Twenty five things about me

I saw over on Three Little Monkeys a post called '25 things about me' and thought I'd nick the idea! You might know a bit about me from reading the blog: I sometimes sew, I make terrible cakes, I'm a wiz at Paint (haha), but you might not know these things:

1. I grew up in Connecticut, in the middle of the woods, with no neighbours for miles. I spent an idyllic childhood playing in the woods, making forts, climbing trees, and sledding.


2. My hair was down to my waist until I went to university and I wore very elaborate french braids when I was younger (my mom bought two books on crazy braiding!). I also spent four years constantly dyeing my hair in various shades that didn't suit me.


3. I have a degree in Medieval History and Literature. In fact, I was accepted to do a Phd on the dichotomy of Muslims and Christians in 14th century crusading romances. That makes me an even bigger dork than you thought.


4. I almost died in a car accident when I was 17.


5. I was in the Olympic develop programme for soccer. Now I don't enjoy watching it because it makes me sad that I quit.


6. My thumbs can do this:


7. My middle name is Lyng. It comes from my grandma's middle name, and she had it because it was a surname from one of her grandparents (I think?). I had a lisp when I was little so it sounded like 'Wing'. Unfortunate.


8. I was in labour with Jamie for 100 hours. By the end I was hallucinating and thought the anaesthetist was trying to send me secret messages to breathe like a weirdo. He wasn't, and they told me to stop.


9. I used to be fluent in Spanish. Now I'm not even fluent in English.


10. After university I was a reconciliations analyst. I was the biggest Excel geek around and I'm ashamed to say I miss it now that I work at home.


11. I had a home birth with Maia with no pain relief. And then went to the shops to buy the newspaper. That makes me semi-heroic in my book (at least for a day).
    
    
12. I got married in Florence, Italy. And it was more than 100 degrees. And when we walked through a piazza with me in my dress and Steven in his kilt, hundreds of people clapped and cheered. I felt like a superstar.


13. When I was younger, the hatchway (if you're in the UK, imagine the door in the ground into the cellar from Wizard of Oz) in my parent's house was not secure. Snakes would fall down and get all over the basement. Our rec room was in the basement so sometimes when I watched TV or played ping pong suddenly a snake would show up. My brother used to torment me with them. I now have a deep, pathological fear of snakes. And an uncanny ability to see them anywhere in the world including Scotland (which has maybe two snakes in the whole country). And every single time I'm home visiting my family, they turn up again. Last summer one showed up in the kitchen, for the first time in ten years, because I was there.


14. I have a small hole in front of my ear that I was born with. And I once met another girl who had one.


15. I put on so much weight when I was pregnant with Jamie that my feet went up a shoe size permanently.


16. I'm an incredibly fast reader.


17. I've broken my nose more than six times.


18. I could eat pizza every day and not get sick of it. Or at least I'd like to try!


19. When I was a teenager I had eight piercings in my ears, one in my nose and one in my tongue. Now that I am boring, I only wear one set of earrings.


20. When I was very little I used to put paper through the pasta cutter machine and eat it.


21. My most embarrassing moment was when I was a teenager and after a shower, I stepped on my towel going up the stairs, then fell down said stairs almost naked, to where my parents were sitting at the table.


22. My family's first pet was named Flash Golden (he was a golden retriever) and he was a year younger than me. My brother trained Flash to run into me and knock me over. Our next dog (also a golden) was called Morgan and she had a foot fetish. If you were sitting down she would back up and plant her bum on top of your feet and look over her shoulder at you sheepishly. When she was a young she ate all manner of inappropriate things, and pooped them all over the yard. In the spring when the snow melted, all sorts of (semi-digested) missing things showed up in the yard!


23. My close friends tend to emigrate. My first best friend in the UK was Michelle, an Australian that I met through work. We had the best time ever. I taught her how to make snow angels in Princes Street gardens, in our work suits on our lunch break. She taught me an Australian card game whose name I now forget :( Then she moved back to Sydney, which still makes me so sad. And who could forget Ruth, another friend through work. We bonded in our nihilism, but she was from Northern Ireland and moved back as well! We've met up a few times since, but it's never enough, I wish I saw her more!


24. When my eldest brother was looking after me when I was really little, he hoicked me onto his hip when he had a pencil in his pocket. I still have a lead pencil mark in my upper thigh.


25. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Probably less tired.