20 Facts About Me
I'm doing the #100factsaboutme meme on Twitter, so I thought I'd post them here, as well, and go into a bit more detail than I can squeeze into the 140-character Twitter limit. Here are the first twenty (A couple of these will be no surprise to those of you who've been reading this blog for awhile, but most of them may be new to you.):
1. Thanks to having my front teeth knocked out when I was four and going without them for four years, I cannot whistle. I actually learned to whistle quite well while my teeth were still missing. After my adult teeth grew in when I was eight years old, I lost the ability.
2. I could eat salad every day of the week and never get tired of it. This is particularly true when I make the salad myself as opposed to ordering it in a restaurant, because I can put exactly what I like into it. Usually that's a base of baby spinach, some shredded carrot, shredded cabbage or broccoli slaw or micro greens or sprouts or some combination thereof, baby tomatoes, plus a bit of shredded cheese, sunflower seeds, sesame sticks, and raisins. And honey mustard dressing. YUM.
3. I do not know how to swim and refuse to put my face under water. I had a near-drowning experience in a hotel pool in Bangkok when I was four years old. It ended in my mother diving in to save me and nearly being pulled under by me, and both of us being rescued by my dad and older brother. It scarred me for life.
4. I have a small, heart-shaped birthmark on my left forearm.
5. I have a bad habit of staying up way too late for my own good. Like right now, for example. It's 11:19 p.m. and I'm compiling this post instead of going to bed.
6. I do a mean karaoke version of Pat Benatar's Hit Me With Your Best Shot.
7. It was difficult for me to become a vegetarian because I couldn't stand vegetables. I've learned to love (some of) them.
8. I almost died after tasting a raw pepper when I was three years old. Steve and I were playing outside our apartment in Hong Kong and found what we thought was a "carrot tree." In reality, it was some sort of shrub with shiny little red peppers growing on it. We each plucked one off and tasted it. I almost immediately went into anaphylactic shock. Four-year-old Steve was quick-thinking enough to run inside and get my parents, who rushed me to the emergency room. Turns out I'm severely allergic to raw peppers. I can eat them if they're cooked, but can't even touch a raw one without gloves.
9. I am the queen of freak accidents. Example: When I was sixteen or seventeen, I was walking down a small flight of stairs outside my church's fellowship hall. On the top step, my boot slipped and I flew through the air and landed on my butt at the bottom of the steps. On top of a scorpion. Which stung me.
10. I have rheumatoid arthritis.
11. My first-ever crush was on Shaun Cassidy. "Da doo ron ron ron da doo ron ron" -- what does that even MEAN? I have no idea, but I sang that song non-stop when I was seven years old and spent hours staring at a magazine photo of Shaun Cassidy.
12. David Foster Wallace and Wilkie Collins are my favorite authors.
13. I was named after my maternal grandmother, who died before I was born. She was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 37 and died a few years later, when my mom was nineteen.
14. I have lived in Illinois, Hong Kong, Canada (Moose Jaw, Sask.), and Texas. I was born in Chicago, moved to Hong Kong when I was a year old, moved to Collinsville, Illinois when I was four, moved to Moose Jaw when I was five, and moved to Austin just before my tenth birthday. I have surprisingly vivid and detailed memories of our time in Hong Kong despite being so young when we lived there.
15. I can tie a cherry stem into a knot with my tongue. After Audrey Horne did it on Twin Peaks, I went out and bought a huge jar of cherries and practiced until I had it down pat.
16. I would rather go to the dentist than to the eye doctor. I have good teeth and no problems at the dentist, but the eye doctor gives me migraines thanks to my incredibly light-sensitive eyes.
17. I hate talking on the phone. To anyone. Friends and family included. If I call you, it's probably an emergency. The one exception was talking to Steve. We talked on the phone nearly every day.
