Here are ten random things you probably don’t know about me.
1. I worked directly with elephants, rhinos, and hippos for seventeen years. Nothing quite like having a sleepy rhino lay his head in my lap.
2. I can hop on a pogo stick really, really, well.
3. I am intrinsically and irrefutably a night owl, through and through. Years of getting up at six am for work and having a child have not changed that, so why fight it?
4. I have driven a bobcat. Once.
5. I ate ten scoops of ice cream, plus two toppings, nuts, whipped cream and a cherry, just to get my photograph on a bulletin board in an ice cream parlor while on vacation in 1999. My lips were actually blue.
6. I had a bullfrog as a pet as a child, along with various toads and box turtles.
7. I went on a three mile hiking excursion that turned into an overnight camping trip and 26 miles. I felt really empowered after that. Unfortunately, one of my friends no longer hikes anywhere that there are not paved asphalt trails.
8. While walking along a beach in Virginia, I found a seashell with a live baby octopus inside. It was one of the most delicate and beautiful things that I still associate with that vacation.
9. I was ultrasounding pregnant elephants when I was eight months pregnant.
10. I love all kinds of music, ranging from Evanescence, Billy Joel, Nickelback, to…yes, to Barry Mannilow. OK, I admit it…I am a Mannilow fan. And proud of it.