100 Facts About Briar

The Grazing Daisy has officially hit 200 subscribers.

To celebrate, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and make a 100-fact post! This could get pretty wild.

It’ll probably be more like a Briar lore post.

Enjoy.

1. Let’s start off strong with the fact that I’m a Christian.

2. I was homeschooled k-12 and did the same curriculum, BJU Press, for almost everything.

3. I was a PK(Pastor’s kid) for a good portion of my childhood.

4. I love mudpuppies infinitely more than axolotls.

5. I trained porcupines for 2 years.

   

6. I volunteered at a zoo all throughout high school.

7. I won a beekeeping scholarship when I was 15 and got all of my beekeeping supplies for free.

   

8. I once pulled a pit bull off of a golden retriever. If I didn’t, I think the pit bull would have gotten the retriever’s windpipe. No dogs are dying on my watch!

9. I ran a marathon for my 18th birthday.

   

10. I take my autumn color palette very seriously and try to only wear certain colored clothes and only gold jewelry.

11. When I first started Substack, it was to write a post each day about everything new that I learned(It was called My Miscellany). I ended it after 1 year because it was horrendous forcing myself to post every day.

12. This is my 388th Substack post.

13. I broke my big toe in a car accident by kicking the door open to get out. I ran a 5-mile race a couple of days later, and didn’t realize my toe was broken until over a month later when I wondered why it was still hurting.

    

14. I occasionally do oddly torturous hikes by myself at ungodly hours in the morning, ridiculous distances, or in inclement weather. Sometimes all three at once.

15. My favorite number is 15

16. The best part of writing books is planning them, so I created “non-books,” which are stories I will perpetually keep in the planning stage and never finish.

17. My favorite color is green.

18. I love foraging, especially going on random excursions specifically to sting myself with nettle just because I can.

19. I have a heart for the foster care system, and I currently volunteer with a program that lets me hang out with my pal every month, and we do fun things together.

20. I have stuck my hand in a fistulated cow. Look it up.

21. I will take winter with temps below zero any day before a humid summer day in the 90s.

22. I was born in the UP, but I have lived in Wisconsin for 15 years.

23. The only time I have been out of the country was when I went on a mission trip to Peru two years ago.

24. Yes, I ate a Guinea pig when I was in Peru.

25. It is a dream of mine to eat a tarantula someday because why not?

26. The idea of spontaneous combustion is oddly fascinating to me.

27. I collect mini cast iron stoves.

28. You know those plastic event bands for waterparks and things? From the ages of 8-17 I consistently had at least one of those on at all times(with a few minor exceptions because my mom cut them off once or twice as a punishment). I refused to take them off. They had to fall off.

29. My record was a year and 11 days for keeping one of those bracelets on.

30. It ended when I turned 17 because my mom said I couldn’t have them in my senior photos. But, to honor their place in my life, I got a permanent bracelet at my grad party, and it is still holding strong.

31. I once found a bunch of young walnut trees at a park, gave them out to all my friends; mine was the only one that survived, and it lived for several years.

32. Although I was a cross-country runner in high school, I also had exercise-induced bronchospasms(basically asthma).

33. I once saw a free rusty shovel someone put on the side of the road while I was out on a run, and I couldn’t say no to a free rusty shovel. So I ran. In the dark. With a big rusty shovel. And I was wearing all black. It was awesome.

34. I once was burned with a pudgie pie maker at a campfire, and one of my knees still has a large white scar.

35. I once was in a car accident where a girl had run a red light, T-boned my mom’s van, and we took out a traffic light.

36. My first time I used a chainsaw, I noticed blood dripping all over my hands because I had gotten a bloody nose from the dry air.

37. When I was a kid, I had hundreds of plantar warts on the bottom of my feet(the dermatologist was impressed), and so I had to get cryosurgery to kill them. Cryosurgery is basically like induced frostbite.

