Yes, this page is inspired by the ubiquitous "25 Things" lists that made their way around Facebook.
- I am exceedingly right-handed. Cannot do much with my left hand and cannot use the phone against my left ear.
- I have no idea what my natural hair color is anymore. I have colored it for about 30 years (usually blonde, currently red). I refuse to see any gray.
- I've been enjoying an amazing time of reconnecting -- thru Facebook -- with very special people: My childhood best friend, my high-school best friend, dear ones from The Alligator, and now our Italian "daughter," Barbara. Also many beloved students. And many others.
- My earliest ambition was to be dancer. It took me many years to realize that I am the world's worst kinesthetic learner and cannot learn dance steps. I would still love to be a dancer though and love to wear dancewear even though it's not age-appropriate.
- Both my maternal and paternal ancestors came to America on the same ship, The Kent, from England in 1677, landing in South Jersey. Wm. Penn was also on the ship, but it wasn't until a later sailing that he founded Pennsylvania.
- I tell people that Sting is my cousin because his real last name is the same as my maiden last name. Who knows? We're probably related at some distant level.
- I recently learned that my husband's original family name was Fladberg, rather than Hansen.
- I rank myself in the 60th percentile in terms of parenting skills.
- My all-time favorite foods are raw clams and cream donuts from a bakery in my hometown that no longer exists.
- My husband and I are bi-coastal, spending half the year on our new, beautiful, wooded property in Kettle Falls, WA, and the other half at our home in Florida.
- I have difficulty telling my right from my left unless I feel the scar on my left hand that I got as a teenager because I slammed my hand through a glass window pane (accidentally) when my mother wouldn't take me to see an R-rated movie. The movie was Diary of a Mad Housewife, which I've still never seen.
- One of my ancestors invented the window envelope (speaking of windows).
- I am pretty much obsessed with American Idol.
- I did not get a wisdom tooth till I was 39, and then only 1.
- My 2nd-earliest ambition was to be a writer. That one stemmed from writing a story for the school paper when I was in 3rd grade. That ambition stuck. It didn't hurt that my dad was a writer.
- I am the eldest child in my family of origin, but not the firstborn.
- I am the eldest of three sisters, and my husband is the youngest of four brothers.
- My Myers-Briggs type is INFP.
- My marriage to and partnership with Randall have never been better. For our 1st-date anniversary, he wrote on the card: "25 years and still burning red hot." Oh yeah!
- The day I stop printing stuff out that I could use in the classroom is the day I'll know I've gotten teaching out of my system. I still miss it -- and especially my students -- every day.
- My dog, Daphne, is the Best Dog Ever.
- Ninety-five percent of the time, I wear black. My rationale has always been that blondes look good in black. But now that I'm a redhead, that doesn't quite work.
- I have a lot of trouble sleeping.
- I am extremely easily bored and have a rather high humor threshold.
- I have no patience whatsoever. Nor any sense of direction.
- Although I never stay in jobs long and my ambitions frequently change, I currently dream of making a living as a World Famous Blogger. I would also love to return to the college classroom to teach.
- As of late 2009, I will have authored/co-authored 8 books and feel I should go for an even 10.
- I have an absurd long-term memory, especially for things like dates and phone number.
- I first went on the Internet on Feb. 16, 1993 (see previous item).
- On Jan. 20, 2009, for the first time in my lifetime, the US inaugurated a president who is younger than I am.
- I keep a running list of celebrities born in the same year I was (list includes Oprah, Jerry Seinfeld, Howard Stern, Ron Howard, John Travolta, and Denzel Washington, among many others).
- I share a birthday (but not birth year) with Quentin Tarrantino and Mariah Carey. My birthday is also known for disasters -- the Anchorage earthquake in 1964 and one of the worst plane crashes in history (Tenerife, Canary Islands) in 1977. On a personal level, my favorite uncle died on my birthday in 1981.
- The worst year of my life was 2006, followed by 2004 and 1981.
- The best years of my life were 1984 and 2008.
- If Oprah asked me to kneel down and lick her shoes, I would probably do it.
- I recently learned I am related to a certain reviled former leader of the free world.
- My concept of the afterlife comes from an episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."
- I have not been to a dentist in a really long time.
- My least favorite movie (or TV) plot device is the gratuitous animal death.
- I am quite phobic about using the phone.
- I used to be a Miss America Pageant junkie and attended the pageant in 1987, but dropped it when it minimized the talent competition (at a time when "American Idol" was the hottest show in the country), lost its network-TV contract, and moved to Vegas.
- I loathe games -- card games, board games, videogames -- you name the game, and I loathe it.
- Two goals I haven't yet reached for my life are to write a novel and to become fluent in Italian.
- I don't grasp why people spell my first name incorrectly 95 percent of the time. They see it in print as KathArine, yet they write it KathErine. It's a major peeve.
- Speaking of which, I like to use my full name, "Katharine," in print but preferred to be called "Kathy" informally.
- [Bonus]: What I want most for my life is "extra innings."
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