Like this:

On Facebook, one of my favorite notes posted was when I had to name 16 things about myself… I loved writing down weird quirks I had, and getting the feedback on what people thought…. It was almost a freeing moment, to get that stuff out there and show people who I was…

These are some parts of the two previous posts…

• I chew and swallow practically every piece of gum I chew. Peppermint is the only kind I can chew for more than a minute without wanting to swallow it right away. My dad does it, and I guess I inherited that habit from him.
• I am a hopeless romantic. I love the way things used to be, when they guy would take charge and be the MAN in the relationship. Planning and paying for dates, and just taking care of their girl.
• I LOVE my BlackBerry phone. I don’t know what I would do, or how I would function without that thing.
• When my grandpa Hill died, I promised myself that I would do everything I could to never take another person for granted, and I would enjoy my time with them. I also know what true love is because of my grandparents, and I promised my family I would never settle for anything less than THAT kind of TRUE love.
• I love asking questions and finding out about people I care about.
• I cry like a baby on every episode of “Extreme Makeover Home Edition”, and go through every emotion possible during the movies “The Notebook” and “A Walk to Remember.”
• When I watch Gossip Girl/One Tree Hill with my girls, I feel like there isn’t a worry in the world, and everything is right for once. Mondays are sacred time for me, and I dont want to change a thing about it. Eating dinner and enjoying dessert if I decided to bring one that week at the Topps… Joking around with Duane, and just spending some quality time talking to Chris is great. Going down to the entertainment room with a blanket, talking only during commerical breaks, and just getting caught up in the show like it’s my life, my friends, my struggles… is priceless.
• My mom is my best friend in the whole world — and I really, honestly and sincerely feel sorry for people who don’t get along with theirs.
• I love being at the hospital, taking care of really sick patients…. I cannot wait for the day when I can be an RN at Mercy, in the ICU or on 4Heart.
• I want to learn more about the game of Football… I have wanted to for a while now. Players, positions, etc.
• I have a ‘forte’ of people not following through with what they have promised me. I am hoping one day someone will break that trend and actually do something when they say they will!
• I have given my heart to people; and had it stomped on, crushed, shattered, broken, and every other adjective in the book. And although I am still broken inside some days, I am choosing to push through the pain, because I know that some day everything will turn out, and I will be happy like I was before.
• I love looking at wedding pictures. It doesn’t matter if I know the person at all. I love seeing the look on the girl’s face, and when pictures are caught right when the guy is completely lost in the moment with his (future) wife. You know the look, where he is just in his own world, and the only two there are him and his girl. I am really excited for the day when I get to be on the other side of the camera, and get lost in the moment with the man I love. I look forward to my wedding day often, and even though I am not in a place right now where I feel comfortable getting hitched, the feeling is always there….
• Sometimes I have dreams that seem so real, I wake up and wonder if it really happened. Other times, I sleep so hard (often dreamless nights) I wake up and look around, wondering where the heck I am.
• My favorite beverage is H2O. I know, nerdy, but I love it!
• I want to own a Doberman Pincer with pricked ears someday. Our family used to have this amazing one named Rex. He was 125 pounds of sheer muscle and he was gorgeous. I could almost ride him around the house like a pony, and when my sister and I took him on walks, we had to use one of the horse lead ropes! The cool thing about Rex was, even though he looked fierce, he was so gentle and kind. R.I.P. Rex.
• I want to ride a horse again. Just go out in the country, and just ride… I used to have 4 horses, and I have missed them ever since we sold them.  I hope someday I can ride again. Until then, I will keep watching Seabiscuit and live vicariously through Toby Maguire. Lol.

Here is a list of some new things about me that I can put out there…..

