Island Med Student

J-Hawke tagged me with this “25 Random Things About Me” challenge. It’s taken me forever to get around to doing it, but here it finally is. Enjoy!

1. Although I consider myself to be somewhat of a “free spirit,” I can be an incredibly goal-oriented and focused person. I have OCD tendencies and I tend to obsess about relatively small details like the positioning of pictures on a wall and rugs being centered on floors. I always brush my teeth in the exact same way every day.

2. I grew up on a goat farm. Although I spent about half of my life on a farm, I spent the other half living in relatively large cities like D.C., Baltimore, and Brooklyn. While I am incredibly enthusiastic about living in big cities because of things like being able to walk to places, and 24 hour sushi restaurants, I am still a country girl at heart. I love being outdoors in nature, and I consider shoveling poop to be a pretty fun task. I enjoy getting dirt under my fingernails, and a hard, sweaty day’s work.

3. I eat an avocado almost every day (well maybe like 3-4 times a week), and I eat hummus pretty much every day (6-7 times a week). There is no special reason why. I just happen to love both of them.

4. I’m allergic to cephalosporins. I also once had an allergic reaction to topical erythromycin. I don’t have allergies to dextromethorphan and pseudoephedrine, per se, but they make me hallucinate and have dissociative experiences.

5. I don’t consider myself to be all that “girly,” but I do have two guilty, girly pleasures. I get a pedicure and eyebrow waxing almost every month. Actually, I had to give this up in Dominica, and it totally sucked! I know I don’t need to get these done, but it always makes me feel good, and I love being pampered!

6. I trained for a marathon, but never ran in one. I trained for months to run in the D.C. marathon, and then the night before it was to take place, Bush decided to bomb Iraq to start the war. Due to safety concerns, the marathon was cancelled hours before it was to take place. That sucked.

7. I don’t have a very bad temper, and very few things piss me off. The two things that can pretty much always set me off, though, are racism and homophobia. Please try to avoid either one of those things in my presence.

8. I was a vegetarian for over 10 years, and a vegan for about 6 months. I’ve since began eating fish and other seafood all the time. I will occasionally eat white meat, and very rarely will eat red meat. But I tend to eat vegetarian most of the time. It’s mostly just due to habit at this point.

9. I had braces when I was a teenager. They came off, and I was supposed to wear a retainer for years after that. I quit wearing them early, and my teeth moved back to their crooked positions. I wish I would have kept wearing the retainer, but having crooked teeth is fun when eating cheese (I like looking at the design/impression left on the cheese after a bite is taken out.)

10. I’m scared of public buses. I know that they are a good thing, and can help you get around, but pulling that cord freaks me out. I also think the schedules are too complicated. I generally walk instead, even when it means a 5+ mile walk.

11. Although I’ve never taken speed reading courses, I believe I read at a speed-reader pace. I can finish a book in record time, and I take exams faster than anyone I’ve ever met in my life.

12. As I was making this list, my little sister texted me to ask if I had a pair of white go-go boots that she could borrow. I told her yes, in fact I do, although they are a bit scuffed up. She knows me well.

13. I’ve lived in well over 30 different apartments/houses/condos/etc. But in every place I’ve lived, I’ve always had at least one indoor plant.

14. I have had many different jobs in my life. Some of the highlights include: tour guide in a cavern, Taco Bell drive thru specialist, car parker at a car auction, receptionist, housekeeper in a resort hotel, data analyst, barn cleaner, marketing assistant, McDonalds cashier, data entry specialist, psychiatric technician, factory worker in a label factory, and telemarketer selling Chippendales dancers.

15. I never took the SAT. I didn’t need to since I didn’t graduate high school.

16. I have very ugly feet. They are big (size 9) and oddly shaped. My big toe sticks out funny and my little toes do a strange curling thing. They are just not very pretty, or feminine. Perhaps that’s why I get pedicures (see #5).

17. When I was around 11, I wrote the script for, directed, designed costumes for, produced, and starred in a remake of the movie, Princess Bride. Hence, it’s one of my most frequently quoted movies.

18. I once had a pet goat named Porra. She had four teats instead of the normal 2 for a goat. She was my best friend. And then one day she was slaughtered. That was a life changing event for me.

19. I hate wearing a bra. I know that it’s the right thing to do, and I know that it’s more socially appropriate, but I don’t care. I still hate wearing them, and I avoid it whenever possible.

20. I used to ride a motorcycle. It was a red Kawasaki Ninja ZX6-R. I miss it lots.

21. Most mornings, I drink espresso with brown sugar in it.

22. I don’t call my mother mom. I call her Bob. It’s a long story.

23. I once won a spelling bee, but lost before getting to nationals. I spelled decaffeinated incorrectly by transposing the e and the i. But I ended up getting a full set of Encyclopedia Britanicas for second place, which I thought was pretty cool.

24. Every time I’m about to clean something, I put on the song, “Kiss” by Prince.

25. In high school, I used to walk around backwards, and I once zipped myself up in a gym bag and rolled down the hill beside the baseball field.