39 Totally Random and Very Detailed Facts About Me

I started a new medication on Monday and I have been super sleepy. I kept trying to write a beauty review to go up this week but kept failing. I asked on Facebook if you would be okay with/interested in a random facts about me post and many of you said yes, so here we go!

Top Row: All Childhood photos
Middle Row: All high school (Junior Prom, Senior Winter Formal, Senior Photos)
Bottom Row: Age 20 to Age 30

I am disabled and I haven’t worked since I was 22. I worked as a camerawoman in college for a month at the local public broadcast station, a smoothie maker at a juice place for about 6 months, and finally a bank teller for 2 years.

I was born in Westminster, Ca but only lived there until I was 4 because our house burned down.

I have lived in 3 states, 6 cities, 7 houses, and 3 college apartments. I have lived in Klamath Falls (in the same house) for longer than I ever lived anywhere else. We have been here for 16 years.

I grew up in the Southern California desert. I was lucky enough to spend my childhood building forts in the desert and playing in the dirt. I say I grew up in Palm Springs but only because most people don’t know where Cathedral City is (right next door). I loved it there and I miss it often, but I love Oregon.

This is where I grew up. My parents (you can see their shadows) are standing in our yard and the desert you see behind me is the desert I was lucky enough to spend my childhood playing in. And yes, I was a girl scout.

I’m an only child. That’s why the desert was so cool. You can’t be bored by yourself when you’re in the desert. We lived across the street from a vast expanse of open desert. There were mountains and paths and open spaces. It was incredible. No buildings or people. It was so great.

I don't like wearing shoes. In fact, I kind of hate shoes. If I could I would always be barefoot.

I love drinking water but I never drink cold water. In the summer I like room temperature water and in the winter I actually like drinking warm/hot water.

I love water in general, really. I love being in the water, seeing water, being near water. I love lakes, river, oceans, pools. I learned to swim at a very young age and have been part fish ever since.

I love to kayak. We started a couple of years ago and now it’s one of my absolute favorite things to do.

Mine is the beautiful blue one. I got it for my 30th birthday and it's great!

I was a vegetarian for 15 years before going vegan.

I'm a cat mommy, but that's not really a random fact because it's not like I don't tell everyone about my fur baby. He’s my sweetheart.

My fur baby is a Turkish Van, or maybe a Turkish Van mix. His name is Hunter and he’ll be 4 in April. I adopted him from a cat rescue organization. He’s the sweetest. He loves soft blankets, fish-shaped toys, watching TV, cuddles, and bird watching out the window.

I also have a dog, who is tied with Hunter for the title of the sweetest. He’s a Boston Terrier/Chihuahua/Shih Tzu Mix. His name is Cooper and he’ll be 8 in June. He has a huge collection of toys and he loves receiving new ones, preferably wrapped because he loves opening gifts. He also loves walks, naps, treats, and singing. He likes to sing while his Dad plays the harmonica. It's adorable.

I have been lucky enough to love 5 cats (CleoCatra, Sassy, Parker, Finn, and Hunter) and 3 dogs (Sebastian, Meg, and Cooper) in my lifetime. I miss the ones who are no longer here very much.

Top Row: Cleo and Sassy (Sassy was a boy, btw)
Middle row: Sebastian and Meg
Bottom Row: Parker and Finn

I love animals and I pretty much adore all types (although I prefer cats the most and dogs almost as much) but my Dad found a tarantula in the desert when I was around 7 or 8 and brought it home to be a pet and I didn’t love her. In fact, I couldn’t stand her. I’m semi-afraid of spiders (especially big ones like tarantulas) and he thought Lady would help me overcome my fear. Nope. She didn’t. I looked at her once and never again. And my parents thought naming her Lady (like Lady and the Tramp) would make her seem delicate. Again, nope.

I’m also really creeped out by frogs. When I live in Florida there was this bight green, red and yellow frog that kept coming up through the toilet in my bathroom, which was gross enough. I always thought, and still do, that bright frogs are poisonous frogs so I was extra afraid of this one. Every time I went and got my Dad (their room was on the other side of the house) to get rid of it we would come back to find the bathroom devoid of frog life. I stopped using my bathroom but thankfully my Dad eventually saw it after months and months of this happening and it never came back.

I love playing games with my family. We are especially into Monopoly, Rummy, and Yahtzee.

I like making lists. I really like it and I make lists about everything and anything. So, this has been fun.

I’ve only ever broken my arm and my tailbone.

I have, however, gotten hurt many times. Like the time I was rollerblading and ended up going down a mountain on my face and ended up needing stitches in my chin or the time I was tubing on the lake with my best friend and we hit some wake and bounced off. I ended up getting caught up in the rope and dragged under the water for what seemed like minutes, but was probably only really seconds. I thought I was going to drown to death but I ended up above water before that could happen. I was left with some wounds that healed and some permanent muscle damage in my left leg, where I was entangled in the rope (in 2 places).

No more than 5 minutes before the accident. I'll spare you the after photo.

And then, when I was little I got 2nd and 3rd degree burns all over my legs. The first doctors my parents took me to said they couldn't do anything for me and that I would be covered in scars for the rest of my life but my parents thought they were wrong and took me to a specialist. I only have one visible scar remaining on my left foot and I like it. It's a constant reminder that my parents will always fight for me.

