13 weird things about me

This one's going around and it looks kind of fun. It was supposed to be "13 things for a Thursday" but it's Friday. Deal. ;)

1. Although I have been told I sound taller online, I am only 5 foot 1. (And a half.)

2. I studied karate (U.S. Kyokushin style) for about seven years in my twenties, got as far as second degree brown belt, and was at one point the senior assistant instructor in my dojo.

3. When I was a small child I often slept with my head underneath my pillow. This was because I was certain that burglars would break into the house someday, and if my head was underneath my pillow they would not know I was awake and they would thus not have to kill me.

4. My first job other than babysitting was working in a zoo. I worked in the concession stand and I was also a "Volunteer Zoo Guide" in the petting area, where I frequently had to explain to small children that the little brown things on the ground behind the goats were not raisins and should not be eaten.

5. I am 25% Bolivian.

6. I once set my hair on fire at a poetry reading during the intermission by casually leaning against a table on which there were burning candles.

7. The movie "Whale Rider" makes me cry even though I have seen it at least 6 or 8 times.

8. I didn't learn to drive until I was 29 years old.

9. I saw the ocean for the first time when I was 20 years old.

10. I fall in love with places much more easily than with people.

11. Lately I have been calling my long-haired cat "Mister Fluffypants." He does not actually wear pants, at least not when I'm looking.

12. I studied Latin for a year in high school. The only sentence I can come up with now in that language is "Rana est in urna." (The frog is in the water jar.)

13. I love all the trappings of academia, from libraries to fresh notebooks for a new semester to the pomp and circumstance of graduation and honors ceremonies. I joke that I'm sometimes tempted to pursue a doctorate solely so I can get hooded, but there's a little grain of truth in that.

14. (Ooh! Special extra bonus fact!) In elementary school I played the violin until I broke my arm and couldn't practice for months and got behind everyone else. To this day I'd likely trade all my other talents, such as they are, for music. Especially if it meant a fabulous singing voice.