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Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Top Ten Facts About Me


hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

I can list all the Basic Facts about me that i've mentioned before (see here, for example), like that I have a twin and a rescue dog and I'm short and like coffee, but if you follow me on Twitter,  you may already know those (especially the coffee thing, it's basically my defining trait). But I don't want to do that, so let's go FULLY RANDOM. *shakes brain, sees what falls out* Dunno why you'd be interested, but if you are, let's bash on.



  • If you name a Disney song, I probably know the lyrics to it. If there is one thing I am determined to accomplish in my lifetime, it is knowing all the lyrics to all of the songs.
  • My impossible dream job would be a Disney animator, a Broadway star, a lady detective, or Kathleen Kelly, aka the kindly proprietor of a children's bookshop, preferably one that doubles as a bakery. I am unlikely to become any of these things, BUT A GIRL CAN DREAM.
  • My superpower is spotting and recognizing famous people, even just actors that guest starred on that one episode of Gilmore Girls that had a bit part in another random episode of Friends. Whatever is the opposite of face blindness, I have that. I NEVER FORGET A FACE, she said threateningly.
  • I've been to five continents and over thirty countries. Australia and Antarctica, I'm coming for you!
  • I hate cold weather, but I can only sleep with the air conditioning cranked on and half-buried beneath a thick and fluffy comforter. Don't ask me why.
  • I have teeny tiny size five feet, very high arches, and quite a lot of foot problems. These boots were NOT made for walking. They were made for lounging. And foot massages.
  • I want my life to be The Great British Bake Off. Somehow. Some way.
  • I've lived in Los Angeles my whole life, but it took me a year of having my driver's license to work up the courage to get on the freeway for the first time at age seventeen.

For reference, this is what an LA freeway looks like:




dun dun DUNNNN
It went a lot like:



Not good for those of us of an anxious bent, let me tell you. But now I drive the freeway on autopilot like an old pro, with no screaming at all.



  • My favorite Harry Potter characters are Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood, and Neville Longbottom. (Ron and the various Weasleys too, particularly the twins and Goddess Among Mortals Molly Weasley, but these five are just the most precious of babies to me and I will go full Hulk if I ever hear them criticized. THEY ARE PURE AND GOOD AND STRONG AND PRECIOUS DON'T YOU DARE.)
  • The first OTPs I ever remember having were Char and Ella from Ella Enchanted and Felicity and Ben from the American Girl series. Like, WAY back. Like, I was eight years old at the very most. #shipperhipster
more like tricorner HOT #historicalhathumor

Felicity SAVES THE DAY AS WELL AS BEN! FeliciBen was some real shit, okay, you wish your ship was this great
  • I was also the first kid in my class to read Harry Potter #harryhipster and one of the first people I knew to read Twilight #twihipster. 
  • I'm a very fast reader if I'm focused. The problem is, I'm hardly ever focused. My brain is on a constant whirl. CHILL OUT, BRAIN. NO, YOU CAN'T GO ON TWITTER RIGHT NOW.



  • The first piece of writing I ever had published was an absolutely abominable poem I wrote in fourth grade about a beloved willow tree. (I have never had a beloved willow tree. Fourth grade Gillian was a liar.)
  • The first fan fiction I ever wrote was for Felicity the American Girl, followed very shortly by Tamora Pierce. My main fic obsessions were Tamora (Alanna + ALL the love interests, Daine/Numair, Aly/Nawat), Harry/Ginny, and absolutely dreadful Twilight knockoffs. 
  • About 90% of my youthful fan fiction involved one half of an OTP DYING TRAGICALLY and the other half positively rending apart with grief, but then of course the dead party magically resurrected/turned out to have been ALIVE ALL ALONG etc etc kissing and sobbing and cheesy dialogue etc. No, I will NOT share it with you. I like you too much to subject you to that. 

(Felicity and Ben had some particularly tragic things happen to them (EDIT: IN MY TERRIBLE FAN FICTION! NOT IN THE BOOKS!), including Ben going off to fight in the war, DYING TRAGICALLY, Felicity being utterly grief-stricken but REFUSING TO ACCEPT IT so she becomes a spy and of course somehow finds him in a British prison (?? my grasp on history was quite a bit weaker than my grasp on melodrama) and frees him and  etc etc kissing and sobbing and cheesy dialogue etc) (please tell me the Youths of Today are still reading American Girl because THAT SHIT WAS LIT OKAY)

So that was... well, quite a few more than ten facts, but I hope you enjoyed them, or at least feel like you know me a bit better!


20 comments:

  1. The pop culture references! The Clueless gif! I also fangirled/obsessed over Ali/Nawat back in the day. I had the Felicity American Girl doll AND books and somehow have NO recollection of her ever having a Ben?! Seems like I totally missed out on what would have been my first OTP. If you become the next Lorelei Gilmore/Phryne Fisher/Veronica Mars/Marry Berry, promise I get to be your loyal (but badass in her own right) sidekick/companion?

