fifty facts

1. If I had been a boy, my parents would have named me Paul Christopher.

2. I love the smell of fresh laundry.

3. My favorite morning pick-me-up is Earl Grey tea.

4. I like dark chocolate better than milk chocolate.

5. I was 33 when I met my husband and 35 when I married him.

6. Aside from one pair of pink and two pairs of red, all my shoes are black.

7. I love shoes, but I refuse to sacrifice comfort for style.

8. I was born in Portland, Oregon, two weeks before the Tet offensive in Vietnam and a couple of months before the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

9. I usually identify with the Myers-Briggs type INFP, but sometimes I wonder if I am more of an INTP thinker than a feeler.

10. My ethnic heritage is German, Swiss, French-Canadian and English with a just a dash of (Protestant) Irish and Czech.

11. I put mayonnaise on my hotdogs. Most people think it's gross.

12. I took four years of high school and college French, plus community-ed conversation courses, but I learned more Spanish in the one month I spent on a Rotary Club trip to Argentina.

13. I was 1 year old the first time I saw the ocean, and my dad says when he put me down on the sand, I started running straight toward the water.

14. My first airplane ride was to San Francisco to visit my aunt when I was going into eighth grade.

15. My first trip out of the country (not including Canada) was during my junior year of college when I studied abroad at the University of Melbourne in Australia for a semester.

16. I seldom put on a full face of makeup, but I never leave the house without lipstick.

17. I can't bring myself to go vegetarian, but I won't buy meat that isn't humanely raised and chemical free. Except when I am craving a Whopper.

18. My cat George, who died in 2003, used to lick my toes with his rough tongue. I loved it.

19. I have a phobia about anyone touching the front of my neck. Except me.

20. I have loved the name Hannah for years, but now it's too popular to name a daughter.

21. It took two-and-a-half years and five intrauterine inseminations to get me pregnant at age 37.

22. I wear my pair of black Danskos almost every day.

23. The soft sound of rain falling outside is comforting to me.

24. I cry when I hear the song Porcelain by Moby. It reminds me of heartbreak, and when I met my husband, I found out that it makes him sad, too, because it reminds him of the same thing.

25. I think British comedy is brilliant, from Monty Python to BBC's original The Office.

26. One of my greatest fears is losing my mind to Alzheimer's when I get old. Or losing my husband when he is young.

27. I graduated with an English major from Columbia University in NYC.

28. I get bored watching football, but I like watching World Cup soccer because it's fast-paced and the men are so good-looking.

29. I love dreams. Having them, writing them down, thinking about them, finding insight in them. Sometimes I contemplate becoming a Jungian analyst for that reason.

30. I love to hike. Some of my most transcendent moments have occured in the middle of a tall forest.

31. I collect the state quarters, from both the Denver and Philadelphia mints. I have every state so far, but I still need some of the Philadelphia mint ones.

32. I can whistle through my tongue, but only when I'm inhaling.

33. I love taking photographs. Some people do scrapbooks; I do photo albums.

34. I have seen the movie Valley Girl, starring Nicholas Cage, more times than I can count. All but one of those times was during high school, and the last time was when I rented it with my husband last year.

35. I was raised Catholic and am a practicing Catholic now, but I drifted away from it during college and stayed away for most of my 20s.

36. If I were to join a religious order, it would probably be the Benedictines because I love their focus on hospitality, finding the holiness in every moment, and seeing each person as Christ.

37. My eyes are pure brown, which usually feels boring, although a man once compared them to caramel, which made me feel glamourous.

38. I first got contact lenses when I made the cheerleading squad in ninth grade. I didn't want to be the only cheerleader with glasses, but I was still a brainy, geeky girl at heart. A brainy, geeky girl who was good at dancing.

39. I have always admired people who have a clear sense of purpose and direction in their lives. Sometimes envied them.

40. My favorite flowers are peonies, tulips and roses.

41. When I'm cooking, I can really immerse myself in the moment and forget about my troubles.

42. Cashmere socks are one of the best things about winter.

43. I landed my first journalism job thanks to an editor I met when I was teaching at the local high school in Greenville, Mississippi. A few years later, I wrote his obituary when he died of lung cancer.

44. I read every page of Oprah magazine every month.

45. That thing that Bill Clinton did to Monica Lewinsky with the cigar? I know it was wrong, but reading about it in the investigation report was kind of exciting.

46. I adore the Harry Potter books and cannot wait until our son is old enough for me to read them to him - or to read them himself, God willing.

47. Ballet is a combination of spiritual artistry, physical exercise and mental stimulation, and that's why I love taking adult ballet classes.

48. I wore Petite Cherie cologne on my wedding day.

49. Sylvia Plath and Raymond Carver are two writers whose work can really mess with my head.

50. I would love to spend a summer - or a year - living in western Ireland.