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getting personal: 10 things about me!

Lauren

(website)

I don't know if anyone has ever done this on YLF but a lot of bloggers on the web have been writing posts about 10 things people might not know about them. I thought it was fun and since I love the YLF community and wanted to share a bit about myself, here are some fun facts about me! (I didn't want the post to be too long so I only posted 5, but the other five can be found here: http://thepearshape.com/10-things/) I'd love it if others shared as well! xo

1. I started reading fashion blogs in early 2008 (Cupcakes and Cashmere was my first one. Back when she was posting point and shoot pictures of herself). I had just graduated high school and wanted some clothing inspiration for college. It really kicked into high gear about 6 months later during an internship where I was tasked with understanding “this new world of blogging” for a major lingerie company.

2. I went to college in Philadelphia, at the University of Pennsylvania and majored in Sociology and Gender, Society and Culture. But now, I work in technology as a consultant for a major tech firm.

3. While studying gender studies, my love for technology (and fashion!) flourished. I held internships at RentTheRunway, Google, and Victoria’s Secret.

4. I have two brothers, one older and one younger. They are tall and super thin, and i’m a pear. But to be honest, I love it that way! I argue I got the good genes.

5. My boyfriend and I met during a summer internship at Google during my sophomore year of college (his senior year). We dated long distance for 2 years (cross country!) and only about 1 year ago did we officially live in the same city. I truly believe he is my soulmate. If we got through that I know we can get through anything.

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27 replies

Latest reply was from JulieJohn

Mochi

Veteran

Cool, Lauren! I'm guessing that your boyfriend is the one taking the great photos???

It's always fun to get a more in-depth sense of people online, if they're willing to provide details.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Nice, Lauren! Thanks for sharing, I love #5.

Come on, Mochi, you play too!

I'll go, too. Here are five random things about me you all don't already know.

1) I make a really amazing cheesecake pie. Come visit me sometime and I'll treat you.

2) I am very, very bad at lying -- my family and friends played a role-playing game together recently that made it really obvious that I have a very hard time being sneaky or deceptive. My heart is too much on my sleeve.

3) I changed majors several times in college: I started as an education major, thinking I wanted to teach, then I changed to psychology, then to business, then finally, graduated with a major in mass communication and minors in speech and English. Whew!

4) I came *thisclose* to becoming a lawyer. I took the LSATs and was admitted to law school but changed my mind and enrolled in a master's program in publications design instead.

5) One of my favorite books as a child was such a favorite because of the beautiful costume illustrations -- it's called The Bear Party by William Pene Dubois.

Mo

(website)

Veteran

Well, a few things totally random about me:
I have pi memorized to 21 digits and can never forget it.
I won my spelling bee with 150 out of 150 correct.
I first tried to learn to surf less than a month after my appendix burst and I was hospitalized for over a week, at 33.
I once won second place shadow dancing in a contest at a local casino nightclub.
I have 3 brothers and 3 sisters (some of them half). My parents both married 3 times.

Irene

Veteran

First of all, I'm showing your blog to my two pear-shaped best friends to show them your bodytype rocks!!!! (I'm tired of hearing them say they can't do skirts, skinnies and that they have ugly legs :S)

1- I have a degree in English, a master in Publishing and a talent (they say) for photography. Right now I'm on an impass and I really don't know what to do with my life. I used to write a lot, but not so much these days, it seems like I don't feel the need anymore, which really sucks.

2- I write books on architecture and interior design. Yeah, that's my job.

3- I have aspirins with sugar in the water. I used to think that was normal until my friends discovered it and made fun of me. It seems it's only a tradition in MY family, after all!

4- I collect fashion catalogues. I also collect Cosmopolitans (and pay for them). I rarely read throughout the entire publications.

5- I am Spanish, since most of you guys know already, and my native tongue is actually Catalan, our regional language. My Spanish used to suck until my teens, then was forced by my parents to improve it already, since it was quite pathetic. Then English kicked in with my studies and everything. I currently speak, write and think in three different languages at the same time, which drives me and people around pretty crazy. I talk in English to people who will not understand me, and do it unconsciously. Then have to switch to the right language. I also speak in English when I'm on my own. Sort of out loud.

MsMary

Veteran

Fun! I'll play!

Janet, I think you dodged a bullet with the lawyer thing!

1. I have a brown belt in karate and used to teach. In fact, my son and I were just talking last night about how we were doing "mixed martial arts" 20 years ago before it even had a name.

