My List

Both my sister (Valinor blog on sidebar) and sister-in-law (Sweat Family Adventures on sidebar) have written a list of things folks may or may not know about them, so I thought I'd chime in with my own. Don't know how far I'll get . . . so we'll see!

1. My first vivid memory is of picking up a rock by my friend's swingset and seeing a bunch of earwigs wriggling underneath it. I think I was about 2.

2. I used to wish that Laura Ingalls Wilder could be zapped to the future to become my friend and I could show her all the cool things about the late 20th century, like slurpees and television and airplanes.

3. Once I was old enough to notice them, I hate, hate, hated my freckles. I used to say that if a genie would give me three wishes, one of them would be to take away my freckles. Luckily they don't bother me anymore. (Freckles--not genies.)

4. I had a longstanding fantasy that a director of Broadway plays would come to my elementary school, see me on the playground, and just KNOW that I was the little girl he'd been scouring the country for and whisk me away to play Annie.

5. I started reading Stephen King books when I was about 10 years old. Stole them from my Dad's stash. They never really scared me, either.

6. The first boy I ever had a crush on was named Mark Rydalch and he gave me a wooden apple pencil holder in the 4th grade.

7. I was a messy child. I would leave congealing bowls of ice cream on my nighstand for weeks on end, and in the 6th grade my teacher Miss Anderson gave me the "Messiest Desk Award," which was highly humiliating since the next boy I had a crush on, Keith Evans, was in my class and I was convinced he'd never like me after that.

8. Also in the sixth grade, I hid in the p.e. equipment closet in order to avoid getting my eyes checked because I knew they would tell me I needed glasses. I successfully fooled everyone until the 8th grade when my Dad noticed I was squinting when I played basketball with the Young Women. It wasn't until then that I realized trees had individual leaves.

9. I am a terrible athlete. My dad thinks it's just because I didn't care enough about it and that if he would have been able to work with me, I would have been like the rest of my siblings and lettered in things in high school. But no, really . . . I'm just a terrible athlete.

10. I started writing stories and poems when I was a little kid and kept many of them in a journal my primary teacher gave to me because she wanted to encourage me. My first really good story was about a girl who desperately wanted to play Annie, but she botched her audition and ended up in the chorus instead. It won the district reflections contest. Interestingly, I never ever dreamed of being a writer--just an actress-until I was about 18 years old.

11. I really hated it when people would say that my hair was "dishwater blonde."

12. I've twisted my right ankle quite badly two times: once when I was racing my brothers up in the mountains at our annual "Mirror Lake" family photo shoot and I was wearing some kickin' (but impractical) white boots and stepped in a pothole; the other when I was in the 9th grade in student government class and I jumped up to show my enthusiasm for the perm I'd be getting that afternoon and landed on my (already damaged) ankle wrong. Both times, the pain was so intense I fainted. Those are the only times I've ever fainted, too.

13. From the age of 14 to the age of 16, I kissed eight different guys. But of course, I didn't date until I was sixteen.

14. Soon after we met, I was pretty certain that I was going to marry Forrest someday. Of course, I was also pretty certain that I was going to marry four of the other seven guys I had previosuly kissed as well. But this time, I was more mature and knew what I REALLY wanted. :-) Luckily, in retrospect, the only person out of those eight who would have been at all right for me was Forrest, and he's still the most right for me guy I've ever known.

15. When I was in the 9th grade, I wouldn't tell any of my friends my standardized test scores because I thought they wouldn't like me anymore if my scores were higher than theirs.

16. The only time I remember flat out lying to my parents was when I was 15, working at Hardees, and this cowboy guy named Kurt wanted to take me to the "Boot Boogie" on a Friday night and I knew my parents wouldn't let me. Although I hated country music, Kurt was apparently "cool" so I told my parents I was going out with my friends and went with him instead. We promptly went to his brother's house where he drank a beer, offered me one (I indignantly refused), then he drove me to the Boot Boogie (and all the while I was terrified he would get in a wreck because he was "driving drunk") and I was so mad I wouldn't dance with him--and I didn't know any of the dumb line dances anyway. We both had a terrible time. I decided it was God's way of punishing me for lying to my parents, and I never lied so blatantly again.

17. In high school, I had Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and a Dr. Pepper for lunch almost every day.

18. I used to be able to do the splits.

19. My Grandma Ranquist bought all my school clothes every year until I graduated from high school. We'd go on these fantastic shopping trips every August and eat lunch in ZCMI's Tiffin Room. One of the highlights of my year. (I think I was the only member of my family she did this for. Should I feel guilty about this? She also bought me a complete set of bedroom furniture--white Victorian with a canopy bed.)

20. I used to hope that the second coming wouldn't happen until after I was married and less inclined to be sinful.

21. Of all the things I did in high school, Madrigals was the most fun.

22. Of all the things I did in high school, being a Student Body Officer my senior year was the least fun. Mostly a lot of work, and I was in charge of assemblies and got in big trouble for one where I'd asked Lucius Matalii to be the emcee (he was our version of Arsinio Hall) and for some reason, he started throwing out condoms to the assembled students during his opening monologue. How this was my fault I wasn't sure, but I did get in trouble.

23. Cheerleading was fun, but I wasn't a very good cheerleader. It always amazed me how quickly my cheerleader friends would catch on to routines. Also, being a base in cheerleader pyramids runied my back, and when I look at my old J.V. cheerleader uniform it amazes me how small my waist used to be. I also vividly remember a fight that the J.V. cheerleaders were having with the Varsity cheerleaders and when we met to talk it out I told the Varsity cheerleaders to stop "patronizing us" and they got even madder at me for using arrogant vocabulary words.

24. I finally got to play the lead in a musical my senior year of high school (Cinderella), which ended up being the last time I ever performed in a play despite all my childhood dreams of Broadway fame.

25. A ginormous publicity photo of me as Cinderella is still hanging in the halls of Cyprus High School (so I'm told).

26. I've never liked my hands.

27. I've always liked my feet.

28. I don't recall ever really fighting with my siblings.

29. Every year a company called Union Carbide selected a student from Cyprus High to send to Washington D.C. and my junior year they selected me. I went to D.C. with students selected from each state in the country and apparently learned a lot about our government, but mostly remember having a ton of fun with these strange kids from places like New Hamshire who drank COFFEE in the morning.

30. Our high school graduation was held outside, and somehow the sound system picked up a Latino radio station and Mexican pop songs played over all of our commencement speeches.

Okay, that's it for now. And I just got through high school! We'll see if I have the wherewithall to add more another time. As you can see, I'm a bit more longwinded than Andi or Amy. Sorry. But there are so many details that must be explained!!