About

Contact Info: courtney.m.hurst@gmail.com

I am a native Houstonian, having moved home in 2009 after 10 years in Austin mostly.  I first began blogging at the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003, and loved every minute of it.  I fell out of the habit after a year or so, but I’ve always wanted to start a new one.

My intention for this new blog is to write something everyday, no matter how inane.  I guess that means I’ll be covering a wide range of topics, most of which are sure to bore 99% of the world.  Of course, no one truly wishes to write into a vacuum (or else I’d be writing into a real journal or diary, not a blog).  So I hope that some of what I write pleases some people, some of the time.

I hope you will stay and read a little of my work, leave a comment, and come back to visit again.  Enjoy!

– Courtney

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101 Things About Me

1. The first time I did this, it was called “100 Interesting Things About Me” and it was posted on my first blog in 2003.  I wish I still had a copy of that, as it would make this a lot easier.

2. I am legally blind, and I’m not a candidate for Lasik surgery.  My contacts are -6.75, and I never, ever, ever take them out.

3. When I was 12, I could recite and act out The Cutting Edge.

4. In first grade, I had a crush on Chad Lyons, and I brought the country of Chad for show-and-tell.  Well, an encyclopedia article about the country of Chad.

5. I once wrote a manuscript for a book about the names of small towns in Texas.  Example: The town of Dime Box, Texas got its name from a nearby post office at Brown’s Mill. Residents would leave their mail and a dime in a box outside, and a man would carry the mail once a week to a post office in Giddings.  Fascinating.

6. My family nickname is Scarlett.

7. I have lived in 4 different cities, but all are in Texas.

8. I was at work in Representative Hupp’s office in the Texas Capitol when 9/11 happened.  We were eventually evacuated, but not until the afternoon.

9. I have dated about 10 people, and half of them were named Michael.

10. I can comfortably count to ten in Spanish, but only by singing a song I learned on Sesame Street.

11. I dream lucid dreams all the time.  I often wake up in the middle, then fall back asleep to “finish the dream”, like a movie.

12.  My first concert was The Monkees.  They played at Astroworld, and Weird Al Yankovic opened for them.  I actually remember his show the best, because he cut a woman in half.

13. I have six half-siblings.

14. I have one “double-jointed” part of my body: my left thumb.

15. I have been to 5 different countries on 3 different continents.

16. My favorite book in the whole world is Pride and Prejudice. I’ve read it more times than I can count, and own about 4 copies of it. If I see it at a garage sale or thrift store, sometimes I can’t help buying it, even though I already own it.

17. I have 9 grandparents, living and deceased.

18. I’m a lifetime member of Weight Watchers.

19. I played the clarinet in middle school. For about 3 weeks.

20. I didn’t eat mustard until my 25th birthday party. Now I eat it all the time.

21. I grew up in the same house my dad grew up in.

22. When I met my best friend in high school, I found out she grew up in the same house her dad grew up in.  Our dads went to the same high school we did, and were in Jazz Band together.  (I guess this isn’t that weird in some places, but in Houston it’s unusual.)

23. I won the 4th grade spelling bee.  I got third in 3rd grade by misspelling “fittness”. This may explain my current attitude about exercise.

24.  Sometimes I forget how to spell “of” for a minute or two.

25. I don’t have any tattoos.

26. I used to be a sprinter in middle school, but quit when the high school track coach required that I join the cross country team.

27. I was voted “Most Likely To Be President” and “Most Likely To Win Jeopardy” in senior superlatives in high school.

28. I make wishes and kiss it when I see a digital clock displaying 11:11.

29. My favorite movie star is Myrna Loy.

30. I have broken two arms, but neither belonged to me. I’ve never broken a bone in my body. (Knock on wood)

31. When I just wrote, “knock on wood”, I actually got up so I could knock on some wood.

32. I have A- blood type.

33.  I like to sleep in my bra.

34. I have a serious phobia involving water I can’t see the bottom of and man-made objects.  Also, I can barely look at the deep ocean on Google Earth.

35. I’m allergic to dust, but always (ALWAYS) forget to cover my face when I dust. So I’m usually sneezing and stuffy all day after.

35. I have 27 first cousins, and most of them were born within a few years of me.

36. My favorite holidays are Christmas and Halloween.  For some reason, I mix them up all the time, as in, “What are you dressing up as this year for Christmas?”

37.  I’m a big reader.  I didn’t learn to read until I was 5, but I always pretended I could read and write.  That’s something I remember very well from childhood.

38. My favorite Christmas gifts were dollhouses: one I got when I was probably 3, a Barbie Dream house when I was 5, and a “real” dollhouse when I was about 10.  I still have some of the furniture.

39. I just found out something I didn’t know: dentists and dental hygenists are legally required to report criminal activity they learn from patients under nitrous oxide.  One more reason to hate the dentist.

40.  In high school I got chocolates, then flowers from a secret admirer. My mother swears up and down it wasn’t her or my father.  Who was it?  If you know, tell me now.

41. I love Disney.

42. I still have my original aol email address from 1996.  I only get spam on it, but I just can’t let it go.

43. I have only lived by myself twice: once my senior year in college and I HATED it, and once last year for about four months before I moved back to Houston.  I loved it.

44. I experience months of the year spatially, also known as synesthesia.  A year is in the shape of a track, with New Year’s and July at the middle of the “curves”.  The curve of December/January is in the west, and the curve of July is in the east.  I feel that I am on the track, so tonight as I write this, I am at on the straight in the north/northeast part of the track.

45. I leave ridiculously long, rambling voicemails. I rarely check my own voicemail.

46. I used to have pet mice.  I researched and gave them all Scottish names.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have very long lifespans.

