In honor of my 34th birthday...here are 34 things you may not know about me...but chances are you do because if you have been around me you know I tell too much...
1. I have always wanted to be a dancer on Broadway. I took dance for 13 years and loved every minute of it. I still dance around the house and choreograph dances in my head while listening to music, mainly while driving.
2. I love to sing. And of course I could win American Idol. In my car with no one hearing me. I do my best singing on my trips to Memphis. I have time to build my confidence and really get into the character of the song I am singing.
3. I love Vera Bradley. The other day I was at a meeting and I realized that I had a VB key chain, eye glasses case, notebook, my phone with a VB case, and planner. All in my VB purse. And that isn't even the start of my collection. I have tamed down a bit because I have a lot.
4. I am a TV junkie. I have always loved to watch TV. Yeah, I know there is a whole big world out there, and since the invention of DVR, I have enjoyed that world more and haven't been a slave to the TV, but I still love it. I will still watch Full House if it is on and I am home and bored.
5. I have traveled to England (1998) and Japan (2006). LOVED LOVED LOVED England and went as a senior in high school. Japan was okay. I went for a missions conference that was great, but the food and culture was so different. Rice for 5 days for all three meals gets a bit old. Not sure I would go again, but I still want to travel internationally.
6. I still have the pair of Birkenstocks that I got when I was 13 and in the 7th grade. My sister went shopping for shoes to wear when she went to England in 1993 for her senior trip. I just happen to try on a pair of Birks, honestly not knowing much about them, except everyone had that type of sandals. They cost enough so I thought I would keep them. They are still as comfy as ever and I wear them every once in a while! 21 years.
7. I have seen Keith Urban in concert 8 times. I think. New Year's Eve 2002, and I really didn't like him then (I was there to see Kenny Chesney), at the Ryman in 2005, Kansas City, Huntsville, Knoxville, Nashville 3 times: once in concert, and then twice at festivals. I used to be a concert junkie when I lived with my parents because I could afford it. I have gone to a lot of concerts and still love to go!!
8. I love the beach. I didn't like to get into the water at all because of a story my sister told me when I was four that sharks didn't like pink bathing suits and I have had a aversion to the water since then, but this past summer I got in and went out pretty far! Loved it!! I will not go swimming in a lake or river if a. I can't see below and/or b. It wasn't made for the purposes of swimming only. I won't go in Percy Priest Lake because who knows how many dead bodies are on the bottom and I am not going to be the one to find them.
9. I love to eat. I love chocolate, ice cream (with chocolate of course), sandwiches, popcorn, hint of lime Tostitos, guacamole, pasta, steak, peanut butter, you name it.
10. Most times I can be doing something, I will say something, or someone else will say something or do something, and a song or a tv show or movie will pop into my head. When moving Lou's stuff into the house, we were hauling a mattress up the stairs and all I could think about was the Friends episode where Ross bought a new couch and was trying to get it up the stairs and was yelling out "PIVOT! PIVOT!!" Another time my mom was helping me get the house really clean before Lou moved in and she said she was getting weak in the knees from sitting on them and I started to sing "I Get Weak in the Knees" by Vince Gill. I hadn't heard that song in years and it just popped in. There are so many more instances, but I'm only on #10.
11. I don't like watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, kiwi, melon, apples, most fruits for that matter. Just never liked them. I have tried them all. I do like bananas, clementines (mainly because I can peel them, but I love the taste), and pineapple. I will eat cooked/baked apples, drink apple juice, and eat apple sauce, just not apples.
12. I am a hoarder. It's getting better now that Lou is here, but man, the stuff I collected was out of control. I still hoard pens, pencils, markers, and journals. Maybe I am supposed to be a writer haha!
13. I want to run a half-marathon one day. And I will. One day. Need to start running.
14. I am very hard on myself. I want to always do everything right the first time, but I know I will always make mistakes and I am not perfect. I work harder, not smarter. It works for me. I know it gets done and I know it will be done the way I want it done. I am learning to let go a little, but it's still hard.
15. I have the most random memory that many times I won't say anything because I know people will think I am weird. And I am. I don't know how I remember some of these things. I am afraid I will scare people. I can just remember the most random things ever.
16. I am a Fanilow. Yes, I am a Barry Manilow Fan. I grew up watching Copacabana, and I didn't appreciate his talent until many years later, but I think he is great!
HALFWAY THERE!!
17. When I went to college, I joined a sorority where I knew no one. Well, I ended up knowing people who joined with me, but didn't know they were going to be in the same one until that day. I was the girl who didn't like going to the bathroom by herself, much less join a huge group of women that I didn't know. But I did and it was the best decision! I was even President!
18. I tend to stay up later at night when I have to go to work the next day, and go to bed early when I have the next day off. I think I want the day to last a little longer. Of course the next day I am bone tired and go to bed early.
19. In my next life, I want to be a dance teacher. Along with choreographing dances in my head, I have costumes, hair, make-up, all of it down. This is more prominent during Christmas when I listen to Christmas music non-stop. I have a dance to Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You", and Elton John's "Step Into Christmas", ready to go, as well as Michael Buble's remake of Bing Crosby and the Andrews' Sisters "Jingle Bells".
20. My main goal this year is to read through the Bible, or at least get through most of it. I want to understand it. I get stuck at Leviticus. It's tough.