18. The first concert I ever went to was The Stray Cats. I was in eighth grade.
19. I have a wrist surgery scar that looks exactly like one of those stick figures from The Blair Witch Project.
20. I have five tattoos - three on my ankles, one above and one below my navel. Two are in memory of Steve.
1. Thanks to having my front teeth knocked out when I was four and going without them for four years, I cannot whistle. I actually learned to whistle quite well while my teeth were still missing. After my adult teeth grew in when I was eight years old, I lost the ability.
2. I could eat salad every day of the week and never get tired of it. This is particularly true when I make the salad myself as opposed to ordering it in a restaurant, because I can put exactly what I like into it. Usually that's a base of baby spinach, some shredded carrot, shredded cabbage or broccoli slaw or micro greens or sprouts or some combination thereof, baby tomatoes, plus a bit of shredded cheese, sunflower seeds, sesame sticks, and raisins. And honey mustard dressing. YUM.
3. I do not know how to swim and refuse to put my face under water. I had a near-drowning experience in a hotel pool in Bangkok when I was four years old. It ended in my mother diving in to save me and nearly being pulled under by me, and both of us being rescued by my dad and older brother. It scarred me for life.
4. I have a small, heart-shaped birthmark on my left forearm.
5. I have a bad habit of staying up way too late for my own good. Like right now, for example. It's 11:19 p.m. and I'm compiling this post instead of going to bed.
6. I do a mean karaoke version of Pat Benatar's Hit Me With Your Best Shot.
7. It was difficult for me to become a vegetarian because I couldn't stand vegetables. I've learned to love (some of) them.
8. I almost died after tasting a raw pepper when I was three years old. Steve and I were playing outside our apartment in Hong Kong and found what we thought was a "carrot tree." In reality, it was some sort of shrub with shiny little red peppers growing on it. We each plucked one off and tasted it. I almost immediately went into anaphylactic shock. Four-year-old Steve was quick-thinking enough to run inside and get my parents, who rushed me to the emergency room. Turns out I'm severely allergic to raw peppers. I can eat them if they're cooked, but can't even touch a raw one without gloves.
9. I am the queen of freak accidents. Example: When I was sixteen or seventeen, I was walking down a small flight of stairs outside my church's fellowship hall. On the top step, my boot slipped and I flew through the air and landed on my butt at the bottom of the steps. On top of a scorpion. Which stung me.
10. I have rheumatoid arthritis.
11. My first-ever crush was on Shaun Cassidy. "Da doo ron ron ron da doo ron ron" -- what does that even MEAN? I have no idea, but I sang that song non-stop when I was seven years old and spent hours staring at a magazine photo of Shaun Cassidy.
12. David Foster Wallace and Wilkie Collins are my favorite authors.
13. I was named after my maternal grandmother, who died before I was born. She was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 37 and died a few years later, when my mom was nineteen.
14. I have lived in Illinois, Hong Kong, Canada (Moose Jaw, Sask.), and Texas. I was born in Chicago, moved to Hong Kong when I was a year old, moved to Collinsville, Illinois when I was four, moved to Moose Jaw when I was five, and moved to Austin just before my tenth birthday. I have surprisingly vivid and detailed memories of our time in Hong Kong despite being so young when we lived there.
15. I can tie a cherry stem into a knot with my tongue. After Audrey Horne did it on Twin Peaks, I went out and bought a huge jar of cherries and practiced until I had it down pat.
16. I would rather go to the dentist than to the eye doctor. I have good teeth and no problems at the dentist, but the eye doctor gives me migraines thanks to my incredibly light-sensitive eyes.
17. I hate talking on the phone. To anyone. Friends and family included. If I call you, it's probably an emergency. The one exception was talking to Steve. We talked on the phone nearly every day.
18. The first concert I ever went to was The Stray Cats. I was in eighth grade.
19. I have a wrist surgery scar that looks exactly like one of those stick figures from The Blair Witch Project.
20. I have five tattoos - three on my ankles, one above and one below my navel. Two are in memory of Steve.
posted by Catherine at 11:39 PM
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