25 things about me

1. When I was a little girl I wished to be a Disney princess—usually Ariel or Belle. Jasmine on other days. I still want all of their dresses.

2. I still make wishes on eyelashes even though it’s kind of silly.

3. I love, love red wine, especially semi-dry. And have recently taken a liking to Guiness. I am ok with white wine, and I hate rosé.

4. I’m completely terrified of amusement park fun houses—the kind where you sit in a little car on a track in a dark building and people in masks jump out at you.

5. I love Jane Austen and Star Wars and do not find them incongruous subjects.

6. I get my red hair from my grandfathers from both sides, but no one else in my family is an actual redhead.

7. I dream of things that happen in the future pretty much all the time and I hope it’s not odd.

8. When I was five I begged my mom to let me wear my ballerina tutu to school. Wearing it, I walked into my kindergarten class and announced “Who wants to marry me?” 3 boys raised their hands. I wonder where they are today?

9. Sometimes I wish I were an opera singer. And had the voice to be an opera singer.

10. As a baby, my mom changed my diaper on the lawn of Gerald Ford’s house.

11. The middle finger of my left hand is double-jointed and bends backwards in a way that disturbs people.

12. I love to write bad fiction, but wish it was good fiction.

13. I love britcom and Turner Classic Movie channel.

14. I think this “25 things about me” has become so viral because people love best to talk about themselves. This is the key to marketing.

15. I have never been to Disney World or Disney Land.

16. I talk to myself. Often. I hear that more intelligent people do that, and I am going with that.

17. I have a weakness for the Shopaholic book series, as well as Jane Austen spinoffs, despite my otherwise literary elitism. But no romance novels. Ever.

18. I have trouble sitting still or staying on one topic for an extended period of time.

19. I hate bananas. No–it’s not a metaphor; men are fine. Bananas are not.

20. Once I made my sister drive me to a 24-hour grocery store after midnight to buy smoked gouda. The man at the register tried to talk me up by using it as a come-on: “So, you like cheese, do you?” I do like cheese.

21. Captain John Smith was my great-great-great-great,etc. great uncle from my maternal grandmother’s side. Most of the rest of my family settled in New England in the 17th and 18th centuries, while the Swedish side emigrated in the 19th century to the Midwest (another good story).

22. I am the youngest of 7 first cousins on my dad’s side, and have been told repeatedly by my aunt that I “will always be the baby.” Even after I get a doctorate.

22. Men I crush on even though they’re old/dead: James Dean, Jimmy Stewart, Harrison Ford, Alan Rickman, that young guy in that movie “The Russians are Coming” who is no longer young.

23. I love music and sing soprano, play piano, and used to play the clarinet. My sister and I used to tour with a choir that went to England and sang in various cathedrals. I can’t remember if we were good or not, though.

24. I am cool with taking the name of the man I marry, so long as it’s not something like Mrs. Kiplefink-Panting.

25. My dream is to get my PhD in English literature and Jane Austen, and promote her sense of social responsibility in community-active projects.