Happy birthday to me!

Source: weheartit.com via Soraya on Pinterest

In honor of my 22nd birthday, I was going to share with you 22 fabulous things that have happened to me in the past year (inspired by the lovely Jessica at Lovely Undergrad). Then I realized I already shared most of them (and more!) with you last October when I posted about my favorite college memories. So instead, I'm going to share 22 random things about me that you might not already know:

1. I often refer to cities by their airport codes. Most often, St. Louis is affectionately "STL," Atlanta is "ATL" and San Francisco is "SFO." I used to call Kansas City "MCI," but I then realized that confused everyone who wasn't from the Midwest.
2. One of the top destinations on my travel bucket list is Auschwitz-Birkenau.
3. I was born in North Carolina, and I blame my grandmother (not unkindly!) for my inability to drink iced tea with less than one cup of sugar per every gallon. I often embarrass company at restaurants with the small mounds of sugar packets that accumulate near my glass, and I've been known to steal sweetener from nearby tables. Oops.
4. When I was a child, my mother grounded me from reading. Literally. She took my books away and made me go outside and play with my friends. "But Mooooom...."
5. I dream of being a librarian one day. I haven't yet decided if I want to get my master's degree in Library and Information Science and work at a university library, or wait and retire to be a volunteer librarian in my advanced age.
6. I have seen every episode ever produced of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. (If you know me at all in real life, you probably already know this.)
7. The No. 1 reason I'm excited to finally have my own television is March Madness. Go Tigers!
8. When I was 14, my dad paid me $20 to eat a snail we found outside our house. At least he let me spit the shell out. (For the record, he didn't actually think I would do it when he brought it up. But he did pay me!)
9. Also when I was 14 (what a great year that was), my sister ran me over with a golf cart. We were driving it around my grandparents' farm, and I wanted to drive. I stood in the road so she would let me drive, and when I wouldn't move she ran me over. (We usually get along really well, I promise.) My mom took me to the E.R. so the scrapes wouldn't get infected, but I didn't break anything.
10. Speaking of my golf cart incident, I was able to use that story during a Dairy Princess pageant. That's right, I was the First Alternate Dairy Princess for California District 6 in high school. I used the above story to illustrate why milk is so important for a healthy diet; if I hadn't been such an avid milk drinker, I probably would have broken something!
11. Now that we're on the subject of dairy cows, I should mention my hometown literally has more cows than people. In fact, it's the Jersey capital of the world.
12. I helped my first cow give birth at a fair one year.
13. Enough about cows. Another thing most people wouldn't guess about me: I was the conference shotput champion my senior year of high school. That's right, baby! (Milk makes your muscles grow haha.)
14. Saturday marked my 90-month anniversary with my boyfriend, Jonathan. (That's 7.5 years, if you didn't want to do the math.)
15. I absolutely adore logic games. In fact, back when I thought I wanted to go to law school, I took a free practice LSAT at my school, and it was fun! I just loved those logic sections; I could do those puzzles all day! I recently found these adorable logic game books at a local bookstore, and I want all of them!
16. I don't know if I have seven more interesting things to tell you about myself. I guess I'm pretty boring. :( Let's see ... I wrote about going to Africa in my college admissions essays, and that dream finally came true last year when I studied abroad in Rwanda!
17. I wore a completely sequined dress to my senior prom, where I was crowned Prom Queen with my boyfriend as King. All the teacher chaperones said I looked like a disco ball.
18. I only applied to universities with active Greek communities, yet I didn't go through recruitment until my sophomore year.
19. I also only applied to schools with Division I football programs. Football has always been my favorite sport to watch (though college basketball is a close second!).
20. I played volleyball for six years in middle and high school, but I didn't even like it. I just didn't want to be a cheerleader or play golf, and those were the only other fall options for girls at my school.
21. I hate mayonnaise, yet I love egg salad and deviled eggs and many other foods with mayonnaise as an ingredient. I just don't like condiments in general (except barbecue sauce, yum!).
22. The furthest single distance I can recall running is two miles around my grandma's lake for an annual "Friendly Frolic" Independence Day race.

And that makes 22 fun facts! Thanks for indulging my sense of self-importance on my birthday. Have a wonderful Monday!

P.S. - Don't forget to link up with me tomorrow for Travel Tuesday! I'll be talking about packing tips, but you can post about whatever your little heart desires!