Carrie

1. When I was 8 years old I watched while my sister Vivian was born. I don't remember being especially interested or grossed out; I mostly just thought "OK then."

2. I graduated from high school when I was 16 because in first grade I complained to my Mom that I was bored. I think because I was the first child she was all geared up to be invested in my education, and so I was moved up to second grade early.

3. The best job I ever had was working as a wildlife biologist counting turtles for the US Forest Service.

4. I have a fondness, but not a passion, for University of Utah sports. I do have a passion for March Madness.

5. I lived in Australia for two years when I was a child. My parents moved there in the 70's, way before anyone knew you could just move to a different country, and back when you had to write letters to keep in touch with home.

6. I was once flagged down by a group of Buddhist monks in Laos to help them complete a crossword puzzle in English about HIV awareness. The clue was 'all transfused blood should be______', and the answer was 'screened'.

7. My first words when i saw Theo on the ultrasound were "Oh NO!" I absolutely did NOT want a boy for our second child. I didn't like the way boys make loud noises and hit stuff with sticks. Plus, every girl deserves a sister. Now that Theo is here, I'm a complete blithering adoring mess about him. I think he if was yelling and hitting me with a stick I would probably just ask him if he wanted anything to eat while he was doing it.

8. Where I grew up, one of the biggest ways to entertain ourselves was to go jump off of high things, usually into water. I can and have jumped from some very high places, but I don't enjoy it very much.

9. My sisters occasionally call me 'Zippo', because they think I walk really fast and never eat anything. This isn't actually true- it's just that they walk really slowly and eat constantly.

10. I'd like to think that just because I'm a quiet person that I'm also a rugged individualist- that I could be content by myself for long periods of time, meditating and writing novels and such. Unfortunately it's not true. I'm actually a socially-needy introvert, which is a terrible combination.

11. When I moved to Utah from California for medical school I did not own a coat and had never seen a windshield ice scraper.

12. I generally hate this sort of 'pass-it-forward' letter writing pyramid scheme. I once reported my own Grandmother as spam for this exact sort of thing. She's not on Facebook- don't tell her.

13. I once unknowingly transported a large (gallon size) bag of marijuana through an airport and across state lines. It was in the pocket of a hand-me-down coat that I had just been given. When i discovered it (in the middle of the grocery store), I stood there and stared at it for a long time trying to figure out what it was. "I swear officer, I never saw that before in my life! You see, this isn't really my coat...."

14. The first time I ever told Chris that I loved him, he gazed into my eyes and whispered back...."Ditto." C'mon! "Ditto"?!!

15. When I was 6 I was Tiny Tim for our Community Theatre.

16. I have moved seven times in our 10 years of marriage.

17. I once had a massage at the "Seeing Hands: Blind Massage" shop in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I had to walk past the door 4 times before I got brave enough to go inside. When they led me to a room for me to change, there was a blind man sitting in the corner of the dark room. Question: If you change clothes in front of a blind stranger, is that odd? Answer: Yes.

18. Our family once held a spelling bee to settle some ugly smack talk amongst the Ashby sisters. I did not win.

19. If I had an entire day to myself, I would probably read. And sleep. Sleep, and read some more.

20. Speaking of sleep, I am good at sleeping. I once fell asleep on command, on a table, with electrodes all over my head, in a class in front of 15 other medical students. The teacher was trying to demonstrate different brain wave patterns between sleeping and waking, and the subject was having a hard time falling asleep with all of the attention. From the crowd I announced "I can do it." And I did.

21. Chris and I are reading 'Harry Potter' in Spanish. We're on book #3.

22. I beat Chris at chess once, 5 years ago, and I have refused to play him since.

23. I have a little thing for Anderson Cooper. Not a big thing, but something about the way he looks all put together, but you know there's more underneath. I also have a thing for Bob Costas, but people make fun of me about that one.

24. One day during a lab experiment in college it was time to put the mice back in the box for the next class. I looked at my little mouse, and I meant to put him back, i did, but instead I put him in my sweatshirt pocket and walked out. I took him home to be a pet for my little sister Rachel. A few years later, when he died, I started to dissect him, to show Rachel all of the interesting things I knew about the inside of a mouse. Then I realized I was about to cut up a beloved pet in front of a 5 yr old, and we didn't do that after all.

25. Some of the other doctors from my residency call me 'Sparkle', because one day I accidentally wore glitter lip gloss to work at the ER. I also had braces at the time, so the overall effect was to make me look about 12. It was very reassuring for my patients.