Happy (Almost) Birthday to Me… 38 Things for Age 38

My birthday is April 5 (this Sunday) and since I don’t post on Sundays I thought I’d just go ahead and do my birthday post today.

I’ve been sharing random facts about myself on my birthday for five years now, and the more years that go by, the harder and harder it gets to come up with new facts.  Most of the basic ones have been stated in the past, and if you missed them, I’ll link the posts at the end of this post.  But for all of you new readers, if these sound way off the wall and random, please forgive me… I’m really struggling since I’ve already done so many in the past.  I’ll also go ahead and apologize in advance if there are any duplicates on here.  It’s hard to keep up with since I’ve been doing it for so long!

Ready to get started? 

1/ I’ve always picked up song lyrics freakishly fast so I know the lyrics to thousands upon thousands of songs across all genres.  I can hear some random 70s or 80s song that I haven’t heard since childhood and I still remember all of the lyrics from hearing said songs when my parents would listen when I was little.

2/ Speaking of music, I’ve been to 139 concerts (probably more) in my lifetime… and that number doesn’t include local, random concerts that we attend here around town.  Those listed are only for the big concerts that require a ticket purchase. 

3/ I’ve seen everyone from Dave Matthews Band (23 times) to Ed Sheeran (2 times) to Taylor Swift to Justin Timberlake (3 times) to Michael Buble to Kiss to 311 to Elton John to Chris Stapleton to Blues Traveler to LFO to Luke Bryan to The Temptations to The Lumineers and everything in between.  I. LOVE. LIVE. MUSIC.

4/ Brian has been with me for at least 80% of those concerts.

5/ I keep a spreadsheet of all of the concerts I attend so that’s how I know the exact stats.  However, I didn’t start keeping the spreadsheet until probably 15 years ago so I’m sure there could be concerts I’m forgetting from when I was younger. 

6/ I also keep a list of all of the famous people I’ve met/seen in person.  I’ve met/seen at least 44 famous people in person... and that number excludes all of the famous people I’ve seen in concert.  A few people I’ve seen in person are Beyonce (I was an extra in a movie she was in), Chris Klein (he bought a ticket from me at the movie theater I worked at when I was 16), Evander Holyfield (he sat a couple of seats over from us at a Georgia game a couple of years ago, Matthew Perry (my cousin married his sister so I got to meet him at their wedding), Mel Gibson (he filmed a movie near our hometown and we saw him out and about), P. Diddy (he was doing a fashion shoot in the middle of a street in NYC when we were there), and Robin Williams (at his comedy show in Vegas).  My gosh, I miss him so much.

7/ I’ve visited 24 of the 50 states (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia) + Washington D.C.  I have some work to do.

8/ When it’s cold, I only turn the heater on the feet setting because I can’t stand heat blowing in my face.  My feet are always freezing so I pretty much always have the heater on them, but sometimes my feet will be freezing but I’ll be hot from the waist up, and I hate that there’s no option to have dual temperature control – heat on my feet and air on my face.  Is that an option on any vehicle??  That would be a major selling point for me.  Haha.

9/ I have to put Carmex on my lips before bed every single night and I can’t sleep if I don’t.  I’ve been using it for probably 25 years. 

10/ One time I was in NJ on business and right as it was time for bed I realized I’d forgotten to pack my Carmex (and all other lip stick/gloss).  It was way too late to go out and buy some so I called down to the front desk to see if they had some that they could send up.  They didn’t, and I was so desperate that I rubbed moisturizer on my lips.  Until I did that, I couldn’t sleep because my lips felt like they were going to burst into flames. 

11/ I never thought anything would ever replace my beloved Carmex but this past Christmas I came upon peppermint Chapstick at Target and now I’ll probably never use Carmex again.  The peppermint Chapstick has the tingle which is what I love so much about Carmex, but it also has an amazing scent/flavor unlike the Carmex.  They only sell it at Christmas so I’ll have to stock up every year so I can have enough to get me through to the next Christmas season. 

12/ I’m a saltaholic (I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before) but I do NOT want salt on the rim of my margarita glass.  Margs should not be salty.  Makes me want to barf even thinking about it.

13/ My go-to drink at Mexican restaurants is a small margarita on the rocks with no salt.

14/ Tequila goes straight to my head but I do totally fine with all other adult beverages.

15/ I’m terrified of roaches.  Like, petrified.  I can’t even kill them because I refuse to get close enough to them to do that.  I will literally not be able to function if I know there’s a roach anywhere in the vicinity.

