There is a survey floating around Facebook called 25 Random Things, and you're supposed to write out 25 things people may or may not know about you. I did this survey, but wanted to do it again here, with some more in depth answers. I wanted to post something completely open and honest to give you more of an idea of who I am. So whoever is reading this, if you read everything, thank you. It's pretty long. I wish I could promise you a cookie...
1) My dad and grandfather opened a fishing store when I was an infant. I pretty much grew up there. I played there with my siblings as a child, and when I turned 12 my dad taught me how t use the cash register and I worked there every summer until it closed in August 2002, a month before I left for college.
2) I wet my pants in 3rd grade. I was playing softball and I was wearing my favorite paisley stirrup pants. I knew I had to go pee, but I was coming up to bat. I got to first base and whispered to my coach that I had to go. They got me a pinch runner and I ran like the wind to the elementary school. The closest door was locked, so I was running along the side of the school between the building and parked cars, and I couldn't hold it. It was traumatic and I cried, and I got into the school and to the nurses office where she lent me purple sweatpants and helped me clean up. I went back to my game and no one asked me about my pants.
3) I used to live on a dirt road surrounded by conservation land. Once when I was little and home after school with my brother, there was a strange rain storm that made everything look green and I was convinced dinorsaurs were coming to attack us. I never told my brother this.
4) The past 2.5 years of my life are the only years I have gone, from the time I was born, without a pet. When I was born, my parents had a golden retriever named Sandy. We had to give Sandy away when we moved in with my grandparents temporarily while my parents searched for a house. My grandparents had a cat named Nigel. We moved into our new house 8 months later, 3 days before Christmas. My dad brought home a box for me to open 2 days later, and out popped a black kitten which I wanted to name Oatmeal. We named her Frisky, and she was mine. A few years later, Daisy (wire-haired fox terrier) was added to the family. We moved across the street sophomore year to a house with an expansive yard on a pond, which meant we also had geese. So my parents adopted Casey, a 6 month old border collie. My brother moved home from N.C. senior year of high school and brought with him Porkchop, a tan colored cat. Porkchop and Frisky sadly went away (Frisky was 17, Porkchop was 2, we think it was coyotes) within 2 weeks of each other. Daisy died of old age my sophomore year of college. Casey is enjoying middle age with my parents. I moved to my current area right after college, and have desperately wanted an animal of my own to complete my home.
5) I have never stayed close to 1 friend my entire life. I am still moderately in touch with people I have been close to, but if you asked me to name 1 best friend, I couldn't. I have made friends in all walks of life and I still love them all dearly, even if I don't see or talk to them that often.
6) I love my nephews and niece more than I ever knew was possible to love a child that's not my own. Knowing that, I cannot imagine what it will be like when I become a mom someday.
7) I was not a person of high morals in my early high school years. Freshman into sophomore year, I fell for my best friend's boyfriend and he and I had a relationship behind her back. It is possibly the only thing I have truly regretted in my life, because I lost the one person who I might have been able to call my friend for life.
8) I also smoked cigarettes, which I gave up before leaving for college, valuing my singing voice over cancer. Also, Sean told me when we were friends that he could never condone smoking. That had a major impact on my quitting as well.
9) I watch a lot of tv. I love American Idol, 24, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, House, The Dog Whisperer, Top Chef, WE Platinum Weddings and Rich Bride, Poor Bride, Ace of Cakes, Iron Chef, The Real Housewives of New York City, Law and Order SVU, The Office and 30 Rock. I also love to watch Anderson Cooper, Sports Center on Sunday mornings, and Cartoon Networks Adult Swim (Family Guy, Futurama and Robot Chicken). If you could judge a person by what they watch, I'd love to know what you think about me.
10) I don't read very often. I've never considered myself a strong reader, and if I'm not into a book after the first two chapters, I don't try to keep reading. I've breezed through books like DaVinci Code, Twilight, and Chasing Harry Winston because they're easy reads. I'm not dumb, but I don't bother trying to get into things that don't particularly interest me. I'm also more of a visual person, hence my love for television and movies...