21. I can't read between the lines. If you want me to know something, tell it to me straight. I can't do hints. Case in point...when I was in college in an English Comp class, we had to explicate (I don't even know if that's the right word) a poem, basically interpreting what the author was really trying to say. We had three to choose from, and this was our final exam...I sat there for what seemed like forever and finally just picked the one I could kinda decipher. So from what I could tell it was about the Crucifixion and Mary. I turned in my paper, left the class and some friends who were in the class were waiting outside. We were talking about which poem we picked and they picked the same one I did. They wrote about sex. I was mortified that I had turned a poem about sex into an explanation of the Crucifixion. I emailed my professor and told him how sorry I was, and he emailed me back saying something about how he hadn't thought of it that way and gave me a good grade! Yeah, epic moment right there.
22. I bought two left shoes one time. And didn't realize it until I got them to where I needed to be and put them on and tried to walk. It was rush week and it was my first time on the sorority side and those are some long weeks, but great weeks. It was pref night and I maybe had 3 hours of sleep. I ran into Wal-Mart to get a pair of black heels. Tried one on, ran to the check-out and got to campus. Put both shoes on in the car, got out and noticed something wasn't right. Looked down and sure enough, I had two left shoes. That was fun explaining it to the customer service lady when returning them.
23. I wear glasses with my contacts. I have really bad eyes. Really bad. People will tell me they have bad eyes and will tell me they wear a -3.5 contact power. Mine is -8.5. Then they look at me like I have a third eye. I also have a bad astigmatism, and I can't wear the astigmatism contacts, so I wear glasses to read, but I wear them all the time.
24. I love the cold weather. I know that sounds crazy, but I would rather be cold than hot any day. I love to wear jeans and sweaters and fleeces and hoodies and scarves. But then I love my flip flops.
ONLY 10 MORE TO GO!!
25. I love snow. There is something magical about it. I love to see it falling and I hate that it hasn't really stuck here. I want a REALLY good snow. I can remember being at my parents house in Nolensville and it had snowed a ton, and I went outside, plopped down, and made a snow angel. It was great! I also want to go sledding. I didn't go real sledding until I was 23. I had gone tubing, but this was so different and I loved it!
26. I have a huge rubbermaid container in my closet full of craft projects. Unfinished wood frames, wood letters, a few blank canvases, blank wood pieces...and then in my armoire I have fabric, ribbon, and more craft stuff!! I have all these ideas, just can't get motivated to do them, or the thought of having to get the paint out, get the brushes out, and then of course clean up afterwards exhausts me, so I just go do something else.
27. I want to drive across country and see all the major sites. There are so many amazing things to see right here in our own country, and I think it would be cool to pack up the car and just go. I am dying to go to New York City. I have been to San Francisco and I LOVED it!! There are also a few places I want to visit overseas. Greece being one of them. I want to go back to England and stay long enough to see even more than I saw before. I want to go to Germany, Scotland, Paris, Fiji, Rio, lots of places.
28. I have a Bachelors degree in Health Education with an emphasis on Community and Public Health. I worked for a Dept. of Human Services grant program working with child care centers doing trainings and technical assistance. I then took a job in Memphis and was back home within 46 hours. Short story. Then got a job with the Tennessee Health Department as a Public Health Educator with the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Program. I know more than I want to know. I quit my job to go to graduate school full time and got my Master of Education degree. I did interims for a year and then taught 4th grade for a year. I wasn't hired back, and it took a while, but I found my current job working as a site leader for a before and after school care program (SACC) with Williamson County Schools. I love it and the people I work with! I can guarantee the people I worked with at the state would not believe that I get to work by 6:15 in the morning.
29. I love to get dressed up and go out, but there are days I don't want to do anything but stay in my pajamas and watch movies. I get to dress pretty casual for work, and especially in the winter it is mostly jeans, but I love to wear dresses and capris and dress up a little more in the spring and summer. My closet is very random. I have some cute fashion forward clothing, but I rarely wear it, because I am all about comfort. I'm getting old. HAHA!
30. I have the nose of a bloodhound. I can smell just about anything and if a guy walks in wearing cologne I can sometimes tell you exactly what they are wearing. I can also pick up on other scents as well. Lou has a better nose than me since his surgery. It's scary how far off he can smell things.
31. I have never broken a bone. Can you tell I am reaching for things? I may have broken my toe in college, but the xrays never showed anything broken. But it hurt. I did stick a nut (of a nut and bolt set) up my nose and had to go to the ER to get it pried out. Fun times.
32. Also while in college I was bit by a spider 17 times. I was at my parents house and they never went upstairs while I was gone so it was dark and a great place for a spider to hide. I first had a bite on my finger that was bad so the doc put me on antibiotics, and then 2 weeks later I was home again and it took revenge on me for invading it's space.
33. Back to more normal stuff - I have two of the most amazing nephews in the world, the best parents a girl could ask for and family anyone could ask for. I am blessed!!
34. I truly have the best husband. He puts up with my constant questioning, badgering, worrying, all that fun stuff. He makes me laugh daily and it is never a dull moment. It's scary, but a funny scary, sometimes going out in public with him because I never know what he is going to say! But I wouldn't trade him for the world. I waited a long time and I just smile daily because he is mine :).
If you made it through, congrats! You win the joy of knowing some very random stuff about me!!
