There. Me in a nutshell.

It's my birthday. I am again taking a page from Allyson and going to list 37 things about me that you might not know, but I'm only doing this once. With this many things listed there will be nothing you don't know about me next year.

1. I hate it when people don't put their shopping carts away. Really hate it. It burns me up.



2. I can not wear socks on carpet. It's the same shuddery feeling other people get when they hear fingernails on a chalkboard.


3. I would love to live in an underground house if it had enough skylights.


4. I melt whenever I hear Chopin.


5. My eyes always skip chapter headings. I have to consciously go back and make myself read them.


6. I would never have been a great ballerina; I realized that when I went on point and kept getting foot cramps because my feet are too flat.


7. I don't mind grocery shopping but I HATE putting the groceries away.


8. I like folding laundry.

9. Michael McClean sang a song about me.


10. I have been a lab assistant, a day-camp counselor, a clerk at a convenience store, and on the maintenance crew at a family campground.


11. I was almost a model in a fur catalog.


12. We once lived next door to Hugh Nibley. Husband borrowed a wrench from him just to meet him.


13. I once played cello for a famous? band, and since I was paid for it, I guess I'm a professional musician.


14. I was once a telemarketer for Fingerhut. I cannot tell you how much I hated taking people's money for the JUNK they sell.


15. I know just enough about Feng Shui to be really dangerous.


16. I once tried to decapitate my brother. Fortunately I failed.


17. When I was a kid in Idaho, I used to ride my bike 6 miles into town just to go to the library.


18. I was once 100 feet away from a tornado.


19. I was almost killed (or at least seriously injured) by a bear when I was 15.

20. I can eat more pizza than the rest of the family combined, Husband included. And I'm proud. PROUD!


21. I think a lot about the relativity of time, size, and the nature of the universe.


22. Although it sounds cliche, I absolutely love hearing wind in the trees. I can sit and listen to it for hours.

23. I once won a chicken in a chicken race.

24. I talk to myself a lot (but I don't hear voices).


25. I am good at thinking up ideas but not so great at the follow-through.


26. I really like Bollywood films.


27. Most of my clothes are blue, green or black. It just happens.


28. If I had the time, I would learn to be a master carpenter.


29. Ask me what model a car is and I will get it wrong 100% of the time unless I've made an effort to read it on the actual car. Well, I can identify a Mustang. That's it, though.


30. I still don't know the rules for football. Nor do I care.


31. I love babies, any babies. If I see a baby I can't help smiling at it and wanting to hold it.


32. While I subscribe to Martha Stewart Living Magazine, I have no illusions about my abilities to duplicate anything in its glossy pages.

33. When I have nightmares (which isn't often) it's usually about deep, dark water.


34. If I were an animal I'd be a wolf.


35. When I was younger and went to the library, people used to ask me for help because they thought I worked there. I helped them anyway.


36. I am fairly helpless when it comes to hair. I don't even know how to do a "messy bun." My girls are disgusted.


37. The sight of lots of blank notebooks, paper and sharpened pencils has a strangely euphoric effect on me.