Interesting... or not

The extremely sweet mommy-to-be, Trudy at Third Time’s a Charm, has bestowed this lovely little award upon yours truly:


In order to accept, I have to share seven interesting facts about myself. Unfortunately for all of you, the word “interesting” is loosely interpreted as “random” in my book. So – interesting or not, here are seven things you might not already know about me:

• I’m double jointed in my left thumb. You would think this makes me a killer thumb-war opponent, but it does not.

• When my feet are cold (which is pretty much all the time), I get insanely excruciating cramps in my toes and up the side of my foot (from the big toe back through the arch). I’ve been getting them since I was a kid. I vividly remember sitting on the floor of my room in elementary school and crying because I couldn’t make my foot stretch back out. Now I feel it coming and know to stand up IMMEDIATELY and start stretching my toes.

• People have a hard time remembering my last name. It’s Irish and starts with an O. You’d think it’d stand out in their memory. But in the last few months, I’ve answered to O’Keith, O’Rook, O’Rourke and O’Malley. HINT: None of those are right. And it’s funny because all of them could have been avoided if people would just call me by Heather. You know, my first name. Instead, most people I’ve met here greet me with my last name. So it should go, “Hey! O’Quin!!” when I walk into a room. But it rarely ever does. Now it’s become a huge joke, so I doubt I’ll ever actually hear my real last name again.

• I used to check behind the shower curtain every time I went to the bathroom to make sure no one was hiding there. I don’t know why that used to worry me so much. Too many scary movies as a child, I guess. I still check the closet in my room before I go to sleep. Some paranoias never die.

• I have horrible veins. No one has ever (ever) been able to draw blood from my arm. Ever. I tell people not to even try anymore. All blood work must be done from the top of my hand. And even those veins suck. They’re tiny and they run from the needle. This had led to blown veins, which are about the grossest thing I can think of. Imagine watching the top of your hand swell up like a big blue golf ball of trapped blood. Then imagine hearing the nurse nervously laugh and say, “Oops, let’s try the other hand.” And then having it happen AGAIN. Yeah. Did I mention I had to have blood work done yesterday? New doctor. New nurse. Thankfully no disasters this time, but I still broke out in cold sweats from sheer anxiety.

• You can’t tell from my pasty-white profile picture, but I have an unhealthy addiction to sunshine. Even fake sunshine. I know it’s bad. I know it ages my skin. I know it can cause cancer. I know. But it feels so good. And it makes me happy. So… bring on the UV rays.

• I am the most unorganized person I know. It’s borderline ridiculous. No. It’s past ridiculous. Every now and then I reach a breaking point and get everything super sorted. It usually lasts about two days before things are gigantic disaster again. The bad thing is that I KNOW what a mess things are, yet generally don’t take action until I absolutely cannot find something I’m looking for. Then I get frustrated, throw a mini tantrum and swear that I’m going to get things put back in their proper place.

• AND (An eighth fact! As an added bonus!) Yesterday, a friend told me that I don’t know how to be serious. He’s wrong, of course. I just generally choose NOT to be serious. I tend to answer questions that I don’t like with sarcasm. Shoot – I often answer the ones I do like with sarcasm. I smile and laugh a lot in person, and I tend to say silly things when I’m in a good mood. If that means I’m not serious, then I’m not sure it’s something I want to be anyway.

So, there you have it. Don’t you feel enlightened now? Weren’t those facts just the most interesting things you’ve read today? No? I figured not…

And now I’d like to pass this one along to Scarlethue at A Beautiful Truth. Because I think she’s a pretty interesting chick (and I bet you would too!)