16/ I slept with a teddy bear until I got married.  Her name is Maggie and my Daddy gave her to my Momma when they moved to Montana right after they got married (before I was even born).  My Momma then gave her to me when I was pretty small and she’s been my favorite ever since.

17/ Maggie now has a prominent spot on my bookshelf in my office because I just couldn’t bear to put her away in a keepsake box.  She’s too special and needs to be on display.

18/ I despised water my whole life until bottled water/filtered water was finally invented.  Tap water has always made me gag and I can taste the difference between tap and filtered/bottled in a heartbeat.  So many people I’ve talked to about this throughout the years don’t believe me when I say that because they think that there’s no difference in the taste??  Obviously something is wrong with their taste buds. 

19/ When watermelon is an option for a flavor I always choose it.  Blow Pops, Jolly Ranchers, Starburst, Jelly Beans, Lip Smackers chapstick… give me all the watermelon things!

20/ I graduated college with a Bachelor’s Degree in marketing and a minor in management.  Who knew I’d be marketing my own website all these years later?

21/ I never used the management portion of my degree, though, because I don’t like to manage people.  I knew that going in, but I ultimately chose a minor because I thought it would look more desireable on a resume.

22/ Speaking of college, when I was in high school, I only applied to one university – the one in our hometown – because I knew I didn’t want to leave home to go away to college.  I’ve never been adventurous in that way.

23/ If I had chosen to go away to college, The University of Georgia was my number one choice.  #Duh

24/ People always told me that eventually I’d regret not going away to college to “get the college experience.”  To this day I still don’t regret my decision one bit.  If I had gone away my life would be completely different right now because I likely wouldn’t have ever met Brian.  I’d have a different husband and different kids or possibly no husband or no kids depending on life’s circumstances.  And I’m sure that an alternate life could be just as happy as my current one since I wouldn’t know any better, but I just can’t imagine my life being any different than it is right now.  I have everything I’ve ever wanted in Brian, Jacob, and Olivia.

25/ I said my first cuss word at the ripe age of one year old – the S word – and my mom said I used it appropriately, too.  Apparently I said it right in front of my Nana, too.  #Hilarious

26/ I still have a potty mouth to this day, but most people would never know that.  Brian is the lucky one who gets to hear the words fly when something goes wrong… especially when my computer isn’t working.  Hahahaha.

27/ There are two things in this life that are guaranteed to make me curse every single time – when technology isn’t working and when I see a roach. 

28/ I have never once slipped in front of the kids, though.  I can turn it off like a light when I need to.

29/ I’ve worn glasses/contacts since I was in fifth grade and I have to wear them all the time.  I can hardly see without them.

30/ I hate regular sized spoons.  I use big spoons for everything – cereal, ice cream, soup, etc. 

31/ When I was young I only used teaspoons.  So basically I’ve never used regular spoons in my life.  Haha. 

32/ I’m terrified of steep inclines.  I’ve had a recurring nightmare my entire life where I’m being forced to drive up a road that’s at a 90 degree angle.  The car always starts to get up the incline and then falls over on its roof.  I always wake up as it's falling.

33/ When I was little I also had a recurring nightmare where I was being forced to drive and I didn’t know how to.  I couldn’t see over the dashboard and it was frightening.  That dream stopped after I learned how to drive. 

34/ My Daddy nicknamed me “Tadpole” when I was a newborn because he said the way I kicked my legs made me look like a little baby tadpole.  That’s the only name one of my uncle’s has ever called me.  I can’t recall ever hearing him say my actual name.

35/ I store all of our bath towels in a specific order and rotate them evenly in the cabinet so they all get used equally.  #JustCallMeMonicaGeller

36/ If I could only listen to one genre of music for the rest of my life it would be old standards/jazz.

37/ I don’t know how to drive a stick shift.  My friend, April, taught me back in 2003 before our spring break trip to Panama City because we were taking her car (which was a manual) and our parents wanted someone else to know how to drive it as a back-up… just in case.  I ended up not driving it the whole time we were there so I haven’t driven one since we practiced… so I don’t even remember how to do it. #LostArt

38/ One of my parents’ favorite stories to tell about me is how I loved the song Like a Virgin by Madonna when I was little.  I was two when it came out and they said that I used to go around singing it all the time... I’m sure that would be majorly frowned upon in today’s society.  Haha.

Happy almost birthday to me even though I can't celebrate because we're all quarantined.  Waaaahhhh.

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