1. I love split pea soup, rutabaga stew, and nearly any sort of green or vegetable.
2. I find cherries irresistable.
3. I adore Bigelow’s Earl Grey tea and dark chocolate.
4. My favorite part of living in South Dakota was the beauty; it was overflowing with beauty. Beauty of the land, the people, the laughter, the artwork…everything.
5. I love challenges.
6. I do adore dandelions.
7. Flowers make me melt and feel like sunshine.
8. I think tigers are some of the most magnficent creatures on the planet.
9. I love birds, especially robins and hummingbirds.
10. My favorite colors are grey, deep green, and brown. I also love yellow and fuschia, deep red and bright blue, white and black. And orange, gold, and purple, of course.
11. I love how I was when I was little–pure sunshine. I was happy and bouncy and energetic and I loved everybody. I was never the same after the Harriet the Spy incident.
12. When I was about six, I decided I wanted to be like Harriet the Spy. I tried to eat her signature tomato-and-mayo sandwich, but I didn’t like tomato or mayo. So then I got bored when Mom was trying on clothes in the department store. First stall, nobody. Second stall, nobody. Fourth stall, nobody. Fifth stall, tall and big-boned stranger with dark hair and flower-patterned panties. “You shouldn’t do that, little girl,” she told me kindly. Cue instant screams and bawling. MOMMY!
13. I love thank-yous.
14. When I was small, about five or six, I picked every dandelion in our weedy yard and gave them to the neighbor boy. We didn’t use spray on our lawn, so it was more yellow than green. I couldn’t hold them all! He must’ve been about eleven so of course he was completely freaked out, but I didn’t have a crush on him or anything. I just liked him and wanted to give him dandelions.
15. I’m terribly fond of cotton and down. Also British comedy. (A virtual cookie to anyone who understands the connection.)
16. I adore words, and I collect them. Spizzerinctum is a favorite.
17. I have never successfully blown the fluff off a dandelion.
18. I have a mild obsession with quotes, particularly WC Fields and Firefly.
19. I have never run a mile under seven minutes, but my current goal is to run 1.5 miles in ten minutes. Achieving the goal isn’t the issue. It’s more having one, and working like heck to make it.
20. I love thinking.
21. Oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies are the best, especially when crunchy at the edges and fat and chewy in the middle.
22. My favorite statue is called Girl Running. I have no idea where it is.
23. The best gift I’ve ever gotten was a sparkly pink lamp. Keep in mind I’ve also received a Missouri Fox Trotter horse and an ‘89 Reatta car. But this lamp was a birthday present from a shy, wild five-year-old girl who I’d worked hard to become a trustworthy big sister to, and I knew it was what she had most wanted for herself.
