25 Random Things About Me

Someone tagged me on Facebook to write 25 random things about myself. I found it to be a fun exercise and wonder if I could come up with 100.... I'm putting it here, too, just for kicks and giggles.

1. When it comes to ice cream, there are really only two choices that are worth the caloric expense: Dairy Queen’s M&M Blizzard and Breyer’s All-Natural, usually plain vanilla. BTW, that’s not to say that I don’t eat other ice creams that aren’t necessarily worth the caloric expense!

2. I know more about the symbiotic fungal colonization of plant roots, particularly crops, than probably 99% of the people you know.

3. My favorite smells in the whole world are cilantro and freshly wetted soil.

4. I don’t enjoy swimming and I hate having my face in the water, but I love snorkeling. How I get over that mental and emotional roadblock, I may never know.

5. I have had a conversation with at least one person from every Spanish-speaking country on the planet, in Spanish!

6. I was obsessed with the Disney musical Newsies while in middle school – I saw it 3 times in the theater, I learned the dances, I transcribed all the song lyrics and memorized them…. I still have the fondest memories of all those cute teenage boys tap-dancing and singing on the big screen. Aaahhh….

7. I have one gray hair, and I have NOT pulled it. I think it looks nice there on my forehead. I’ve decided to grow gray gracefully for two reasons – 1) I don’t have thick hair anyway so I can’t just go around pulling the gray ones out! 2) I will never in a million years find my hair color in a box, and I happen to like my hair color. I’d rather have it accented in gray than masked in some foreign, chemically-induced, fake red or something. (Plus I’m too cheap/lazy to keep the roots dyed.)

8. My second toe is longer than my big toe. I inherited that from my father, and I read once that it’s called a “Morton’s foot”.

9. I MUCH prefer to load the dishwasher than unload it. Somehow it just bugs me that once the dishes are clean that I STILL have to take care of them. When they’re dirty, it just makes sense that they need my attention. Such a bottleneck to keeping the kitchen clean!

10. My all-time favorite tough day-hike in Alaska is up to the Harding Ice Field near Seward, starting at Exit Glacier. Breathtaking!

11. I’m getting really good at making from home what I used to buy as a processed food. Have you ever had homemade ketchup or mayonnaise? Since we found out my husband’s allergic to garlic (which is in EVERYTHING!), we get creative with our condiments!

12. My perfect late summer day entails sitting on colorful and aromatic alpine tundra picking juicy wild blueberries. Aaaaahhhh….

13. If I recall correctly, the fastest mile I ever ran was 5:38. Not awesome, but not bad either. Fastest two-miler was 12:16. Half-mile? I think it was 2:38. Those were the good ol’ days (high school seems so far away).

14. Unlike most/many women, I’m a shoe miser. I have one pair of black shoes, one pair of brown shoes, one pair of athletic shoes, one pair of sandals, one pair of flip-flops, but 2 pair of non-athletic casual shoes. I’d love to not be a shoe miser someday – there are some cute styles out there, but I just never buy them.

15. When I go walking on rocky beaches or river beds, I always end up several pounds heavier from the many, many beautiful rocks I see but can’t pass up. I fill my pockets and bring them home to love. My favorite local rock spot? Point Woronzof.

16. I love to get filthy dirty and wet out on the Homer Spit at low tide, digging for clams on my hands and knees.

17. I used to work behind the scenes in radio, and my voice was part of a couple of radio commercials.

18. I didn’t get my ears pierced until I was 20 years old, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

19. I used to eat mud as a kid. A lot. Maybe that’s what’s wrong with me. (See #3 about smells – wet soil TASTES good, too, but the grit’s a turn-off.)

20. My eyelashes are naturally very long and curled. If they were darker, I’d have it made. (I used to think that when people talked about eyelash curlers they were JOKING. No joke!)

21. I’m in the Interpretive Naturalist Certification Program of Alaska (INCPA). If I would write things down and get signatures I might almost be a certified naturalist by now!

22. I love card games and word games. I’m awesome at Spider Solitaire with all 4 suits, I enjoy Hearts, I’m getting better at crosswords, and think Scattergories is a great way to pass an evening.

23. I’m sometimes a fantasy junky, as in science fiction/fantasy books. My current favorite series is the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card, but he needs to get his act together and write book 7, please!

24. No one’s harder on me than I am on myself, so if you ever want to address one of my egregious weaknesses with me, I’ve probably already addressed it with myself for you, so there’s no need. Just love me instead. :)

25. If I were to be an animal, I would be a fruit bat. How cool is it to be a mammal, but be able to fly? Not to mention the great diet of fresh fruits – yum! Sleeping upside-down could be very refreshing.