I had a severe allergic reaction to my 1st MMR shot and almost died. The CDC actually wanted to do some studies on me, but my parents said no. When I moved to Florida they wouldn't let me start school without getting another. Luckily, I didn't have a reaction to that one.

I have had heart surgery. I was 20.

In recovery after my surgery

I was so scared the night before my surgery that I slept in the bathtub in the hotel we were staying in. I blamed it on my Dad and his snoring but I really just couldn’t sleep and every little noise was scaring me so I went into the bathroom with a pillow and a blanket and got in the tub with the fan turned on. I think I only got an hour or two of sleep. You'll be surprised to know that bathtubs are actually kind of comfortable to sleep in, at least when you're terrified.

My Mom found me in the bathroom in the morning and took a picture of my sleeping arrangements for the night. Also, not sure why I'm wearing SO MUCH eyeliner. Leave me alone, it was 2006. It was what we did back then.

The surgery went fine but when I was in recovery the nurses had me stand very slowly after having compression on my femoral artery for about 4 or 5 hours but I burst anyway and gushed blood all over the nurse, my gown and hospital socks, and the room. The nurse threw me down onto the bed like she was a linebacker and applied pressure. They ended up fixing me and I got to go home a couple of hours later.

I like salt. A lot. Too much, actually. I have a salt tooth? Is that a thing? I will always, always, always pick a salty snack over something sweet. Pickles and French fries and mustard are some of my favorites.

I am an actual tree hugger. When I was little my family and I would go on a walk before bed every single night and I would hug all of the trees on our street good night. I would also carry a bag and pick up all the trash I could find! I don’t hug trees anymore but I still adore them.

I always save the best bite of food for last.

I never had to eat everything on my plate, thankfully, but my parents always made me try it all at least once. That’s a rule I still believe in.

I wanted to be an astronaut or an actress or a singer when I was younger. Then in high school, I decided I wanted to be a broadcast journalist, so I went to college for that but then decided I wanted to be a psychologist. Let’s be real, though, I still want to be an astronaut. 

Me with a mural of the Mercury Seven at the Evergreen Air and Space Museum in 2010. The Mercury Seven are American heroes and especially heroes to me and every other space nerd in the country. If you don't know they were the very first American Astronauts. They are Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper & Deke Slayton. Alan Shepard was the first American in space.

Nice outfit, me. Where are your pants? I think I'm getting old. Where are your pants? That's all I have to say? Wow.

I love space. I love it so much! I read books about space and watch documentaries about space and dream of space. Retired Astronaut Scott Kelly is actually one of my biggest heroes. I can tell you so many random facts about space and the history of space travel. I’m a space nerd and proud.

This museum was so much fun! I believe this is an F1 engine but I could be wrong.

I can feel energy and auras. That’s weird sounding, I know, but I really can. I can feel what people send out into the world. I can feel if they’re a good person or not and I’ve never been wrong. Some people really do have black souls and auras and I don’t allow them into my life, or the life of anyone I care about. My track record is impeccable.

My biggest goal in life is to be as kind as I possibly can. It’s not hard, but at the end of the day, I hope to never be a dark spot in someone’s memory. People can ruminate on a bad experience with a customer at a store or over a traffic incident, small things, and I hope to never be someone that people ruminate about. I will always approach each day, each moment, with a warm heart and a smile.

Speaking of driving, I don’t. I used to love driving but when I got sick I quit. I still can since I still have my license but I chose not to.

I loved this truck so much. It was a 1997 Ford F-150 Extended Cab Long Bed. It was actually my second vehicle. My first was a 1991 Ford F-150 Single Cab. It was also red. Both were stick shifts. I drove this my senior year of high school into my first year of college but I had to get rid of it when I moved to a small liberal arts college town. I loved it, though. I couldn't park the thing, but I still loved it. It was a good truck. I ended up with an Acura Integra, that I drove for years but no longer own.

I like to paint. I'm not good at it but I love it.

I painted a portrait of Hunter.

I love television and I love books. I like getting to know characters really well, but I do get kind of down after the series ends or I finish the book.

I love notebooks, and having them, but I rarely ever actually use them.

I no longer watch or read the news. I’m still kind of informed but It makes me too sad. The only news I now get is from HuffPost Good News or Love What Matters. They make me cry, too, but happy tears!

I have had many different colors of hair, many of them awful. I’ve been platinum blonde, honey blonde, Laguna Beach blonde (both Kristen and LC), brunette, black, red, strawberry, you name it. I haven’t dyed my hair in about 10 years and I absolutely love my natural color. I’m about 25% pure silver and I think my grays are so beautiful. I can’t wait to see what I look like completely white.

Here are some of photos of bad hair I've had in my life. These are ALL from my college days.
The worst was the weird strawberry reddish color (the one with the crown).

And, that's it! 39 random facts about me complete with a lot of detail and photos. I hope you kind of enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun to write and a lot of work, actually. I spent hours finding these photos, and some of them are embarrassing. 

Leave 5 random facts about yourself in the comments. I want to get to know you, too!