MeMe: 8 facts

[janestarz]

I have been tagged by anemoona to tell you eight little things or facts about me that are not public knowledge.

#1 - the back

I've had a back problem since I was seventeen years old. It started when I was working as a check-out girl at AH, where the repitition of movement combined with crappy chairs made my lower back so sore I had to get therapy for it. I didn't do my exercises like I should have, but the back has recovered during my time as a receptionist in the year after I quit AH. My back is always a weak spot though (regardless whether this is because of my work at AH). When I stand for longer periods of time, my lower back will start to hurt. If I sit at my desk too long, it's the middle back. At work, it's my shoulders giving me crap.

#2 - my looks

I have a love-hate relationship with my looks. On one hand, I really can't care less whether I look good or not. I'd just as well run out in sweatpants and a t-shirt as dress up in a skirt and a top (barring bad weather of course). The fact that NoKey really doesn't care either because he looks through the exterior, isn't helping much either.
Because of this, I sometimes feel unattractively fat or ugly when I look in the mirror when I am wearing sweatpants. When I wear nice clothes and dress well, I feel less ugly, and more beautiful. I believe then that the extra pounds are invisible - which they mostly are.
This makes it all the more hard to deal with them, of course.

#3 - the bathroom at work

I have a great hatred for the bathroom at work. It is quite clean, they take good care of that, but ever since I first used the bathroom here on the ninth of July 2007, I knew I would hate it forever.
The reason for this is the toilet paper. I don't really care whether it is thick or thin, because you just adjust the number of sheets to obtain the desired wad to wipe off. The toilet paper here is inside a dispenser that doesn't work well. If there are two rolls of paper inside, the lower roll which you have to use refuses to turn and dispense the paper. It tears off at the perforation or in the middle of the sheet. Great, one more sheet. Let's get a dozen more, shall we? Oh, look! It's only half of one...

#4 - Curly

Though I am more of a cat person I also love dogs. We've had a dog for most of my childhood. The first dog Bobbby was a labrador, and obedient. The second dog was already ancient when we got her, she had seen four families and had grown up with cats. She had played with Bobby when she was a pup. Her name was Curly, and she was the most smart and sweet dog ever.
There are many fond memories of Curly, including when I would walk her that Vlekje would come along. She would play with the cats - all were afraid of her, though Vlekje soon realised that Curly was mostly harmless and just pretended to be afraid of her. Curly would lie on her back in the grass next to the house, clutching a thick branch and rolling and snapping and yowling of fun. Then, she'd roll on one shoulder, check to see if we were still watching her, and do it all over again.
If I'd ever get a dog again, it would be another Bouvier de Flandres, and it would be a well-trained dog from very smart parents.

#5 - lists

I have a great love for lists. I probably learned it from TommyCee, who also always made lists. I can't stand chaos and I need to organise chaos in order to oversee it and work with it - something that in my current job is very important. My most important list is my to-do list of costumes, which lies in my atelier. It holds all items of clothing I still need to make. "A tunic for Manesni, black cotton" and "Hammerpants for Manesni, black silk" are items that could be on the list (could be, not is). I always divide orders into bitesize chunks like that, because it feels good to be able to strike something off the list.
My good idea of last week was to make The List (or the lits, as Ozjish would call it) digital. I'd like to have a webpage where I can just see the list. This is easily designed in Access, but we don't run Access at home. An SQL database would be better, but we didn't get around to designing it.

#6 - irrational fears

I have an irrational fear of organizing something. I am the kind of person who, when they have a good idea, likes to take action and do it. The problem with this is that I have to motivate other people, who usually are less inclined to take action and in the end, do not do their part, do it too late, or opt out at all.
I have a totally irrational fear of this happening to the Anarquendor, the elven archer group nathreee and I are setting up. I am very inspired and like to spout ideas to Nathreee, who gets enthusiastic in turn. Since we live on opposite ends of the country (which sounds worse than it is since it's only a two-hour drive) NoKey installed a php-forum to chat. However, people hardly post anything on the forum, hardly deign to reply to my e-mails. My most irrational fear is that the meeting on the 16th of February will only see four people coming on over, NoKey himself being out of town on that date (his fault, not mine in planning).

#7 - Wow

I do not play World of Warcraft and have no desire to do so either. I don't like any games that have to do with 3d fights, since I always get lost in them (even in Doom!). The nature of World of Warcraft is such that you spend tremendous amounts of time on a character in order to have fun with it. Similar to live roleplay, but at least the designing of a character doesn't cost any money per se, and it takes a lot less time. You can plan the character during long trips, in idle hours at work, during lunch when the colleagues insist on talking about soccer, etc. Wow has caused Goofy to focus less on roleplay and more on Wowtechniques during D&D, trying to kill the most enemies, getting the most hatred, and getting the drop.

#8 - the market

Though it's a hassle each and every time I go, the market is one of the places with many people I like to visit. It is a stewing-pot of culture and trends. You meet Turkish bakers, Hindustan fabric-salesmen, Maroccan herb-sellers, and pure Rotterdammers selling Dutch smartlappen (a kind of music). You see people in Staphorster garb walking over the market in summer, Rotterdammers shouting at eachother because they're in eachothers way, foreign cultures buying and enjoying stroopwafels. You see the people selling those horrible Crocodile sandles and then a few weeks later there is a salesman selling beads and fake gems to put in the round holes of these sandals.
It is, to me, also a social trip. The cloth merchants know me, and I never have to haggle for fabrics any more. I greet Joke, and chat with her, go by Piet and ask him how carnaval was, and incidentally buy 40 meters of fabric to take home. Despite the market being packed with people, I almost always like to go.

If you want to share eight facts too, snag at whim. I will not tag people because most of you have probably already done it or far to little time to bother with it.