1. I love it when guys wear too much cologne. Like, really love it. 2. I graduated from high school in 1995--almost fourteen years ago--but looking through my old yearbooks still makes me furiously angry.

3. I have a crush on Anakin Skywalker from THE CLONES WARS cartoon. Yes, a cartoon character. I sometimes joke that seeing him for portions of a 30-minute episode every Friday night (or Saturday morning) is the best part of my week. I'm not entirely joking, though. (Not that my weeks are awful. Just that seeing him is that great!)

4. My husband and I have lived in our house for seven years. Prior to this, I moved seventeen times in twenty-four years. The longest I'd ever lived in the same house was three years. The longest I'd ever lived in a town was six years.

5. I got my first car when I was sixteen going on seventeen. It was a burgundy 1990 Chevrolet Corsica Lt that I wrecked four times that year (not all of them were my fault). Consequently, I don't like driving and would be happy to be driven everywhere if it were at all feasible.

6. My dad died when I was four and he was twenty-four. It weirds me out every year that I keep getting older and he stays the same age. I'm now seven years older than my dad.

7. When I was fifteen, there was a discussion in one of my classes (I wish I could remember which!) about extroverts and introverts. We had to vote for whether we thought each of our classmates was an extrovert or introvert. Then when the results were tallied, we each had to say whether we agreed with the consensus. For everyone else, it was pretty obvious which category they fell in. But I ended up receiving exactly the same number of votes for both. (BTW, I said I was an introvert, which was really shocking to most of my friends who were extroverts and had thought that I was one, too.)

8. Even having taken many years of swimming lessons and P.E. classes, I've never showered or gotten fully naked in front of anyone who wasn't my lovah. I can do topless if I must, but I cannot handle the rest.

9. Starting in 6th grade,I played video games non-stop. (Original NES.) I don't know what happened, but I quit around 11th grade. (I think it was because our TV broke. We had to hit it hard repeatedly to turn it on, and sometimes it was just too exhausting.)

10. My fingernails will grow really long and crazy if I let them. (Which I usually do... until they break. Much to my husband's dismay.) But for the past month I've been filing them weekly and doing upkeep on my colored nail polish every few days. They look so good, a few people have thought I'd gotten acrylic nails.

11. Despite being short (5'1" back then; 5'4" now), I was good at basketball when I was in high school. I had two P.E. teachers suggest that everyone check out my defense to learn how to do it properly.

12. My one and only sports trophy was for eighth-grade volleyball. I was "Most Improved Player." Incidentally, that was the one and only team for which I ever played.

13. Barack Obama is my agency brother because our literary agents are with the same agency!!!! (Or are we actually agency cousins since we have different agents? Hmm.)

14. I love Coke and Cherry Coke, but I rarely drink either because I avoid caffeine.

15. I am a lazy perfectionist.

16. I don't think I'll ever want to have kids, but that doesn't stop me from having a boy's first and middle name picked out, as well as a first name for a second boy and a girl's middle name.

17. When I played Barbies or My Little Ponies with my younger sister as a kid, I'd always plan things out. I'd make sure there was a goal and a storyline decided upon before I'd be willing to start playing. Then I'd feed my sister dialogue for her Barbies/Ponies so she wouldn't try to let our play session veer out of control. I must say, it never went well.

18. When I was in 6th through 8th grade, my sister and I used to make things (earrings, flower petal arrangements in paper cups), and I'd send her door to door to sell them.

19. I didn't even believe in dinosaurs when I was a kid. I didn't understand why we had to learn about them in science class since, to me, they were obviously something someone had made up.

20. All of my biggest arguments and/or fallings-out with friends have happened while I've been extremely tired. Now, I try to avoid getting that tired whenever possible. And if I ever do get that tired, I try to avoid being around people so I won't say things I'll regret.

21. I hate snow except when I'm skiing in it. I love to ski, but I rarely do it because... I hate snow!

22. Confession: I've come to realize in the past several months that I probably have an eating disorder of sorts. Not anorexia nervosa or bulimia or anything. And I don't have body image issues. I don't think I'm overweight and I'm never trying to lose weight. But I go through phases where I don't eat a lot. I find the act of eating so boring and time-consuming. Also, I sometimes avoid exercise because my theory is that if I don't use fuel, I don't have to add fuel. Almost every night when I go to bed, I promise myself that I'll eat more the next day. Almost every day, I fail.

23. I've never learned to play a musical instrument or speak a foreign language. I don't know if I ever will. (It's that whole lazy perfectionist thing.)

24. I never make my bed. I say it's because the cats would just mess it up--which is partially true. But also, I never got in the habit. It doesn't even occur to me to do it when I wake up.

25. I have a hard time taking it as a compliment when people say I look good in glasses. It makes me think, "Oh. My face looks better when it's partially obscured by plastic?"