Okay, so actually this is like my 104th post, but close enough... here's the 100 facts about me! Get comfy, grab some coffee... it may take a while to get through them all!

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100 Things Jessica...

1. I was born May 12, 1974 in Streator, Illinois.

2. The doctor who delivered me looked just like Drew Carey.

3. It was Mother's Day. So, that means I am 'Sunday's Child, full of grace'.

4. I've spent my whole life debunking that theory. I ran into everything as a child! And, still do on occasion today.

5. I am the youngest of two girls.

6. My older sister is Jodi, 2 and a half years older.

7. Yes, that half year matters (though probably not as much to her).

8. I could play for hours by myself when I was little.

9. Jodi couldn't stand it.

10. We did play together sometimes, for a while, before getting sent to our rooms.

11. In the summer, we would use our Barbies' heads as squirt guns.

12. We were not what you'd call 'girly girls'. :)

13. When I needed time away from mom and Jodi, I would climb to the roof of our house to get away from them. I thought it was great and knew neither of them would follow me up there.

14. Jodi got me a sweet bunny for my b-day one year, as a surprise.

15. I loved him and named him Rascal.

16. The bigger surprise was when Rascal had had enough of being 'cooped up' with the chickens and 'ran away'.

17. It absolutely broke my little heart.

18. He came back a few days later, just long enough for me to know he was okay. That was all I needed.

19. I could spend hours in that stinky chicken coop.

20. I named every last one of the chickens.

21. They all looked the same except for one plump white one with really bad feet.

22. She was 'Snow White'. The rest were all 'Brownie' -One, -Two, -Three...

23. Yes, I believe I knew the difference between all the brown ones.

24. Dad tried having a couple for dinner a time or two.

25. I went to bed hungry those nights.

26. I can be quite stubborn at times. Though, I prefer the term: principled.

27. I've never been much of a 'follower'. I do my own thing - not really all that concerned about what anyone else may say or think.

28. I never realized what a gift that was, growing up.

29. Though, many times, I was somewhat of a 'loner'.

30. We moved to Georgia the summer going into my Junior Year.

31. It was not easy, though at the same time, very surreal.

32. Jodi had just started college and stayed in Illinois, so it was just me.

33. My friends back home and I wrote ALL the time.

34. It was rare for me to go a day or two without a letter from someone.

35. God bless them. (Oh, if only we'd had E-MAIL back then!!)

36. Girls can be a bit 'clickish' in high school, so my primary friends were guys.

37. I took two years of floral design as an elective, so my guy friends were all 'Ag guys' from joining FFA.

38. I got 2nd place for a floral arrangement I made for the local fair.

39. I still have the ribbon.

40. All the plants I have are named. My favorite is: Bobby, my Scheflera. It's supposedly a 'money plant', so I thought, money = denaro = Robert De Niro = Bob De Niro = Bobby! (The second one I bought, I named Johnny - I bet you can follow that train of thought a bit easier!)

41. Although I did not go on to be an actual future farmer of America, I did go on to attend Piedmont College up in the NE mountains of Georgia.

42. I loved my time there.

43. Even though my Sophomore year was the 2nd hardest year of my life.

44. I had 8 room-mates in 4 and a half years.

45. That doesn't make me look good, does it?

46. One was crazy (not an exaggeration), one was wild, one was very sweet, one was not-so-sweet and the last 4 were actually house-mates who were all very nice and got along quite well.

47. Yes, it took me 4 and a half years to complete a 4 year program.

48. I was lucky to accomplish that.

49. I hated school.

50. Since the first day of Kindergarten. (Mom said I went the first day, tried it, decided it wasn't so much for me and then continued to cry every morning after that. And even tried not eating lunch in order to not be sent to school... didn't work. I just went to school hungry. I blamed it all on mom. Said if she hadn't registered me, the principal never would've known I was there.)

51. However, I did manage to go from making the Dean's (probation) list Freshman year to making the Dean's (good) list Senior year! And that's not easy to do!

