Eight Random Personal Facts

A few weeks ago, I was tagged by a medschool classmate (who writes an awesome blog) to continue a blog "chain mail." Here it goes...

The Rules.
-I have to post The Rules before I give you the facts.
-I start with eight random facts/habits about myself.
-As I have been tagged, I need to write my own blog about my eight things and post The Rules.
-At the end of my blog, I need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
-I mustn’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read my blog.

EIGHT RANDOM FACTS
1) Move over, Lindsay, my addictions involve blogging and boba. I can spend 1-4 hours per day reading blogs...most of them belong to high school and college friends (Leo, Ammo, Kim, Jackie, Melkis, Jey), some family (Matthew and Jeremy) and some medschool friends (Craig, Emily, Ben, Irene). Earlier this year, I started reading blogs belonging to *gasp* total strangers, some of my regular reads: a celebrity fashion blog called "Go Fug Yourself," a Hollywood gossip blog called Perez Hilton, a blog written by a Harvard sophomore called "Sex and the Ivy," and a professional one (in that she makes a living off of this blog!) called "dooce." Don't judge me!

2) Lessons learned recently...
...Spend more money on experiences (vacations, meals, uh, charity) and less on material things.
...Connections to people = keys to happiness
...Lab research is eerily similar to cooking, but technique matters more
...When golfing at Lincoln Park, hit at least one golf ball off the edge of the cliff and into San Francisco Bay...after you eat the wild blackberries growing near hole 17.

3) Looking at my high school yearbook recently led me to see a picture of Alison, a classmate who passed away last year before assuming my job at Stanford. Looking at digital photos recently led me to see photos of my grandmother -- who I still think about everday but rarely mention. It made me really sad to think that there are people in my pictures who do not even exist anymore outside of a hollow image. Am I old? Is this what getting old feels like? I think about my grandmother a lot more than anyone close to me realizes and recently I had a dream in which my grandmother came back with blue curly hair telling me that everything was all right.

4) As a Harvard English major, I appreciate but do not love Jane Austen.

5) My fat intake is outrageous. I drink whole milk, eat chicken skins, and slather margarine on everything. Moreover, diet coke doesn't do it for me. I only drink regular coke and enjoy coffee (with generous amounts of cream and sugar, never in the morning).

6) Growing up, my only real pet was a goldfish named Jeanie (because I was creatively wearing jeans that day. Someone in medical school told me that I am always wearing jeans. Some things never change). Never had a "real" pet like a cat or a dog, because I was the oldest of four children and there was always a "rug rat" at home. My mother always liked to say that the children were her "pets" and she didn't need any more poop to clean up.

Since there is a ridiculous game that says that your "porn name" should be (the name of your pet) + (the name of your street), then my...um..."porn name" would theoretically be "Jeanie Foothill." Was that RANDOM enough for you?

7) My mother’s passion for antique English silverware and Victorian mystery novels led to many hours of my childhood spent in dusty antique shops immersed among artifacts and pieces of historical debris washed up by the tides of time.

It can be easily said that my taste in sweaters, old houses, and sightseeing ranges from old-fashioned to downright dowdy. My favorite sweater is a black zip-up that Jey calls my "granny sweater." I have several "granny sweaters" worn in the privacy of my home...paired with ugly sweat pants and fuzzy socks. If you have seen me in this outfit, you probably lived with me or I have trusted you with my life (if you have lived with me, I definitely trusted you, haha).

8) Considering all of the wonderful people in my life and the opportunities that I have enjoyed, it's necessary for me to disclose that I am truly blessed. Every girl in her twenties tries to achieve that elusive state of "getting her act together" (attaining self-confidence, passion, resilience, and a general sentiment of knowing what she wants and who she is). Maybe that's a gross overstatement, but that's my goal right now.

9) People often misinterpret my cheesy, emotional statements as sarcasm.


Okay, I am tagging Kim, Jackie, Ammo, Melkis, Matthew, Leo, Jeremy, Irene.