25 Random Things

The name of the game is simple:  List 25 random things about yourself or your life.  I did this in 2009, and it was fun, but a challenge to get to #25!  I like looking back at it and thought I should do a new one for a New Year.  I will also post the old one below :)

2011 25 Random Things:

1.  I never used to like Hot Sauce, and now that I am finding the Mexican side of my gringa-self, I love hot sauce!!!  I especially like it on my chips, and there is something satisfying about awakening your taste buds to the point of nearly burning them off, lol.  Yum!
2.  I am embarrassed to admit I am completely addicted to Farmville.  I try to suppress it and hide it, but I have been playing for over a year now, and can't wait to ''tend'' to my farm everyday.  There is something about it that is an anxiety-reliever or de-stresser for me.  It's silly I know.  But I know I am not the only one, cause I have 40 ''neighbors'' or friends that play too!
3.  I am about to turn 30 years old in less than 2 months, and I am completely 100% okay with it!  In fact I have found life to be more enjoyable the older I get. 
4.  I have found one thing that gets me really ''heated'' or pissed off  this past year, and that is when people deliberately choose to ignore the truth or the facts.  They choose to be blinded and held captive by fear instead, simply because they are too proud to admit they may actually be wrong.  This of course started with all the debate on Immigration, It's astonishing to me how ignorant and hateful people can be, and they don't even have their facts straight.  I usually get along with everybody, but these types of people I have to ignore or remove from my life, cause I just can't tolerate this kind of ignorance and negativity.
5.  I love vegetables...I really can't think of one that I don't like.  But I don't really care much for fruit, there are only a few fruits I enjoy, mango being my favorite.
6.  I am a clean freak, it's actually gotten a lot better since I became a mother (Pre- Elena I was on medication for OCD), but I still obsess about cleanliness, especially clean floors and bathrooms. 
7.  My Mother in law (who I live with), is the complete opposite of OCD, she is a hoarder, lol...seriously.  It makes life for me challenging sometimes, I seriously sometimes have mild anxiety attacks over her dis-organization.  But I guess in a way we balance each other out, I have become less OCD, and she has become more clean and organized since we have lived together.
8.  I love the beach, I would like to live close to a beach someday again.  I would take hot sunny weather any day over cold cloudy weather. 
9.  I do NOT like skinny jeans.  I wish they would go out of style already(If you wear them, I do not mean to offend you, just not my style).  Bell bottoms should come back :)
10.  My favorite candies include Peanut M&M's, Butterfingers, Kit-Kat, and Reces Pieces.
11.  I cook sometimes now, which is way more than ever before!  I want to learn how to cook more things.
12.  I am very much okay with having just one kid.  I would also be open to having a second child in the future, just not right now.  We'll see where life takes us.
13.  I haven't had a speeding ticket yet in my life! 
14.  Blue and I watch a movie nearly every single night, at least 5 days a week, we lay in bed together after we put Elena to bed, and cuddle, sometimes eat snacks, and watch a movie.  We have a very large collection of movies, and are always getting new ones.
15.  The last movie I saw in the theater was Transformers, it must have been about 5 years ago, cause I still lived in Florida at the time.
16.  My favorite foods here in Mexico are Enchiladas de Mole, and Sopa Azteca.
17.  I am a sucker for giving money to the poor people on the street, especially the children and moms with babies, it still breaks my heart every time I see them.  I try to keep extra coins in my purse at all times, just to give to them.
18.  Tulips are my favorite flower.
19.  Someday I want to have a built-in-bookshelf full of books from ceiling to floor...I will pass them along to Elena.  (Now with all this technology I wonder if that will ever happen, paperbacks may be a thing of the past :(( ).
20.  When I was a little girl I wanted to be a teacher or a writer.  So far Elena tells me she wants to be a drummer or a painter.
21.  If I could change one thing about myself physically, It would be a tossup between having a lower hairline (I hate having a high forehead), and having beautiful white straight teeth and the perfect smile (I hate my gums and mouth/teeth in general).
22.  I love coffee, but typically limit myself to 1 cup a day in the morning. 
23.  I hate shopping malls, always have.  I don't think I have been shopping in a mall for 3 years or more.
24.  When I was a teenager I loved thrift stores and vintage clothes, I went through a hippie stage and a kind of gothic dark stage.  I was definitely an individual, and a little different than the majority.
25.  I have been shy pretty much my whole life, especially as a child,  but I think I am less shy now than ever before.  It's weird how shy both Blue and I are, but Elena is the complete opposite....she is SO outgoing!

My 25 things from February 2009:

1. I have a almost 2 year old daughter, Elena Sarah Maria Benitez
2. I am getting married to Blue on March 20th, in Acapulco, Mexico, and I am excited about it : )
3. Marriage scares me
4. I love to sleep on clean crisp bed sheets
5. I have trouble sleeping, i tend to think a lot when it's time to shut my mind off, and i toss and turn a lot
6. I love thai food, sushi, seafood in general
7. I am a sugar addict and would eat cookies every morning for breakfast if i could, i love love love cupcakes
8. I worked at Starbucks for 7 years and miss lots of things about it, except waking up at 4am.
9. I love to travel, and have been fortunate to see some really amazing places, one of my favorite being Cornwall, England (Southern coast)....shoutout to my girl Anya for taking me there :)
10. I will have lived in Mexico City, Mexico for a year this coming spring, and i have a love/hate relationship with it. Lots of amazing and beautiful things here, and some not so much.
11. I wear flip flops a lot, even when it's freezing out, then i just wear them with socks, and i even have Blue doing it now...we went out to eat the other night in flip flops with socks on and scarfs.
12. I am learning a lot about carpentry lately, and i actually really like it, I can't wait to build my own piece of furniture, i think i am going to make a bookshelf for Elena.
13. I watch a lot of children's shows/cartoons with Elena, and I actually enjoy Yo Gabba Gabba, i find myself singing and dancing to it, even after it's over.
14. My parents divorced when i was 5 or 6, i don't really have any memories of them together, and i can't really imagine them together. I got a really great step parents out of it.
15. I used to be seriously seriously OCD, and then i had a baby, and it was pretty much cured.
16. I love to clean and do laundry, i especially like to keep clean floors and bathrooms
17. I don't know how to cook at all, except using the microwave, but someday i hope to learn, and actually enjoy it.
18. I currently do not have a kitchen to cook in, we get all of our meals from other ladies in the neighborhood who cook, or take-out, or we eat out. And we do all of our dishes outside in a courtyard. We hand washed all of our clothes in the courtyard as well until a few months ago when we got a wash machine...thank god :)
19. I love the ocean, i love floating in it
20. I studied to be a drug and alcohol counselor, but only got to practice it a bit, it was hard work.
21. I used to so a lot of stupid things when i was younger, but i made some very good and funny memories, i think i have grown up a lot, but i still miss the crazy days
22. I love Nascar, but it's hard to follow living in Mexico, 48 is my driver
23. I love to read, if i am into a book, i will finish it in a day or two, if i am not that into it, i will finish it anyway.
24. I notice myself acting more and more like my mother, especially when interacting with Elena. I even do things that i used to beg my mother not to do because they were embarrassing.
25. I was born in St. Louis, which is a great city with lots to do, moved to Indiana as a teenager which was cold, then on to Florida as a young adult which was beautiful and high maintenance, then Texas which is full of really nice and REAL people, and now to Mexico which is a whole other world.