Winnie Dear Wonders

Hey Friends! I hope this blog finds you well 🙂

I thought I would sit down today and write a little bit more about myself than is in my about me section in the hopes that we can get to know each other a better. However, writing about yourself is innately awkward; even after several years of doing it to apply for jobs and scholarships, I’m still not very good at it. I get so nervous and awkward that its like I forget everything about myself. Like “Wait do I really like soft pretzels or is that someone else?” (The picture below should serve as evidence that yes, that really is me lol)  Does that happen to any of you? Haha probably not. You seem too cool for that! Anyway, so instead of writing a college admissions like essay about my life, I thought it could be fun to give you a list of 50 ( hopefully interesting) facts about me. So without further ado, here’s some random stuff about me:

1. I was born on July 8, 1993 
2. This makes me a Cancer, and though I place little faith in astrology I’d say that I fit pretty well into this category. Particularly the proclivity to be a homebody lol 
3. I’m 5’ 3” ( but I will swear to you I’m 5’ 4” ) 
4. My middle name is Megan 
5. My mom wanted to name me Lulabelle after her aunt but my dad was quick to veto that one
6. I was born and raised in San Diego, California. It will always have a special place in my heart.

7. I lived there most of my life minus three years spent in Greensboro, North Carolina from the ages of 3 to 6 
8. My parents split up when I was 6 and this is when we all moved back to California 
9. My parents let me choose how I split my time, so naturally I picked an every other day strategy like any sane 6 year old would. Looking back on this now, I see how crazy it was but I love that my parents did that for me. 
10. Despite growing up in a beach town, I’m not a big fan of beaches and I’m dearth scared of the ocean.
11. I wanted to be a witch when I was a kid. This is largely to do with my intense love of Harry Potter. And Practical Magic. And Hocus Pocus. 
12. To this day Practical Magic and Hocus Pocus are tied for my favorite film. 
13. My dad got remarried when I was 13. I was an only child for the first 16 years of my life. Now I have a half sister who will be 12 later this year 
14. I’m obsessed with Dinosaurs. Particularly T-Rexes

15. I’ve been a vegetarian since I was 13 and a vegan for the last 3-4ish years. 
16. I’m lactose intolerant- hence the vegan thing lol  
17. My favorite cuisine is Thai food. Especially Tom Kha Soup. (Extra extra spicy with tofu, veggies, and wide rice noodles) Yumm. 
18. Though I love both, I prefer having cats over dogs
19. To that end I have been a cat mom 5 times and a step cat mom once. 
20. My cats names were Chicken, Pickles, Timber, Maya, Ashford (my fiancé’s cat who I loved like my own) and our current cat child Samantha 

21. I really wish I could have rats as pets but I don’t think that would go over well with Samantha.
22. I’ve had 5 jobs in my life: Forever 21, Barnes and Noble, House of Blues, the Lead Hostess at a restaurant in SD, and Peets Coffee
23. I met my fiancé when we were both working at Barnes and Noble. 
24. I was technically his boss lol 
25. We have an 11 year age gap. It took us a while to figure this out before we started dating because he thought I was older and I thought he was younger. 
26. We have been together for 5 years and engaged for almost 3 years. 
27. Weddings stress me out. Hence the long engagement 
28. We moved to Chicago, Illinois two years ago and I couldn’t love it more
29. I didn’t see snow fall till I was 27 
30. I love bread. And bread products. Especially soft pretzels. I will never, ever turn one down.

31. My favorite animal are Moose 
32. I used to be afraid of Kolas. Go ahead and make fun of me. 
33. I love everything Disney. Especially the theme parks. I grew up going to Disneyland all of the time and finally got to go to Disneyworld for the first time 3 years ago. I’m dying to go back.
34. My favorite princess is Rapunzel. However I feel like me and Anna have a lot in common. 
35. I think I look like both my parents. I got my dads features and my moms coloring ( light red hair and green eyes)
36. My family is mainly Irish and German 
37. My favorite color is Turquoise ( light blue greenish color). My car Holly is even this color.
38. I’ve had 5 cars in my life and I’ve named all of them: Eve, Atticus, Penelope ( a baby pink 1970 VW bug), Mumford, and my current car Holly. 

39. I once got to feed a Polar Bear. 
40. My biggest celebrity crush is Bill Murray 
41. In fact, Greg (that’s the fiancé) arranged for me to meet him the night he proposed to me. (It’s a long story, I plan to write a post all about it)
42. Bill Murray hit on me when we met. ( at least that was what it was in my mind. Don’t tell me it didn’t happen) 
43. I took a 7 year break in my education. I’m now finishing up my junior year at Loyola University Chicago studying Strategic Digital Communications with a minor in Computer Science 
44. I have a huge sweet tooth and as long as it’s vegan, I won’t turn down dessert 

45. I love traveling and going on adventures. 
46. Despite this I have yet to be able to make it abroad other than going just past the boarder of Mexico as a kid to go shopping ( a common thing is San Diego). I plan to rectify this as soon as I possibly can. Don’t worry, I will be taking you along for the ride when I do 😉 
47. I love taking long road trips. I have been on 4 so far
48. I love lots of music but my favorite genre is probably indie folk/rock. Seriously if a song as a fiddle or a banjo I probably will like it. 
49. I’m a big reader. My favorite novel is a tie between To Kill a Mocking Bird and The Sound and The Furry 
50. I love drawing. I have a page dedicated to my drawings here and I have an art Instagram account if your interested in checking out what I do. 

Wow, thank you so much for reading! We can be best friends if you made it this far. I hope you liked getting to know a little more about me. Let me what we have in common in the reply’s! I’d love to get to know more about you. 

Till we talk next!

–Winnie Dear