25 Things About Me

1. I am currently taking 35mg of Prednisone per day.

2. This could be why I'm wide awake at 3:53 am

3. I love Steve Martin movies. L.A. Story may be my favorite.

4. I played soccer from age 5 to age 20.

5. I love to read.

6. I am a city-girl deep down in my bones and down to the bottom of my toes.
Born and raised in San Francisco so that has my hometown love, physical manifestations of my memories, my family, so many friends. It's so much a part of me it's hard to find the words to describe it.
Fell in love with New York the first time I stepped foot on its streets. Freshman year of college, travelling with a boy. Walking the streets at night, feeling like I was in a dream because people were grocery shopping and strolling as though it were the middle of the afternoon. Falling in love with a different boy on that same trip. I think I went at least once a year every year for more than ten years. I haven't been back in three years and I miss it with a dull ache in my chest.
Changed my life in Madrid. It seemed I could actually feel the blood pumping faster in my veins the first night I arrived. Ancient streets, food and noise and people and langauge and alcohol. I spent my junior year in college there, became fluent in Spanish there. Discovered what it felt like to have history become real. Became patriotic by surprise. I am a city girl.

7. I am the eldest of three siblings. Birthday order is as follows--me, sister two years younger, brother three years after her.

8. I used to love hugging, then I went to Boston for college and became more reserved and less into automatic hugging. I'm still figuring out where I stand on hugging.

9. It can be hard for me to say "I love you" to anyone other than my husband and my immediate family, even though there are many people I really love.

10. Being a patient, as in a person who is sick and being taken care of, is a big part of my identity. I've recently been reminded of that and it is having a profound affect on my life. I will write much more about this in the coming weeks.

11. I like the colors red and teal, but not together.

12. I have a dog named Sadie who has lived with me for twelve years. She is a German Shepard-Lab mix and she is a quirky, loving good dog who I underappreciate.and who has driven me nuts much of the time. These days she mostly chills and lets kids touch her even when she doesn't like it.

13. I am hugely afraid of snakes and have been for as long as I can remember.

14. I have two tattoos.

15. When I was a sophomore in high school I cut off my long, blondish hair and dyed it jet black. This was not meant as any type of socio-political statement at the time but it made a big impression at my school and in my familly. In retrospect it was a very fitting statement of my internal life but it mostly just seemed like it would be fun to do.

16. People often think I am part-Chinese or part-Asian because of the shape of my eyelids. I used to be very self-conscious of my eyes because kids made fun of me in middle school (ugh, middle school). I started loving my eyes in college.

17. I could eat sourdough bread and Cabot Sharp White Cheddar cheese every day.

18. I have been pregnant twice and given birth to four children--two by C-section and two vaginally.

19. I have owned four cars in my life--a reddish Ford Countour, a grey Subaru Forrester, a black Audi A4 and a silver Honda Odyssey.

20. I am messy and not skilled as a housekeeper. I would rather do almost anything other than clean though I have several friends who find cleaning soothing. I wish I found cleaning soothing. Can this be a learned trait?

21. I was baptized Catholic and received my First Communion but did not get Confirmed. I'm not 100% sure I'm supposed to capitalize those sacraments but it feels right and I'm not motivated to look it up.

22. Becoming a mother has profoundly changed my life and I'm still the same person I've always been. This is a confusing realization and experience.

23. I am completely fascinated by people.

24. Yoga makes me better.

25. I am not a good swimmer. But I am a Pisces.