10 things

Some of these things might not be very original, but they are unique to me and not that well known to many others.

1. I have a crazy memory for numbers. I remember numbers forever. I can still remember my childhood phone number (588-1317), my college apartment phone number (545-3837, hello 1993) and my house phone from my first marriage, 10 years ago (762-6258). I remember the 16 digit number of my last 3 ATM cards and my Visa card... and some other credit card numbers that I haven't used in a couple of years. In fact, it took me over 2 years of having a new Master padlock for the gym to stop trying my old padlock combination on it, which I haven't used since about 1995. True story.

2. I am the first member of my generation in my family to get a college degree. I might end up being the only one in my generation to get my master's. My father and his mother both have masters' degrees, and my maternal grandfather had a doctorate in botany. In fact, all four of my grandparents graduated from college, which is fairly unusual for their generation, especially for both of my grandmothers (one is 87 and the other would be 101 this year) and my paternal grandfather, who is a farmer.

3. I had a sister who died before I was born. She had severe birth defects from a medication my mother had been prescribed for severe morning sickness, and died at 11 months old.

4. I lived in Washington state for the first 29 years of my life, and I have never been skiing.

5. I met my husband on Match.com. Thanks, Match!

6. I do not let go of relationships with people I care about easily. I am still friends with most of my ex-boyfriends, and still maintain contact with my former mother-in-law (ex's mom), with whom I always had a wonderful relationship. This has nothing to do with keeping any flame alive, but everything to do with valuing the good people that I have come in contact with in my life.

7. Along the same vein, I still have a penpal that I first started corresponding with when we were both 8 years old. Her name is Nancy, she grew up in Brooklyn when I was growing up in Tacoma WA, and we are about 2 weeks apart in age. She is now a PhD and works in the field of economics of developing countries. We have only met in person one time, when we were in college in the early 90s.

8. I went on my first diet when I was 11 years old. I lost 25 lbs. Within 2 years, I was bulemic, but I outgrew it in high school.

9. When I was in nursing school, I also sang in my college concert choir, which had 80 members. I was an alto II. We recorded two CDs while I was in the group, and they still make me teary sometimes when I listen to the recordings.

10. When I was a teenager, I planned on being a violin performance major. I changed that to music therapy when I was a senior in high school, but after getting a scholarship and graduating, I decided (wisely) that I wasn't ready for college yet, and ended up taking a year off before completely switching gears to nursing. It was a good decision, both the year off and the nursing degree.