In 2009, a trend swept over Facebook. Like poking, bumper stickers, and Farmville, it seemed like everyone was succumbing to the latest Facebook craze – 25 Random Things About Me.

It was a list of (clearly) 25 things about yourself that your friends probably don’t know. Like an AOL chain letter, it spread like wildfire, and I actually found it kind of cool to learn things about your FB ‘friends’ that you didn’t know before. Or it makes me a stalker. Jury’s still out.

In fact, the note became so popular that the New York Times even wrote an article about it, describing the origins and statistics of the note (“…nearly five million notes on people’s profiles have been created in the last week, and many of them are lists of “25 Random Things.”)

So I decided to look my own list up – yes, I did it because I was a sucker and gave into peer pressure easily – and nearly 4 years later, I still  think that these things are interesting facts about me that most people don’t know (or maybe they’re not, so don’t read it). So in the interest of full disclosure (and complete self-indulgence), here’s my list of 25 Random Things About Me. If you gave in to this craze in ’09 like me, I’d love to hear what some of your ‘things’ were! Just FYI: it will take you forever to find your Notes section on FB. What an ancient app.

1) my first job was at my old elementary school working as a babysitter of sorts for the same after school program i attended when i was a child. i stopped working there after 1 school year, which is probably good because i fell asleep one time while the kids were watching a disney movie.

2) the best decision i have ever made was to apply for the castle well program. i will forever look back at that time as some of the best days of my life.

3) i’ve been to 18 different countries around the world. 12 of which were visited during my 3.5 month stint at the kasteel.

4) one of those countries, the philippines, i have been to 4 times, as my parents and i go every 5 years for a family reunion. that is until they decided to change it up and go without me my senior year of college.

5) my dad is one of nine children, and my mom is one of five, so i have more cousins and second cousins and third cousins than i know of. all of whom live far away from me so i barely know them as it is.

6) i am an only child, which is not as glamorous as it sounds. i wish that i had a sibling that would kind of be an automatic best friend and understand exactly what i’m going through in terms of family stuff. or life stuff even. it/they would just be nice to have around.

7) i used to be a huge fan of the rosie o’donnell show. so much so that i taped it every day and even had the koosh shooting thing she had on her show. don’t judge me.

8) some people like the smell of gasoline, i like the smell of new textbooks.

9) i spent 13 years dancing tap and ballet and hope to take it up again someday.

10) i am a strong believer of ‘everything happens for a reason,’ even when it doesn’t seem to be so.

11) as a kid, i watched tv shows that were clearly not meant for my age demographic. i.e. watching days of our lives, party of five, and the real world london at the age of 9.

12) i have never had any major or fairly minor health problems, including broken bones or cavities. oh except for the time in 6th grade when i was running in a parking lot and fell and sprained my ankle.

13) speaking of 6th grade, i consistently got 100% on all my spelling tests, which led me to be one of the finalists in our class to be in the city wide spelling bee. but i made the horrible mistake of spelling “architect” wrong (i forgot the silent h), and it was one of the worst days of my 6th grade life. since then, i have never spelled that word wrong again.

14) my dream job is to work for the disney channel. if they have a special events department, that would be ideal.

15) i met mario lopez at a taping of american idol and told him that saved by the bell was my favorite show ever and that i knew every line. after an awkward pause, he smiled at me and handed me his autograph.

16) the first cd I ever bought was Alanis Morrisette’s jagged little pill.The second was Weird Al Yankovic’s bad hair day. (what can i say, amish paradise was popular at the time)

17) The first broadway musical i ever saw was annie get your gun featuring Crystal Bernard, who was one of the main characters in the 90’s sitcom, wings, yet another tv show i can add to the list of being kind of too young to watch.

18) There is not a day goes by that i do not make a friends, gilmore girls, or the office reference.

19) i used to play the flute (and was really good at it), but i quit in 7th grade solely because i didn’t like our band director.

20) i have an uncanny skill of detecting an insect in a room. i can somehow see a spider in my periph across the room, then proceed to have someone else kill it for me.

21) there was a period of time when i made it a point to watch mulan every single day. i think it lasted for a about 2 months. is anyone actually surprised by this?

22) I have never seen “classic” movies such as any of the star wars, lord of the rings, indiana jones, or pirates of the caribbean movies. But i have seen ever after, notting hill, and a walk to remember more times than I can remember.

23) sophomore year of college, i skipped classes with dina and amy to go to nyc for the day to go to TRL. not only did i tell ashlee simpson to “work it” (after which she proceeded to laugh), but i also WAVED to surprise guest stevie wonder because i was so excited to see him. i don’t think he waved back.

24) speaking of TRL, i was once a “TRL fan of the week.” they showed my picture and a few facts about me. carson said my name and congratulated me. it was a good day.

25) i have cried twice in situations relating to the backstreet boys. the first being when i couldn’t get tickets to the sold out millenium tour in buffalo in 1999, so i somehow bought tickets online for the nosebleed seats at the sky dome in toronto instead. the second being when they announced that aj was going to rehab on trl. the third time will probably be when i reach my lifelong goal of meeting them IRL. *KTBSPA*