It’s the day after Christmas and I’m snuggled down in bed, enjoying my parents’ wifi signal, the blustery weather and the fact that there isn’t a thing I have to do today. Nearly a week ago Scott tagged me to participate in a meme but I’ve been running all over Portland getting ready for our “low-key Christmas” (every year we say it’s going to be small and low-key, and somehow it never is) and so I’m just getting to it now. Since I’m in my parents’ house, I have a feeling that most of these are going to be embarrassing facts about my younger self.

1. While I was growing up, there was a small pink quilt that hung on the wall next to my bed. At night I would often pick my nose and wipe it on the wall, under the quilt where no one could see it. A year or two into this habit, my mom took the quilt down in order to wash it and discovered my collection. I became known as the child who wiped her boogers on the wall. It’s a reputation that I still haven’t totally shaken, even though I now make a point of getting a Kleenex any time my hand even starts to think of wandering near my face.

2. I like to reread books. There are certain books that I have read as many as ten or fifteen times (however that’s only the average. I read “The Boxcar Children” nearly 100 times over the years). I often find myself craving particular stories or characters, and the only way to discharge the desire is to dip back into the book.

3. In college, the primary decorating theme in my bedroom was wooden crate. I built bookshelves and toiletry racks out of them, and thought myself very cool. I still have a fondness for the wooden crate, but have come to realize that it should never be the primary type of furniture in a room.

4. In my junior and senior years of high school, I was the Assembly Commissioner. It was an elected position that meant that I was responsible for planning and executing all school assemblies. One of my primary roles was setting up the sound equipment for all events that required it (although no one ever gave me a training session so I was completely stupid when it came to setting levels for the microphones and instruments). They gave me my own key to the sound equipment closet, and I would often abuse that honor by napping in there during my free period.

5. I eat ice cream out of the carton with an iced tea spoon. Putting it in a dish always feels wrong to me. When I was growing up, my dad would often pull the container of ice cream out of the freezer, wrap a dish towel around it and sit on the couch with a long-handled spoon. Raina and I would sit on either side of him and beg for bites until he told us to go get our own spoons. Those memories are so infused with pleasure that it seems unthinkable to eat ice cream any other way. Although, if I am going to be sharing with people who aren’t related to me, I will use a bowl.

I don’t like to tag people, it feels too much like inviting people to go to a kid’s fifth grade band concert, so I’m not going to do it. But if you feel like participating, please feel free.