other things. i don't really like it too much, after all, fireworks packages are all loud and gaudy and the more colors and explosions you use on there, the better. for this one, i'm drawing a lotus flower, but it will probably get rejected because it's too artsy. how about that? an artist being too artsy doesn't make much sense, does it? do i talk too much?

23. Do you like yourself and believe in yourself? I believe I can draw a damn good lotus flower, and i love myself for that :).

25. Do you consider yourself to be a nice person? I guess. A nice person who can draw a damn good lotus flower!

28. Which musical instrument do you wish you could play? guitar

29. Favorite fabric? Flannel. For the sheets on the bed that I so love.

30. Something you love and hate? My cat, Marcel-Henri. I love it when he purrs (which is not very often), and I hate it when he bites (which is quite often). But mostly, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE him for the quirky little thing that he is :)

33. What's the one language you want to learn? French.

34. How do you eat an apple? I bite into it with my two front teeth, then I chew up that bite until I can swallow it.

35. What do you order at a bar? I'm not ashamed to say it – draft beer (or is it draught?).

36. Have you ever pierced your body parts? Just ears.

37. Do you have tattoos? Yes.

38. Do you drive stick? I have a Turbo. It simply MUST be stick.

39. What's one trait you hate in a person? A huge ego.

40. What kind of watch(es) do you wear? I don't normally wear one, but when I do, it's my Ironman watch, and it's to keep track of my time when I run.

41. Most frivolous purchase? Soon to be my new Bunn coffee maker.

42. Do you consider yourself materialistic? Does spending $120 on a coffee maker make me materialistic?

43. What do you cook the best? I don't cook at all.

44. Favorite writing tool? My quill, of course!

45. Do you prefer to stand out or blend in? Depends on where I am.

47. What's one car you will never buy? An SUV of any kind.

48. What kind of books do you like to read? All kinds, including my geology text book from college, which I still have.

49. If you won the lottery, what would you do? Pay off my car, buy Stephie's house which may be coming up for sale pretty soon.

50. Burial or cremation? Burial.

51. How many online journals do you read regularly? I've never counted them. A few

52. What's one thing you're a sore loser at? I don't think I'm a sore loser at anything. You win some, you lose some, ya know?

53. If you don't like a person, how do you show it? In too many ways, I'm afraid.

54. Do you cry in front of your friends? I cry in front of anybody. I'm an equal-opportunity weeper. Non-discriminatory, fer shur :). I actually don't like that about myself, but I can't help what my tear ducts decide to do. It's like trying to stop breathing – I can do it for a while, but sooner or later, it gets the better of me.

55. What kind of first impression do you think you give to people? I have no idea. I can be such a flake.

56. What's one thing you like to do alone? Lots of things. I love going to movies by myself.

57. Are you a giver or a taker? Can't I be both?

58. Favorite communication method? Mental telepathy. The whole "twin thing", ya know. No? I do.

59. How many drinks before you're tipsy? I don't know. I haven't been tipsy in a very long time. I feel a little funny after one beer. Does that count as tipsy?

60. Do you think you're cute? I guess.


Here are the answers I already gave to the added numbers:

21. Favorite meal? Pizza. More specifically, Kimmy's pizza (this is a recent development in favorite meal, and by the way, any kind of pizza except for ones with fungi)

24. What is your guiltiest pleasure? I would say Days of Our Lives, too, but since it's already taken, I'll say Neil Diamond. I just love some of his songs, and it reminds of of being a kid when my parents were still together.

26. What is the best compliment you've ever received? Was from a non-Christian friend of mine who is pretty adamant about his non-belief. When he explained it was because a friend of his had a child who passed away despite fervent praying, I responded back to him sincerely, but with a faith in a God who knows things we do not. He didn't say much that day, but the next day I got an email from him saying that he couldn't get my words out of his head and that of all the "Christian" answers he could have gotten, that was one he didn't expect and it really made him think. I know it's not technically a "compliment" because it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with God, but it made me feel good nonetheless.

27. If you could meet anyone famous, dead or alive, who would it be? It would have to be, hands down, Jesus.

31. What's the first thought in your head when you wake up? Mon. - Thurs. "I hate my job. Do I really have to go?" Friday: "Ahhhh… it's Friday. Only 8 hours of my stinkin' job until the weekend."
Saturday and Sun. "Thanks, Lord, for this beautiful day."

32. Biggest Pet Peeve? I have quite a few, but I have to say one of my biggest is people who interrupt when others are trying to talk. – as if what they have to say is so much more important. Bah!

46.What do you want for Christmas? I always say "money", but no one seems to think that is an appropriate gift, so I never get any. Money is the perfect gift, because it doesn't sit around and collect dust for the next 20 years :) And, you can buy lift tickets with it – BRING ON THE SNOW!

Clarification

I wanted to clarify the whole "twins having the same fingerprint" thing. The main characteristics of the prints are the same – the ridges and whorls – however, environment plays a role in forming the minutae of a print, so in that respect, they are different. In other words, I couldn't beat a murder rap by blaming it on my sister!

The "Down-Low" on being a twin

For those of you who don't know this, I am a twin. I have an identical twin sister.

Here is lesson #1:
"Identical" refers to the fact that we come from the same egg, not that we look alike. Looking alike is a result of coming from the same egg. Because we come from the same egg, we have the same DNA. Interesting, eh? The SAME DNA. Meaning, the SAME fingerprints! Actually, the prints on our left hands would be the same, while the prints on our right hands fail at the third finger. You see, I was bitten by a dog and have an inch-long scar running down the length of the third finger on my right hand marring my otherwise perfectly matched fingerprint. Having identical twins is not genetic. It just happens – freak of nature so to speak.

The word "fraternal" refers to twins that come from two different eggs. Fraternal twins are often a boy and a girl, but not always. Also, fraternal twins do not share identical DNA, so they don't necessarily look alike. In fact, sometimes they are complete opposites of one another; one has dark hair, the other light, one is tall, the other is short, etc. However, sometimes they can look a lot alike – enough so that testing must be done to determine if they are identical or fraternal. Having fraternal twins is genetic. A woman's body may be genetically prone to realease two eggs at a time instead of just one.

A commom misconception about twins is that the first one is older. Twins are actually the EXACT same age because they were conceived at the EXACT same time.

I love being a twin. She (we'll refer to her as "Stephie" from now on) Stephie is my best friend and is the person I choose to spend my time with if given a choice. She's the first person I call when I need to talk, and she's usually the last person I talk to on any given day. Sometimes, we'll get on the phone and just talk about nothing and suddenly realize that 2 hours has passed. I can't do that with anyone else. In fact, I'm not a phone talker, and by the time I've been on it for 10 minutes, I'm ready to get off. It's different with her, though. Most things are. We moved around a lot growing up, but it never bothered us because we always had a friend in each new place. It was much harder on our brothers. We had our own language when we were very young, and I still remember a couple of words. It's interesting because the words that I can remember don't necessarily translate as one word in English; the translation is more of a description of a state or of a quality. Confusing, I know, but it makes perfect sense to Stephie and me.

DUMB questions we've been asked. And yes, people actually expect answers to these:

1. Do you ever get yourselves mixed up?
2. Are you the same age?
3. Can your parents tell you apart?
4. Why aren't you dressed alike?
5. Do you ever switch places?
6. How do you know which one you are?
7. Which one is smarter?
8. Were you born on the same day?

To question #7, I'd like to respond "Both of us are smarter than you!" HA! HA! HA!

Have a good day, all. I'm going to call Stephie.