This picture was taken by me last January.  It's completely unedited, and there are many aspects about this photograph that I love.

The first thing you probably notice is my ten-year-old bichon frise, Buddy, standing waist deep in the snow, looking off into the distance.  He's white, like the snow, so he matches the photo in a very fitting way, I think.  I love how you can see the wind blowing about his little ears and tail.  You can tell by the way Buddy is standing that he really, really wants to go out there and play in the snow with my little brother, but the ferocity of the blizzard is just too intimidating, so he is settling to watch from afar.

The next thing you probably notice is my brother.  His name is Luke and he was ten at the time this photo was taken.  (He is now eleven.)  Despite the fact that it was snowing very, very heavily outside, he couldn't help but go play in the giant snow drifts that were piling up.  He couldn't bear to play for more than ten minutes at a time- it was just too cold- but he played as long as he could, bundled up until he was a chubby silhouette amongst the snow.

I love the contrast that the dark green barn and the spindly tree branches make with the otherwise white background.  That poor tree was frozen solid.  Those bushes as well... they were weighted down with the heavy snow.  That poor bush towards the middle is almost completely covered. 

The snow actually looks pretty (I hate snow, in case you were wondering) in this picture.  It's piled on the porch in pretty drifts.  I like the way you can see Buddy's shuffling footprints through my front yard.  I like how the snow is falling in clouds against the barn. 

Yes, yes, I know this picture isn't a professional's shot by far.  I don't even know why I took it.  To be honest, I'm not sure why like it as much as I do.  It's no artistic photograph.  I just like it.  It holds memories.  It snapped Buddy's wistful longing to play with my brother in an eternal shot.  I just... like this. 

Do you like snow or are you not a fan, like me?  

Let's do this Facebook style.  Here are twenty-five random facts that you may or may not need to know about me.  See if we have anything in common... and do this yourself.  What are twenty-five things about YOU?

1.  I am always freezing.  Even in summer, I can be found wearing a jacket.  My hands are always cold to the touch as well. 

2.  My friends call me a picture hoarder because I love to take pictures and I keep them like they're treasures, every one of them.  I have tens of thousands of pictures on my computer and many also hang from my walls, rest on my desk and cabinets, and decorate my homemade calendars.

3.  I'm in love with Elvis Presley.  Seriously, if he was still alive, I would probably be a rabid fan girl, as much as I despise that idea.  He's just amazing.

4.  I'm not a fan of winter.  Or snow.  Or anything cold.  I'm cold-natured, so sunshiney days are what make me happy and keep me warm.  I do love rain though.

5.  I'm directionally challenged to the extreme.  I've been driving for more than two years, but I still have trouble finding my friends' houses.  I use a GPS.  For everything.  After two years of going to the same places every single day.  Yes, it's pathetic.  No, I can't fix it.  I'm stuck like this.

6.  I type insanely fast.  The highest score I've ever gotten on a typing test was a 138 my freshman year of high school.  I took one the other day and got a 124.  Not my highest ever, but still pretty high.

7.  I'm fascinated with accents and different languages and cultures.  I could sit at the feet of a world traveler and listen to his stories all day long.  I've actually been to eleven different countries, so I tend to be the storyteller most of the time.
 
8.  I am the absolute worst at keeping in touch with people.  If you want to hang out with me, you generally need to make the first contact.  It's not that I don't care.  It's just part of my personality, I suppose.  I am very much a sole-focus kind of person, and I tend to think about one thing at a time.  I'm also the kind of person who can easily re-connect with a long distance friend, even after a year or two.

9.  I don't have much of a sweet tooth.  I prefer salty foods.

10.  I have one thing I'll usually eat at certain restaurants.  I never vary in my meal choices.  In fact, I'd rather not eat than order something new off the menu.  I'm quite picky.

11.  My nails are usually painted black.  Some people think it's my inner rebellion showing through, but really... I just love the color black.  Not in a depressed way... I just think it's pretty.  Honest.  Anything with a black and white design, I love.  You should see my bedroom.  Black and white all the way.

12.  I'm not a big animal lover.  I used to be when I was little, but now I'm not.  I don't know if I'll ever have a pet when I'm older, although I could see myself with one small dog like my Yorkie puppy, Jack, who I love with all of my heart.  He's the exception to my "no animals" rule.

13.  I love to play my own music on the guitar and piano, although I'm not that good at either one.  I'm just decent enough to get by on.  I like to sing while I play, so I prefer to stick with easy things like chords. 

14.  I have the most amazing friends in the entire world.  (Okay, okay, this can be time for a collective "awwwwwwwww."  Are we done?  Good.  Let's move on.)

15.  I go through snack phases, meaning I eat a certain snack after school every single day until I burn out.  It's part of my OCD, I suppose.  Since the beginning of high school, it has been, in order: apples, popcorn, cereal, sour patch kids, ritz peanut butter mini-crackers, fruit of some sort, baked lays, and now turkey and swiss cheese.  Not on bread, just plain.  I know.  I go through weird cravings. 
 
16.  I stay up until ungodly hours of the night, pacing and reading and singing and writing and playing the guitar and staring at the ceiling.  It's called insomnia, and I have it bad.

17.  Sometimes I just really, really want to do something crazy and change the world.

18.  I lost my purity ring being chased in the park by one of my guy friends.  He was carrying a huge bucket of water after dragging me through a creek.  For some reason, I didn't want to get more wet than I already was, if that was even possible.  I ran away.  The ring slipped into a patch of tall, shiny grass.  We never saw it again.  But it's a joke of mine that I lost my purity ring being chased by a boy. :)

19.  I write constantly.  It's like I can't even help it. 

20.  I don't own a CD player.  I have two iPod players in my room and one in my car.  Not even my car contains a CD player.  It's all run by iPod.  I'm such a child of technology. 

21.  I'm completely awful at anything related to science or math.  Those two subjects completely frustrate and confuse me.  On the other hand, I'm very good at English.  It's my favorite.  I'm the kind of person who will read my government text book and mark the errors.  Sorry, that's just who I am.
 
22.  I pretend to be brave a lot, but I'm really a big scaredy cat.  I'm scared of heights, water, fast-moving things, vacuum cleaners, guns...  Sad thing is, the list could go on and on.  I try to conquer my fears, but there's still a lot of them left to defeat.

23.  My favorite holiday is 4th of July, not Christmas.  I suppose because I love everything about the 4th of July.  My family and friends all come over to my house to just spend time together and laugh and talk.  We sit outside in the warm summer heat and eat food off the grill.  We make yummy desserts and homemade ice cream.  We all share the cost of fireworks and spend half the night setting them off and then watching the firework displays in the city explode over the horizon, right beneath the stars.  It's the best holiday ever, in my book.

24.  I honestly dislike talking on the phone a lot.  I don't use my cell phone that much, and when I do, I prefer to text- not call.  I usually only text when necessary, though.  I'm not very fast at it.  I don't know.  I just prefer face-to-face contact so much more nowadays.
 
25.  I've kept a journal since I was eight.  Pretty cool, right?  I love looking back on the old entries.  I've typed up about 3/4ths of them and I have about 100k words of journal entries.  This last year, my blog has stood as my journal a lot, although I still infrequently keep a journal in an actual notebook.

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Whew, well... there's twenty-five facts about me.  That was actually a lot easier to write than I thought it would be.  Your turn.