38. I used to be allergic to mosquitoes. It’s called Skeeter Syndrome, and thankfully I grew out of it.

39. I almost got hit by a train during a severe thunderstorm.

40. I found a baby deer skeleton one day when I was a kid, and I begged my dad to let me boil some of the bones for my collection. He finally agreed, and we put some of the bones in a shoebox. While we were walking back home, a lady pulled over and said she’d like to buy what we were selling. My dad looked at her and said, “I don’t think you want what she has in that box.” XD

41. I have killed two chickens. The second time was way better than the first.

42. For a good portion of my life, my favorite dog breed was the Bedlington terrier. I mentioned it to my coworker who is a dog groomer, and she made her poodle look like a Bedlington terrier, and it is hands down one of my favorite things.

43. When I was a little kid, I invented my own language, which consisted of 3 words: Skook, brocolula, Usma. They mean: caterpillar, broccoli, and hair. That was the entire language.

    

44. I was that kid at the playground, blowing everyone’s mind by telling them there’s a tiny owl in the top-right corner of the $1 bill.

45. I was also the kid who made sure everyone knew that there were two Abraham Lincolns on the penny.

46. I was pretty much the classic know-it-all kid.

47. People called my dad a walking encyclopedia when he was younger; I have been called a walking Google, and it’s my joke that my kids will be walking AIs.

48. Naming is one of my favorite art forms.

49. I have an unusual hatred towards sea cucumbers.

50. I think star fruit is so disgusting.

51. I once built an igloo and then did my math homework inside of it.

52. I have failed twice previously trying to see a Josiah Queen concert, but I finally saw him at Lifest earlier this month, and it was AWESOME!

53. Chicory is my favorite flower.

54. I will live anywhere as long as it’s not Arizona or California.

55. For my entire life, I thought there were no trees in Arizona, so when I went there not too long ago, I was pleasantly surprised that there were trees. Still wouldn’t live there, but it was better than I thought.

    

56. I once was in a tiny boat that hit a sandbar in the middle of the Yukon River, and we had to get rescued.

57. I instinctively squished a baby hissing cockroach with my bare fingers when I heard the zookeeper exclaim: “Briar! One of the babies got out! Get it!” She was disturbed by my lack of hesitancy.

58. I once went on a homeschool field trip where we got to play with a bunch of wolves in a pen.

59. I once ran 3 miles by doing laps in my basement because I felt like I needed a challenge.

60. I once found a singular duckling in an Aldi parking lot. I was able to get it to run into a paper bag, and then I took it to the wildlife sanctuary.

61. I keep magnets on the back of my car that say: “NEW DRIVER PLEASE BE PATIENT, ELDERLY DRIVER PLEASE BE PATIENT, and SLOW DRIVER PLEASE BE PATIENT.” It’s to keep people far away from me when I’m on the highway.

62. When I was a kid, I accidentally choked my pet rabbit while she was in a harness, which made her let out this insane scream, which caused my cousins and me to bolt up the stairs in terror, leaving my Grandma to help the rabbit.

63. I was named after Harry Houdini.

64. My parents decided they always wanted me to know the truth about Santa Claus, so they told me he used to be a real person who died a long time ago. I started telling all my friends that Santa was dead.

65. When I was 10, I got a pet hamster. The cashier at the pet store told me it was a girl. The hamster lived for two years and then died. When I was 15, I was put in charge of gendering the mice at the zoo. It was then that I learned my hamster was a boy the whole time. I was very disappointed to learn that I had been misgendering Stamps.

    

66. All of my pets(I have only had two) have died on February 9th, National Pizza Day.

67. When I was 12, I “manipulated” my parents into allowing me to get a cat by making them think I wanted a chinchilla so that all of a sudden a cat sounded like a fabulous idea.

68. I have been to Disney World twice.

69. I recently had every girl’s dream romance trope, and I turned the guy down. I was at a library looking at books; a guy had done a 180-degree spin after walking past me and basically was like, “I wanted to let you know that I think you look very beautiful and I would like to meet up with you sometime to get to know you better. Can I have your phone number?” I nicely said no, and I have since decided that I need to know a person first before I could ever go on a date with them.