2. I gave birth to my son the first day of the second week of my second year of law school, and still graduated on time.

3. I collect refrigerator magnets. We ran out of room on the fridge years ago so I painted the kitchen ceiling with magnetic paint and now they are all up there. I call it my own personal Sistine Chapel.

4. I wanted to be an actress when I was younger and moved to my current (for 23 years now) city to go to acting school.

5. I am a gigantic fan of "Doctor Who" and can't wait for the new season to start in a week or two.

citygirldc

(website)

Veteran

Okay. I'll play.

1. I love red lipstick
2. I do not dye my hair (well not yet although the grays are starting to show)
3. I work for the Feds - not telling which branch
4. Photography is my hobby
5. I have no children (not by choice)
6. I have no pets (hubby is a cat person & I'm a dog person, plus we work/ travel too much)
7. I still go to concerts (see local bands)
8. current fave shows: Walking Dead, Project Runway, Downton Abbey, Coupling
9. current fave music: The Vaccines (see them live. they rock!!)
10. curent fave book: Mockingjay

Hil

(website)

Veteran

Cool game! I love Downton Abbey Citygirldc! And you have a fab blog Lauren!

Here's mine:

1. I live in Johannesburg, South Africa.
2. I paint as a hobby and occasionally get freelance work and commisions.
3. I have two kids and would love a third but I think the gap would now be to big. My oldest is almost 10 and my youngest is almost 8.
4. I have three jobs if you exclude the odd art project - Claims manager at an insurance brokerage, a small baking business that I run with my SIL and I am a doula.
5. I love rock, alternative and folky type music.
6. My current favourite TV shows (series that a airing in SA right now): Suits, Shameless and Blue Bloods.
7. I could not live without my iPhone and my iPad.
8. My best moment in 2012 was performing in a play called "Birth"by Karen Brody as a fund raising initiative to improve maternity care.
9. I very nearly became a junior primary teacher.
10. I would love to tour the USA someday!

Mochi

Veteran

Okay, fine then!

1. I was adopted (knew very early on) and met my birth parents when I was in my late twenties. They got married to each other five years after I was born.
2. The countries I want to visit most right now, in no particular order: Iceland, New Zealand, Vietnam, Argentina, Chile, Indonesia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic....
3. My first rock concert was Elton John at Madison Square Garden when I was thirteen ('77?). It was so great, I thought that my life would be divided into "before Elton John concert" and "after Elton John concert."
4. My secret dream is to learn to become a pastry chef. I did take a beginning-level online course in learning how to be a chocolatier. I learned to make outrageously good truffles, but they looked not so appealing and took me hours, so I haven't done it in a few years.
5. For me, I think 5'8" is my ideal height, but I would not want to be more than one or two inches beyond that; otherwise I'd prefer 5'3"!
6. I don't know anyone who's particularly famous, but because of a few grad school teachers and so forth who have very illustrious friends, I'm probably no more than two degrees from a lot of seriously famous film people, artists and writers.
7. I am better at opening jars than all my family members and many guys I know, apparently.
8. I can also hold my breath a wicked long time under water.
9. I have had some short stories published, and one of them was short-listed for the O.Henry Prize.
10. I was in the subway in Boston last week, transferring from one line to another. As I was approaching the stairs to get to the platform for the Red Line, I heard dozens of people shrieking and then a banging sound like BAM! BAM! BAM! Without even thinking, I started running back to the platform I had originally got off at, jumped on the train that happened to be there, and right inside the crowded car happened to be one of Boston's Finest, a transit policeman. I said, "I think there's been a shooting. There was all this screaming." His eyes widened but then immediately, without missing a beat, he said, "Oh, that's these kids, there's some athletic event going on." I rode to the next stop in silence, staring at the floor and feeling like an idiot. That may not even be my most embarrassing moment, but it's up there.

*****

(Irene, too bad you're not here in Boston. I just met an American guy who learned some Catalan and is wishing he had someone to speak it with.)

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

Oooh; I'll play too!

1. My secret wish is to be a lawyer - but I was never allowed to pursue this ambition. I snuck in some intro to law classes to make up my humanities requirements for medicine, though, and loved them all!

2. My first choice of medical specialty is forensic pathology - but I have no stomach for maggots! It was also how I was first introduced to psychiatry - my first case that I was working on with a preceptor involved someone with mental illness.

3. My first (and only) music concert was a Weird Al show when I was in Grade 5. My "really cool" friend's dad bought her tickets for her 13th birthday and she was allowed to bring a friend - oh nerdy me in the mosh-pit!!! WHEEE!!!!

