1. I am a food snob. I believe in eating low on the food chain. I don’t eat fast food. I buy as local as I can, and as organic as possible. I don’t drink pop. I do, on the other hand, enjoy my coffee. A lot.

2. For a time, I didn’t think I wanted a child. Now that I have one, I wish I had more. I became a mother at 43 after a blessedly uneventful and healthy pregnancy. My son was delivered via c-section because he was breech; this should have been the big tip-off to me that he would desire to travel a different path through life.

3. I love math. I love numbers. I often find myself thinking about numbers and doing math problems in my head. I calculate angles, I count ceiling tiles, I look for patterns. I am also savant-like in my ability to do equations in my head. It’s exciting and scary.

4. I have a terrible fear of heights, flying, and confined spaces; however, I make myself do things that scare me. I’ve been to the top of the John Hancock Building in Chicago, I’ve flown to Europe, and I’ve traveled across the country on a train. I could not, however, bring myself to get close enough to look into the Grand Canyon; I felt the tug of gravity trying to pull me over the side.

5. Since I was in second grade, I knew I wanted to be a writer. I got an A+ for an essay I wrote about how wonderful the world would be if it were made of chocolate. My mother showed that A+ essay to anyone who ventured near our house. I was hooked.

6. I am a terribly insecure writer, fretting over each and every word I string together, rewriting and rewriting, until whatever deadline I have hits and I can fret no more.

7. I love music. I could live without television, but don’t you mess with my iPod. My first concert was Alice Cooper with Steely Dan as the opening act. My dad drove us to the concert; my friend’s dad picked us up. I was 14 and it was the first time I saw someone smoke pot. In high school, some of my favorite times were hanging out with the music guys, with whom I got to see all the great acts of the day, from early Bruce Springsteen, the New York Dolls and other smaller acts in smaller venues to big names like Elton John, David Bowie and The Who in big ones. Tickets were cheap and we went to concerts at least once a week, if not more.

8. I am a computer geek. I still have my first Mac – the little tan one with the 9-inch screen – in my basement. In my household, there are three humans and five computers, and all but one is a Macintosh. I hope to get an iPad someday.

9. My dad was a union organizer when I was in high school. He spent a lot of time away from home leading a protest against the Shell Oil Co. in Kalkaska (in northwestern Michigan) in one of the largest labor strikes of the time. My dad ended up in the Kalkaska jail a lot and was written about in the Detroit newspapers. He had a “red” file with the Michigan State Police – I still have parts of that file, which he obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Our family was under surveillance and our home phone was tapped. As smart-ass teens back then, we’d talk about drug deals going down and mob hits being arranged if we thought Big Brother was listening.

10. I won a tuition-and-books scholarship to the University of Michigan, but didn’t take it, opting instead for a life of waitressing and community college, perhaps foreshadowing my life as a dreamy underachiever. Looking back, I think I was scared to go away to school. While it took me 16 years to finish my formal education, I still learn something new every single day.

11. My mother worried about me as a child because I spent all of my time reading.

12. Though I had a lot of guy friends, I didn’t date a lot when I was young. In fact, my husband is kind of my first big-time boyfriend. I met him when I was waiting tables on the midnight shift at an all-night diner. He left me a good tip. The restaurant has since burned down.