25 Random Things about Me

Copied from facebook . . .

1. I don't believe I was ever a straight-A student. Maybe once. In fact, Marisa (my sister) generally got better grades in both high school and college than I did. For some reason, this surprises people. It doesn't surprise me. I'm too lazy to get straight As. So is Vic (my bro) except now that he's found what he loves, I wouldn't be surprised if he can't help getting straight As.

2. My favorite food is sashimi. I love raw fish - I am convinced this is due to my Scandinavian ancestry. I try not to eat it too often due to environmental concerns. My next favorite food is either rare roast beef or lamb. Can you tell that my attempts at vegetarianism did not last long?

3. Both my children were born naturally - in fact, Eli was born at home and the midwife was late, so Shane caught him. When we moved from that home this summer, Eli was the saddest of all. Just two days ago he told me that although he likes our new house, he misses the old one. I am convinced this is due to the fact that he took his first breath in the kitchen there.

4. Shane, my husband, takes much better care of me than I do of him. But he will not admit to it.

5. On the hand, Shane has addicted me to comic books, like I really needed to add more paper to my life. I'm currently reading Buffy Season Eight, Angel After the Fall, Fables and Wonder Woman. The boys love Tiny Titans. I almost never read comics before I met him.

6. I clip coupons, then forget to take them with me.

7. I have a huge collection of fabric etc. grocery bags because I keep buying new ones when I forget to take one with me. This is not good and must stop!

8. I have never colored my hair. I haven't had any sort of chemical enhancement to my locks since the 80s (yes, even I had a perm in the 80s).

7. I almost never wear makeup, even now that I am getting few age spots and light wrinkles around my eyes. On the rare occasions that I do wear makeup, people are literally stunned. I think because I am totally inept in putting on makeup. :-)

8. I love to sing but haven't been on stage in years and years. When we were driving up to Ogden for ebeilskeivers at Rissa's, I was signing along to a carol on the radio, and my son Michael said that my voice was good enough to be on the radio. He was my favorite son for at least 15 minutes.

8. I inherited an irrational need to collect rubber bands, twisty ties, and plastic bags from my Mom.

9. Speaking of Mom, she passed away a little over a year ago, but it still seems unreal to me because I can still hear her telling me corny jokes and singing silly songs in my head. It's funny that what is annoying to you in life becomes very dear in death.

10. My office is very, very tidy. My home is not. We still haven't put up all the curtains in our "new" house. We are hoping to remedy that today.

11. I go to an awesome women's group every month. You know who you are!

12. I am addicted to magazines. I collect them. I have an almost complete collection of SageWoman and the Beltane Papers. I also love Martha Stewart Living. It helps me dream. We have at least one and a half large bookcases with just my magazines.

13. I can cook if I have recipe. This is strange considering I had very little cooking experience until college. I am continually amazed at Shane's ability to take random ingredients and make a meal without a recipe. And now you know one reason why I married him.

14. Shane and I met at Duke. We are both from Utah originally. We both refused to go out together for some time because of this fact. Yet we would always hang out together at parties. I hate paying my law school loans every month, but then again, it was a bargain price for meeting Shane.

15. I buy beautiful diaries, then fail to write in them. This is one of my traits that my husband kindly puts up with.

16. When I was in grade school, I used to roam around the neighborhood collecting garbage-bound treasures. My neighbors were understandably creeped out by this.

17. My sister, Marisa, and I, who are 6 years apart in age, got our driver's licenses the same year, got married the same year, and had our first children within 8 months of one another and our second children were born within 18 hours of one another.

18. Other people always had much bigger dreams for me than I had for myself. Making a family with Shane fulfilled all my deepest dreams and for that I am eternally grateful to him.

19. I love Studio Ghibli films. In fact, we have a copy of Totoro in Japanese that we watch with the boys even though none of us speaks the language. I have seen it enough in English that I can tell the boys what people are saying, pretty much. I just like it better in Japanese. Ghibli films are so strongly, powerfully, visual that you don't have to know what people are saying for the most part.

20. I love animated movies in general. I really, really like Kung Fu Panda. It has a deeply Buddhist undercurrent that really appeals to me.

21. People who know me now are always surprised that I graduated from BYU, I guess because I'm not active in the LDS church anymore. I am deeply grateful for my years at BYU, annoying though they may have been. I met so many amazing, deeply spiritual and powerfully good people there (you also know who you are). And I got to take a class from Gene England!

22. I also inherited an inability to go anywhere without a book in my bag from my Mom. The tendency is amplified in me, actually, and I usually take at least two magazines and two books with me to work everyday, even though I know I will get no more than a few minutes chance to read.

23. I first studied women's spirituality at BYU, on my own, using the amazing library there. I didn't buy my first tarot deck until I graduated, though. I love reading tarot and am reasonably good at it - on a psychological level, not a "predict the future" level. I feel a deep and profound peace when I access that intuitive side of myself. I am mostly self-taught, but I did get to take a class from Margaret Ruth while I was on medical leave after my hysterectomy.

24. I went to church by myself as a child until my sibs started coming with me - I had a deeply awesome ward and have many dear friends from back in the day - I've always had a strong spiritual side for which I am very grateful. I think much of my sense of the universe is still LDS, but I have been profoundly influenced by many religions, particularly Judaism, Buddhism and the Goddess/Earth religions.

25. My deepest hope is for those that I love to be happy - and I love people at the drop of a hat. (BTW, thank you, Jennika, for bringing that gift to Vic). One of the best things about Facebook has been reconnecting with people I love and learning that they are well. I doubt I am the same person that you knew, if you knew me then, but hopefully I am still a person you want to know. :-) I never stop loving people once I start, which I hope all of my friends already know.