11 Random Things About Me

I saw this meme on Bookish Penguin and thought I would follow suit (I'm skipping the tagging part because it feels so dictatorial to decide what other people ought to write about).

The Rules:
1. Post the rules
2. Share 11 random things about yourself
3. Answer the questions posted to you from your source

11 Random Things:

1. I had pica as a child so I used to eat a lot of strange things. Once I ate a whole cereal box (the cardboard part). It was delicious.

2. I still can't tell my right from my left without thinking about it (usually I do the "L" trick to identify the left hand).

3. My husband, my daughter and I all have birthdays on the 15th of the month. I love the tidiness of this.

4. I always give my height as 5'2" and a half because I think it makes me sound taller. (For some reason, I feel like rounding up is dishonest.)

5. I had recurrent kidney stones from 11-20. I was hospitalized multiple times as a result, once for a month (finally I had to have surgery in that case). I haven't had one since my junior year of college. The causes of the stones, or why they stopped, are unknown.

6. I can't whistle, snap, or throw (real throwing). I can also barely swim, even though I took years of swimming lessons (including private lessons). I am not very coordinated.

7. I taught myself to read when I was 4. My mom didn't believe me when I told her until I proved it by reading the nutritional facts off the box of Cheerios.

8. I dislike most fruit (even though I am a sugar fiend). The only ones I eat gladly are Taiwanese guavas, berries, apples (only if cut though, I don't like eating whole ones), and grapes.

9. I have always hated Barbies (even though I loved dolls as a kid) because "she looks tacky" (my response on receiving one from my grandmother at age 6). I was a snob early.

10. I've spent over a third of my adult life living out of the United States (and almost all in Asia). This is strange to contemplate because I still feel really American.

11. If I were independently wealthy, I would visit every UNESCO World Heritage Site. It IS my goal to visit as many as possible, and I love looking at the list and fantasizing about future trips.

Questions:

1. What was your favorite vacation and why?
The first big trip B and I took to Europe (3 months). I saw so many places I'd always dreamed about, with my favorite person at my side.

 2. If you could live anywhere in the world and not have to worry about things like family being far away, where would you live?
San Francisco. I love the culture, the food, the physical environment, and the fact it still feels like home.

 3. What reading significantly impacted your life? (Book, article, poem, anything)
The Oz series by L. Frank Baum (The Wizard of Oz is the first). It shaped my imagination, my values, and many aspects of my future life. I wrote my college application essay on it, and my daughter's middle name is from my favorite Oz character.

 4. What's one thing you hate that it seems like everyone else likes?
Sports. There is no sport I have any interest in whatsoever, though occasionally I pretend for social harmony.

 5. What do you daydream about?
Taking trips to exotic locations, mostly historic ruins or fantastic museums.

 6. What did your bedroom look like when you were younger? (Any age you want to share.)
Pretty much all childhood: Huge bookshelf jammed full of books, smaller bookshelf with carefully arranged dolls (I was a little OCD), unmade bed, dollhouse on a coffee table.

 7. What's your morning routine?
Sleep in until my baby insists that I get up. I hate the morning.

8. Is there any food you absolutely refuse to eat (other than things you may be allergic to)? Why?
I don't like fruit (see above). I also dislike seafood (except sushi and fish and chips), but eat it if necessary.

9. If skill/ability/money was no issue, what would be your dream job?
Registrar in an ancient Roman history museum.

10. What memory has stuck with you even though you wish you could forget it?
So many it's hard to choose! Maybe the time I was insulting a teacher and going on and on about how boring he was, and then turned around and saw he'd heard the whole thing. His embarrassed face will haunt me forever.

11. What do you want your life to look like when you're 75?
Financially secure, with enough extra money to travel often; successful, happy, partnered children who I talk to regularly; still happily married to B; living in a cute Victorian house in California or somewhere similar, filled with books, oriental carpets, beautiful art and hardwood floors; still in good health and with all my mental faculties (and a quick, painless death less than 10 years away).