Yesterday I came across a post with ideas to liven up your blog. And I figured: why not? It’s a fun change from reviews and writing updates. One of the prompts was to share ten random facts about yourself. Since I write young adult books, I’m going to tweak it a bit and give you ten random facts about teen Michelle.

1. I worked at McDonald’s on weekends and summers once I turned sixteen until I went to college, and I never got sick of the food. However, they rarely let me in the food prep area because I tended to burn myself. (I had a scar in the shape of the fry rack on my forearm for years.)

2. My junior year I was cast as the understudy for Kim in “Bye Bye Birdie,” but I didn’t bother learning the lines. Before any fellow thespians attack me, I’d better add that the show was already double-cast, so even listing anyone as an understudy was overkill. There were already two Kims!

3. Since prom has come up on Twitter so often this week … I didn’t go my junior year. Senior year, I got set up. My best friend was dating a guy at a private, all-boys school. He had a friend with no date. I had no date. So I talked to the guy on the phone and worked it all out. I went to his prom. He went to mine. It was nice. We never talked again after 😀.

4. I was Valedictorian of my high school, but only my friends and the people who were competing with me know about it. When they sent out the insert for the yearbook with all the graduation articles, they left it out. My brother said when he went to his reunion (he’s a year younger than me), he actually got into an argument with someone about it. My defender 😀.

5. I got head lice my senior year of high school from working at a children’s fair. I was sitting in English class and pulled a live louse out of my hair. So. Disgusting. The high school nurse was so unfamiliar with it, she sent me to the grade school across the street for confirmation. Imagine how embarrassing it is having to tell all your friends you have lice … Also, every time I read an MS with lice in it, my head starts itching. There have been two this year.

6. When I was bored in school, I would read romance novels under my desk. I was especially bad about this in junior high.

7. In eighth grade we went to Disney World and sat a full day in a taping of Mickey Mouse Club. My brother and I are in several audience shots during that season.

8. If that Mickey Mouse Club reference didn’t already date me, when I was sixteen, I went to the St. Louis Auto Show to meet Mario Lopez and Jonathan Brandis. Jonathan kissed the girl in front of me on the cheek, so when I got up there, I asked if he was handing out kisses. AND HE KISSED ME ON THE CHEEK. I didn’t wash that cheek until … well, that night. But if you have ever had a celebrity crush, you get it.

9. I played the violin all through my teen years, but even with private lessons, I was never higher than fifth chair in my high school orchestra. Strings are a serious business in St. Louis. Our concertmaster was an actual prodigy, and several others had started playing when they were three or four. Several kids in my high school orchestra were in the St. Louis Youth Symphony.

10. I liked high school. I’m not saying it was all rosy, all the time, but I had a great group of friends and a good experience in general. Not that I’d want to go back 😉.

Now that I have dredged all of these facts up from my memory, it occurs to me that a few of them could provide some interesting material … except not the lice thing. Because if I put that in a novel and had to read over it multiple times I’d go nuts.

Do we share any teen experiences? Want to post ten facts of your own? If you do, let me know and I’ll go read them!