Twenty-Three Things You May Not Know About Me

Yesterday was my birthday.

I am now twenty-three and hoping that what Blink-182 said about no one liking you when you’re Twenty-Three isn’t true.

To celebrate on the blog, I’ve compiled a list of fun facts and trivia about me.

1. Avril is actually a pen name and yes, it was inspired by Avril Lavigne because she was absolutely everything I wanted to be in the seventh grade.

2. I am a Hufflepuff, but sometimes feel more inclined to say I am a Puckwudgie because I attended the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, which is not very far from Mount Greylock where the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is located. I even hiked to the top of the mountain as part of MCLA’s traditional event!

3. I share my birthday with Dr. Seuss and Jon Bon Jovi.

4. My favorite albums growing up were Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell II and Bon Jovi’s New Jersey and Slippery When Wet. Imagine six-year-old me singing about praying to the gods of sex and drums and rock n’ roll in the back seat!

5. Prince Hans from Frozen is my favorite Disney Prince. I know I’m not supposed to like him, but it’s impossible for me not to. I’m on board with the theory that the rock trolls corrupted him to set up Anna and Kristoff. “Get the fiancee out of the way and the whole thing will be fixed.” Trolls are capable of mind-manipulating magic. Just look at what they did to Anna’s memories of Elsa.

6. Speaking of, my great-grandmother’s name was Elsa. She was born in Estonia and came to America with her sister and my grandfather was WWII refugees.

7. My favorite dessert is cheesecake. Any flavor is welcome.

8. I took piano lessons as an elective in college and I really want to get back to it.

9. I am an avid Bingo player.

10. One of my most prized possessions is a book of walking tours of London that was printed and bound in 1817. I brought it with me when I visited the city, though it did not leave the hotel room.

11. I have always wanted to do the music and technology behind the scenes stuff for one of those synchronized Christmas light displays, though I would rather stay out of the way when they get put up.

12. If I weren’t pursuing a writing career, I think I would want to do something involving the care of animals, special effects makeup, or baking if I had any talent for it beyond reading the directions off a box of cake mix.

13. And, yes, I am absolutely hooked on The Great British Baking Show. Are you really that surprised?

14. When I was in the fifth grade, I auditioned for the Jeopardy! kids tournament. I didn’t get very far in the process, but I did make it to the second stage of testing.

15. I’m technically a princess. Sort of. At my junior prom, I was elected Prom Princess, the school’s equivalent of Prom Queen for juniors (it was always the graduating class’s prom but juniors were “invited to attend”).

16. I have yet to get my driver’s license, but my goal is to do it by the end of 2019. Just need to get over the fear of, well, everything involved with driving…

17. The one thing that creeps me out more than anything, it’s wooden ventriloquist dummies.

18. I’ve had my ears pierced twice, but can only use one set of holes. The left of the first, done the summer between fifth and sixth grade, got infected (I swear I did everything they told me to prevent it from happening), and long and gross story short, the earring had to be removed in the E.R. I was too freaked out to let anyone even close to my ears and walked around with one earring for a year or so. I didn’t get my ears pierced again until the end of eighth grade.

19. I made myself watch every episode of Gossip Girl because Aaron Tveit showed up in about ten of them as Nate’s cousin Tripp. It had some good moments, but not my favorite show out there.

20. I also met Aaron Tveit in August 2017 after seeing him in a production of Company. Let me tell you, he is very tall and a total sweetheart. Super chill guy.

21. If I were to get into playing any sport, it’d be curling (although I love watching equestrian events).

22. I once got to pet an orca whale and feed it a fish on a trip to Canada when I was about seven years old.

23. And finally, if I could have any animal for a pet, it would have to be a goat. Several goats. Why not a whole herd of goats!?

We’ll be getting back to the posts about writing next week, but sometimes it can be fun to learn a little bit about the person writing them!