30 Things in 30 Days (#1: Randoms)

So I found a blog via Pinterest. Personally, I hate Pinterest - always making me feel like I should be doing more, and when I actually try some of the recipes/ideas/creations, most often, it's a complete fail. But, I found this pin a long time ago, and I decided I should try this on my own blog for my kids and for them to know more about me one day. And, if anything, it gives a great springboard for writing. So, without further delay, I present to them: 30 Things in 30 Days!

Day 1: List 20 30 Random Facts About Myself

1. I taught myself how to juggle in college. I can only juggle up to three items, but I'm pretty proud of myself for learning on my own - as an assignment for a "Kiddie PE" class all Elementary Education majors had to take.
2. I had a 2nd-3rd degree burn on my left foot when I was 8 years old. I got it right before my dad remarried, so in the pictures at his wedding, I have one shoe on and only a sock on the other. The burn happened when I was jumping on a pile of sand in front of Dad's house one dark night in December. Turns out, it wasn't just sand. There were leaves burning within the pile. I felt a burn in my foot and starting "dancing" around. Brock made fun of me and told me to stop goofing off, while I desperately tried to get my shoe off.
3. My favorite candy is Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. They remind me of my Grandpa who used to bring them to me after school when he'd pick me up. No better combination than peanut butter and chocolate.
4. For my Bat Mitzvah, I did mitzvah work at Services for Visually Impaired Children. 
5. I'm very indecisive about little things (what sandwich to order, which dress to buy, what to make for dinner), but on the big stuff - I know right away what I want and don't budge (what car I want, what couch to buy, Sam!, what I want for my boys).
6. I have a very good memory. I remember birthdays, songs, where I was when this or that happened. 
7. When I was a baby, I nearly lost my hearing from a bad ear infection. Unrelated to that, though, I've always wanted to be a fluent American Sign Language (ASL) signer/interpreter. I know a lot of sign language and taught it a few summers at a summer camp in town, but I want to know much more. I love the language and the culture of the Deaf community.
8. I was on the sixth grade traveling volleyball team at my elementary school. And, I was good!
9. When I was a baby, the doctor told my mom that I had a short leg extension - which meant I wasn't going to be very flexible, and I'd never be a good runner. He was right. While I ran track in junior high, I was never very fast. Brock used to say, "Is she even moving??" And, once while I was running a mile with my 3rd grade class in elementary school, a woman who knew my mom saw us running outside. She told my mom I was the fastest in the class - that I was ahead of everyone. When my mom told me this story, I told her that was not true - that I was behind; everyone had lapped me. :) And, while I was a gymnast as a kid - I definitely wasn't as limber or flexible as my little sister.
10. I pantsed Brock outside our hotel at Disney World. Mom wasn't happy.
11. I placed out of 36 hours of undergraduate work going into my freshman year at UT - many of them claimed as "A's". I started as a sophomore, and I had completed all of my minor (Spanish) without taking a class there.
12. My GPA was the exact same in undergraduate as it was in graduate school: 3.95. (Two B's in undergrad, 1 B in graduate. The B's were in Greek Mythology, Psychology of Language, and Statistics and Research Design.... all of which I'd LOVE to take over again for the A!)
13. I miss my Grandma everyday. Her death was the only one I have witnessed, and it was the most beautiful yet scariest moment of my life.
14. I miss elementary school, I loved high school, but I absolutely hated junior high. If I could erase any time of my life, that would be it. Not because of anything I did or didn't do, but because of that stage in my life. It was awful. I vividly remember overhearing conversations in the girls bathroom while I was in one of the stalls - thinking I cannot wait til I am done with this place!
15. Every time I see butter melting in a pan, I think of the words "of course." I have NO idea why, but it brings me back to my old house in Plano when Mom was making pancakes. I wasn't older than 4 or 5 then, so it had to be that Mom said those words while I was watching the butter melt in the pan?? I have no idea.
16. I have a scar on the left side of my upper forehead from getting pushed out of bed and into the corner of the nightstand in our Disneyland hotel room in the middle of the night (at the age of 3). Thank you, Brock.
