25 things

25 things you didn't know about me, a la Facebook.

1. My blood type is O-negative. This makes me a highly desirable blood donor.
   
2. Alas, my veins are also tiny and hard to poke. This means I have no further desires to donate blood.
   
3. I wear a retainer at night. I still wear a retainer at night. Even though my braces were removed when I was 12 years old. I don't want to repeat the braces.
4. My favorite color is bright orange.
5. My favorite pen is green. I have two orange pens, but one isn't dark enough to read well and the other is dull.
   
6. Speaking of orange and green, I used to tell people that my wedding colors would be construction cone orange and fern green. The centerpieces on the tables at my reception would be ferns poking out of construction cones. I totally had it planned.
7. But my wedding colors ended up being yellow and blue. Ten years out, all my towels are still yellow and blue, except for the one orange set I bought for Jonathan.
   
8. Sometimes I get really tired of yellow towels.
   
9. I am right handed and right footed. Right footed means it's easier for me to do a pirouette to the right than to the left.
10. I know this because I took ballet through high school. I used to dance on my toes.
11. It hurt.
    
12. My big toe is a half a centimeter longer than the next longest toe. People like me with long big toes do not make good ballet dancers. The best ballet dancers have toes nearly all the same length.
13. In eighth grade, I was assigned a project to research the three careers I thought would be most interesting. I picked author, illustrator, and ballet dancer.
    
14. I didn't grow up to have any of those careers.
15. Yet.
16. I was born on a Wednesday.
17. At one time, I figured out how to tell which day of the week any given date landed on. I tried it out at an event in college, asking people for their birth dates and coming back with a day of the week. I might have impressed a few people, except it took me about 15 minutes to come up with the right answer. If I had practiced a little harder, I might have perfected the skill, like Rainman. But I couldn't convince myself it was worth the bother. Because it wasn't.
18. When I was 12 and 13, I was taller than my older brother.
    
19. I never ever won the physical fitness award in elementary school, junior high school, or high school, even though I was the master at the flexed arm hang. I failed the shuttle run every single time.
20. My closet is full of pinks, light browns, and a couple of pastels. What can I say? I have really pale skin so I can't wear darks.
21. I only wear two pairs of shoes. I own about five pairs total. I am a poor example of femininity.
    
22. I also hate shopping. Clothing stores do not stock items that fit me, and I'm too cheap to hire a personal tailor. Can you even hire a personal tailor in 2009? How much does that cost? Might be worth it.
23. I have used the same alarm clock since I was about 12 years old.
24. Of the five senses, I have always enjoyed the sense of smell.
25. I shrink a full inch during the day. That is, in the morning I am an inch taller than I am in the evening. Tim helped me measure. He only shrinks half an inch.

There you go. 25 weird things you wish you had never bothered to read about me.