In True Reina Fashion: 15 Weird Facts About Myself
Because I am who I am, I end up having a million and one misadventures, and end up doing everything in true "Reina" fashion. What is true "Reina" fashion, you ask? I'm not quite sure if I know how to put it into words, but the strange facts listed below should help paint a picture for you:
1. I lived in Scotland for a month because I am bad at geography. When I went to choose a program in England, I went too far up the map, and landed on the University of Stirling.
2. My phone GPS is in Spanish. Sorry in advance for anyone who ever calls me while I'm driving and hears a woman screaming about "la derecha" in their ear.
3. If a tomato isn't diced super small, I won't eat it, even though I like the taste of tomatoes
4. When I was a kid, I tried to experiment with cooking, and made some sort of weird dish that consisted of crumbled-up crossoants and Honey Nut Cheerios. I have no idea what my thought process behind that was.
5. I've been told that I look as old as 27 and as young as 15, but no one can usually guess my actual age.
6. I accidentally referred to my students as "my kids" on a first date once, and made the guy really awkward. I've also been mistaken for a child's mother while babysitting and me and the kid just had to exchange looks because we both knew we didn't look anything alike.
7. I wanted to learn Mandarin when I was eleven, but never did because I was told that "Black people don't need to learn Chinese."
8. My last meal on death row would be a bowl of Froot Loops, a bowl of Fruity Pebbles, and a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios mixed with Frosted Flakes.
9. I love to drink milk, but only 1%. 2% tastes too weird, and skim is like drinking white water.
10. Nicknames I've had include Reindogg, Reinbow, Reina-Bear and Tugaloo (I don't even remember the explanation for that last one). People have mispronounced or mispelled my name as Raina, Riena, Rena, Rina, Rihanna, Izzina and Raegan.
11. I used to want 5 kids. Emphasis on the word **used to.**
12. When I was a kid, none of my stories were original. They all involved me putting myself into my favorite cartoons. One of the first original stories I ever wrote was 1-800-Kids-Don't-Spy, which was based on a dream I had involving a bomb in a dentist's office. I wrote it in 7th grade.
13. In Amsterdam, I was asked if I wanted to buy mushrooms. Or was it cocaine? Either way--the answer was a resounding NOOOOooooOOOooooo.
14. In elementary school, I could do an uncanny impersonation of Stitch from Lilo and Stitch. Over the years, this talent has shamefully gone to waste.
15. My favorite animal is a dragon, which also happens to be what inspired my first children's chapter book The Trouble Trio.
What's something weird about you?
Love and a little bit of weirdness,
Reina