• I dislike orange. Orange clothes make me look ill (my mom says so). And when it comes to food, the artificial orange flavoring is nasty! I haven’t really found any food that is “artifical” orange that I like…. Starburst, ice cream, skittles, pop.. its all gross to me!
• So You Think You Can Dance… Oh, how I wish I was one of those girls! I think that dancing is so beautiful, and what I wouldn’t give just to be able to stretch my leg up into a vertical splits.. I think it is so graceful and pretty!
• I find bubble baths to be one of the most relaxing, calming and enjoyable things I do at home. I love the water. No matter what kind of water (except murky, gross water), I love being in it! My showers at home are pretty long, and I could be in there for hours, just staying warm. When I was younger, I had a season pass to the Charles Horn Swimming Pool (Now the Anoka Aquatic Center), and I would spend hours upon hours in the water, and my nickname was “fish” for years. I don’t know what it is about water that I am attracted to, but I love it!
• I am a chronic, sometimes OCD, list maker. I write down everything from my “to do list” for the day/week, to the things I want for my bday, plans for the future, wedding ideas (no, Im not engaged… I just wish I was sometimes), future home decoration ideas, questions to ask on a date, great first date ideas, and the list goes on. I enjoy being organized, and knowing that I am not missing anything because I may have forgotten it.
• I have been taught by my lovely mother that you can never take “too many” pictures. She is an avid picture taker, and asks for pictures of every occasion, night out, night in, get-together, etc. I admit that at the time, taking pictures can sometimes be a hassle, but when all is said and done, I LOVE going back through my camera, and being able to remember everything that happened. I have made a few scrapbooks in my life, and being able to pick from a variety of pictures is always a blast. I get to use my creative side and play with it all.
• I find it truly amazing when a song cuts into the deepest part of you, and makes you feel things that you wouldn’t feel otherwise. Music makes me happy, sad, joyful, serious, humble, silly, and many others. There are specific songs that I can play to get myself in a specific mood. I am brought back to specific times and places when certain songs come on. It brings me back to high school, or a hard time I worked through, or the happiest days I have ever had… I think music is a true blessing to have.
• There are so many times in my life when I take all the things I have for granted. I enjoy the times when God serves me up a piece of humble pie, and I am with it enough to recognize what has been shown to me. When I look at my life, and what I have, I should feel nothing but gratitude, but that is not always the case. I want to be a better person, who’s glass is always half full, and doesn’t take so many things for granted on a daily basis.
• I am fiercely protective of my family and what people think about them. One of the last guys I dated didn’t like my family, and it was a HUGE problem with our relationship. I can’t have a working relationship – with a friend, boyfriend, co-worker, etc – who doesn’t like my family. I mean seriously… have you met them?  They’re fantastic!
• I want to be just like my grandma Hill when I am old. My family and I all fight over who gets to hug her first after church on Sundays… My dad will take off in a sprint across the pews to try and attack her first… its so funny!
• I am a sucker for soft fabrics. When I am shopping, many times I will just grab an arm or chunk of fabric, and feel it for a little bit. If I don’t like how it feels, I will not try it on. If I am on the fence with a piece of clothing, and if it has a soft fabric, I usually try it on.
• I own a LOT of shoes. Looking at the back of my door right now, I can count 31 pairs of shoes…. not including the 20 flip flops I have, the 30 pair that are up in my mom’s room, the shoes in my car, the ones in the entry way, the shoes Beth took to college, and the 20 or so pairs that are upstairs in the spare bedroom/office….. You could say I have a problem, but I don’t think it’s bad at all! Shoes make me happy, and they always fit (can’t say the same about clothes!). Not to mention that mom, Beth and I have the same size feet so we share!!!
• My friend Andy knows this part of me the best…. When I get lost in my car (especially in Mpls or St Paul), I freak out. I get scared, and jittery. I often have to call him to “walk me through” getting out of where I am…. I get very anxious and it makes everything worse. Another friend of mine, Kelsey, and I went to Chicago for a random road trip a few years back and we got so lost trying to find our way to Best Buy off the freeway (just to buy the soundtrack to Grease so we could jam to it the whole way home), I had a panic attack – drove the wring way down a one way street – made a dead stop in a right turn lane when the light was green – and cried so much a guy stopped and helped us… Embarassing!!!
• My comfort foods are: KRAFT macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese and tomato soup, tuna casserole, ice cream and pizza. Depending on what I am de-stressing from determines what I am going to find comfort in…
• I dont sleep with any pillows under my head. My bed is decorated with 7 pillows, but if I want to get a good night’s sleep, I will push them all off the bed and sleep flat. I don’t know why I find it comfortable, but it is to me!!!
• I severely enjoy serving people at the restaurant. I don’t know why I get such joy from it, but I do! I knew I was missing the restaurant business (when I was just working the hospital – no 2nd job), when I would run to the kitchen to get a patient a turkey sandwich, ice cream, soup, etc… I really missed it, and didn’t even realize it!
• “The Question Game” has been something my mom and I have been doing since I was a freshman in high school. Asking a person questions is an easy way to open up conversation, and can often lead to a care-free conversation. But one of my biggest pet-peeves is when I am the only  one doing all the question-asking! I mean, don’t you want to reverse any of them? Lol. My mom taught me that early on.
• I love love love love love candle-light. When I was younger, and lived upstairs in the turrett, I was burning candles during a family get-together… For some reason I had to leave and accidentally left them all burning, and set off the smoke alarms! My mom will never let me live that one down… But I am more careful with the candles nowadays.

… I don’t know if anyone wants me to keep going, so I am going to call it a night and give up for now….

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Here is some more (Grandma Hill and Krystal!)

