11 Things! (Megan Made Me Do It)

Rules
1. Post these rules.
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
3. Answer the questions set for you in their post.
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
5. Go to their blog and tell them that you’ve tagged them.
6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people.

My 11 Randoms

1. From the ages of 5 until roughly 17, I hated dresses. Be it nervousness about having the hems pulled up over my head, as happened in preschool shortly before my decision to swear them off, or their interference with my otherwise athletic lifestyle, they were not my thing. But as I matured, and started to see them as a way of life for women (and a great alternative to having to make sure my shirt and pants matched), I'm coming around.
2. Related point: I match my undergarments to what's being worn over them. Yes, that means I have many different colors of underwear. And no, I don't know why I do this.
3. I love classical music. Legitimately, and in a nerdy fashion. I listen to it in my office at work, while I read or study, and often just for fun. In fact, if I'm watching a movie I particularly like the score for, I will hum the score where most people would just say lines.
4. I have been a movie buff since I was very young. Like Don Draper, I "see everything". Favorites include An American in Paris (all time) and A Beautiful Mind/Midnight in Paris (made in my lifetime)
5. I have a hate/love relationship with running. I say that because I hated it first. I started running cross country in the seventh grade. The younger, huskier version of me absolutely detested it. But as I got older and wanted to avoid coming an even huskier version of myself, I took it up and expected to endure it. But I did more than endure it, I loved it.
6. Part of the reason I hated it so much was the toll that it took on my joints. As a former dancer and gymnast, I have problems with both knees, my left ankle and left shoulder. It's complicated other sports, but running was the only sport that I've ever cared to resolve these problems for.
   
7. As the above might indicate, I am a sports lefty but a natural righty.
8. I love to travel, but have not done it as much as I'd like since college. I'd like to explore more of the US, and am looking for any opportunity to do so soon.
   
9. I am an avid reader, and have been since I started reading at age 3 and a half. Yep, you read that right. Favorite book? The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain. Least favorite book: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (which I strongly maintain is because of the way it was taught).
10. I have worn glasses at two separate points in my life. From ages 2-6, I wore glasses to correct eye drift, a common ailment of babies born prematurely, as I was. At 6, I was told that I didn't need them anymore. But after having trouble driving at night, I went back to the doctor at 22, where I was told that I should have been wearing them all along. Whoops. However, they are only corrective in one eye. So if anyone finds a retailer that has a monocle, let me know. I've been looking for ages.
11. I hated chocolate until I was 21. Now I love it. Life's weird sometimes.

And now, to answer the questions posed by Megan:

1. What is one thing you regret doing/not doing? I regret not spending my fourth year in college. I was able to graduate early, but then spent the following year not working, but stressing out about not having a job. But the course of my life is pretty cool, so it's hard to regret it too much.

2. Do you have any tattoos? Of what? And where? I have 3. My first I got in 2005, of a black star (for the Ghana flag) on my right hip. I followed it up two years later with an anchor (for the Rhode Island flag) on my left hip. And in January of 2011 I got a tandem tattoo with my sister, of the words "Watch the Sky" on our right feet. It is printed on a staff; mine is preceded with a bass clef, hers with a treble clef.

3. If you could travel anywhere right now, with an unlimited budget, where would you go? Brooklyn, NY, and use that unlimited money to take sabbatical there.

4. Early bird or night owl? Night owl by nature, early bird for the opportunity it affords me to spend time in solitude.

5. What is your favorite activity for stress relief? Running, or baths. Are baths an activity?

6. Childhood hero? My dad. That remains, though he now has to share the title with Michelle Obama.

7. What is one item from your life bucket list you'd like to get done this year? Visit as many states as possible (I'm going to NY, NC, SC, TX, and CO so far!).

8. The worst place you've ever been to? Plant City, FL. For a variety of reasons.

9. What is your favorite fruit? Mango!

10. If you could go back to college, what would you major in? Nutrition or public health, it would make some eventual career moves far easier!

11. Dream job? Student affairs professional in the area of wellness education and programming, and eventual professor in student affairs.

And now, for those who get the task next...here's what you'll have to answer:

1. What was your favorite toy as a child?
2. What was your favorite movie as a child?
3. Who do you talk to first when you have a problem?
4. What is your least favorite vegetable?
5. What makes you smile?
6. What makes you frown?
7. What is your favorite smell?
8. Where is your favorite place in the world?
9. How do you take "yourself" to your office (in what ways are you most yourself at work)?
10. What actor or actress would play you in your life story?
11. What actor or actress would play your best friend in your life story?