4. I have been historically interested in the Titanic since I was 7 - My parents thought this was a rather morbid preoccupation for their little kid, but I had models and books ... and read "Night to Remember" for my book report in Grade 4!

5. My cousin and I are born 2 hrs apart, so our relatives always made us compete against each other and this irreparably damaged our relationship. We are both MD's - but she got there first (2 years ahead of me) - and to this day, some people are still mad at me for being "slow".

6. I have a huge scar on my bum because I climbed the side of my sister's crib and fell backwards onto a metal tin. I didn't want to tell anyone (in case I got in trouble), so I nursed it back to health with Polysporin and bandaids. I really should have got stitches!

7. The first time I did any emergency medicine was when I was 13 - my friend chopped off her finger in workshop class and the teacher fainted! All the boys were like, eww, blood!!!! I made one run to the office to call 911 and put on gloves and applied pressure to the wound! I didn't know what to do with the finger nub, so we put it in a paper cup and kept a moist paper over it. Attachment = successful!!!

8. I always travel with a pair of gloves and a CPR mask. Just in case.

9. My very first "new" item of clothes didn't happen until I was 13 or 14. I wore hand-me downs from rather slutty (my dad says they were 'fashionable' but I correct him on that now) cousins. There is a picture of me running around after a soccer ball in black lace shorts.

10. My asian friends think I am a "left over" girl because I am not engaged/married by the time I am 27.

Irene

Veteran

OMG, Lyn, you cured a chopped finger!!! That's, well, sort of disgustig together with corageous lol

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

All part of the job ... except I wasn't on the job yet HAHA.

Anonymous

This is fun! Time for me to divulge
1- On my first ever day at school I cried the whole day long, yet told my Mum I had been fine!
2- I love to wear fancy dress but hardly ever get the chance to go fancy dress parties. The last time was my friends Halloween party. I was a very convincing witch.
3- my first job was working in a microbiology lab testing milk and water samples for local farms. I worked with 8 guys and had a whale of a time!
4- When I was 10 I thought I saw a ghost in the house, and I was terrified. I think I had to sleep in my parents room for ages after.
5- I only learned to swim properly when I was 32 and went on holiday abroad for the first time with my now DH. We swam in the sea every day.
6- I used to regularly go Line Dancing and got very good at it (about 14 years ago) I had all the gear too: Cowboy boots, western shirt, fringed skirt, cowboy hat
7- My favourite 2 films are Meet Joe Black and Zulu.
8- I love furry toys and I still have a large teddy bear that my cousin gave me when I was 10.
9- I love Christmas pudding so much that each Christmas I by about 7 and we have some a couple of times a week until April!
10- I love to watch gory tv series like Walking Dead, True Blood and Dexter. I am also a big fan of Doctor Who, like Mary K.

Carla

Veteran

Okay, here goes...

1. I walked out of the movie theatre during Disney's Pinocchio after the whale made his appearance, and to this day have never seen the movie

2. Had to be put on a 'book diet' as a kid, would read ALL day like some kids today are addicted to video gaming.

3. Had regular correspondence with my grandparents from the time I could write, until their passing when I was in my 20's.

2. Bilingual ( English/French)

3. Ran a marathon when I was 17.

4. Graduated university BA English and Sociology, and had been accepted for Library Science, but got married instead.

5. Still married. To the same guy (30 years).

6. CASI certified snowboard instructor, at 40

7. A quilt I made hangs in the boardroom of Amnesty International in Ottawa, and is sometimes used as a backdrop during their press conferences.

8. I've donated blood 48 times.

9. I own P.J.'s, but don't wear them

10. I get to retire in two years!

Anonymous

I have a twin brother, whom I seldom see (his wife is a bit odd)
I have lived in 8 cities and 10 houses since I was 20, I am 42.
I have been married 19 years in april (much too young to be married but it all worked out)
I have a 16 year old girl and 12 year old son.
My single biggest regret is not finishing university (see early marriage lol).
My parents, brother and I emigrated to small town Ontario from London England when I was 2, they had never even visited Canada first (seems crazy to me now)
I completed 2 half marathons, 11 weeks apart, the year I turned 40.
I have lost 17 lbs since September.
I do not like my job but it gives me tons of flexibility for home and my friends and boss tell me all the time to just suck it up (hubs is an exec in the same co and works and travels constantly).
My favourite movies are Grease and The Sound of Music.

Lauren

(website)

Yay i'm so glad everyone played! And THANK YOU for your kind words about my blog. It's my little brain child and it is so wonderful to hear such amazing responses here with everyone's support.

