Top 25.

Something a little lighter: here's my "top 25" note from facebook.

1. In chronological order, a list of my answers to the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?": A washcloth. An old Chinese woman. A Native American. An archeologist who dug up Native American stuff. A Bollywood star. A Subway sandwich artist. Secretary of State. A Seattle barista.

2. My least favorite word: Cusp.

3. When I was 5, my dad took me to Sea World every Monday. My favorite part was the starfish petting pooI. I used to quiz the staff about starfish's ability to regenerate limbs while munching on churros and begging my dad to let me buy a carton of sardines to throw to Shamu.

4. I purchased my first orange two weeks ago. I liked it.

5. Growing up, my favorite "imagination game" was called "The Chocolate Game." My older sister would pretend to be a kidnapper luring me away with the promise of chocolate. It looks like both my sweet tooth and "middle child drama queen" complex developed at an early age.

6. Despite 12 years of practicing, I still cannot successfully say the sentence "I like to ice skate" in Chinese. The best I've ever managed convey is "I like ice."

7. I used to write on summer camp applications that I was allergic to raisins, just so that they wouldn't try to give them to me as a snack.

8. I have the constellation Aquarius on my left forearm in freckles. I'm actually a Capricorn.

9. One of my ears is slightly elf-shaped at the top. I was given the nickname "spock" in 4th grade because of it, but the nickname only stuck for about two days.

10. I once accidentally poisoned my older sister with paint thinner. My friend Kevin and I had spent the afternoon applying a bottle of pink nailpolish to my play kitchen, and my mother had spent the evening dutifully cleaning it off, leaving a pan of paint thinner behind after she was done. Watching TV that night, I very sweetly offered to get Amy a glass of water. I started to walk to the real kitchen- Oh, but look! A pan of water right here on my play kitchen, so conveniently located closeby to the TV. Little did I know. Amy was fine, by the way.

11. In junior high, I used to borrow Bindis from my Indian friends and sometimes wear them to school. This was still in my "I want to be a Bollywood star" phase.

12. I've travelled to 18 countries (though my sister will challenge me on whether Wales and Vatican City should be included in the count). Sadly, I've still yet to go to India.

13. I've never fallen down the stairs, but I'm pretty clumsy. I assume it to be a gospel truth that clumsy people fall down stairs. I'm always really careful going up and down stairs, now, figuring that my time is due.

14. For two years straight, every penny I threw into a fountain to make a wish I used to wish that I would become a half sea otter, half mermaid (I couldn't make up my mind, so I figured I would just mix them). I'm really not quite sure if I envisioned myself as a red headed, singing, amphibious woman with little furry legs, or a fuzzy little otter face with a fish tail. In any case, I just thought it would be cool to live in a big aquarium and have people come to see me.

15. In 7th grade, I won 1st place in the 100 meter hurdles during the district track meet.

16. I have a birthmark on the back of my left leg. When I wear shorts, helpful people often stop me to tell me that I have mud splattered on me. An awkward silence always follows after I have to tell them that it's actually attached.

17. I can eat a whole tub of rice pudding in one go.

18. In first grade, I was talking to a girl during class. The teacher turned around to yell at us, and mistakenly gave the other girl a "yellow card" for bad behavior, and didn't punish me at all. I spent the whole day in a moral crisis. After afternoon snack time, I went up to the punishment board and gave myself a yellow card, too. It was one of the biggest, scariest decisions I made that year.

19. After my brief hurdle career, I became a discus thrower. As a slender little 5'5" seventeen year old, I could squat 360 pounds and bench 130.

20. I once nearly burned down my kitchen while trying to make oatmeal. To be fair, I was 4 years old and couldn't read, nor (as it soon became very clear) could I operate a microwave. Still, I feel it was an early indication that I should stay out of the kitchen.

21. My first pet of my very own was a Japanese fighting fish I named "Butch." The first Butch died because I kept trying to take it out of its bowl and pet it. Once we bought Butch #2, it lived in peace and quiet until a family friend warned me not to overfeed it, or its stomach might explode. Picturing pyrotechnics, Butches #2 - #20 never lasted more than 3 weeks. I still feel a little guilty about it.

22. I had perfect attendence for two years of high school.

23. My first bouquet was from my dad on the day I learned to tie my shoes.

24. I was the last of my friends to learn how to ride a bike. Instead, I used a scooter, which was about 10 years before Razors made the kind of cool again.

25. I get the hiccups every time I walk into a large grocery store or department store.