#26: I am in love with New Orleans! The last time I went there was for a conference a few years ago and I had a WONDERFUL time! Hopefully, I can get some vacation time there for the summer!
 
#25: I hate chitterlings! When I was younger, my parents would love to cook it on the stove and the entire house had its disgusting smell. To this day, I will never eat a bite of it!

#24: I learned how to type so fast from the Mavis Beacon computer program. When I graduated from middle school, my dad put me on this schedule that made me work on the program every day, almost all summer. To this day, I rarely have to look down at the keys (really just for the numbers because I don’t use them as much as letters).

#23: I used to be really jealous of my brother when we were little. When he was a toddler and my mom was filming him with the video camera, , I would knock him down softly when my mother wasn’t looking. LOL! But eventually, I got over it.

#22: In middle school, I used to like this boy but he wouldn’t be honest if he liked me or some other girl. He called me up at home and I got so tired of his crap that I played the chorus in Janet Jackson’s song “If” and hung up the phone. Look it up, kiddies. Boy, did I have some guts as a kid!

#21: My cousin let me ride with him on his motorcycle when I was a teenager. We went REALLY fast! It was so much fun but my mom was so afraid for me. I couldn’t stop laughing!

#20: My mother has an obsession for all things Ralph Lauren, especially when she was pregnant with me.  She named me after her favorite designer and perfume.

#19: I am the oldest sibling in my immediate family.

#18: Initially, I attended college in hopes of being a doctor. I took an internship in HS with an orthopedic surgeon and fell in love with the practice. But once I started taking the required math and science courses (and started failing those classes even with all the help in the world), I quickly switched to English.

#17: I worked in the Human Resources Department in the University Library when I was a sophomore at UF. I learned a great deal about the inner workings of payroll (like library staff gets really agitated when their checks aren’t correct).

#16: No, I have never been married (and I have no kids) but I want to be someday.

#15: For a school trip in during my Freshman year of HS, I went to Europe. The class and I went to Italy (Venice and Verona), Germany and Switzerland. Talk about a great Spring Break!

P.S. In Verona, there is a real house for Juliet called Juliet’s House with a statue of the Shakespearean character in the front.  :)

#14: I am a chronic bibliophile (look it up, kiddies!). I am currently reading (very slowly): True You by Janet Jackson, Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (before there was “Twilight”, there was Anne Rice’s “Vampire Chronicles”) on top of the two main textbooks for my 10th Grade and 12th Grade English classes I teach this year (maybe I’ll read Sherlock Holmes when I’m finished because the film was incredible!).

#13: I am a closet romantic.  I love sappy chick lit/chick films every day of the year, especially on Valentine’s Day.  Just give me my DVDs Love Actually, any Tyler Perry film, Bridget Jones, Sex and the City! What a perfect night!! ;)

#12: If I could have the wardrobe of any fictional character, it would be Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City.

#11: If I had to choose the character I most like, I would have to say Carrie (but I have a little bit of Charlotte, Samantha, and Miranda too).

#10: If I had to choose the career I would want to have, it would be Tyler Perry, Anne Rice, Candace Bushnell, or J.K. Rowlands.

#9: I buy at least two new fashion/glamour/celebrity gossip magazines and at least one grown-up magazine (like Black Enterprise or U.S. News & World Report) every other Friday. A lady has to stay current!

#8: I secretly want to be a DJ (I guess it’s no secret now!). I actually tried it out at a friend’s party and I was terrible (but I loved every minute of it!). I have this talent of creating the most amazing mixed tapes/playlists for every mood. My iPod, laptops, and my Blackberry MP3 player are full of them.

#7: My parents raised my brother and me to appreciate the rich history of African-American music and film. We listened to all the Motown greats (The Temptations, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Jackson 5), James Brown, Sam Cooke, 70′s and 80′s Soul/R&B singers (Earth, Wind and Fire, The Emotions, The Pointer Sisters, Phyllis Hyman, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Luther Vandross, Freddie Jackson, The Commodores, Lionel Ritchie, Frankie Beverly and Maze, Johnny Mathis, Donny Hathaway) and 90′s R&B (Michael Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Janet Jackson, Anita Baker, Vanessa Williams, Sade, Tevin Campbell, Boyz II Men, Usher, TLC, En Vogue).

As a result, I like a lot of “old school” and a little bit of “new school”.

#6: I was NOT popular in HS. I was/still am really tall (almost as tall as the teacher), a tomboy (I played volleyball and preferred jeans and Chapstick over dresses and lipgloss to wear to class), became a novice writer (I wrote a vampire novel for fun and it became a Freshman Class sensation) and liked to listening to SKA and rock music (long live No Doubt, Prince, Queen, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Green Day, The Rolling Stones, Goo Goo Dolls, Aerosmith, Heart, The Bangles, and Lenny Kravitz!).

#5: After not having an “exit strategy” for graduating college, my parents moved me to CT in hopes that I would go to grad school at Yale University. Yale didn’t work out (I worked full-time in a bookstore and in retail for a year) but Columbia eventually did. Not bad for a runner-up.

#4: I lived in NYC for two years. While at Columbia, I stayed in Harlem with my great-uncle. It was wonderful and I miss it terribly.

#3: I saw the musical The Color Purple two times: once on my own dime in NYC and once when my parents came to NYC. As far as the rest of my family goes, I am and still am an adopted New Yorker.

#2: As a result of #3, I am a huge fan of Sex and the City. Yes, I have seen the entire set of the series and yes, I own the movie (and I have seen it at least three times so far). I have my own countdown to the sequel that opens this spring.

#1: As a result of #3 and #2, I have made a promise to myself that I will travel back to NYC for Spring Break or Summer Break. Wish me luck!