32 Random Facts About Me

Today I officially become another year older. To celebrate turning 32, I've decided to share 32 random facts about myself.

I love it when other bloggers share things like this because I always feel like I learn something new about them (even if I've been following them for a long time and/or chat with them via email fairly regularly). Hopefully you'll learn something new about me as well!

1. I was born in West Virginia. I moved around the state a bit, but I lived there until a month before my 24th birthday.

2. I have lived in 3 states: West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Nebraska.

3. I don't have an accent. This surprises most people since my family members (and most people who grew up in my area) have one, but I don't. If you're wondering how this is possible, I started working on getting rid of it at the tender age of 8. 

4. And if you're wondering why an 8-year-old would be working on something like that, I had lofty dreams of becoming an actress and worried it would be much more difficult to get certain roles if I had an accent. (For the record, I'd totally still quit my day job and become an actress if the opportunity ever presented itself. I've always really loved performing even though I'd always get ridiculously nervous right before going onstage. Once I was out there, I loved every second.)

5. My other dream jobs include author, musician, and FBI agent. Hey, I said "dream" jobs ... They don't necessarily have to be realistic!

6. I have two birthmarks. One is on my right thigh, and one is in my hair. (Yes, really.) Since I dye my hair, you can no longer see the super light blonde chunk that ran through the left side of my hair (right around my temple), but you can still see it in my left eyebrow and left eyelashes if I'm not wearing makeup. There's just a small part of my left eyebrow that is light blonde, but all of my left eyelashes are light blonde. My right eyelashes are all black. This is why my "bare minimum" makeup routine includes brow pencil and mascara. You can (hopefully) see it in the picture below. And now you know what I look like with absolutely no makeup on (trust me, I was a little nervous about posting this picture!):

7. I wore braces for 3 years in middle school. I still don't think my teeth are perfect, but they're so much better than they were when I was a little kid!

8. Speaking of teeth, I have never had a cavity. 

9. And, while I'm telling you random things about my health/body, my eyesight is horrible. I can't really see anything other than blurry shapes if I don't have my contacts in (or glasses on). Even with contacts/glasses, my vision isn't 20/20. Oh, and I also have astigmatism, which means I have to wear toric contact lenses. 

10. I would never consider myself a picky eater, but there are a lot of foods I don't like (including many that most people love). Some things I hate include: mushrooms, melons of any kind (including watermelon), cucumbers, peaches, cinnamon rolls, black olives, and yogurt.

11. I am, however, really picky when it comes to cheese. I will absolutely not eat Kraft singles. I will also not eat cheese on sandwiches or burgers unless it's "fancy" cheese, mixed with some other flavor (like the beer cheese we made for our beer cheese burgers shown below), and either completely melted or made into some kind of sauce. And, in general, I won't eat a piece of cheese by itself unless it's "fancy" (and even then I need to combine it with crackers or meat). 

12. I will say, though, that I used to only order pizza without cheese (or pick it off if I couldn't convince the people I was with to order cheeseless pizza), so I've come a long way.

13. Most foods I don't like have, in my opinion, a horrible, disgusting, sickening smell. I will literally hold my breath for as long as possible when walking through a mall food court with a Cinnabon. That probably sounds extreme, but the smell makes my stomach churn. Yuck.

14. Speaking of food, I didn't really attempt to learn how to cook until I was 24. I'd made a few things with my mom in the past, but I'd never tried cooking on my own until then. Even at that point, I stuck with really simple 4-6 ingredient dishes. I didn't cook from scratch until at least a year or two after that. (And, if you're wondering, I lived on my own before that. I just lived on pasta and jarred sauce, cans of soup, and frozen meals for far too long.)

15. I've been in 3 serious romantic relationships. All of them involved, at some point, long distance dating.

16. I had a "man of honor" instead of a "maid/matron of honor" at my wedding because my best friend is a guy.

17. I have only owned 2 cars in my entire life. My grandparents very generously purchased a brand new car for me the summer before my senior year of high school. I drove it for almost 11 years, then bought the car I have now. I'm planning to buy my third car sometime in the next couple of years or so. (I've already started the research process!)

18. I love music, and I love seeing my favorite musicians live. The farthest I've traveled to attend a concert was Montreal, Canada for Alexisonfire in December 2010. Totally worth it.

