In Case You Were Wondering....

Ok, Thames and Raoulysgirl started it, so I'm going to jump on board and post a list of interesting or at least unique things about myself. They both managed to come up with 25, but I'm not sure that I can think of that many! We'll see.....

1. I'm smarter than I look. I passed the MENSA entrance exam when I was 15. I never actually joined MENSA, but I could. Also, when I was 18 I was a senior in high school and a freshman in college at the same time. I got a great job right after graduating from high school (great paying, I should say, I hated the job) and never finished college.
2. I enrolled in design school about 5 years ago to become an interior designer. I loved the design portion, but the business end of it left me shaking in my shoes. When we got to the portion covering legal contracts and the potential for lawsuits from unhappy clients, it made me question my abilities.
3. I have a phobia about hair. Once it is no longer attached to a living human being, it freaks me out. Even if I know who it belongs to (myself included), I can't stand to find hair on the floor, bathroom vanity, or anywhere else. In public places when I don't know who it belonged to, it actually makes me gag.
4. I'm fairly skilled in basic carpentry, drywall mudding and taping, and the use of power tools. I miter cut and installed all the moldings on the our porch ceilings (they are a play on coffered ceilings). My husband and I like to build cabinetry and do all of our own home renovations.
5. My husband and I will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary this year. Even after 20 years I can count the number of arguments we've had on one hand. I know, it sounds crazy, but we have so much fun together that we never really argue. We have the same warped sense of humor and enjoy the same things so there's never anything to argue about. Besides that, I'd rather laugh about something than get mad about it.
6. I'm terrified of heights. I wasn't when I was a kid, but in my 20's I developed a terrible fear being up higher than about 4 feet off the ground. I'm usually ok indoors, looking out a window in a tall building or looking out our second story bedroom windows, but I get woozy standing at a railing on a balcony or walkway.
7. I've met quite a few celebrities, most of them through the company I used to work for. The nicest, by far, was Mickey Thomas (lead singer of Starship, met him at a concert, not through work). Tied for second would be Randy Travis and Cindy Crawford. The worst? Martha Stewart and Mario Andretti.
8. I used to be able to do a back handspring (I was a cheerleader). I couldn't do one now, even at gunpoint, but back in the day....
9. Despite my fear of heights, I love roller coasters. There isn't a coaster so high or so fast that I won't ride it. I may have several panic attacks while waiting in line, but I still love 'em!
10. My husband, my son and I often speak in movie quotes from our favorite movies. I could give you an example, but unless you've seen the movie it probably wouldn't make sense. We've even got our son's girlfriend into movie quoting, because we're always doing it when she's around. Our daughter doesn't find it funny, but we do.
11. I can't tell jokes. I love jokes, but I can't tell them because I always screw them up.
12. Complete strangers like to talk to me. My husband is much more outgoing than I am, but still, strangers always talk to me. We were taking a walk once when a man in his front yard stopped me to tell me how long he had been out of work and how he was having trouble paying the bills. I didn't even know this guy!
13. All of the kids in my family married someone who shares their middle initial. My husband and I both have the middle initial "E", my oldest brother and his wife are "J" and my other brother and his wife are both "M". Interesting, maybe not, but odd.
14. There are four people living in my house, but only two astrological signs between us. My husband and my daughter are both Scorpios and my son and I are both Pisceans. Interestingly, my daughter was a preemie, but had she been born when she was due, she would have been a Piscean, too.
15. I wrote a series of children's books. I haven't looked into having them published because I don't have them illustrated. I don't draw or paint very well so I've been working on computer illustrating them, but I'm not happy with the results thus far.
16. I love the ocean, but after a near drowning experience, I'm afraid of the waves. I got pinned to the bottom by a constant series of waves just feet from shore. They knocked me down and I couldn't get my head out of the water long enough to take a breath. We vacation on the Atlantic every year and my husband has to hold my hand and walk me out beyond knee deep if the water isn't extremely calm. It always makes me feel foolish because I see small children splashing in the waves, but I can't shake the fear.
17. I've never seen the Pacific Ocean in person. I'd like to some day. I've been all up and down the east coast, but never the west coast.
18. I love to fish. I never keep what I catch, but I love fishing. I bait my own hook and take the fish off myself (except for catfish). I've always wanted to go deep sea fishing and catch a sailfish.
19. I live for the flea market! We have a great local one, but it's outdoors so it's closed during the winter. From April through October, though, it's hopping! I'm counting the days until it opens for the season.
20. I developed an allergy to oranges when I was a teenager. I used to drink orange juice in the morning before I left for school, but I started feeling sick shortly after finishing a glass. I test myself every now and then to see if I've outgrown it. The last time I tried a small sample at Sam's Club. It was probably no more than a few tablespoons worth of juice, but I broke out in hives and was sick for the rest of the day. Strangely, lemons and limes don't seem to bother me.
21. I have very small feet. I'm only about 5' 4", but I have small feet even for my height. When I was in high school I wanted a pair of Nikes in a style that was popular at the time. The shoe store didn't have them in my size and sent me across the mall to the children's shoe store. I was 16 years old, sitting on a plastic animal chair and having my feet measured with a giraffe shoe sizer. My friends couldn't stop laughing!
22. I don't have the typical female passion for purses and shoes like most women do. I have only one purse and several pairs of shoes. For dress shoes, though, I love ugly shoes. The uglier the better! I bought a pair of black shoes for a funeral a few months ago and they look like something a witch would wear. They're incredibly ugly but that's what I like about them!
23. I have a habit of starting multiple projects at the same time and not finishing all of them. I can look around the room I'm sitting in and see three unfinished projects right now.
24. I love overcast, rainy days. Some people find them depressing, but not me. I especially love rainy summer days. We have covered front and back porches and I love to sit outside and watch it rain. I like the sound of it, the smell of it, the way it seems to make the green of the grass and the trees so vivid. Even on vacation I like a rainy day. It forces you to find something to do that you might not have done otherwise. A museum, shopping, or something else indoors.
25. I dislike the flavor of mint in anything but toothpaste and breath mints. Even then I'm more likely to choose cinnamon.

Wow, that was hard! Who's next?????