11) I started drinking coffee freshman year of high school. My friend's mom let me try some coffee mixed with cocoa one night we were hanging out on the beach, so I started drinking it like that, and slowly weaned myself off the cocoa part.
12) I took a joy ride when my parents were away for a week in high school, end of sophomore year it must've been. We had a station wagon parked in the front yard for sale, and I had forgotten a textbook in my locker that I needed for my homework. I'd had my permit for 8 months at this point. I've never felt more badass and paranoid all at once. Sorry, Mom.
13) Moving in with Sean has taught me far more things I never knew about myself than about him. For instance, I am much more of a compulsive cleaner than I ever thought possible. I've had to teach myself to sit back and relax on weekends instead of spending hours cleaning the entire house.
14) I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. In the past 5 years I have wanted to be a music teacher, an art teacher, a full time church cantor, a nurse, and EMT, an artist, a photographer, a marketing executive, an event planner, own my own store, and be a work-from-home craft-seller.
15) I saw both of my grandfathers on their deathbeds. I saw my Grampa Clark the day he died. He's the first and only person I've ever seen one hour living and breathing and the next lying there lifeless. I was deeply affected by his death, and still have a hard time dealing with his absence in my life. The one thing that makes me sad about my wedding day is that he won't be physically present, although my mom tells me he's my angel, so I know he really will be there.
16) I am usually more comfortable sitting on the ground than in a chair.
17) I love being barefoot. I hate when my feet are completely enclosed in a shoe.
18) I have a deep love for music and art. I started singing at an early age, taught myself piano by ear, took ballet and painting lessons, started playing flute in 5th grade, and continued to perform in plays, musicals, band, marching band, chamber singers, show choir, jazz band and cantoring at church through high school and college.
19) Mary Lou's News coffee trumps all other coffees ever.
20) Both of my grandfathers were professional photographers. My Grampa Trask was a photographer for the Boston Herald and won a Pulitzer Prize for his photo of the sinking Andrea Doria. My Grampa Clark was more into artistic photography of nature, landscape and oceanscapes. I have always loved photography. I didn't get a digital camera until after college. I shot film up until that point, and want to start shooting film again. I also want to get a nicer digital camera and continue developing my artistic and editing skills.
21) I grew up on Disney and Mel Brooks movies. I saw Blazing Saddles and History of the World Pt. 1 before I learned to read.
22) I will probably only let my kids watch DVDs of the TV shows I watched as a kid. Today's kids television scares me. Fraggle Rock, The Muppet Show and Old School Sesame Street all the way.
23) I have never broken a bone in my body or needed to visit the hospital for myself (knock on wood). My brother, on the other hand, was very accident prone. In my memory he has broken his collarbone (twice), big toe, needed stitches in his chin from a childhood pushcart accident, and he nearly died when he was 15. We were at one of his summer baseball games and in a blink he was on the ground screaming and covered in blood. He had walked by the on deck batter, and the kid swung and hit him straight on in the face with a metal bat. The bat contacted his nose, and he needed 27 stitches and got two black eyes. The doctors told my parents that if he got hit any closer to his forehead he could be dead.
24) My dad brought me up to be "tough as nails". He always wanted me to be able to fend for myself, so I can fish, cook, mow the lawn, shovel snow, change a tire, use power tools, and carry things over 25 pounds with ease. I'm not really a girly girl. But I embrace my femininity.Oh, and I think this is also why I have a hard time expressing myself when I get upset or angry. I used to tuck those feelings away instead of dealing with them. I'm learning to be more open with my feelings.
25) I have played Symphony Hall in Boston and Carnegie Hall in NYC.
And then go to town with your liquify tool! This is how models get cheekbones, no sag under their arms, a nice tush, and a killer waistline. I did this quickly, so it's not very clean: 
