25 Random Things About Me

1. I have an almost paralyzing fear of driving over bridges – which I can trace back to the bridge scene in “Saturday Night Fever.” An R rated movie that my parents let me watch at age 9.

2. I still know my Junior High locker combination: 5-7-41 (top locker: right above Maya Haywood’s) At the time I was petrified I would forget the combination – and I believe this fear did etch the number on my brain to be remembered *forever.*

3. “Forever” by Judy Blume was my favorite book in 6th grade. This fact scares me now as a mother of a daughter quickly approaching 6th grade… not to mention that I didn’t want my 7th grade son reading “Breaking Dawn” with a far less explicit sex scene in it. (He read it anyway. Checked the book out from the school library himself.)

4. As a junior I was kicked off the High School track team for mouthing off to the coach.

5. I am not the only person who knew that if you walked far back enough underneath the SPHS bleachers, you could see into the boys’ locker room.

6. I can listen to a song 100 times and still not know all the words. Unless the song came out between 1982 and 1989. Then I can probably sing you the verse, bridge and chorus.

7. I have never (nor plan to ever) seen the movie “Titanic.”

8. I started college as a film major.

9. I was taught gospel spirituals by a 105 year old woman named Miss Emma. She also taught me the virtues of prune juice.

10. I am happy that I still communicate with people I went to Kindergarten with.

11. I have lived in Los Angeles and Washington DC but have only been robbed in France.

12. One day I will go to Argentina with the sole purpose of learning to Tango properly.

13. I re-learned how to drive a stick-shift on narrow, winding Italian roads with 4 kids in the car.

14. I gave birth to a 10 pound baby boy at home. On purpose.

15. I love that I married a man who laughs freely at television shows (and Buddy the Elf,) but who occasionally cries at sappy movies. And commercials.

16. I have seen every episode of ER. And to this day I get teary-eyed if I hear the version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” that played while Mark Greene died.

17. I drink at least a double espresso every day.

18. I feel that I still have time to decide what I want to be when I grow up.

19. I wake up 5 days a week at 4:30 AM to exercise.

20. I learn more about God from 4 year olds in Sunday School than I do in 6 months of homilies.

21. I wish that John Hughes would make a movie about middle-aged people with kids. I would like to see his take on this part of life.

22. I am perfectly OK with going to bed having a sink full of dirty dishes.

23. Given the choice, I prefer waking up to a clean kitchen. But #22 usually wins out.

24. My uterus is a children’s beacon: no matter where I am (movie, restaurant, plane ride, concert, theater) my seat will always be next to children (and not my own children!) If I ask for a different seat, the children will either follow, or new kids will come in and sit near me. Every. Time.

25. I play a mean game of Dodge Ball.