Twenty [More] Statements about me. Plus one.

I've done this before, but what the heck, I'm bored.

More things you should know about me (or not, as the case may be):

1. I don't eat fish. My father fished a great deal when I was growing up -- both as a hobby and a way to feed a household of seven -- and I got spoiled: I only ate fish that had been frozen within an hour of being caught, or fresh fish that was less than half a day old. I do like fish chowder, and clam chowder, and I adore shrimp, crawfish, crab and lobster.

2. I like to read or recite poetry aloud, although I have not been called upon to do this in public since I was in high school.

3. I used to read in church. I was very, very good at it. So good at it that at one point when I was lector coordinator I would hold workshops on how to read in church.

4. I love to travel. The number of countries I have visited now stands at either fifteen or sixteen, depending upon whether you classify Scotland as a separate country. (In my last list I forgot to include the Bahamas, which I visited on my honeymoon.) I have visited forty-four of the fifty states (everything but the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, Wisconsin, and oddly enough, Arkansas). [ETA: Alaska! How could I forget Alaska! Although I have now gone to Hawaii.] I have also visited the U.S. Virgin Islands. Yes, I count myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel this much.

5. I have a cookbook signed by Alton Brown. ("Pat, don't run with kitchen shears! Alton".) At the time I went to the book signing, I had no clue who Alton Brown was (I was simply keeping a friend company) but I have since become a big fan. AB is even cuter in person than he is on tv.

6. Red beans and rice is a comfort food for me, and it grieves me that no one else in my household will eat it. Three of them are vegetarians, and proper red beans and rice is not vegetarian (seeing how it contains both bacon and andouille sausage).

7. I have trouble remembering whether my anniversary falls on July 2 or July 3, but I can recall with ease which scientific term first appeared in a work by James Joyce, and which child's toy was created by the son of a famous architect.*

8. I hate Scotch. Passionately. Various attempts to get me to drink it have generally met with failure (with the exception of some Highland single malt I drank at the bottler's). When I drink, which is rarely these days, I drink wine or mixed drinks (I like rum-based drinks best of all).

9. In law school, my best grades were in Criminal Procedure, Advanced Criminal Procedure, Appellate Advocacy, and Evidence. Which is, of course, why I went into ... land use and real property law.

10. A man who would go on to run for vice-president (albeit on a third-party ticket) once gave me a photocopied booklet of short stories by J.D. Salinger. Matt Gonzalez is a very sweet guy.

11. I have a soft spot in my heart for Marines. I am the daughter and niece of Marines who served honorably in the Pacific during World War II, and I have never met a Marine I didn't like. My dad used to sing the Marine Hymn as a lullaby.

12. My very favorite t-shirt was a gift a few years ago and reads "Certifiable Mad Genius. I have a Death Ray and know how to use it. Better living through merciless experimentation." Unfortunately, it seems to have disappeared around the house. My favorite t-shirt that I don't own (yet) is from ThinkGeek.com, and says "You read my t-shirt. That's enough social interaction for one day."

13. My kids are messy and disorganized. They inherited this. Sadly, from their mother. Unfortunately, they did not also inherit my clear handwriting -- theirs is almost illegible.

14. I have been known to swear like a sailor, although I have been really working on this lately. Mainly because swearing a lot in my workplace can get you written up.

15. It says something about the crowd I used to run with, but for one ten-year period (1995 - 2005) I attended more ordinations than weddings.

16. Until I was forty, I pretty much dressed only in black, and shades of green and blue. At some point after that, I ended up owning six pink shirts, as well as several in shades of magenta, peach and salmon. I seem to look better in brighter colors. As the song goes, I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.

17. I firmly believe that life is too short to eat bad ice cream.**

18. I once typeset an entire press ready publication in Word. In 1990, when it was much more difficult to do so. (I was the managing editor of the Stanford Environmental Law Journal at the time.)

19. I have had one professional singing lesson. For one of my birthdays, I was given a voice lesson with Elissa Weiss, a gifted professional musician and wonderful singing teacher (and good friend) in New York, who taught me to sing "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" and suggested that I get more lessons when I get back home to California. I never followed up (sorry, Elissa). I regret this sometimes.

20. I have a fondness for underdogs and losers, which explains my devotion to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Democratic Party. (Sorry, I could not resist that last one.)

21. I'm much nicer in person than I am on the Internet, although I have still been told that I intimidate people. This confuses me no end.

Anything else you want to know?

* The answers, in case you are even slightly interested, are quark (which first appeared in the pages of Finnegan's Wake, where Murray Gell-Mann saw it, although he had previously decided on the sound that the word should have, based on the sound ducks make), and Lincoln Logs, which were created by John Lloyd Wright and based on the foundation supports created by his father Frank for the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. See, don't you feel smarter already?

**Bad chocolate, on the other hand, is occasionally a necessity.