17. I never had any detentions throughout school. Once, I got a demerit for parking in the wrong lot in high school, but Mom called the school to explain why when it was because all the Peer Helper spots were taken, and it was either park in the wrong place or be late for 2nd period Spanish. Demerit gone.
18. My hair was stick-straight when I was a little girl. In fact, my mom would curl it with a curling iron or with curlers, and it wouldn't hold a curl. But, when I was 10, I got a perm. It never went away. (What probably happened was puberty, and my hair just changed, but we named this perm after my hairdresser: "Patti's Permanent Perm.")
19. I rarely get the chance to do it now, but I absolutely LOVE driving in the evening with my windows down, music blaring, and singing my heart out. If only no one was watching! :)
20. I'd much rather be cold than hot. I hate sweating. (There's a reason I was a swimmer in high school - avoiding sweating and only being hot from a good work-out - which was easily remedied by getting back in the cooling water.)
21. Pretty much as far back as I can remember, I hate drinking after people. I hate sharing drinks. Even when I was 16 years old in Israel, and we were hot as hell hiking in the desert, I hated sharing the canteens that were being passed around. But, I did it - and my friends congratulated me that day. Lately, when Banner takes Quinn's cup and drinks from it (and gives it back or not), it bothers me.
22. When I was really little, I thought if I spun around one way that my body would be all twisted up unless I spun the equal number of times the opposite direction. To this day, I still resist the urge to  "undo" a spin/twist. (I might even lose the battle sometimes.)
23. When I was in high school, my closest girlfriends used to come over to study every Thursday night at my house. We'd do our math homework first, then we'd quiz each other on the next day's vocabulary test for Spanish class, or we'd work on the next project for English. We'd always stop studying to watch "Friends" and then study more before watching "ER." At some point, our little group grew to include not only people from our high school but our BBYO friends from other schools. People would bring their own dinner, work on homework, flirt, or just hang out. It became known as "Friends Night," and it was awesome. My psychology teacher, Dr. Bob, who was also the Peer Helper program sponsor, told me he thought it was the best idea for teens to have this group of people there for them every week. I looked forward to Friends Night throughout those last two years of high school, and I agree with Dr. Bob. Every teen should have a group like ours, and every teen should have parents as cool as mine to let that many kids hang out every week.
24. Some of my favorite papers I ever wrote for school: my "word paper" my senior year in high school for Ms. Prater (my word was "adultery"); my American English paper about my family history and how Yiddish is part of our family language (my professor was inspired by my paper that junior year in college to start exploring the Yiddish influence in American English), and my Rhetoric of Adolescent Girls paper from my sophomore year entitled "Disney's Menstrual Taboo." 
25. When I was in preschool (4 years old), I got locked in the bathroom with a picture of ET staring at me. I still remember it.
26. And, I nearly got hit by a car that same year when I went after a tennis ball on the other side of the alley when Mom and Brock were playing across driveways. Mom kept telling Kira and me that we couldn't be outside in our "pretty shoes" and to take them off. Thank God for those "pretty shoes" that probably helped me slide on a rock and underneath the car. I still remember the tire pattern staring me in the face before Mom scooped me up and rocked with me on her lap in the middle of the backyard for what seemed like forever.
27. I wore diapers at night until I was 5 or 6. I was a bed-wetter until then - when doctors found out there was something wrong with my bladder. I took a medicine (I think only once because it made me beet-red after playing outside at school) and I had an alarm in my underwear to signal when I was wet (which I only made go off on purpose one time). 
28. I named my first car Madison. She was a white Nissan Maxima.
29. I know all the words to almost any "oldies" (50s-60s) song on the radio. 50s/60s was the theme of my Bat Mitzvah party.
30. My name was supposed to be Chelsea Nicole. I used to love that name and always said I'd name my daughter that one day. I may not ever have a daughter. But if I do, her name will not be Chelsea Nicole. And, I'm glad my name isn't either.