EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW...
...and some stuff you probably didn't.
Rando Facts
Rando Facts About Me
• The picture to the left was taken after I wrecked (and almost totaled) my car on ice a few years ago. I was totally fine. My car… was totally not.
• If I were standing on the surface of Jupiter right now, I’d weigh 341.2 pounds. On Pluto, I would weigh 9 pounds.
• I care not what anyone says: Pluto is and will always be a planet.
• I can’t do a cartwheel.
• I also can’t whistle, really. Sometimes if my lips and the stars find themselves in just the right alignment, I can kind of make a soft whistling sound in a single, unchangeable tone.
• I can wink both eyes, although one eye scrunches more than it winks. It’s still a wink, and it still counts as such.
• I love to cook.
• I’m half Italian and adore homemade meals, but I shun pasta machines. When I make pasta from scratch, I hand-knead, hand-roll, and hand-cut the noodles like my great-grandmother did — using her rolling pin, which is one of my most prized possessions in the world.
• I’m a book hoarder who is running out of shelf space.
• I collect tarot decks.
• I LOVE role-playing games. I don’t have a D&D crew to nerd out with so I get my RPG kicks through the Playstation. Dragon Age and Mass Effect are my jam.
• I am prone to migraines, which really suck ass.
• I rein it in when I’m around people I don’t know well, but I swear like a sailor.
• I am an INFP-A.
Random Facts About Stuff
• Palm trees aren’t actually trees; they’re technically classified as very tall grass.
• There are ten times more stars in space than there are grains of sand in the entire world.
• The term, “nudiustertian," means “the day before yesterday.”
• The day after tomorrow is called "overmorrow."
• Deer do not have gallbladders. (Neither do I, actually.)
• There’s a hill in New Zealand called Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwenuakitnatahu.
• When a person tumbles down that hill, it sounds like OWDAMMITughOHMYGODmyFACEjusthitarockoofthatsgonnaleaveamarkOHSHIT-herecomesaTREEEEEEeeeeeeEEEE!
• There is no synonym for the word, “synonym.”
• The average person breathes about two gallons of air each minute.
• Mars is red because of its iron oxide content, which is basically just a fancy word for rust. It’s a giant hunk of rust.
• The deepest point on earth (Mariana Trench in the west Pacific Ocean, 36,037 feet) is deeper than Mount Everest is at its highest (29,029 feet). Basically, if Mount Everest was stuck in the trench, there’d still be more than a mile of water above its peak.
• The pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench is around eight tons per square inch.
• The crease that forms between my eyebrows whenever I'm thinking, annoyed, upset, or breathing resembles the Mariana Trench, according to my family.
Let me tell you about a dream I had...
On May 16, 2017, I had a dream about my brother — the only one I have had of him since he died the night before Thanksgiving, 2015.
In my dream, I walked along a cobblestone road through shade cast by the buildings on either side. A cafe came into view a short distance ahead, lined with outdoor tables dressed in red and white checkered tablecloths fluttering softly in the warm breeze.
As I walked alone, the road emptied into an open space filled with sunlight, a large fountain, and a crowd of people milling about.
It felt like Italy… a very Old World setting filled with modern people. Rome, perhaps. The Piazza Navona feels like the exact place, even though I never laid eyes on it until I googled “public squares in Italy” sometime later out of curiosity.
Crossing the threshold, my brother caught my eye. He stood just behind the last cafe table, staring at me with that typical sly grin of his. Those seated were engrossed in conversation, oblivious to his presence.
He looked good. Tan, as always. Young. Radiant.
Alive.
I immediately ran to embrace him — tightly, and for what felt like an eternity.
I couldn't speak. I wouldn’t let go. The dream shifted far too soon and in the span of a heartbeat, I found myself standing at the ocean’s edge with my mom.
I woke almost immediately, nearly drowning in my own tears.
I’m a firm believer in reincarnation; I have never worried about the lack of an afterlife. Our souls are energy. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed into something new.
But to this day, I still wonder about that dream. If he was really there. Of all the places in the world, Italy is exactly where he would choose to go.