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    1. Aly and Nawat were EVERYTHING but omg, Ben was her father's apprentice and in my teeny mind that meant he and Felicity were soul mates hahaha

      " you become the next Lorelei Gilmore/Phryne Fisher/Veronica Mars/Marry Berry, promise I get to be your loyal (but badass in her own right) sidekick/companion?" ABSOLUTELY and omg, a Lorelai/Phryne/VMars baking hybrid is all I've ever wanted to be

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  2. Oh yes - come to Australia! I really like it down here.
    A fellow Disney song fan! I find myself singing the songs when I'm doing chores around the house. Broke into a Mulan "I'll Make A Man Out of You" singalong whilst washing dishes the other day...
    My first OTP was Jo and Laurie from Little Woman. It's the first fanfiction I ever wrote before I even really knew what fanfiction because I was DEVASTATED with how that book ended... my version was clearly so much better (sarcasm). It was horrible but I thought it was a masterpiece.
    I loved reading your list. Thanks for sharing it!

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    1. OH MY GOD I RELATE SO HARD. i was distraught with how Little Women went!! I totally wrote Jo and Laurie fan fic that ended QUITE DIFFERENTLY haha. Kindred spirits!

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  3. I loved getting to know you more from this post! :-) I'm a major Disney fan too. Can't get enough!

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  4. I'm pretty good with the Diney from my childhood but not ao much the more recent songs. If I could have been anything? At one point I would have said a professional hiphop dancer. No joke. I cannot dance for love or money so that dream died. Quickly. I think now it would be someone who travels for a living. I want to see the world. I have never written fanfic but I always wanted more Aly and Nawat. Tahnk you for sharing.

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  5. I LOVE DISNEY SONGS! *_* When I was younger I desperately wanted to be a detective as I loved reading mystery/detective books when I was little but then as I grew older I realised grown up detectives didn't solve things like "Who stole Mr.Fletcher's blueberry pie?!" and there was death and blood involved and I was like NO THANKS. XD

    Kyra @ Blog of a Bookaholic
    My TTT Post!

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  6. Whaaaaat? Ben died? And then Felicity rescued him?? When did this happen? Were there more books after the first 6?

    Yes, I am old. as. dirt.

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    1. omg nooooooooo that only happened in my fan fiction!! hahahah NOT in the books omg

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  7. I think my first OTP was Michael and Mia - but only in the movie, because I saw that long before I ever read the books.

    I want to know why there isn't more American Girl fanfic, especially of them as teenagers or grown-up. Imagine Molly in the 1950s and Kit during World War II!

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  8. OMG I think we have so much in common - Disney, Harry Potter, mutual love of You've Got Mail and fanfiction. I am also your #600 GFC follower. Kismet.

    Here's my top ten :)
    And here is my blogoversary giveaway as well! Help me celebrate six years!

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  9. I am so happy to meet someone else with my superpower of remembering faces! And even happier to see two shows I love make the reference for it :p Are you the same way with voices? I swear, it's some kind of freaky super power to hear a voice in a cartoon and instantly link it with the face.

    My TTT.

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  10. Great list!
    My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2016/07/12/top-ten-tuesday-65/

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  11. Okay, our freeways are not nearly that bad and it took me 5 years of having my license before I could get on the freeway without breaking out into a cold sweat. LOL. My Bookish Facts

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  12. You are aaamazing Gillian. <3 I adore you. And I loved reading this and getting to know you a bit more :D You are awesome. Thank you for sharing :D

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  13. I vair much enjoyed this. I want to say "I LOVED AMERICAN GIRL", but I think mostly I was just desperate for one of the dolls ... the only book I remember reading was about a kid called Sarah (I think?), she had a red dress and she made a gingerbread house. (Good 5 her I hear you say.)

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  14. Oh my god, I have this contrary to forgetting a face thing, I'm always spotting random actors in tv shows haha

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  15. I love all of this so so much and this just proves why we are friends. WE WILL OPEN OUR BAKESHOP BOOKSTORE AND BE KATHLEEN KELLY/MARY BERRY! I didn't drive on freeways for a year either! I made my friends drive me if we had to go on freeways and only started because I had to drive home from college somehow. My mom would come get me in SD on a Friday and drop me at school on Monday if I wanted to come home my first quarter freshman year haha (I didn't have my car at school). Now I'm really good with the freeway but yeah, that Clueless gif. I feel it.

    DUDE YES THE FACE SPOTTING. Sometimes it'll take me 20 minutes but I always figure it out in the end and want to fist pump when I do. Disney songs foreverrrrrr. Jealous of all your countries, that's so amazing!

    CHAR AND ELLA <3 <3 <3 <3 It's weirdly hard for me to pick fave Potter characters but mine are the same as yours basically. Especially Ginny, Hermione, and Harry.

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  16. I also must sleep buried under blankets while it's freezing in my room.

    Like you, I was afraid of the highway for quite a while, though I couldn't avoid it for a whole year because my parents are fastidious and in no way would have allowed me to get a license. Specifically, I was terrified of merging. That took several years to fade entirely.

    Adult Gillian is also a liar: "Alanna + ALL the love interests." There is no way that you wrote fic about Liam, unless he was getting dumped or dying or something.

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