Wednesday, February 23, 2011

24 Years!

Today is my birthday! I started the day with a crisp and sunny 5-miler along the Canal with 6x6. Then I opened my cards and relaxed with the Wednesday Food section of the paper while eating my normal breakfast (plus a few bites of leftover cake – yummm!).

Tonight I’m going to Zengo to enjoy some Asian-Latin fusion food with LLC, 6x6, LOTR-Emily, Ex-Co-Worker-Rachel, and Speedy-Kate – pretty exciting!


For my post today I considered sharing 24 pieces of wisdom for each of my years (like many people do). BUT let’s be real here – I’m 24. I don’t have much wisdom (maybe by next year?) so instead I’ll share with you 24 fun facts about myself. Some you may already know…but I bet a lot of them you don’t!

 24 Facts for 24 Years

1. My favorite cookies are molasses ginger chocolate chip.


2. I speak English (well), French (bien), and Spanish/Hausa/Swahili un poco/kadunk-kadunk/pole pole.


3. In elementary school I kind of lived on a farm. We had sheep, chickens, ducks, geese, doves, a dog, and cats.


4. In 7th grade I made it to the state level of the National History Day competition for a paper I wrote on the Irish Potato Famine. The judging panel made me cry.


5. The summer before starting college I did my one bad/rebellious thing – and for punishment my mama gave me the choice to stack trees worth of wood at our house in Tahoe, or join the BU pep band. Clearly I stacked wood.


6. My toenails fall off all the time.


7. At one point I was ranked in the top 500 in the world for women’s downhill ski racing.


8. My favorite game in the world is Ga-ga. Those who cheat at Ga-ga are the scum of the earth.


9. I am extremely bothered by lateness, insincerity, people who chew with their mouths open, misuse of their/there/they’re, and people who "don't care".


10. My favorite cake is…too hard to pick one! Maybe double chocolate, or cheesecake?


11. The longest I’ve ever run was 18 miles (with the mama!).


12. The longest I’ve ever raced is 8k.


13. My best race ever was an indoor track 3k in 2009 (I ran 10:04).


14. I weighed almost 11 lbs when I was born and my family called me “The Linebacker” for a long time.


15. If I were stranded on a desert island my food of choice would be trail mix.


16. I love crossword puzzles (“West African capital” is always Accra, the capital of Ghana. It will come up. You’re welcome.)


17. I go to church at least once a week.


18. The hardest thing I’ve ever done is hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back in one day on the most obscure trail, in August, without enough water.


19. I did independent study instead of high school.

20. When I was abroad the thing I missed most about America was Slurpees.


21. There are few foods I don’t like – but I avoid mayonnaise, fresh bananas and mangoes, and cottage cheese.


22. I’ve never owned a car.


23. I love country music.


24. I read more than anyone I know.