99 Things About Me

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

99 Things About Me

Updated 2/2/2011!

1. My name isn’t really Goldie.
2. I am in my 40s. Ack.
3. I am an only child.
4. My parents are both 30 years older than me and worked as engineers their whole lives. My Dad was a draftsman/designer and my Mom was in quality control.
5. I was born in Vyborg, Russia.
6. My home town was annexed from Finland by the Soviet Union in 1940.
7. It is some 20 miles away from Finland, and receives Finnish TV.
8. It is over 800 years old.
9. That explains the unusual architecture and street layout.
10. It is also located (essentially) on the Baltic Sea shore.
11. From the time I was 7 till I was 15, every summer we went to live on the sea shore for a month. We lived in a cabin and rented a boat for a month.
12. I learned to both swim and row when I was 8. I was very good at rowing. That came in handy when I was learning to drive.
13. I bought my first car two months before my 30th birthday, and got my license at age 30.
14. Another family that lived in cabins with us every year was my Mom’s best friend and her son, one year younger than me. We grew up together and were best friends until teen years.
15. He died at age 36 in an apartment fire in my home town.
16. I went to a school where they started teaching English in 2nd grade.
17. I was a very strange, nerdy, dorky kid and was very unpopular in high school.
18. I was teased a lot for being tall and skinny. Now I would give anything to have my skinny figure back again.
19. I had two close friends in my class, a boy and a girl. We stayed in touch until we were in our thirties.
20. The girl died at age 35 as a result of a car accident.
21. The boy still writes sometimes. He is now a pastor in my home town.
22. I went to a math camp almost every summer from 1980 until 1987, first as a camper, then as a counselor.
23. In 1982, I did well on the tests in math camp and was admitted into a boarding school for gifted children with emphasis on math and physics.
24. The boarding school never sent me admission papers, because they had a non-written policy not to accept ethnic Jews, so I never went there.
25. The real reason why I wanted to go there was to get away from my parents and my small town.
26. My ethnicity is 75% Jewish and 25% Polish.
27. I have a great-aunt that escaped from a ghetto during WWII. Her parents (my great-grandparents) were executed by the Germans on Orthodox Easter (as a present to the local ethnic Russians), but she ran away. She managed to get rid of her ID that said she was a Jew and procure another ID that said “Russian”. She was caught and sent to Germany to work there for a farmer. She returned to the USSR in 1945, barely escaping the Soviet prison camps. She is a very kind and social person, and helped raise me.
28. Like 99% of my Soviet peers, I was born and raised Atheist.
29. I was converted to Christianity in 1989 in St-Petersburg, Russia, by Campus Crusade missioners from Miami University (Ohio). In 1992, I converted to Orthodoxy. I attend a Greek Orthodox church and my both children were baptized in Russia.
30. My oldest son left church in 2005, my youngest son left church in 2008, I left church in 2009. They're atheists, I'm an atheist-leaning agnostic, for the sake of keeping an open mind.
31. I went to college in 1984-89 in St-Petersburg University. I studied mathematics and computer science.
32. I really wanted to be a journalist.
33. I lived in a dorm setting for a total of 7 years and had a total of 10 roommates. I hate living with roommates.
34. One time during my first year in college, two out of my four roommates were a lesbian couple that made out whenever they thought we weren’t looking. I caught a glimpse once and was very impressed. That was 1984 and there wasn’t much of that going around back then.
35. In 1986, Channel 1 of the Finnish TV showed several Emmanuel movies. It was a big event in my home town that basically shut the whole town down for the duration of the movies, as everyone was glued to the screen.
36. I met my husband Mr. Goldie in college, in the dorm. He was my friend’s roommate.
37. It took me about six months to snare Mr. Goldie. To that end, I borrowed their iron every other evening, and returned it to them the next evening. I stayed in their room to chat each time. Eventually, it worked.
38. When Mr. Goldie proposed to me, we were both dead drunk.
39. I graduated in 1989 and moved to a small town in Moscow region to work as a programmer. Mr. Goldie stayed behind for another two years to finish school.
40. I have mixed feelings about long-distance relationships. The separation is excruciating, but the personal freedom is not bad at all.
41. Mr. Goldie and I got married in 1991. We were married in court on October 5, with one other person present (my Dad). Our wedding was in a Lutheran church in my home town and it was a brief ceremony after the Sunday service. We were married by a Finnish priest and my classmate (the one that later became pastor) was translating. We had a small party at my parents’ apartment. There were 12 people total, including us.
42. I had a wedding ring that my Mom had bought for me when I was little. Mr. Goldie had a wedding ring he had borrowed from his Dad, and gave it back to him later. I had a white dress on that was too short in the waist and only went down to my knees, that I had bought in a store in Moscow. Mr. Goldie was wearing a suit that he had borrowed from his brother.
43. Our sons were born in 1993 (LilProgrammer) and 1995 (ChinchillaBoy).
44. I lost my programming job right after LilProgrammer was born. I went on maternity leave and they didn’t let me come back. They had also laid off every woman in the IT department while I was on leave.
45. When LilProgrammer was 18 months old, I found a part-time job as admin assistant to a private school owner/principal. The job sucked and I quit after six months.
46. Mr. Goldie and I took turns watching LilProgrammer. Out of boredom, Mr. Goldie taught LilProgrammer to work with electronics. LilProgrammer knew how to use pliers, wire cutters, etc. by age two. He knew names of all electronic parts by age three, and took an old TV apart when he was four.
47. He started daycare as soon as he turned two.
