It's All About Me!

So in the last few months people have been passing around a questionnaire on Facebook where you are supposed to write about 20 interesting facts about yourself. Despite a few requests, I didn't do it. (D0 200 of your "closest" friends really care to hear random facts about you?) Well, since this is my blog and you can choose to not read it AND that today is my 33rd birthday, I thought I grace you with some fun facts about myself.

I have been horseback riding down the Rio Grande, backpacking in the Canadian wilderness, rode a gondola in Venice, had High Tea in London, scuba dived 50 feet below to a shipwreck and rode a hot air balloon over the farms of Ohio.

I have a crazy, crazy fear of rodents. Nuff said.

I have a crazy, crazy love of hot tea. An occasional coffee is ok, but a cup of good hot tea with lots of cream and sugar is liquid heaven to me.

The house where I grew up was walking distance from the Washington DC border, and lets just say it wasn't the rich part of DC.

I was valedictorian of my high school class (there was only 9!)

I have three scars. One from busting my head on a radiator when I was three, a weird bumpy scar on my thigh from falling down a waterfall in Canada, and one from filleting my hand open with a tool. (I was trying to take a lid off a spray paint can and instead of using a screw driver, just picked up the nearest tool--which happened to be a rusty, chipped, wall paper scraper, i.e. razor on a stick.) Note to self: Use the right tool for the job.

I toured 60 schools as Juliet in a traveling production of Romeo & Juliet. It was a blast teaching students about Shakespeare!

I have a love of elderly people. I started volunteering at a nursing home when I was in 5th grade and volunteered all through college and eventually got a job as the party/field trip planner for a 900 resident community. And don't get me started on movies that are about elderly people. The Notebook and Evening are a few of my fav's but I always need a whole box of tissues while I watch them.

I had the most embarrassing 16th birthday party. I actually snuck into my house to scare a friend who was staying over and instead of scaring just that person, I instead jumped into (and scared) a room full of my friends there for my birthday.

I competed on the Forensics team for three years in college and was co-captain my senior year. (No, it doesn't have to do with dead people.) We would research, write and give speeches and recite poetry/short stories competitively. We (I) frequently placed number one in the state and other states, and those big universities like Miami University and Ohio State University had nothing on us!

I worked at the first Old Navy store when it turned from a Gap Warehouse into this NEW store called Old Navy.

I spent a month in England on a college drama team touring schools and staying with the locals. Really amazing!

My hair was three different colors in the course of a year. Dyed red for Kate in "Taming of the Shrew", dyed dark brown for Juliet in "Romeo & Juliet" and bleached blond as Sunny in the 1940's play, "The Last Night of Ballyhoo."

I was working toward my sign language interpreters license when I got pregnant with Tess. I would still love to accomplish that and specifically be an interpreter for theatre performances and concerts. I also have 4 Deaf relatives.

My front teeth are partially filled. Major space between the front two (even after braces), combined with a chipped tooth from AWANA game time in elementary school plus two rollerskating meets concrete floor/wall accidents.

In order to complete my theatre degree I had to produce/perform a senior acting recital. I did a one woman play on Zelda Fitzgerald called "The Last Flapper." I had to design the lights, the soundtrack and do an hour of straight acting alone on the stage. Since then, I'm obsessed with all things Zelda. I have just about every book about her and find her and Scott's love story fascinating.

Jobs I've held: summer waitress living at a family conference center, teacher of five day clubs in the inner city, salesperson at Old Navy, house cleaner, intern at the Folger Shakespeare Library in DC, company manager of a professional theatre, actor, voice over talent (for commercials and even a video game!), program coordinator for a retirement community, and homemaker:)

I am a firm beleiver in natural parenting, that unmedicated, no intervention birthing is the best for the baby and mother. I think parents need to be informed about vaccines and beleive in delaying and opting out of some vaccinations. I believe in the benefits of extended breastfeeding (two years) and co-sleeping. I would love to one day be a lactation consultant.

On one of my Great Grandfather's sides I am only a third generation American. He immigrated from Italy through Ellis Island as a teenager. My Great Grandmother's family also immigrated, but while some her siblings were born in Italy, she was born in US.

Alright, well I won't bore you with any others, but maybe that helps you get to know me a little better!:)