Meme me!

The lovely Miz Emily tagged me, so here goes...

1. My left leg is about a quarter of an inch shorter than my right. This is because I broke my left femur the age of nine months, while attempting to stand in my playpen. I fell oddly onto my left leg, and the bone snapped, but my mom said I didn't cry at all. In fact, I didn't do much of anything until I started to sweat profusely. So my mom took me to the doctor, who diagnosed an ear infection and prescribed some ear drops. When she said it seemed like something might be wrong with my leg, the doctor told her that she was being "an hysterical first-time mother," and to calm down. (Those of you who know my mother can imagine how well that went over.) That night, I started to go into shock, so she took me to the emergency room, where she was greeted with dirty looks from the staff there who thought she had been abusing me. I spent the next two months in a partial body cast, which I am sure was delightful when it came time to change my diaper.

2. I worked as a checkout girl at Safeway for three years in college. Sure, it was belittling, mind-numbing work, but sometimes I long for the days when my biggest workplace stress was remembering the correct produce codes.

3. I have never met a kind of cheese I didn't like, except maybe American. I even like Kraft Singles (if they're not American). This has been a lifelong love affair. Apparently, when I was three, I once informed a gathering of family and my parents' friends partaking of a cheese plate and not sharing that "I NEED brie!!"

4. I could easily waste an entire day looking at maps. To say that I love them is a gross understatement. If I walk into a room, and there is a map somewhere on the wall, everything else disappears until I have studied it thoroughly. City maps, bus maps, Metro maps, random topographical maps of state parks...and don't get me started on the wonder of Google Earth.

5. My favorite number has always been 13. I don't find it to be unlucky at all. I met my boyfriend on the 13th of February, and that was a pretty lucky thing.

6. My family didn't have a television until I was 12. Well, actually, we had a television, but since we lived in the boonies of Yamhill County, we didn't get any TV reception. Consequently, I occupied my time by making mudpies, watching The Princess Bride more times than I can count, and writing silly stories. But one of my favorite things to do was to read about something in the World Book Encyclopedia, and then write a report about it. I then submitted these reports to my mother (an elementary school teacher) and asked her to grade them.

7. I still dream about becoming a professional makeup artist and hair stylist, a la Kevyn AuCoin or Bobbi Brown. I was in nearly every play in high school, and next to performing, my favorite thing was to do everyone's hair and makeup for the stage. I particularly loved Gibson Girl-esque updo's and 1940's rolls. I'd want to work in theatre, opera, or FASHIONNNNN.