Time to play some Catch-Up!  Since I was gone from here about ten days, you all have missed out on some of my normal posts.  To those who are new to my blog, I find that I like to have a schedule, so I tend to stick with certain themes for the various days of the week, then sometimes I throw out my schedule and do something different.

Today I’ll catch everyone up on my Project 365 and focus on facts 15-28.  Yes!  You’ve missed that many!  (I bet you just feel that all the way to your toes, don’t you?)

Random facts….

#15 – I think feet are ugly. Everyone’s feet.
So, what’s up with this?  Well, without naming names, I’ve been around some ugly feet.  I realize that genetics play a big part in how feet look, and I will never be an “after” foot model unless they are featuring normal people and I have just had a pedicure.  I have callouses.  I have broken a pinkie toe in the past.  My feet have been stepped on by people and horses.  I have cut my feet walking barefooted across places I shouldn’t have.  Basically, I am a firm believer in doing all I can to “pretty up” my ugly feet.

#16 – I love to snorkel and have swum with barracudas and stingrays. I would like to see sharks and turtles on my next venture out.
Well, I can say to this one that, while I did not see any sharks while snorkeling last week, I DID see my first out-in-the-wild turtle.  It was cool.  I had to blow out my snorkel cause I smiled too big and seawater leaked in… that happens a lot when I’m snorkeling.

#17 – I love hiking, and while I will probably never do the major trails in one-fell-swoop, I would like to hike them bit by bit.
I’ve been lucky to hike some very beautiful trails, and parts of many of the larger trails.  One day, I would like to hike to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite (it’s a 17 hour hike if you hike straight through).  I would also like to hike all of the Appalachian Trail, but that isn’t as much of a desire as is hiking Half Dome.

#18 – I love camping, but am now spoiled with a teardrop camper that my husband built.
It’s true.  I’ve gone “sissy” for camping.  One camping trip with a tornado that resulted in torn rain fly and broken tent poles and I wanted off the ground.  I had a little panic attack and slept in the car the rest of the night.  I love my teardrop camper though.  I sleep in it.  It has a “galley kitchen” off the back, and DH and I still typically cook over the campfire unless the weather is really awful, then we have our backup cook stove or there is always dining out – which we have done… Our first camping trip of 2011 (April) was forecasted to have temperatures in the 40’s and sun; the weather turned out to be temps in the 30’s with snow and sustained winds of 30+ mph.  Not conducive to cooking over campfire OR cook stove.

#19 – I have white water rafted and kayaked at least a dozen times.
Most of my trips have been in Wisconsin with Kosir’s Rapid Rafts (HIGHLY recommend their outfit, AND they have camp sites and cabins available) in Silver Cliff, WI.  But, I have rafted on the Arkansas River in Colorado (see below).

#20 – I almost drowned in the Arkansas River in Colorado. Thankfully I coughed up the 4″ piece of driftwood I swallowed while floundering and my bruised ribs recovered from hitting the tree in the river.
And that was just the first half of my trip.  The outfit we went with was having a Guide Weekend, and was sending their river guides down the river in 16- and 20-man rafts, fully loaded with supplies…  They sent us (DH, his brother, father and myself) down in a 6-man raft with one guide; in other words… NOT a full raft.  This was about my tenth time rafting, and while I’m by no means an expert, but I was confident that the Class 2 and 3 rapids we’d hit that morning would be easy.  (I was excited for the Class 4’s and 5’s in the afternoon, as I’d rafted them before in Wisconsin and did well.)

All but the guide and my brother-in-law had ended up in the river on the first set of rapids.  I have to say that it was one of the scariest moments I’ve survived.  I ended up right next to DH in the churning waters, and we grabbed hands and started to back paddle toward shore.  DH had lost a contact and couldn’t see very well, and the guide was yelling at us to swim toward the raft (not what we’d been taught all the previous times we’d been rafting).  Next thing I knew, both DH and I were swamped by a wave and I “lost” him.  He was gone.  We’d only been married for a year and there I was, half-drowned and swirling in a river, my husband is gone and I’m supposed to swim back to the raft.

I got angry.  I got back to the raft where my brother-in-law hauled me in and I proceeded to cough up this 4″ piece of driftwood I’d SOMEHOW swallowed without choking (probably while gulping for air between waves).  Then we caught up with my father in law, hauled him in and then found DH, thankfully alive, and hauled him in.  We managed to stay in the raft the rest of the morning and at the lunch break, our guide was doing a great job of saying we had wussed out and he wanted us to hop in and complete the second half of the trip which would take us through Royal Gorge.  Straight cliff walls and NO shore with Class 4 and 5 rapids (there is a Class 6 – but you only raft those if you’ve a death wish).

