100 THINGS ABOUT ME

1. I am a native New Yorker
2. I enjoy telling people that I am from the Bronx, because nobody expects it
3. I am the middle child of three—an older sister and a younger brother (plus an older half brother who didn’t grow up with us._
4. I am 33 but am still constantly carded.
5. I was named after the Anglo Saxon princess in Ivanhoe
6. I am Puerto Rican, Spanish, English, French, German and Welsh—(the Puerto Rican is Spanish, African and Taino Indian, so I’m adding that, too.)
7. I enjoy being multi cultural—a Bronx mutt.
8. I hated New York when I was a kid.
9. Now, I have to admit that I am home, and I love it.
10. I live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
11. I’d still like to live in the country.
12. I have no living grandparents left.
13. My grandfather used to have a chicken farm in Pennsylvania that I spent every summer at when I was little.
14. I cried myself to sleep for a year when he sold it and moved to Florida.
15. I love swimming in the Gulf of Mexico.
16. My little brother and my mom, and her brothers and my cousin all live in Florida.
17. My Dad and his brothers and my sister and some of my cousins all live in the New York Metro area.
18. My closest cousin defected and moved to L.A.
19. My dad’s mother, the Puerto Rican, came from a long line of Taino curanderas (healers and wisewomen).
20. I read tarot cards and do dream analysis and am empathic.
21. I believe that being an artist is close to being godly—creating something out of nothing.
22. I decided to be a writer when I was fifteen, and started writing a fantasy novel.
23. I’ve been reading fantasy and science fiction since I was 12.
24. It is still my favorite form of escapism…
25. But I am much more discriminating in the quality of writing since I got my bachelors degree in English with a concentration in creative writing.
26. That means I can’t ever find fantasy and science fiction books that are good enough to keep my attention—so when I find a good author, I read all of her books over and over voraciously.
27. Right now, my favorite fantasy author is Robin Hobb.
28. Her next book comes out in ten days and I can hardly wait.
29. I also play dungeons and dragons.
30. I don’t like clubbing or getting drunk off my ass.
31. I’m kind of a geek.
32. I’m also finally comfortable with the fact that I am hot and gorgeous and sexy
33. I am, however, still single.
34. I can’t figure out why.
35. Since I quit teaching, I have been dressing sexier and funkier.
36. I love to shop for vintage clothing—it’s like hunting and gathering—and everything you find is unique and not like what everyone else is wearing.
37. Fashion is my hidden passion.
38. I am addicted to magazines—fashion, home, entertainment, poetry, art—whatever is there.
39. I don’t like the news, it’s depressing, but if it’s there, I’ll read that too.
40. Have I said I’m addicted to reading?
41. I’m also addicted to television.
42. This is not a good habit for someone who wants to be a writer and an artist and should be spending her time at home on this work.
43. I always have too many projects on the burner.
44. I am writing a novel, a non fiction book on creativity and transformation, my Blog, my handwritten journal, poetry. I am finishing up my art book based on Winesburg Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson, starting a new one based on Alice in Wonderland. I would like to paint my own tarot deck. I am starting a creativity consulting business with my friend Patty, teaching/participating in a women’s group called WE—women empowered through reflection and creativity. I am working as a waitress and bartender to pay my rent, and I am doing this 100 things about me list.
45. I could make every entry as long as #44.
46. My biggest wish right now is that I didn’t have to have a day job.
47. My real biggest wish right now is to fall totally in love with a guy who is in love with me and start a home with him.
48. I really want to have children and am afraid I am running out of time.
49. Not to be corny, but, I think children are our future.
50. Actually I did write # 49 to be corny.
51. But I do believe that it’s today’s children who will make tomorrow’s world better.
52. I really loved teaching, but if I had stayed teaching, # 44 would be all about teaching, and probably twice as long.
53. I quit teaching to be true to myself and my art.
54. I still consider myself a teacher, even though I’m a bartender.
55. I was teaching the day the World Trade Center fell down.
56. The class was doing silent journal writing when the plane went over our building. Only I and Jason Ye, 16 years old, heard it. We looked at each other, but didn’t know what it was so went back to writing.
57. Our classroom windows faced away, so we didn’t see anything, but instead watched the people on the roofs and fire escapes scream in horror as the buildings went down.
58. I think September 11th changed New York City for the better.
59. And maybe the world.
60. I think being a teacher changes the world.
61. I always try to get people to become teachers.
62. I’m in huge debt, mostly because of the education needed to become a New York City public school teacher.
63. I’ve been thinking about applying to Cooper Union to get a degree in Art. If you get in, it’s free.
64. My dad was an artist—he has a master’s degree from Columbia University’s film school.
65. And yet, we still managed to grow up on welfare, or poorer than welfare.
66. I don’t know how to drive.
67. The subway or a taxi will take me most places I want to go.
68. My middle name is Maxine
69. This is getting harder than I thought it would get.
70. I have just started writing for Block magazine, a neighborhood newspaper.
71. I am not getting paid for it.
72. I write gallery reviews.
73. I have hundreds of poems.
74. I have never published them.
75. That’s not quite true.
76. I self published a limited edition chapbook of poems, paintings and prose that all came from my journal in the year 2001—the year I fell in love, got my heart broken and watched the World Trade Center fall. It’s interesting how public and private tragedies feel somewhat similar.
77. It’s called “That Which Rises.”
78. One of my students stole the only finished copy that I kept. Stole it right out of my classroom.
79. I hoped they liked it a lot if they went through all that trouble.
80. I have to get more organized so I can send all my poems out to magazines.
81. I was getting there, but I lost all my work when my laptop crashed.
82. I lost my novel, too.
83. I knew I should have saved to something, but I didn’t.
84. I learned to always save.
85. But I still don’t.
86. I’m rather smart, despite #85.
87. I’m pretty low tech, so this whole on line stuff is a bit confusing. I wish I understood it better.
88. I kind of like being so low tech and having a blog. It gives a different view point.
89. A bar patron told me I was “a thinker.”
90. Uh, that’s a little bit of an understatement.
91. Sometimes, I’d rather stay at home reading and writing and thinking than go out just to go out.
92. Maybe that’s why I’m still single.
93. I believe that we should all be judged by the content of our character, and by our actions.
94. But I cannot deny that what we present on the surface is important, and actually reflects what is inside.
95. What that means is that I am looking for a sexy genius—someone whose light shines through—inner and outer beauty, self confidence, sense of humor, kindness, style, intelligence, creativity, spirituality—you know, everything.
96. I can’t wait to see what is going to happen next in my life.
97. I believe the unexamined life is not worth living
98. but we shouldn’t stop with simply examining it—love it, expand on it, reach for happiness, make peace with it.
99. I believe in true love.
100.I believe anything is possible.

I saw this webring of these Hundred things about me pages. It got me going. Maybe I'll join up. If I can figure out how to do it. (see # 87)

The list is kind of a short hand me.

Try it yourself. It's a very interesting activity.