A birthday quiz and giveaway!

My birthday is on Wednesday (Brian's too), but you could get the present! I thought it would be fun to do a little birthday quiz about me, so here are 17 questions (half of my upcoming age, ugh) about me. They are totally random things that I don't think many people know. So whether you know me a little or a lot, you're all probably on even footing!

Just leave me a comment with your answers (or guesses!) by Wednesday, Oct. 29. I'll reveal the winner then. At stake is a gift card to the winner's choice among a few of my favorite stores: Target, Pier 1, Barnes and Noble, or Chili's. Good luck!

1. I have always loved having a birthday so close to Halloween. What did I dress up as for my first real Halloween (not the Halloween when I was 2 days old)?

1. A witch
2. Raggety Ann
3. A Cabbage Patch doll
4. A butterfly

2. What did I win an award for when I was 5?

a. Singing

b. Dancing

c. Spelling

d. Reading

3. The summer after my junior year of college I had my worst job ever, at a small PR firm. What was the boss arrested for right in front of me?

a. DUI

b. Assault with a deadly weapon

c. Child abuse

d. Making terroristic threats

4. Brian and I have the same birthday, Oct. 29 1974; he is 38 minutes older than me. Where did we go to celebrate our birthday the first year we were married?

1. Estes Park
2. Breckenridge
3. Keystone
4. Colorado Springs

5. When Brian and I met, what extreme activity did we discover we both wanted to do?

1. Go in a shark cage off the coast of South Africa
2. Go Bungee jumping in Costa Rica
3. Hike the entire Appalachian Trail
4. Go whale watching off the coast of Alaska

6. I recently did my closet in ROYGBIV (love it!). It revealed that I do not own any clothing in which color?

1. red
2. orange
3. yellow
4. purple

7. I have always been an avid reader. Although it is hard to pick just one, I do reserve the title of “my favorite book” for which literary piece?

1. East of Eden
2. Grapes of Wrath
3. The Good Earth
4. To Kill a Mockingbird

8. The summer after my freshmen year of college, I had my craziest job ever. I worked on a track gang in a taconite mine, building railroad tracks. I wore steel-toed boots, a hard hat, gloves and safety goggles. I used the jackhammer, sledgehammer, drove some heavy machinery, it was great! I was buff as can be. What nickname did the old miners bestow upon me?

1. Taconite Trudy
2. Iron Ore Lenore
3. Bad, Bad Leroy Brown
4. Muscles Melissa

9. I have a goal to visit all 50 Unites States. How many have I been to?

1. 25
2. 32
3. 38
4. 44

10. What senior class distinction was I named in high school as voted on by fellow classmates?

1. Biggest gossip
2. Class ditz
3. Most school spirit
4. Class flirt

11. Where did Brian and I get engaged?

a. Red Rocks

b. Estes Park

c. Garden of the Gods

d. On a carriage ride downtown Denver

12. How many times have I been pulled over for speeding?

1. 0
2. 1
3. 5
4. Too many to count

13. What happened to me during a business trip to Washington, D.C. in 1998?

1. I got hit by a bus and broke my leg
2. I had an emergency appendectomy
3. I was in a car accident and got a concussion
4. I got a tattoo

14. When I worked at The Children’s Hospital full-time, one of my responsibilities was to wear the media pager (every third week) and handle after-hours media calls. I had some crazy experiences with that, including the day of me and Brian’s engagement pictures. I was on call that day. What crazy thing happened that landed patients at Children’s and prompted about 400 calls from the media that day (lucky we got any pictures at all!)?:

1. An elephant escaped at the zoo
2. A roller-coaster ride got stuck upside down at the amusement park downtown Denver
3. A school bus crashed into a house
4. A stray dog attacked a group of children at the park

15. I have always loved music, lots and lots of music. My first concert was the fall of my freshmen year in college, at historic, iconic, downtown Minneapolis club First Avenue. Who did I see?

a. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

b. They Might Be Giants

c. Sonic Youth

d. Green Day

16. Where would Brian and I love to take a cruise someday?

a. the Mediterranean

b. Alaska

c. Antarctica

d. The Caribbean

17. When I was single and living in Minneapolis after college, I did lots of volunteering. I volunteered for a non-profit minority scholarship program, for Children’s Hospital Minneapolis, and what else?

a. As a Big Sister with Big Brothers/Big Sisters

b. At the Minnesota Historical Society

c. As a grant writer for a non-profit health agency

d. As a literacy tutor