48. After my admin assistant job, I worked as a technical translator for eight months until ChinchillaBoy was born. One month, I made $350 in addition to my salary by translating an ERWIN manual into Russian. I have no recollection of what ERWIN does.
49. LilProgrammer was miserable when his baby brother was born.
50. In the first five years of his life, ChinchillaBoy had four overnight hospitalizations, three surgeries, and more visits to the ER that I can count. The doctors and nurses in the ER knew us on a first-name basis.
51. During the same five years, ChinchillaBoy was the cutest baby/toddler around that literally stopped people on the street with his charming good looks. I had people suggesting to me that I try him in the modeling business.
52. I tried stricter parenting with LilProgrammer, but did not like the results so I tried attachment parenting with ChinchillaBoy. That worked great.
53. In 1997, we moved to America, following my parents who left in 1996, that were in turn following my aunt who left in 1994, that was following my cousin who left in 1992. You see how that works.
54. I found my first job three months after we came and it was an entry level programming job.
55. We received foodstamps for three or four months, Medicaid for about a year, and daycare vouchers for a little less than a year. We never received any money from Welfare. We were scheduled to, but then I found work.
56. LilProgrammer and ChinchillaBoy started daycare in America when they were four years and eighteen months old, respectively. ChinchillaBoy hated daycare and cried there all day, every day for three months straight. Then one day he decided he was now loving it. He’s been loving the public education system ever since.
57. My parents watched the children after daycare and when they were sick. They enjoyed doing it so much, they still come over every day to babysit the 10-year-old ChinchillaBoy. Don’t even ask.
58. When ChinchillaBoy was two, he ate a bad meal at McDonalds and was sick for several months, on a strict diet for about a year, and lactose intolerant for three years. Our family hasn’t been to McDonalds since.
59. But we do enjoy an occasional fast food meal or pizza.
60. I love to cook.
61. But my children don’t eat most Russian dishes, so I have to cook for them separately.
62. It is a huge pain in the ass.
63. My other favorite chores to do are laundry and grocery shopping.
64. Mr. Goldie accuses me of taking clean clothes out of the closet and washing them just for the sake of doing laundry. Need I say these accusations are completely unfair.
65. My least favorite chores are ironing, cleaning house, and cleaning the chinchilla’s cage.
66. We got a pet chinchilla in August 2005. He is 4 years old and was given to us by a friend. We love him dearly, but I really wanted a dog. He didn't get along with our dog, so we gave him away and he's living in New York now. I say the chinchilla is doing better in life than we are.
67. We got a dog in April 2006. He is a Shetland Shepherd. He was born in December 2005.
68. His name is Sparky, after the infamous South Park dog. Other names that we considered were: Courage, Brian, and Scooby.
69. The only other pet I had was a cat, at age 12. The cat lived with us for less than a year, and ran away.
70. I don’t like traveling for business.
71. I think we need to travel more as a family, but there is never enough time or money.
72. We have been to Niagara Falls, Punta Cana, Washington DC, Myrtle Beach, Ft.Lauderdale and Las Vegas. Most of these places, we have visited with our friends. Traveling with friends is the way to go!!
73. We have a vacation club membership that we want to give away. Any takers? Email me.
74. Also, the house next to our is up for sale. Who wants to live next to our amazing family? Email me.
75. We also went to Ukraine in 2005 to visit Mr. Goldie’s family.
76. I'd like to travel the world someday, but have to put the kids through college first.
77. In late 2007 and early 2008, thanks to the Russians "classmates" sites, I have reconnected with most of my old friends from school, college, and most importantly my math camp. This is the reason why I want to come visit. They are all doing well and look great!! Well except for the one guy that died in 2009. RIP Matt.
78. And I have been to Indiana, Georgia, and Toronto for business purposes.
79. My son LilProgrammer has Aspergers but it is hardly noticeable anymore.
80. He was cured by our dog Sparky and of course by his amazing therapist as well.
81. I believe that LilProgrammer inherited his Aspergers from me.
82. I now have two teenage kids. I am the shortest person in the family and have the highest voice of all family members. This is getting scary.
83. I love shopping for clothes.
84. But I love it a bit less now that I have a bigger ass.
85. My favorite places to shop for clothes are Nordstrom Rack and H&M.
86. I hate shopping for clothes at department stores. Actually, I never do that.
87. Mr. Goldie and I had separate accounts.
88. It is a long story.
89. I used to be extremely artsy-fartsy in my late teens and twenties. I went to poetry readings, classical concerts, and art exhibits, and read all the latest alternative literature that came out. I also listened to alt rock.
90. I might start doing it again, but this time together with my children.
91. I once fell asleep at a classical music concert in a front row.
92. I read SciFi and fantasy for the most part lately.
93. I hate office politics.
94. But I can play that game very well if forced to. So don’t mess with me.
95. I hate driving in the snow with a passion.
96. I used to work in the snow belt but I changed jobs because I hated driving in the snow.
97. It took me a whole lunch break to write this post, but that was in my old job three years ago. I would never ever ever blog at work now!! (looks around) Hey, it's after hours.
98. I want to be a writer but don't know how to break in. I know I have the talent. One of my Russian stories actually made a grown man cry and I am very proud of that. Do you have any advice? You know the drill. Email me.
99. So I am one item short… who’s counting?
100. Here's your missing item. I am no longer married to Mr. Goldie. There, 100 things now.