• I come from a fammily of Toyota lovers. My brother is a master mechanic at Carlson Toyota in Coon Rapids (ps- he does great work, so if you ever need a good, honest mechanic, he will hook you up!). Our family get togethers look like a dealership for Toyota cars. We have 4 Corollas (Veronica, my mom, my sis and mine), a Toyota Matrix (dad), a Toyota truck (family car), and until recently, we had another Toyota car that used to be my sisters. It is awesome when get all of our cars together. Haha.
• If you ever see me out on the road, I won’t see you 99% of the time. I am in my own little world, and most of the time, I am dancing and singing along to some silly song, and I probably would deny that it was me in the car if you ever brought it up…
• I enjoy thinderstorms and lightening. I think they are facinating. Ask my sister about storms, and she will start to get pale in the face, and dart for the basement. That girl was so scared one day during a storm, she called me at work and begged me to come home… and drive my (then) tiny little 2 door Rav4 through a Tornado warning to get home to her…. Uh, NO thank you!
• I love cutting hair. I am no stylist, but I have cut my friends and some of my family’s hair when they come to visit the house. I have even cut my own hair twice, and it didnt look too shabby. I dont ever want to cut someone’s hair for a job, but it is kind of fun playing around with the clipper and shears… (besides my own, I have not cut any other female’s hair… I stick to the guys – its easier!)
• When I am listening to music and there is harmony, I get goosebumps. I don’t know enough to know what kinds of harmony makes my hair stick straight up, but it definietely does. (the pilot episode of Glee has a song at the end that gave me the shivers!)
• No matter how hot it is outside, or what the weather is like, I always have a blanket with me. I feel comfortable knowing I am covered up!
• I have been on some pretty spectacular dates in my life. I have guys who have treated me so well, and most of them were never boyfriends of mine… I can’t quote figure that one out…… Some of my favorites were: Broadway shows in NYC with the family, when Dustin and I dressed up like movie stars (he was in his Marine blues) and was taken to a beautiful french restaurant with a beautiful Mpls carriage ride after (and then to WalMart for snacks and a movie when we got home!),Brian and I had a progressive dinner at two of my favorite restaurants and I got dressed up in a new dress, Underwater World in the MOA, a dinner boat cruise, a surprise massage and then dinner at Fogo De Chao for Valentine’s day, Ruth’s Chris (where I was a stand-in for my cousin Jakey J) with Ashley, Buona Sera with Derek, and then again when Rafaelle (the owner) bought my entire meal!, ics skating around Centennial Lakes, to the Nutcracker Ballet with Brian, and so many more… I can’t even begin to write them all down…
• My mother also comments every time I get a new bouquet of flowers saying “Laura has gotten more flowers in her ## years, than I have in my entire life!” If I can try to remember them all, I have gotten flowers from: my mom, dad, sister and her bf, my brother and sis-in-law, grandparents, friend’s parents, Andy J, Derek S, Dustin D, Braden L, Matt M, Khalan C, Mike K, Jason R, Connor B, Rick D, Dave G, Megan/Brianna/Jada, Trent W, Shawn F, Brian S, and more I am sure…
• When I was in high school, I was on the colorguard, went to band camp, and had a crush on a drummer. I was a nerd…
• As all of you know, I am a nurse. And I can handle practically anything… Guts and bones and things sticking out of people’s eyes is pretty cool, but snot – - I cannot handle that very well. My gag reflex is initiated when I hear the sound of snot being spit up, or see that nasty gross stuff….. I guess we all have our weaknesses
• I love love love New York City. It is one of my favorite places to go, thanks to my parents. My da does work in an apartment in Manhatten, and we have been blessed to be able to stay in this rediculously expensive and nice apartment for free when my dad works there. That might be why I like it so much – because I dont have to worry about hotel costs… I know I am saving a lot of money because of the connections we have (ps- THANKS Claudio!)
• When I was younger, I was obsessed with the Titanic. I wanted to know everything about that ship, and read all about it like my life depended on it! Now there is a Science Museum Artifact Exhibit going on until January, and I am dying to see it! (but again with the forte of people not following up, the guy who was supposed to take me vanished out of thin air! no surprise there!)
• I am dyslexic and  I had a hard time with saying things correctly (often words and sentences that sound good in my head come out WAY wrong!), and getting numbers screwed up. Not many people know that about me….

…its wierd… some of these topics and random facts just fly right out of my head onto the keyboard, and others I have to really think about….. hmm… I’ll take that as a sign for “enough about me.”

Now… TELL ME a random fact (or two, or three, or more) about YOU…

Please? Everyone who read/reads my blog, please put something down so I can learn something about you!

(and also its kind of a cool way to figure out who actually reads my stuff – besides Ashley, my grandma Hill and Krystal…. )

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease?

♥ ♥ ♥