25 Things about me

I do not generally get involved in these sorts of things, not because I have any negative feeling toward them, but mostly because I do not take the time. They somewhat remind me of those chain emails everyone was obsessed with in high school where you answered all of these questions about yourself and then passed it on to another 10 friends, if you had another 10 friends. This has been circulating on Facebook and since I find that I am not very good at self-reflection, or rather that I rarely "think" about reflecting on myself (I am much more of a "do" or task-oriented person) I think it might be a worthy endeavor. Most people could immediately name 25 things about them, I will have to really think. So, here it goes...

1. I grew up on a farm in South Carolina and worked one summer with my Dad. I was a wheat hauler, tractor waxer, and I drove a 1950's stick shift dump truck with 4 gears.
2. I was such a horrible little kid that my mom would cry imagining me as a teenager. One time I spit a giant wad of purple Bubble Yum on our baby sitter; she quit shortly there after.
3. My senior year of college I lived with 6 other girls in a house we called "The Brothel" (because there was a law in Clemson that more than 4 single females could not share a house together-The Brothel law"). Our landlord's name was Mohammed and he was friends with George Bush...supposedly.
4. I have a thing called "Osgood-Slaters disease" Supposedly it only happens to about .5 percent of people and of those it doesn't go away in about .5 percent of people.....Lucky me. Most people just call it my third knee.
5. I graduated high school with only 45 people in my class.
6. I didn't like coffee or get my ears pierced until my last year of college. I had had my cartilage pierced since 9th grade.
7. I decided to forgo my college graduation ceremony to take a trip to Mississippi with a bunch of people to help out Katrina victims.....it was an amazing trip. I will never forget the things I saw there.
8. I am the first member of my family to have my Masters degree.
9. After college I went to Europe with 3 guys for the month of January. We traveled to nine different countries and it was the coldest I have ever been in my life, but also the most exciting thing I have ever done.
10. I have caught and released two mice from sticky traps in my office with my bare hands....Don't judge me.
11. I performed Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus with 6 of my friends in the 4th grade in a school talent show. I played a toy electric guitar. We thought we were pretty great.
12. I have an unhealthy obsession with ice cream.
13. I have lived in Texas for 2 1/2 years.
14. I have tried really hard to like museums, but I just don't think I do.
15. My sophmore year of college I had an accident on a mountain bike and I broke my face....my cheekbone really. The front of the bike collapsed, popping the tire off when I hit a jump. It was my first and only ride in an ambulance, but my memory of it is very spotty.
16. I have run a Mother's Day 5K in Central Park. I finished 3 minutes before the leader of the Half Marathon finished 7 miles.....both races started at the same time...Ha.
17. I tried out for a walk on position with the Clemson University Basketball team and my great college friend would wake up with me at 5:00 am to go work out....we would play full-court 21. It was awesome.
18. I have always wanted a Jeep Wrangler, but I have a Jeep Cherokee and that will have to do.
19. I play guitar and the djembe, but I haven't played either in a while.
20. In high school I took a line shot to my eye with a softball and had to have laser eye surgery...."Soft" ball my butt.
21. I have a scar on my neck from where the doctors pulled me out with forceps when I was born. It probably hurt, but I don't remember.
22. My most prized possession is a shoe box filled with things that belonged to my dad and a letter he sent me the December I graduated from college, 6 months before he died. It was about life and what you choose to do with it.
23. I love to read and I am a really motivated student.
24. I have always LOVED dogs and I just got a puppy named Cali. She was abandoned with her litter mates in someone's driveway. She is fantastic.
25. I have worked with an after school program in an inner-city middle school in Fort Worth for 3 years and now I am the supervisor. I have a heart for inner-city kids.