50 Random Facts

I really think this is a cool idea. A little fun self-indulgence, but I'd like to see what other people would write, so...
Piggybacking off of JL's cool random facts (allergic to Nickel? How do you make change? ;-) And fully recognizing that blogging is often little more than a socially acceptable excuse for pure narcissism, I present my personal

50 Random Facts About ME

1. Until at least 10th grade, any actual music facts I learned (lines & spaces, note values), I learned from my tyrannical but gifted children's church choir director.
   
2. I swear to God my dog drives me nuts on purpose.
   
3. My town doesn't put fluoride in its water.
   
4. I have over a dozen news feeds that I never read.
   
5. A month ago I got talked into subscribing to the Philly Inquirer because they would donate $5 of the $22 to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and throw in a $5 Wal-Mart card for me. I have yet to read anything but the circulars and coupons sections.
6. I had a major crush on my 6th grade Math teacher. Who I'm pretty sure is actually gay.
   
7. I started talking to my husband when I overheard that he had to work the night we band freshmen were to go pick up our new band gloves. I walked up to him and offered to pick them up and bring them to his room. Yes, tramp.
   
8. My daughter can recognize and say the following letters of the alphabet by sight: A, B, C, D, E, F, H, I, J, M, N, O, P, T, U, X, Y, Z . 17 months old, ladies and gentlemen!
9. My first job was working for a partially brain-damaged European gift shop owner who had been my neighbor before we moved when I was 8.
10. All my grandparents are still living, and some are still kicking.
    
11. My favorite color is blue.
    
12. My favorite food type is Tex-Mex, nachos especially.
    
13. I cannot parallel park to save my life.
    
14. My childhood pet was a cat named Smedly, who lived to be 17 (older than I was at the time). My parents named him after a club in some movie they liked.
    
15. My sister has been included in case studies at Johns Hopkins for her Neurally Mediated Hypo-tension.
    
16. My middle name is Rae, my Dad liked that Sally Fields union movie called "Norma Rae".
    
17. My first car was a '97 blue-green Subara Legacy. It was my sister's first car too.
    
18. My dad has had: a heart attack, skin cancer, testicular cancer, and a blood clot on the brain.
19. I'm deathly afraid of spiders. My husband is deathly afraid of spider webs. We're hoping our kids will do the bug-killing.
    
20. I lived down the street and around the block from Gettysburg College as a young child.
    
21. I have naturally red, curly hair, which requires 4+ products every morning to not look like an afro.
    
22. I was born on my paternal grandmother's 50th birthday.
    
23. Said grandmother refuses to this day to let me call her anything but "Mamu", since this is what I called her as a 1 year-old.
    
24. I hate how black eye-liner looks on most people, especially myself.
    
25. I was going to list all the guys I'd had crushes on before my husband, but I'm pretty sure blogger.com has a maximum character limit on posts. Yes, tramp.
    
26. My family's dog's name was Hamlet, after the play my sister was in at the time. (I wanted to name him Frasier.)
    
27. 4th grade was my worst year in school; My teacher was anything but understanding, and I was beaten with an awkward stick that year.
28. I hate clothes shopping, because if there's such an obesity epidemic, especially in our generation and younger, why is that all the women's clothing stores think all plus-sized women are over the age of 60? Giant flower prints! Gaaa!
29. I hate raw onions because you taste them all day.
    
30. I also hate coconut. Coconut flavoring is ok, though, just hate the texture.
    
31. I lied to my mom when I signed up for girl scout camp in 5th grade; I told her I didn't want to take the horseback riding camp because I was afraid of horses, and really it was because I was afraid of the older girls in that camp.
    
32. I swam on the YWCA's swim team for about 5 years. Backstroke was my best stroke. I actually moved backwards when I attempted breaststroke.
    
33. I love really watered-down lemonade.
    
34. I visited Germany in 1997 and my favorite part was spitting off the bridge in Heidelburg.
    
35. Even though I hate bathing suits, sandy stuff, sunburns, and any of the disgusting wildlife that lives in the ocean, I for some reason love the beach.
    
36. I've played French Horn since 4th grade, teach it, wish I played it more now.
    
37. Drinking makes me hot and more red-faced than usual, and I actually don't like the out-of-control feeling at all.
    
38. I strongly considered majoring in English/Secondary Ed. and becoming an English Lit. teacher.
    
39. I asked my husband out when I delivered his band gloves to him. He had plans with his roomie to go to a VIDEO GAME THING and declined...he luckily asked me again later.
    
40. I wore braces for 3 years on my upper teeth only. They didn't fully work.
    
41. I hate going to bed by myself.
    
42. I developed gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with my daughter, and my major food craving was, of course, pancakes. Life ain't fair.
    
43. I have a pair of chunky-heeled, black thong sandals from 8th grade in my closet that I still wear regularly.
    
44. My daughter can recognize and say the following numbers on sight: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9
    
45. Elmo and my mother in-law can probably take more credit for #8 and and #44 than I can, but I love them both anyway.
    
46. I have a major problem with parents who "try for a boy/girl", due mainly to a video from social studies class I saw in Jr. High about the orphan baby girl crisis in China that made me cry in class.
    
47. I lived in Gettysburg, PA, until I was about 21, and for the life of me can't understand why anyone would want to vacation there, ever.
    
48. My preschool teacher, Ms. Jane, nick-named me "Megalla-Megalla", and still asks my mom how I'm doing.
    
49. I suck at piano and wish I had the time and drive to actually learn to play well. Guitar too.
    
50. I freakin' love board games .