19. I own (and regularly wear) a lot of concert/band t-shirts. I haven't counted lately, but a good estimate is around 30-40. And I'm always adding to my collection ... I just bought 2 more (one at Garbage and one at Chris Cornell).

20. I'm terrified of fire. And here's a potentially embarrassing confession: I've never attempted to light a match. I'm too scared. (I do, however, love our gas fireplace since it only requires the flip of a switch and the fire is safely behind glass.)

21. My other weird/potentially embarrassing fears include bugs of any kind (yes, even "harmless" bugs like flies or ants), pregnancy/childbirth (maybe not that weird, but probably at least a little), chainsaws (the sound more than anything), and clowns (let's be honest here, they are creepy as fuck).

22. I don't have any tattoos. I have 3 specific tattoos I would eventually like to get, but I've never been moved to make an appointment or anything. (Not surprisingly, all 3 are music related.) I think I'm just afraid I'll hate them once I get them. Honestly, I probably shouldn't be too worried ... At least one of those tattoos has been on my mind for almost 11 years now, and the other two for at least 7-8 years. 

23. I've had my tongue pierced since I was 19. Sometimes I feel like I'm too "old" to still have it, but it's never been an issue at work and I still like it ... So why not? (And yes, I'm posting a picture of myself sticking out my tongue to illustrate. Classy, I know.)

24. My favorite seasons are fall and winter. I hate driving in snow/ice, but I love fall/winter clothing, seasonal menu items, sitting in front of the fireplace with a good book, holidays, the beautiful colors of the leaves when they start to change ... The list goes on and on.

25. I'm currently obsessed with Holland Lops and Bedlington Terriers. (If you're not sure what those are, I've provided some pictures below.) I've never owned a rabbit before, but Eric has. Our apartment complex doesn't allow pets, but when we eventually buy a house, I would love to get a couple of Holland Lops and a Bedlington Terrier. I'll just have to make sure we introduce them to each other early on to prevent any mishaps (and avoid leaving them alone together because I wouldn't trust the dog that much!).

26. I have a hard time concentrating on TV shows and often lose interest halfway through a season. That being said, there are some shows that I will happily watch from beginning to end over and over. Some of the shows I regularly rewatch are: Gilmore Girls, Pretty Little Liars, Dexter, Sex and the City, and Seinfeld. 

27. I really like foreign films with English subtitles. Dubbed movies are terrible, though. I just can't deal with that shit. 

28. I didn't get a library card in Omaha until last year (!). I had this crazy idea in my head that they couldn't possibly have very many books available that I'd want to read. LOL. I've increased my reading a lot since then, and I can honestly say that there have been very few books they haven't had (or weren't willing to purchase). 

29. Also new to me in 2015: pedicures. I have no idea why I'd never gotten one before, but now I get them regularly. (I even posted a picture on Instagram to commemorate my first pedicure. You can see that picture below.)

30. I set a minimum of 7 alarms every weeknight. Yes, 7. I have trouble getting to sleep, but once I'm out, I'm out. I sometimes turn my alarms off in my sleep or just don't hear them, so I actually need to do this ... Otherwise I'd probably never get up in time for work. If Eric has a day off or is out of town, I will set between 8-10 alarms. 

31. I love traveling, but I always get really anxious about missing my flight connections. (It's not even like it hasn't happened before. Everything always works out in the end, but I can't seem to control those feelings!) And when I say anxious, I don't mean just a little nervous ... No, I mean heart racing, sick to my stomach (I usually can't even eat or drink anything before or during my first flight unless I have a really long layover), mind racing with all that could possibly go wrong anxious. It's ridiculous. Once I'm on my final flight, though, I'm completely calm.

32. I still haven't told many people in real life about this blog. I think I'm pretty open about most things (both on the blog and in real life), but for some reason I just can't bring myself to bring it up. Sometimes I just feel awkward trying to work it into a conversation. Sometimes, though, people will be talking about a blog post they saw or something similar and I still say nothing. I don't really know why I don't, but I don't. And, to be perfectly honest, it would probably be pretty boring to most of them anyway ... I mean, they probably already know at least 90% of the stuff I share here. Maybe I'll start sharing it a little more one day, but for now I like to keep it separate from the rest of my life.

I know this was a long post, so thanks for reading! I still can't believe I actually came up with 32 things to share! I'm sure some of you knew at least a few of these things already, but did anything surprise you?