Kristin L

Veteran

Here are my 10 -

1) When I was in elementary school, my best friend and I would draw designs for clothes. I sometimes wish I had gone into something working with fashion.

2) I'm red-green colorblind (ok, technically color deficient). This is the main reason I never did much with clothes until now. I've grown up not knowing what could match, so I always wear jeans.

3) Even though I'm in horticulture, the only houseplants I can keep alive are my aloes. And that's because I forget about them most of the time.

4) I have a phobia of snakes. I've tried to break it on my own, but it hasn't worked yet.

5) A cup of hot tea will almost always brighten my mood.

6) I'm horrible at telling jokes because I usually mess up part of the punchline or the joke. I can make people laugh when I'm not trying, though.

7) My BF and I have been together for a bit over 3.5 years, and this is our 3rd time dating. We've known each other since we were 13/14 and dated a bit in high school and college.

8) I was born with brown eyes, but as I've gotten older, they'd changed to 1/2 brown and 1/2 green.

9) I'm addicted to lip balm.

10) I am determined to make 1/2 of my Christmas presents this year.

Greek Goddess

This is a great idea....here are mine...

1. I was born in the UK but have lived in Greece for 19 years always in villages. My husband is English but looks Greek.

2. I competed as a figure contestant in contests for five years in the 1980's. I stopped for 23 years and went back to it as a bodybuilding contestant winning a British contest at the age of 55.

3. I took my Honours Degree in 1994...I started out in Humanities but changed to English. I also attended classes in the Ancient Greeks, Greek philosophy, Social sciences and two languages because I enjoyed them so much.

4. My husband taught me to ride a scooter when we first moved to Greece. Quite an achievement as I cannot ride a push bike (cycle).

5. Three years ago I was diagnosed as having Celiac disease and Hashimoto's thyroiditis after struggling for four years to prove there was something wrong with me to the doctor.

6. I have been married for 32 years to the same great man, we get on wonderfully.

7. I learned to speak and write Greek by sticking labels on everything in the house when I first moved here, so I could learn the Greek words for them.

8. We still run a rock and roll karaoke show now and again in the summer months.

9. Clothes and style wise I have more facets than a well cut diamond.

10. I am a non drinker and non smoker and still go to the gym three times a week to work out with weights.

milehighstyle (Linda)

Veteran

1. I've never had a cup of coffee. The smell makes me nauseous.
2. My son was born on Super Bowl Sunday.
3. I'm left handed for some things and right handed for other things, but not technically ambidextrous.
4. I'm very picky about slippers and running shorts, which means I wear them way past their prime as I can't find suitable replacements.
5. My favorite movies are Trading Places and Ocean's 11. I guess I have a thing for stealing money from wealthy people.

rachylou

Veteran

Gosh. I'm pretty sure I'm a tell-all. But let me think if I can think of 10 obscure things...

I wore baggy jeans in middle school while everyone else was wearing skinnies.
I've always had a propensity for walks after midnight, for which I do reverse fashion.
I did my friend's wedding makeup.
I have a lot of abandoned blogs/websites all over the web.
I make My Friend Totoro shaped cream puffs (pics below - I didn't make that one, I can't find the pics of my Totoro's).
I liked the Femme Fatale look in high school for going to the symphony and ballet.
My fifth birthday party was done at my grandma's in Jamaica and I didn't really know what was going on, but I do remember the birthday dress that someone had made for me.
I can curtsy all the way to the floor, not that I've ever needed to.
I had my own words for things until I went to nursery school and that's how I think I became a writer.
I don't swim: I drown slowly ;>

JulieJohn

Veteran

Rachy, I want to see your Totoro cream puff.

1) one of my first jobs was as a grunt for the university's botany department. I helped graft trees and we used K-Y jelly to help seal the wound. ha ha

2) I am a word nerd. My degree is in Linguistics, I adore languages and codes, and I am a really good speller. Maybe not as good as Mo though.

3) I simply love to cook. Once I grew a sourdough starter from airborne yeast, and regularly made bread from it. I also love to cook Chinese stir-frys, cakes with decadent buttercreams and ganaches, and homemade Chai.

4) One of my most memorable days so far was during the summer of 1971. I lost my first tooth at a movie theater watching Willie Wonka, got terrified by a girl in the movie who becomes a blueberry, and later that night I cried and threw up in my bed. I was six.

5) I have wanted to learn to fly a plane my whole life, yet I have utterly failed to take even one lesson ... yet.

6) I designed the package for bean sprouts that has been carried in local groceries for about 10 years, and still counting! It is a blue-green swoop design, that says "Delightfully delicious ... crunchy and nutritious!"

