21. One of my favorite things to listen to when I was growing up was a recording of Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” that was narrated by David Bowie. For those of you who have young children, I highly recommend it. It’s available on both Spotify and iTunes. My parents avoided the tyranny of typical kid’s media by giving me stuff like this, Yellow Submarine, and The Point instead.
22. Movie scores are what made me want to be a filmmaker in the first place. It’s also why when I was a film student, I always started with a piece of music and made the film around it, rather than the other way around.
23. In 6th grade, I did a complex psychological experiment for science fair. It was so advanced that the principal disqualified me, stating that it was impossible for an 11 year old to do that level of work. It’s one of the things that contributed to my lifelong distaste for authority figures, especially ones who tell me that something isn’t possible. It is, in fact, the fastest way to get me to do something.
24. I had been the one to ask out every single one of my partners, both male and female, until I met Richard. He was the first person to ever make the first move with me.
25. During a manic episode in college I once was awake and apparently annoyingly chipper for 96 hours. In that time I wrote four term papers totaling over 100 pages of writing, rearranged my entire dorm room, went for innumerable runs, hand-coded an entire website, and annoyed the hell out of my friends by talking non-stop.
26. One of the most obnoxious aspects of autism for me is the sensory processing issues that come with it. It’s almost impossible for me to ignore outside sounds/distractions/etc. I kinda see/hear/feel everything and can’t really pick and choose what to let through. Visual distractions like movement are the worst.
27. I’ve been polyamorous since I started dating my very first boyfriend in high school. I started seeing one guy, and then started seeing another one, and was genuinely confused as to why this was a problem. I had gotten all of society’s messaging about monogamy but I always found it ridiculous and didn’t realize that it would be so controversial to just opt out of it.
28. I generally have a lot of excess energy, and one of the best ways I’ve found to get rid of it is beating the crap out of things. As a result, I actually started a club in college where we fought eachother with SCA-style weapons made from lightly padded PVC. It’s one of the things that kept me sane during my early years in college.
29. I rode horses for years as a kid (my mom had one for awhile) and even did some barrel racing. I loved going fast and I really wanted to become a jockey (especially once I realized I was destined to be twee), but I was a girl (and most jockeys are male) and I couldn’t stand the culture that came with English-style riding, which I would’ve had to become part of. I did go back to riding in college and learned English style riding, and I still ride from time to time. I feel fairly comfortable with both systems. My personal style is basically English tack with western neck-reining.
30. My dad and I hand built 3 go-carts when I was 8 years old. They had a top speed of 35mph and I used to drive them all over the neighborhood, especially when my friends and I needed a “chase vehicle” for tracking down where our model rockets ended up.