25 Random Things

I got tagged with this both on a blog, and on facebook, so I guess I have to do it. You will now all know for sure that I am extraordinarily weird. Here goes.

1. I have to have my clothes hung in a very specific way (translate that as a very OCD way) in the closet. They are hung by style, then by color within that style. They all have to be facing the same direction, and I like for the hangers to be evenly spaced.
2. I've posted a bit about this before, so it won't be a surprise to some of you, but I can be an over-achiever and a perfectionist. Sometimes this makes my life more difficult than it needs to be.
3. I am an intensely patriotic person.
4. I love to watch fighter jets. I love the sound of them, especially when they have the afterburners on. And watching the USAF Thunderbirds fly is one of my very favorite things to do. (I hear they might be coming to Hill AFB this summer. I can't wait!!!)
5. I am one of the best car-packers you will ever meet. I have an obsession with making things fit like puzzle pieces, and I can get more into the trunk of one mid-size car than most people can get in an entire car.
6. I like to be prepared. In fact, some people might think I'm over prepared. I like to be ready for anything, and I like being able to take care of/help other people, too. My sisters make fun of me for this, but they are usually the ones benefiting from my preparedness. (Except when it comes to food storage, Dayna holds the title on that one, and I'm going to her house in a disaster!)
7. I am an extremely family oriented person. I will turn down almost anything, if it means I get to be with my family. I love my extended family, and even though I don't see them often, they are still some of my favorite people. I even have pretty close relationships with most of my second cousins.
8. I love cars. I like to work on cars. I find it fun to change oil, change and rotate tires, etc.
9. I'm very analytical. I like to know why things work the way they do, why people act the way they do, and I love trying to solve mysteries in books, movies, tv shows, and even in real life before the answers are revealed.
10. I like math. Really. Nothing weird like theorems or cosigns or anything like that. (See number 9) Sometimes when I see numbers, I have to do mathematical equations with them. For no reason. I also like to do math in my head, and get annoyed with myself when I have to use paper.
11. I love ghost stories, even though I'm scared of ghosts! I bought three books about reported hauntings in Montana when I was there last summer, and going on the ghost tour in Virginia City (a ghost town) was one of the most fun, and most scary things I've ever done. I think this is pretty weird considering that I'm a very logical person. This is one thing I love, despite the fact that I can't explain it.
12. I can't stop in the middle of things. In choir, when the director would stop us in the middle of a phrase, I had to finish it quietly. If I'm working on something, I can't stop until it's done. It's almost physically painful for me to stop in the middle of something, and if I do stop, I have a hard time getting back to it.
13. I love horses, and dream of having a ranch someday.
14. I hate book learning. I hate reading instructions and I don't read self-help books. I much prefer to learn by experience, and/or figure things out by myself.
15. I love to read more than anything (mostly mysteries, ghost stories, and suspense books), and I always have. I used to hide behind my bed or in my closet and read when I was supposed to be cleaning my room, then if I heard my mom or dad coming, I would hurry and pretend like I was cleaning out the closet or cleaning under the bed.
16. I love to sing, and will catch myself singing along with songs I hate just because they're playing. I want to be on a CD someday. I don't even need to be a solo artist. I would be happy to sing in a group, or even sing background vocals. I have a dream of being the singing voice of a movie character.
17. I have a weird way of eating meals. I have to eat all of one dish before I can move on to the next. Let's take lunch for example. If I had a sandwich, fruit, and potato chips, I would have to eat all of the sandwich, then all of the fruit, then the chips. (It doesn't have to go in any certain order, and I don't have to finish the dish, but I eat all I want of it before moving on, and once I've moved to another dish, I almost never go back.)
18. I've always been really good at spelling. I won the third grade spelling bee at my school, and took fifth in the district spelling bee that year.
19. I have an innate sense of rhythm. It is literally impossible for me to sing, dance, etc. off the natural rhythm. I can do something on an off beat, but I have to really concentrate to do that, or I end up getting back on beat. If there is music playing, and I am walking, I walk to the beat. I can't help it.
20. I love kids, and I am pretty good with them. Most little kids are drawn to me, and some people have referred to me as the pied piper.
21. I like to iron.
22. I don't mind being alone. It doesn't bother me to stay alone when my roommates are gone, or to house sit by myself, in fact, I kind of like it.
23. I love music and poetry. Good lyrics speak to my soul.
24. I love being outside, and for some reason I especially like being outside at night. I like fishing, and camping, and rappelling, and other outdoor activities, but I hate hiking.
25. I am a very jumpy person. I don't like to play hide and seek, because it scares me and I scream. If I am hiding from someone and jump out at them, it scares me worse than it scares them. And I almost always scream when I get startled. Just ask the unfortunate UPS guy who had the misfortune to walk into my yard when my back was turned. I think I scared him worse than he scared me!

I tag everyone who reads this. Except Mandy since she already did it. :)