I know, I know. I've been so bad about posting this month. But in my defense, February is not only the shortest month, it is the most ridiculous month of celebrations for me. Between my sister's birthday, Valentine's Day, President's Day/Washington's Birthday/whatever it is, AND the most glorious day of all (my birthday, duh), I've been busy. And absent-minded. And a hot mess. Plus I got all these cool, new games for my date of birth, and I've been binge playing like a 12-year-old boy. (Did I mention that I love Harvest Moon?) But enough with the excuses.
I plan on writing an entire post dedicated to what I've been doing with my life this month, but it involves pictures...and I'm just not in the mood to do that right now. HOWEVER, I was born a little over 24 years ago, and I thought I'd do a fun facts post, a la Mental Floss. So here goes.
24 Fun(ish) Facts About Me:
1. While in elementary school, I had a slew of imaginary friends. The most vivid memory I have of said imaginary friends is when I hung out with the entire cartoon cast of Scooby Doo. Daphne was my best friend, and I had a crush on Fred (but really, who didn't?). They went on car rides to the grocery store with my mother and me, and I imagined that they slept over on imaginary clouds in my room. Who's got two thumbs and a vivid imagination?
2. I had alopecia areata as a kid. One day, my mom noticed I had a bald patch on my head while we were walking back from the bus stop. I really never thought anything of it until I got older. I legitimately thought that all parents put goop onto their kids' bald patches every night and complained when it stained the towels. Clearly, my hair grew back, but it took years. And it made me terrified of getting a haircut.
3. Speaking of haircuts, my beautician (is that what they're called? I usually just called her "my haircut lady") once only cut half of my hair. The other side wasn't even touched. I was about 10 or 11, and I noticed as soon as I got home. I cried and cried and my parents ended up taking me back to her house around 9 p.m. to get it fixed. We all laughed about it afterward...but I've been paranoid about my hair ever since.
4. Until college, I had no clue "Polack" was a derogatory term for a Polish person. Whenever my clothes didn't match, which happened quite often during my childhood years, my mom (sorry mom) would call med a Polack. So naturally I thought it meant a person who couldn't dress themselves well. Then college happened, and I found out the truth.
5. I also didn't know what marijuana smelled like until college. I was walking to lunch with friends, and I commented about the skunk nearby. All of them looked at me like I was an idiot. None of you reading this are surprised by this, but I'm sure my dad is proud. You're welcome, dad.
6. I was convinced around age 8 that I was an Animorph. Go ahead. Laugh. It gets better.
7. My favorite Animorph was Tobias, and he could morph into a red-tailed hawk. So began my obsession with hawks and birds of prey.
8. Because of 6 and 7, I wrote a book where Tobias and I fell in love, saved the world, got married, and had babies. I also took up the nickname Hawk, which my sister and all of her friends still giggle about. AND I had an imaginary red-tailed hawk named Cryptic.
9. Cryptic usually sat on my green mountain bike, which I thought was a horse. A black stallion named Lightning. Shut up.
10. Until a few days ago, I thought I started keeping track of my life via journal around 6-years-old. My mom ended up sending me my birthday gifts and some stuff of mine she found at home. One of those things was a journal from when I was...four? Five? It's hard to tell, or even read. I need an anthropologist.
11. Speaking of writing, here is my first book. I called it "Frozen in Time" after a David Blaine stunt that I watched with my dad. It basically pulls (and by "pulls" I mean "totally steals") from the Digimon TV series and melds it with all the guys I thought were cute in 5th grade. What could be better? Double fun fact: My fifth grade teacher read it to the class. I remember being elated, feeling famous, and getting compliments from classmates afterward. It definitely fueled my writing for the next few years, for sure.
12. Other majors I considered before settling on journalism/English: psychology, Spanish, theater/performing, linguistics arts and communication. In high school, I realized aspiring to be an author was not a lucrative career. Surprise, journalism isn't either! But I realized what I liked writing about was real people doing extraordinary things, so that was my driving force into the world of journalism. Then I realized I liked rules and grammar more than the act of interviewing, so I fell into copy editing and design.
13. I stopped swim classes at level 8 because I was awful at treading water.
14. If I were a Sim, my lifetime aspiration would be to own and operate an animal sanctuary/shelter AND be a falconer. Come on, lottery. *blows on dice*
15. I think I would love gardening, but I hate weeding more than any chore in this world. My parents used to make me weed in the summer, and it sucked. What sucked more was being told that my sister was always doing a better job at it than me. Ugh. The worst.
16. I once kissed a boy in the backseat of the bus in kindergarten. My friend told on me. My parents found out. I was not pleased.
17. If I had to eat one food for the rest of my life, it would be cheese. Mounds and mounds of cheese, please.
18. I am notorious for failing at stepping stones. I have, on more than one occasion, fallen into the stepping stone water at Brookfield Zoo's children's zoo. My mom had to buy me a new outfit once, and socks another time.
19. I never hit snooze until after college, when I worked at a job I didn't like very much. Snooze became a wonderful option then.
20. I'm so bad at birthdays. So bad. Jason gave me stink eye once after he surprised asked me when his birthday was. I was a day off, so sue me. Anyway, this is the reason that I am so grateful and will respond to each person individually when he/she writes a happy birthday note on my wall. Because I will forget, and I'll end up texting you at 11 p.m. with my well wishes or just avoid the topic altogether. I am the worst.
21. I used to keep track of all the boys I dated with a gel pen on the back page of my cat journal. Looks like 12, but I scratched some out, so who knows.
22. My dream is to be a contestant (or castaway) on Survivor. I've written numerous poems and books on the idea, I named the family dog after a woman on the second season (Amber) and I changed the spelling of my nickname to that of a different woman on that same season (Kimmi). Yes, I still use that as my nickname.
23. Jason will not let me hyphenate my last name...if he ever chooses to put a ring on it. So I suggested a combined name: Yateski, mostly because Skates wouldn't work too well.
24. Oh man...this one has to be good...uhhhh...this kid, in first grade, used to call me "four-eyes," which I never thought was a thing. I mean, he was totally right. I had huge, circular John Lennon-esque glasses that were a speckled pink and purple deal. I hated wearing them. So this kid makes fun of me, and I chase him around the school for a week or so. Then, this kid has the gall to tell on me to his teacher, who comes in my first grade classroom and asks me why I keep chasing him around the school. I don't say anything (because I hate being in trouble) and she chides me and tells me never to do it again. I should be pissed that this kid got away with making fun of my glasses, but I'm not. He's done jail time for drug-related offenses, so in the grand scheme of things, my four eyes won. BAM!
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