52. I majored in Psychology.

53. I sat in my advisor's office for 3 hours one day, trying to determine a major (since Spelling wasn't an option and that was my only strong suit all through school).

54. We never settled on one that day, but I signed up for a basic Psych class the next semester and I found it interesting, so I stuck with that.

55. However, I also ended up sticking with my college job, so never actually put my degree to official use.

56. Though we do get our share of case studies at the Blue Willow.

57. Most of whom work there! :)

58. One thing stuck with me from my years of Psych studies... "Correlation does not mean causation". (Dr. Vance would be so proud. She said if we learned nothing else, be sure to learn that... that's all I had to hear!)

59. Before my (many) years at the gift shop, I worked in several different manufacturing plants.

60. Not to brag, but I am a champ when it comes to mass production. :)

61. The most enjoyable was Stanley-Proto Tools.

62. The worst, by FAR, was Wal-Co (packaging VHS tapes for Maxell).

63. It was about 90 deg. outside. And about 190 deg. inside the warehouse. I don't do heat.

64. I was the only white girl working there.

65. At first, they all hated and resented me. But, the longer I stayed, the more they grew to respect me.

66. Most temp. workers didn't come back from lunch there (no exaggeration).

67. I like proving myself to those who may not believe I have what it takes.

68. I must've fit in better than I'd thought, because one day at lunch, the supervisor kindly asked me what my name was and after I'd told her "Jessica", she said (in all seriousness) "Shenequa?" (Now, I couldn't be a whiter white girl and I wanted to say: "Do I look like a Shenequa to you?" but knew better. I was out-numbered.)

69. One day, they put me at the receiving end of the line, stacking the product on pallets... and about 3 hours into it, the supervisor came over and informed me that they all had to be re-packaged. They didn't pass inspection. All on account of me. (In my defense though, she didn't tell me I was supposed to be checking them... just to be stacking them.)

70. They didn't like me much after that.

71. Come to think of it, I didn't like me too much either that day.

72. BUT, I did keep going back! Even after that. And even though they didn't speak to me again.

73. I interned at the Boys and Girls Club during college.

74. I loved it.

75. The kids were great.

76. And I promised them that I'd still come back to see them, even once my internship was completed.

77. They didn't believe me. They had heard that before, from other interns.

78. Turned out, they were right.

79. I still think about them and hate that I didn't prove them wrong.

80. My two favorite kids now are my niece and nephew.

81. They both already love music.

82. I like to think they got that from me. :)

83. My greatest passion is music.

84. I listen to it - and not just passively... I really listen to it. Most all kinds. All the time.

85. I read up on it (the singers and where the songs came from...). I drink it. I breathe it. It's my greatest medicine.

86. Dad said once there was no way I could listen to all the cd's I have. I said, "Sure, I do. It just depends on my mood to what I listen to." He said, "Well, in that case, you probably have listened to all of them." (?) Now, wait just one minute... did he just call me moody??? :)

87. My first favorite songs were "All I Need" by Jack Wagner and "99 Red Balloons" by Nena. I still remember listening to them on my transistor radio that hung on my headboard. It was a ladybug. Such a product of the '80s...

88. I especially love back-up singers, for some reason. ("Leavin' on the Midnight Train to Georgia... WOO HOO!") Gotta love it!

89. And I LOVE when a song starts out soft and then builds up to something really great, just to then end real soft and quiet again!

90. I learned all of Enrique Iglesias' spanish versions of his songs.

91. I enjoy singing along with those more than I do the English versions.

92. I can't sing worth a flip.

93. And I don't know a lick of Spanish.

94. I took 4 years of French (two in high school, two in college).

95. I don't remember much of it, but for some unknown reason, to this day, I can't see sugar without thinking 'sucre' first (?).

96. I've never really had much desire to travel overseas.

97. However, I would love to see the Pacific Northwest one day.

98. My favorite place to visit is Boston, Mass.

99. I love taking pictures of fountains everywhere I go.

100. I love a good joke, too, but when I go to re-tell them, all I can ever remember is the punch line... so even though they still crack me up, nobody else knows why I'm laughing!