7) My sleeping attire is the same as Runcarla's!

8) Favorite movies: Wrath of Khan, Star Wars (10 times in theatres), and The Music Man.

9) I love to dance. Ballet, tap, freeform. Interested in salsa and swing.

10) I love incense and burn some nearly every day. Current fave is Paris Cafe by Nippon Kodo, which smells like chocolate, cinnamon, and coffee. I have a small terracotta teepee on my desk which takes bricks of woodsy-scented incense, and the smoke comes out the little chimney on top.

This was fun, thank you all !

Susie

Veteran

These are fun to read!

1. I can wiggle my ears.
2. I kissed Arthur King on the cheek during recess when I was in kindergarten. I told my mom about it when I got home.
3. I went to school for fashion merchandising in Atlanta for a year before deciding I wanted to go to a "real" college.
4. I have 2 Cockapoos named Daisy and Lily. They look totally different. Daisy is white and looks like a Bichon and Lily is black, twice as heavy and looks like a Cocker Spaniel.
5. I got married (2nd marriage) in Charleston, SC 7 years ago.
6. My favorite vacation spot is St. John in the Virgin Islands.
7. I am the youngest of 3 girls.
8. I am left handed.
9. Before moving to Little Rock almost 7 years ago, I had never been to Arkansas and only had a vague idea where it was.
10. I have a thing for shoes

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

TOTORO CREAM PUFFS?

Diana

Veteran

These are so fun! I'll play too:

1. I am 33 and I don't have a drivers' license. This embarrasses me sometimes, like when I go to SoCal and I'm the only person my age who can't drive. On the other hand, I never have to be the designated driver.

2. Speaking of drinking, I got drunk for the first time when I was 2 years old. My grandma gave me some of her (very expensive) brandy.

3. I went to the national spelling bee when I was in eighth grade, in 1993. (High five, Mo and Julie!). Therefore, I have been on ESPN(2).

4. I have worn glasses (and never contacts) since I was in fifth grade. My parents found out I needed specs when I started getting math problems wrong in class and obviously an Asian child would never get math wrong, so clearly there had to be something wrong with my eyes.

5. I have never been to medical school, but I have dissected a human cadaver. (In high school!)

6. I thought I wanted to be a doctor for about a year, but then I realized that I'm afraid of hospitals and sick people.

7. I decided against going to a particular graduate program because I had a nightmare about it the week after I visited. It involved getting trapped in the hospital that was connected to the labs.

8. My completely unrealistic goal in life used to be to win both a Nobel Prize (for science) and a pulitzer prize (for poetry). I haven't written poetry for years now though.

9. My favorite animal is the North Chinese Leopard. There are some at the San Diego Zoo. In fact, my online name (akabori) was the name of the one of the North Chinese Leopards at the SD Zoo when I was young.

10. I am getting married to the love of my life on May 11 of this year! We met in 1999, and dated from 1999-2001, then again from 2005-present. This was a long distance relationship for almost all of that time (minus some summers, one 9 month period, and now).

rachylou

Veteran

Haha! My thoughts about medical school are this: I can't have any fellow students practicing blood draws on me, I am a hard draw!

I have to find my pics of my Totoro cream puffs. Totoro cream puffs are cool, man, if I do say so myself.

Tina

Veteran

Here goes, I've had a very eventful life:-)
1. I am 1 of 12 children (no twins), 1 brother has passed away.
2. I was married at 17 and we will be celebrating 25 years of marriage in June!
3. We have 2 biological children and 2 adopted, ages 24, 19, 12 and 7.
4. I have had 2 kidney transplants. My first at age 20 and my last at age 31 (this one was from my sister).
5. I have a grade 10 education and nothing more, the school of hard knocks has taught me a lot though:-)
6. Our youngest daughter(7) has cerebral palsy and can not walk without a walker, another learning experience.
7. Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and this affects every aspect of how I live my life.
8. I have bran flakes with raisins pretty much every morning.
9. I live in the country, the nearest town is 20 minutes away and it is small.
10. I have been interested in clothes and style for as long as I can remember.

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

I have only practiced one blood draw on a fellow classmate, and she fainted! But she has a fainting problem - lol. We almost never do blood draws. We do ABG and VBG, but that's about it!

I personally am scared of sick people and hate hospitals!!

JulieJohn

Veteran

Lauren, I went to your blog and I really like your style! I am definitely hip-endowed, so I enjoy how lovely you make that shape look, and I'm taking notes!