So today Madelin over at What is for Breakfast? sent me a Beautiful Blogger Award, which means I have to list seven things you didn’t know about me and then pass it on to seven more people. I love Madelin’s blog. She’s been on my blogroll since the day I created a blogroll. I also love that through her site I discovered Zee Food & Frog Blog, which has quite possibly the absolute best About Me page ever created because Emma is as cray-cray about her two pet frogs as I am about the cats you all know and love.

Speaking of cats, #4 on Madelin’s list of things we don’t know about her was that she loves cats. We have that in common. But I can’t list it because everyone already knows that. So now I’ll do what bloggers do best–talk about myself. Here we go…

1. I threw a rock at a cat – When I was little–maybe six or seven–I wanted a cat so desperately that I used to write my parents long-winded five-paragraph essays explaining why I’d be the perfect cat owner. They didn’t give in until I was in high school so I used to spend a lot of time playing with neighborhood cats and strays. One such cat was Garfield who lived next door. One day when I was out I saw Garfield attack and kill a ground squirrel which was perhaps the most traumatizing thing I had seen up to that point in my life. Probably still is actually. (Sheltered) Anyway, not knowing how to handle the circle of life, all I could think to do was save the smaller more defenseless of the two creatures. So I threw a rock at Garfield. I didn’t even get close, but I always felt guilty about it. I sobbed. The facts won’t all be this long.

2. My bladder is tiny – Shortly after we had moved to Illinois I was hospitalized for what my doctors thought was a cancerous tumor the size of an adult fist on my wee little 4-year-old bladder. It turned out to only be a urachael remnant–a very rare condition in which the internal umbilical cord connected to a fetus’ organs never dissolves like it’s supposed to. Instead, it was bleeding and scarring to form a large mass. I have some very vivid memories of my time in the hospital–a dream that a nurse came to give me a shot with a needle taller than me, terrible hospitable orange juice, walking for the first time after surgery and holding on to my rolling IV for dear life for fear that it would tug on my arm, asking the nurse to carry me into surgery so I wouldn’t look like a dead body on the gurney and my brother bringing me cookies he had made with the help of an adult–probably my grandmother. Anyway, now I pee a lot. Maybe they will all be this long…

3. I love pickles – I love pickles. I once ate an entire jar of pickle chips on a family vacation because I didn’t feel like watching Marry Poppins with the other kids because Mary Poppins is lame.

4. I said no – My first job offer right out of college (spring term senior year, actually) was to work for a non-profit helping to set up libraries in Guatemala. I turned it down because the salary was near the poverty line and I am apparently controlled by money. I didn’t know that until then. Sometimes I regret that decision, but sometimes I also enjoy being debt-free.

5. I fell in love in a cubicle – Stew and I met sitting next to each other in cramped little cubicles backed up against a large window that in the summer can best be described as a giant microwave. We still work at the same place but we’re on different projects and I’m in a different building. I miss eating lunch in the break room like Jim and Pam.

6. I have a job – Some people think that due to my frequency of posting that I must surely blog full-time. You’re wrong. I can post so frequently not because I don’t have a job but because I don’t have a life. I don’t talk about what I do because I don’t want to be one of those people who gets fired for over sharing. My title is Brand Strategist which tells you nothing because I totally made it up myself by Googling things like “unique job titles.” I’m not kidding.

7. I’m the lucky one - My first CD was Amy Grant’s “House of Love.” I used to pile on Dr. Pepper chapstick and sing into my mirror because I thought I looked awesome and grown up with a slight red hue to my lips. I did not look either of those things. I still think Lucky One is one of the best songs of all time.

And now it’s your turn. If i tag you you have to spend 30 minutes of your life talking about yourself. Maybe longer if you insist on finding Google images for everything…

Heather – Then Heather Said

Julie – Savvy Eats

Cara – Cashews and Hummus

Jessie – Don’t Forget Dessert

Ashley – Daily Goods

Kat – Low Fat Kat

Leslie – And Her Little Dog Too