47.  I talk in my sleep, often in an untintelligible language known only to me in my sleep.

48.  I’ve worn the same perfume since college: Houbigant’s Quelques Fleurs.  It was the first true multi-bouquet perfume, and was invented in 1912.

49. I only eat ketchup if it’s from Whataburger.

50. Unfortunately, most of the song lyrics I remember are from sorority rush.  “Why do you build me up, build me up, rushee girl baby, just to let me down…”

51. Fall is my favorite season, and I often find myself buying school supplies in September.  Unfortunately, I’m not in school.

52. I like to read about etymology.  Sometimes I will stop in the middle of a conversation to look up the origin of a word on my phone.

53. For the past 5 years or so, I have been saving the name Ngaio for my next pet, after Ngaio Marsh.  I randomly met a couple last month walking their dog, who they had named Ngaio.  That’s really random.

54. I believe in women’s intuition, ghosts, and luck.

55. I’m a museum person. I love nearly all museums, but my favorites are those filled with historical artifacts, especially personal ones like clothing or letters.  If allowed, I would live in The Victoria and Albert Museum in London until I had seen every single thing.

56. I love games, and I’m a total rule-nazi and competitive. I don’t get to play games very much.

57. I like new gadgets and old houses.

58. I’m a night owl.

59. I’m afraid I might be a narcissist. Although, a narcissist might be enjoying compiling this list more than I am.

60. I usually wear a dress or skirt, and it is usually black.

61. I love earrings.  I have a ton of them, although there’s a box full of single earrings for which I lost the pair.

62.  When I’m remembering my right from left, sometimes I visualize the gorilla picture hanging in my kindergarden class that taught us that.

63. I drive a Jetta, and people say it smells like crayons.  I can’t smell it.

64. I pronounce the word “crayon” like “crown”.

65.  Other than that, and my use of the word “y’all”, I don’t have a Texas accent.

65. I have a cat named Teddy Bear. I didn’t name him, but I find myself speaking the most obnoxious baby talk to him, so I guess it fits.

66. When I was younger, I wanted to be 6 feet tall, like my grandmother.  She encouraged me to avoid tea and coffee so I wouldn’t stunt my growth and be as tall as her.  To this day, I still don’t drink iced tea or coffee.  This year, someone told me my grandmother wasn’t actually 6 feet tall, and it made me sad.

67. I cannot stand brussel sprouts. I once made myself gag on them at the dinner table so I wouldn’t have to eat them.

68. Besides Davy Jones from the Monkees, my other first crush was Adam West as Batman.

69. I don’t like chocolate or ice cream.  I mean, I’ll eat it, but I don’t crave it and could go without it for the rest of my life.

70. I love long, hot showers and baths.  Many times, the hot water goes out while I’m in there.  My roommate probably hates that.

71. I’m not a good driver.

72. One of my most major pet peeves is when people mix up homonyms: there/their/they’re, it’s/its, here/hear, etc.

73. I just learned about contronyms.

74. I think my favorite thing to do in the whole world is to learn new, interesting things.  Luckily, I find I don’t know much and a lot of things interest me.

75. I never slept with a “blankie” until five months ago.

76. I did have to be weaned of my “binkie” when I was little.  Despite that, I never needed braces.

77. I have what my mom liked to call “selective hearing”.  I was diagnosed with Central Auditory Processing Disorder in high school, and it was probably caused by the horrible ear infections I had as a toddler.  With a lot of distraction or background noise, I can hear someone speaking to me, but I can’t connect those sounds with meaning.  It’s frustrating, so sometimes I just pretend to understand people.  I’m sure there are some people who think I’m pretty spacy!

78. My dad and I used to sit on the porch and watch thunderstorms.

79. I love, love, love Juliana Hatfield and Evan Dando.

80. For different reasons, I also love Jack White.  He’s my monogamous relationship commitment “exception”.

81. Apparently, I also love Wikipedia and quotation marks.

82. Even if it’s ever a possibility and within my reach, I would never, ever leave Earth unless I had to.

83. Even though I don’t always do it, I love it when my bed is made.

84. I like to reread The Chronicles of Narnia and cry at the end every single time.  Actually, I love most children’s books.

85. I’m a Virgo, and even though I don’t really believe in astrology, I fit the definition perfectly.  I’m a perfectionist, even when it doesn’t make any sense at all.

86. I used to own a record player, and I sang along to Annie and Snow White a lot.  Actually, I still own a record player, but never use it.

87. I drove a tank at Fort Hood 2 years before the Iraq War started.  It was awesome.

88. I like nerds and dislike snobs.  I am both.

89. I also dislike people who are easily offended, politically correct, and intellectually intolerant.  I am none of those things, at least not intentionally.

90.  I tend to alliterate when speaking.  I may be the only person who notices.

91. Thanks to my cousin Michael, our family tree has been traced back to the 1500s.  I skimmed it, and didn’t see anyone famous.

92.  Sometimes instead of succumbing road rage, I imagine I have a scrolling LED sign in my back window that I can instantly program with friendly advice like, “Get out of the left lane if you’re going to go slow” or “Nice turn signal, jerk” or “Thanks for not letting me in, I hope you die.”

93. I used to collect souvenir spoons.  I think they’re still around somewhere in storage.

94. I was born in the same hospital as my mother and her father, Grandpa Jack: St. Joseph’s in Houston.

95. I prefer college football to NFL, and I love going to Longhorn games.

96. My IQ is in the 130s.  I can’t remember…

97. I don’t have a great memory for numbers.  I only know about 4 phone numbers: my own, my mom’s, mine growing up, and an ex-boyfriend’s.  Also, see #96.

98. I give money to NPR every year, if only to ensure I can always argue with my radio.

99. Even I’m bored of this list, so I’m just going to leave it at that.

100. See #85