10-Second Anecdotes that Reveal Too Much About Me: Marena

You’ll find that Persephoneers are not afraid to laugh at ourselves and, in fact, we invite you to laugh at us, too. With that in mind, I offer up a handful of ridiculous anecdotes about yours truly.

1. When I was seven, I set a roll of toilet paper on fire in the bathroom because I thought it would burn in a spiral. When it didn’t, I started crying, and my dad ran in and tossed the thing in the toilet. Personality Adjectives: curious, destructive
2. I wrote and illustrated my first book at age nine. It was a short story about a group of animals that lived on the surface of the sun, where they tried to stop a greedy mother and son development team from bulldozing their forest. Personality Adjectives: critical, creative
3. In first grade, I came in second place in the school-wide math competition and vowed that the following year I would win first place. I made good on that vow and still have my little plastic gold and silver trophies. Personality Adjectives: confident, determined
4. In the fourth grade, on more than one occasion, I came to school and pretended to be an alien or other characters. I didn’t break character for the entire day just to see if other students would play along. Many students did indulge me. Personality adjectives: strange, theatrical
5. Last Christmas, my mom and I decided to trick my uncle into thinking we bought him the latest PlayStation gaming console by weighing down an empty box with cans of food as a twist on when he tricked me into thinking he’d bought me a VCR for my 11th birthday. It went off without a hitch. Personality adjectives: comical, spiteful
6. In 2007, I traveled to Anaheim, California, waited at the Disneyland entrance at four in the morning until it opened, then stood under the hot California sun or slept on the sidewalk for over 12 hours waiting for the stars to walk the red carpet for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End just so I could get a glimpse of Johnny Depp and wipe that from my bucket list. I still own a piece of that red carpet. Personality adjectives: fannish, intense
7. The first year I won NaNoWriMo, I ordered a free copy of my story in book form per their winner’s goodies. Somehow, because of issues with printing, I wound up with four free copies of my novel-length fanfiction sequel to “The Outsiders,” now prominently displayed on my bookshelf. Personality adjectives: tacky, geeky

There’s plenty more where that came from, but I need to retain some mystery about myself. Ahem.