30 Surprising Things About Me

Inspired by a post recently done by Blair of Atlantic Pacific (and feeling nostalgic about similar stuff we used to post on Facebook back in the day), I decided to list 30 random/interesting/little-known facts about me. Hope you learn something new. :) Enjoy!

1. My first high school job was at Limited Too. My second was at Victoria's Secret.

2. During the summers when I was home from college, I worked at TGI Friday's--first as a waitress and later as a hostess. And, yes, I wore flair. 

3. My first "real" job after college was at Target's corporate offices. I was an analyst in the Books and Magazines department. I thought the job would be trendspotting and picking out cool products to carry in the store, but it was all math. While I loved the company and the people, I absolutely hated the job.

4. My favorite foods are lasagna, gnocchi, pasta in general, and Cinnabons.

5. I was once on the early 2000s dating show Blind Date. (Fun fact: My date on the show was an actor who has appeared in small-ish parts on shows like CSI. We actually hit it off!)

6. I originally went to college to study theater/acting, but quickly changed to journalism. (I kept theater as a "second concentration.") 

7. I have a masters degree in Magazine Publishing. (Talk about a dinosaur of a degree now though, huh?)

8. I have two younger brothers.

9. I was hugely into heavy metal music in junior high and high school, and my first concert was Bon Jovi/Skid Row. Soon after that I went to Motley Crue, but my friend couldn't go at the last minute, so my mom took me and my little brother. My brother fell asleep on my mom's lap for the whole show and my mom was sitting there CROSS-STITCHING. At the Motley Crue show!

10. I've lived in the New York area for over a decade, but before that I moved around a ton. After graduating form college in Indiana, I moved to Minneapolis. Then I moved to Los Angeles. Then Chicago. Then New York. 

11. During grad school, I went abroad for a few months and did an internship at Time magazine in Hong Kong. It was an amazing experience in so many ways, but also extremely lonely.

12. With my two children, I've happened to have had the two easiest labors of all time. (I've never felt a single contraction!)

13. I am a very nervous flier. (It used to be way, way worse though.)

14. There are few things I hate in this world as much as red peppers. I can't even "just pick them out," because if red peppers even touch food, they leave a red-pepper ghost behind and you can still taste them. Plus the smell alone makes me queasy. (Interestingly, my mother has the same issue, and so did her mom!)

15. My husband and I are part owners of a Hoboken restaurant called Elysian Cafe.

16. For our honeymoon a million years ago, my husband and I went on a safari in Botswana! 

17. Many years ago, soon after I first moved to Chicago, my friend and I were heading out to a bar one night and got mugged!  Luckily, no one got hurt--just super scared. My stuff wasn't even stolen (hers was though). I still occasionally get flashbacks.

18. I hate chocolate.  

19. We have a weekend house on New Jersey's Lake Hopatcong. (And we bought it years before bought our actual house, so we had "second" home years before we bought a "first" home!) )

20. As a child, I had a major poison ivy phobia...! 

21. If I could do it all again, I'd probably go to law school. I think I would have loved to have been a criminal defense attorney or even a judge. 

22. I have always had a weird obsession with, and love for, secret passages. My dream house would definitely have one.

23. I don't remember the last time I wore a pair of pants that wasn't jeans. It's been many, many years.

24. We have an au pair from Mexico. (And, yes, she lives with us!)

25. I love all cats, but only select dogs.

26. I've been laid off from a magazine job two times in my career. (Here's the story of the most recent time.)

27. My biggest dream is, and has always been, to write a book.

28. I have a lifelong hatred of running, but in my early 20s while living in L.A., I decided I was going to overcome this hatred and train for a marathon. I signed up for the Paris marathon (!) and went to my first practice early one Saturday morning. I think I participated for about 15 minutes and then said "Nah." Dropped out and haven't run since.

29. My favorite overseas trip of all time has to be the time I went to Greece with my family many years ago. The island of Santorini is incredible!

30. My high school held its own annual pageant for the seniors. Some people competed totally seriously, but I had fun with it. I dressed up as Amy Fisher (remember the Long Island Lolita?) for my casual wear, "accidentally" walked onstage with the back of my dress tucked into my underwear for formal wear, and for talent, I did a Wayne's World-esque skit with my best friend where we basically just made fun of everyone in our school who we disliked. (That earned us a talking to from the vice principal who told us we would never be successful in life if we just "knocked people.") When the pageant was over, I had won first runner-up. That's still a sore subject with me though. I was robbed!!

That's it! Which one surprised you the most? ;)