As I stripped the upper half of my wet suit off of me, I realized that I was in pain.  The right side of my rib cage REALLY hurt, and I pulled up my sodden shirt to reveal a rapidly blackening bruise the size of a melon over my ribs.  Then I remembered that as I floundered at the mercy of the river, I had spun around rapidly at one point and had noticed a tree in the river.  Since I was more concerned about not drowning, I didn’t pay it much more attention, as I was past it.  The bruise informed me that the reason I spun around at that point was that I HIT the tree, being swept against it.  I did the smart thing and said I’d rather live to see the rest of the day and didn’t raft through Royal Gorge.  I may have missed an opportunity to see some awe-inspiring sites… but I think I’m okay for it.

#21 – I had my appendix removed when I was in the 6th grade. My mom thought I had the flu…
GROSS OUT FACTOR – weak-stomachs need not read….  I woke up to discover that I’d thrown up during the night (and didn’t wake up for it), and it was in a puddle on my sheets.  I walked into Mom and Dad’s bedroom to report that I didn’t feel well and that my stomach hurt, a lot.  I was holding my sides and Mom asked what side hurt, I told her my right side.  She responded that it was good that it wasn’t my left, or it’d be my appendix, so I probably just has the flu.  Dad said, “The appendix is on the right side”.  The morning progressed with my going to the family physician who was and is an absolute quack (and he just creeped me out), and he said it was my appendix.  It was then off to the hospital to have it removed… and my brother told me that the surgery room had one of those large, swinging pendulum blades…. and THAT was how they’d open me up for surgery.  Thanks brother…   BTW, in case you couldn’t tell… I survived – with a lovely, large scar from the surgery.

#22 – The word “panties” grosses me out.
It does.  Yes, I use it, but it makes my skin crawl when I do… the word just seems to come up all the time with modeling, and thanks Victoria’s Secret for making men think that that is what all women call their undies.  The word has this “dirty, old man” feel about it.  Lecherous.  Skeevy.  I prefer to call them Undies… Underoos… Underwear… Briefs… anything other than “panties”.

#23 – I can’t abide eating near “loud chewers”… it makes me want to scream and/or cry or slap the offender.
Without naming names… I was around someone who somehow made mashed potatoes and jello “loud” foods.  W. T. F.!?  Sitting near a “loud chewer” absolutely ruins the whole meal for me.

#24 – My “happy place” is a warm, sunny beach in the Caribbean… or on the Adriatic.
I love the water and when it is in combination with sand and sun (and a nice, cold tropical drink doesn’t hurt either)…. sheer bliss.

#25 – I “open water” kayak in a tandem kayak with my husband, and we have not killed or maimed each other with our paddles… yet.
That’s the key word.  Yet.  Noooo, DH and I get along very well, and we only get short with each other on occasion, usually when one of us isn’t communicating what we want to do or where we want to go effectively.  Okay, I’ll take the blame… I’m usually the one who gets frustrated first.

#26 – I’m allergic to nickel.
Were you aware that most jewelry is coated with nickel?  It makes metal more shiny.  It gives me a rash.  Even those pieces of jewelry marked for “sensitive skin” or as being “nickel free” eventually makes me get a reaction to it.  I also just found out that a lot of gold jewelry isn’t completely gold, but has some nickel in it.  This explains why my diamond stud earrings set in gold started to give me a reaction.  So, if you’re going to buy my jewelry – please be sure it’s nickel free.  Titanium works great!  I have a pair of titanium barbells in my ears that are in 24/7.  No worries!

#27 – I love cartoons, particularly: The Simpsons, Family Guy, Futurama, South Park and Beavis & Butthead.
It’s true.  I love potty-humor.  I love sexual humor.  I love the double entendre!  I also love base, slap-stick comedy.  I’d rather watch a cartoon that has those elements over a “reality show” any day.  (I was just told yesterday that I have to start watching “Archer” now)

 #28 – I can’t hammer a nail to save my life.
Okay, maybe I could… if it involved my living or dying over it.  It just might take me a while.  I’m just no good at it.  I prefer screwing things.  *holds in the laughter*  BAAAHHHHH HA HA HA!  I couldn’t help it!  I set myself up for that.  (told you I was a dork).