(Explanation in this morning’s blog post…)
Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
During a day at the park. This picture makes me happy.
1. I won the 4th grade spelling bee. I went on to the county competition held at Barry University to represent Marjory Stoneman Douglas Elementary. I lost during the first round, the written competition. I’ve never forgotten how to spell riboflavin since.
2. I have a favorite tree. His name is General Sherman and he resides at Sequoia National Park in California. We first met March of 2005 and it was love at first site. I subsequently named a bubbler I bought on the Hollywood strip after the tree, but became too paranoid to bring it back home on the plane, so it lived with 2 friends from LA up until last year, when I got the news that the piece had finally succumb to “natural causes.”
3. I didn’t learn how to swim until I reached my early twenties. Fact.
4. I’ve had two very fine theatrical moments in my life. The first was serving as narrator for our 2nd grade performance of The Town Musicians of Bremen. The second was when I voiced the puppet of Rumplestiltskin during the 5th grade renaissance festival. I can still remember the cheers and applause.
5. My 5 favorite cities in the United States are: New Orleans, New York City. St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Key West.
6. I published my first poem at the age of 6. It was a poem about school in a children’s anthology. I’ve never published a poem since, but it’s on my bucketlist for the year.
7. I got my first (and currently only) tattoo in 2010: the words “keep going” on the back of my left ankle. I did it on a whim for the experience of getting a tattoo, to see how it felt. Sometimes I feel like people think it’s a cheesy inspirational quote, but in the end, it means exactly what it needed to mean at the time that I got it. 2010 was a shit year. I’m hoping to get more eventually.
8. I’ve been vegetarian for over 12 years. I started on and off when I was 15 after getting some PETA pamphlets from these two girls at my high school. These days, I do it partly out of habit, partly because I still care about the treatment of animals, and mostly because meat still grosses me out for the most part.
9. I have exhibitionist and voyeuristic tendencies. I think you have to to be an anthropologist or a writer of non-fiction.
10. Last year, I held down 6 different jobs. These include positions as an art gallery assistant, ghost writer, restaurant hostess, retail sales representative, freelance writer, and development associate for a museum. They were all pretty great.
11. Hablo español! Je parle un petit peu de français.
12. I’ve slept with “representatives” from most continents – still missing an Australia and Antarctica. Maybe someday?
13. I don’t read enough. My attention span has taken a turn for the worse in the past few years. Someone have any advice on how to force myself back in to reading?
14. I didn’t get my driver’s license until I turned 21. And even then, it was only out of necessity because I had no one to take me to school and the bus was too far. I’m happy I waited that long.
15. When I was 14, I asked my mom to take me to a plastic surgeon for a consult. I was unhappy with the way I looked and felt that I would greatly benefit from a nose job (and potentially a boob job). Then, one day, I decided it just wasn’t for me. My life would be completely different if i’d somehow gone through with it, but I know this is what my life needed to be instead.
PS. I’ll update about my procrastination project tomorrow. Today was mostly a success!
