About The Girl

Here is a random collection of factoids about me, The Girl. So we can get to know each other better.

• I did eenie-meenie to decide where to go to college.
• I Google pictures of golden retrievers when I need to be cheered up.
• I've experienced sexual harassment at work but deflected it in favor of keeping my credibility at work.
• I've never seen Star Wars, or Jaws, or Harry Potter.
• When I was young I'd lie a lot, then not remember the lies I told and wonder why I did it. But then I kept doing it.
• I thought I could fly until I was nine. Realizing I couldn't was devastating.
• When I was 13 I was in a head-on car crash while on vacation with my grandparents and I nearly went through the windshield (the rear view mirror stopped me). I was reading Gone With the Wind at the time, and the last line I remember reading before the crash was "That was a heady experience." 
• My grandfather, father, and husband were all submarine officers in the Navy. Go figure.
• When I need a good cry, I watch this on YouTube.
• I memorized all the U.S. Presidents' names in order in third grade and got to go to a pool party as a reward. 
• I don't remember the names of the U.S. Presidents anymore, but I do remember the names of all the New Kids on the Block, the Beatles, the cast of the original 90210, and lyrics to tons of Debbie Gibson and Wilson Phillips songs.
• When I am in a bad mood I sometimes think having fancy jewelry would make things better. I do this knowing it is ridiculous.
• I had my first heartbreak at 14 and it took me years to get over it.
• My parents' divorce shaped every decision I made until I was 25.
• I'm glad I never got a tattoo, but the only thing that stopped me from getting my lower lip pierced when I was 20 was the thought that my grandmother would actually fall over dead if she saw it.
• I treat chocolate as a food group.
• I've never had coffee.
• I'm allergic to gluten.
• I got hit by a car while riding my bike to work in 2009 and broke my collarbone. 
• I've never had a speeding ticket.
• I've had the same best friend for 20 years.  I don't think I would have made it through without her.
• I've met or known six Olympians.
• The National Anthem gets me choked up.
• I used to have a strange affinity for Nicholas Cage. Don't worry, I'm over it now.
• I'm an introvert.
• I climbed Half Dome
• I hiked all the way in and back out of the Grand Canyon in about 28 hours.
• I've run four half marathons. The last one I was 7 weeks pregnant.  
• My dad recently showed me a bunch of pictures from when I was young. For most of it I was cuter than I felt at the time - until middle school when it was just as bad as I remember.