70. I once did an extreme budget challenge where I ate for an entire week with $10. It’s difficult, but very possible. It’s also rather bland.

71. My sourdough bread once won the judges' favorite among all the 4H baked goods at the fair, and I got a big purple ribbon.

72. I knew I was going to be participating in a Bible spelling bee, so I practiced the word Nebuchadnezzar until I had it down pat. I did not get any close to winning, but I did spell Nebuchadnezzar correctly, and that was victory enough.

73. I also know how to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

74. I have been in 10ish theater productions; I was the lead once.

75. Ceviche was the first seafood dish I ate and went back for seconds.

76. I once forgot I was allergic to cashews, and then I ate cashews, and remembered after a massive stomachache ensued. I exclaimed, “Ohhhh yeah! I remember!”

77. When I learned to drive a tractor during tractor class, they couldn’t figure out how to get the seat to adjust because it was so ancient, and I am so short that I was told to just: “Stand up and stomp on the brake if you need to stop.”

78. My name often gets confused with “Brian”. But I don’t mind, because I love my name so much.

79. I was named after my parents’ first house. They lived in Escanaba, and the house they bought was in the area once known as the Escanaba Briar. I think it’s the coolest thing ever, and I only recently learned that.

80. No. My middle name is not Rose, but I won’t tell you what it actually is ;) It is one of the many joys in my life to make people guess my middle name.

81. Winter snowy picnics will forever be the pinnacle of delight for me. However, I don’t think I have ever been on a proper one yet.

82. One of my main goals in life is to have carting goats, and specifically ride them into town to the post office. I will achieve this someday.

83. Blueberry wafflecone ice cream is my favorite dessert.

84. When I was a camp counselor in Alaska, one of the girls in my cabin shoved a blunt stud earring through her nose right in front of me because she wanted her nose pierced. We took her to the nurse’s office, and they said, “Well, that is a first!”

85. When I lived in Clintonville, WI, I survived the 1.5 earthquake that caused the “boom” sounds. It was so bizarre. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/boom-town-clintonville-gets-sensors-i-survived-1-5-t-flna628371

86. I have witnessed thundersnow 3 different times.

87. I used to be a ventriloquist.

88. I’m not a fan of chocolate, but I love Kit Kats, Andes mints, and hot chocolate.

89. I eat lemons straight up. Sometimes I take spoonfuls of straight lemon juice because it’s so fun.

90. I’m slightly addicted to limeade, and I have been known to drink an entire half-gallon in one day on multiple occasions.

91. I don’t drink coffee. In fact, I think I have only had it a total of 4-5 times in my life.

92. I love word games like Boggle, Scrabble, and Bananagrams.

93. When I was 7 years old, I found myself playing Bible trivia at church. The question was: “Who was older? Cain or Abel?” I thought it was Abel, so I convinced my entire team to choose that one. The other team thought it was Cain because, and I quote: “You never say, Abel and Cain. It’s always Cain and Abel; therefore, Cain must be older.” You can imagine how disturbed I was to lose to that type of logic.

94. I want to hunt and eat a squirrel.

95. Also, when I was 7, I robbed our church by putting fake quarters in the candy dispensers to get free candy. Perks of being the PK, my dad found out and made me pay it all back.

96. I will forever only eat organic oatmeal because my college professor has scarred me for life about glyphosate.

97. My uncle once found the largest Yooperlite ever recorded. Our family all used to be avid Yooperlite hunters(I have a decent collection myself). A couple of years later, someone else discovered it, and they got a news article and all the credit for it.

98. I think people should eat fresh roadkill more often.

99. I think that the UP should become its own state called Superior.

100. And finally, I think that Alaska needs an NFL football team called the Alaskan Salmon.

     Did you learn something new about me?

     I have a feeling that I’m going to get some fun comments on this one. Fire away!

     While you’re at it, you might as well subscribe if you’ve made it this far. I can guarantee that the things I post will not be boring.