Something a Little Different

I recently stumbled across this, which I wrote some time ago. 25 things about me, which you may not know. It made me smile, and since you only see a small piece of my life on this blog, it seemed worth sharing.

1) 2008 was the first year that snow ever bothered me. I usually love snow and can't wait to get out of Portland to go play in the snow. But that year we all got trapped in Portland by "Snowpocalypse" and then when I finally got out for Christmas, I ended up where there were over three feet of snow. Can you say cabin fever?

2) I have an ambition to learn to play the fiddle well. I took lessons for awhile, and could play several traditional tunes. Someday. Someday maybe I will manage to get back to that point.

3) I am addicted to bright colors. I wear them, decorate with them, and thrive off of them. I just don't understand people who only wear and decorate with black, grey, and beige.

4) I grew up without a television or a shower with a water heater, and no flush toilet. As my mom says, composting toilets are way more civilized than mixing our poop with drinkable water and flushing it away and then spending millions of dollars to clean it up again.

5) Whenever I fly on a plane, I always order ginger ale.

6) I am absolutely terrified of caterpillars. There is no real rationale for this, my mom has theorized that it has to do with their "squish potential." I am completely unsqueamish about almost every other potentially squeam-inducing critter.

7) I learned how to sing harmonies by singing them to songs on the radio. It worked really well!

8) I went to Space Camp for a week when I was 14. At that point, I was 100% planning on being an astronaut. I never laugh at it, because it was totally real for me for a long time. It was a life-changing experience for me, the first time I ever connected with peers on a kindred spirit level.

9) I love to write letters by hand. There is something so much more satisfying about writing by hand, as well as receiving a letter in the mail instead of an email.

10) Before I decided to get my MPH, I considered both the Peace Corps and a Masters in International Service that would have taken me to universities in both England and Mexico.

11) I have been to the following countries: Canada, Mexico, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Italy, Australia (ok, just the Sydney Airport), and New Zealand.

12) My levels of exposure to sunshine and time spent on my bike each day are directly correlated to how positive my mood is.

13) I go into a shopping center maybe twice per year, and only if coerced.

14) My great-great-great-grandparents on my dad's side emigrated from Tomintoul, Scotland, in the mid-19th century with numerous children. My great-great-great-grandmother carried all the family's money in a leather belt under her dress while on the ship, and when they moved by wagon from Canada to Iowa, she was the only one who could swim, so was in charge of getting them across all the rivers and creeks, swimming beside the horses.

15) My parents celebrated their engagement not with a ring, but by buying what became known as "The Engagement Pump" so they could have running water in their house.

16) Included in my unusual skillset: driving a stickshift, the ability to eat unfathomable amounts of peanut M&Ms in one sitting, the taking of 30-second power naps, and the imitation of a perfect British accent, but only after a couple pints of cider.

17) I am ridiculously organized. I re-arrange and sort through my belongings every several months, know exactly where everything is stored, and have inexplicable systems of keeping track of things in all aspects of my life.

18) I really love loud knee-socks. I own at least ten pairs. Rainbow stripes, owls, bikes, stars, bright argyle, etc.

19) I weighed 10 pounds, 11.5 ounces when I was born. No surprise then, that I am almost six feet tall and wear size 12 shoes.

20) I love learning historical trivia and feel a strong pull towards 19th century events, artifacts, and traditions. The Oregon Trail fascinates me, and I love any book, movie, or museum exhibit concerned with that era.

21) When I was 13, I wore leggings, baggie shirts with buckles, slouch socks, and big earrings. I had extremely thick bangs and long hair that was tied back with scrunchies. I had braces and absolutely no hips or boobs. I was a straight-A student, a know-it-all, and a teacher's pet. Boy, was I popular.

22) Scotch + chocolate = yes.

23) My first kiss was drunk in a nightclub in London. I hear there's a long tradition of this among American college girls.

24) Most of my memories of childhood summers are from my grandparents' summer place on Black Lake in northern Idaho. We spent most of every summer there until they sold it when I was ten. I have vague but happy memories of fishing off the dock with Grandpa, spitting cherry pits off the deck with my brother and cousins, eating delicious bbq and corn on the cob in a screen tent to keep off the bugs, running into the screen door with my face and splitting it down the middle when I was 7, taking bubble baths in my grandma's tub (a luxury we didn't have at home), falling off the dock when I was 4 and looking up through the water at my father reaching down to pull me out, falling asleep while hearing my mom and her sibs and parents all playing 3-13 in the kitchen, and watching my mom and her two older sisters trying to paddle across the lake in a rubber raft and the whole thing deflating suddenly and them laughing so hard they could barely tread water. I also remember that to get to the house, we had to drive the road all the way around the lake, and Grandpa would always sit on the deck and wave to us when he saw our yellow truck go by from the other side of the lake.

25) I know the words for bagpipe player and flamethrower in German, and can tell you to kiss my ass in Gaelic.