25 Things You Don’t Know About Me

After my US Weekly rant, I did cancel my subscription. I debated on keeping it, but I’m trying to save money and get in the habit hitting the web for celebrity gossip. But the magazine did have a section I enjoyed called “25 Things You Don’t Know…” where a celebrity dishes 25 random things about themselves. Even though I’m not a celebrity, here are 25 things about me. :-)

1. I text message a lot, but I just can’t bring myself to use text type like “How R U?” Even when I had a cell phone with just a number pad, I still typed out entire words.

2. I don’t iron clothes, I’m terrible at it. My poor mom got so frustrated trying to teach me in high school because I just could not grasp the concept. The few pieces I did get right seemed to take way longer than they should and it frustrated me that they were wrinkled again shortly after putting on. Thank goodness for business casual attire, wrinkle-free fabrics and a bottle of wrinkle-release spray.

3. I used to fear flying on commercial airlines during my high school and early college years to the point where I’d squirm out of trips. I finally overcame the fear in college after getting fed up with missing family visits and am very thankful I did.

4. I also had a fear of elevators as a kid probably stemming from seeing horror movies and TV shows of people getting stuck in them. I finally got over that fear by junior high and love ridding in old, rickety elevators now – like the Coit Tower elevator.

5. If I’m alone at my desk and I know no one is watching, I might floss.

6. I’ve only owned stick shift cars for the last 16 years, I love driving stick. It took me about a day to learn it when I was 17 and I have to be careful not to mistake the brake pedal for the clutch when I drive automatic. :-P My last car didn’t have power steering, so I got an upper body workout while commuting to college.

7. I love animals, obviously, but I volunteered for an animal shelter in college running a PetSmart adoption center and safely returning all the animals to their foster homes at the end of each day. I loved it and wish I had more time to volunteer now.

8. I also learned roofing, hammering and insulation skills while volunteering for a Habitat for Humanity build. Again, if I had more time, something else I’d like to still be doing.

9. And I improved my gift wrapping skills volunteering to wrap toys for a childrens hospital and perfected my skills pouring foam-free beer from a tap volunteering for a couple of festivals. Since the volunteers got to drink their screw ups, there wasn’t a lot of incentive for improvement though. I love volunteering and the skills I pick up from it, I just wish I had more time for it.

10. Before going vegan, I used to be a huge seafood fan, especially crab. But I don’t miss it now and am not even tempted at buffets.

11. I never liked beef, even in my non-vegan days.

12. Also in my non-vegan days, I tried an Atkins-style diet with hubby skipping carbs and eating a lot of meat and it caused horrid energy sags, IBS and general crankiness. Never again, though I still firmly believe in skipping crap, processed carbs.

13. I changed my career many times in college – graphic design, business, marketing, art, etc. I finally completed an IT degree and got sucked into a full time support job while I was finishing it. I love computers and new technology in general, one of my favorite jobs was working in computer sales where I made tons of commission just by showing off new toys to customers. Sadly, the days of commission like that are gone.

14. I’ve been with my husband for over 13 years, but we’ve only been married for under two years and endured lots of family nagging prior.

15. We eloped to Vegas when we did finally get married because neither of us was interested in a huge wedding, not a problem since eloping seems to run in my family. And the ceremony was broadcast live over the internet for friends and family to watch, totally our style. :-)

16. My first full time job out of college was for a small IT company in Florida where I worked for about 6 years before getting laid off. At first that was a crushing experience, but later I realized I was rarely happy working for that company and I got a wonderful job with a private Christian school with a much better work environment.

17. I currently work for a non-profit company that has a very positive mission probably not making as much as I could, but I value their drive for something more than profit and the positive environment.

18. Even though I lived walking distance from the beach in Florida, I rarely went to it except for morning runs. I’m not a beachy type with skin that burns easily, hair that gets hopelessly snarled from salt air and I hate it when sand gets where it shouldn’t be.

19. I’ve only been to the Bahamas and Mexico for international traveling thanks to being broke in high school and college. I’m jealous of those of you who studied abroad. When we have more money and vacation time, I plan a lot more traveling.

20. We walked away from a highway head-on collision in an economy car with a truck that lost control during a rain storm almost 10 years ago. I was driving and remember a wall of truck appearing from the wall of rain in front, then looking at a smoking airbag. That poor car wasn’t even 3 weeks old, thank goodness for seat belts, airbags and good insurance!

21. My dad is still in denial that I’m taller than him.

22. I used to build my own desktop computers, but am now a laptop gal.

23. Despite growing up in Cupertino, home of Apple, I’m a PC gal.

24. First person shooter video games make me sick, but I adore racing and sports games. Two of my all-time favorites was SSX 3 snowboarding and Burnout Revenge.

25. I love celebrity gossip sites.

So there’s 25 random things. And random seems to sum up our weather today, one minute overcast and raining, then sunny and windy, then a freak hail storm just in time for my lunch break.

But that was the extent of today’s excitement because my eats weren’t too exciting – leftover salad for lunch with curry hemp seed dressing, hemp seeds and nooch. I made such a huge salad for lunch yesterday that there were plenty of leftovers. Boring, but easy, which is what I needed today.

And more leftovers from last night’s vegan sausage and sweet potatoes, this time topped with Daiya Cheddar Shreds to mix things up a bit.

Despite the strange weather today, I did get in a run after work in the cold and wind. Driving home I was thinking of just using my elliptical instead since the weather was so icky. But decided to go for it and I’m glad I did, the weather wasn’t that bad. Plus rain is predicted for the rest of the week, who knows when I’ll get another opportunity and I really hope my long weekend run won’t be in the rain!