Oh All RIGHT Already

I’ve been tagged and tagged and tagged again by the meme that’s taking over the world. So here goes: 25 random things about me.

1. I have five piercings but don’t like tattoos.
2. The only time I’ve ever broken a bone was in sixth-grade art class. And I sprained my ankle twice – once in my cubicle and once by getting hit by a school bus. (A bonus of tae kwon do is that now it’s harder to tell whether the bruises are from some impossible-to-believe accident or just from getting kicked. At least nobody asks if I’m in an abusive relationship anymore.)
3. I will defend New Jersey passionately to anyone who will listen, and most people who won’t.
4. My eyes are greener on some days than on others.
5. I love traditions and old stories, old photos and antiques.
6. My first crush was Davy Jones, and I was horrified when my father told me he wasn’t still the age he was on the Nick at Nite episodes of The Monkees.
7. I didn’t go to school until fourth grade.
8. I’ve only danced on a bar once.
9. I was a Victorian-era Santa’s helper in a hoopskirt dress, hat, and shoes in the Rockaway Townsquare Mall (long after the mall stopped being the kind of place where kids got murdered and got my high-school gymnasium named after them).
10. I’ve lived in 12 places, if you count by mailing-address changes. But it’s really more: that doesn’t count going back to some more than once, or living with friends. I couldn’t make myself use the word “home” for about a decade, but it finally feels like I’ve made one of my own.
11. The first time I wore sweatpants was on a ranch when I was seven and it horrified me.
12. I know every last breath to RENT, but the older I get, the more I sympathize with Benny.
13. I am completely at ease baking, but befuddled by cooking.
14. I didn’t get on a plane till I was 21, and now plan to spend my life traveling as much as I possibly can.
15. I think everyone should be in therapy. Yes, you. Especially you.
16. I’ve kissed six and a half boys.
17. I put myself through college and graduate school, I bought my cars and my condo, and, as much as it sounds like a girl-power lyric, I’m fiercely proud of having done all that myself. And it might not make me a good person, but I look down a little on people who haven’t.
18. I broke off a pencil lead in my foot when I was eight, when my brother and I were chasing around my parents’ bedroom and I jumped off the bed into my father’s briefcase.
19. I’m legally blind, even before having surgery for a detaching retina. [Edited to add: this is technically wrong, further research reveals. You are legally blind if your vision is 20/200 or less and can’t be corrected. Mine is that bad, but it’s fine corrected with glasses or contacts. Please don’t sue me and my bad eyes for getting that wrong.]
20. I was paralyzingly shy when I was little, and I credit two things with getting me past it – the secretary who made me run mics in a crowded auditorium, and the Toastmasters adjunct who taught my required public-speaking class.
21. That said, I sing in the car and in the kitchen, but very rarely in front of anyone.
22. When I was nine, I taught myself and the girls in my class sign language to outsmart the boys who were stealing our notes.
23. I make my PB&J’s with peanut butter on both pieces of bread and the jelly in the middle so it’s locked in.
24. If you can’t make me laugh, I can’t be bothered.
25. I’m going to second-guess telling you most of this.

Now then, if you’ve read all the way to the bottom, it’s your turn to do some in the comments. Not all 25 unless you’re really feeling it, but I do think at least three facts is only fair, don’t you?