Deja Vu

Anyone else seeing all the "list-of-things-about-me" posts on Facebook right now and having deja vu of five years ago? 25 Random Things? Anyhow I haven't done a new list, but I did this one back then and thought it would be a timely and convenient thing to post here on the blog tonight in lieu of doing actual writing. I've got lots of thoughts kicking around in my head but they are all sort of half-formed, so 25 Random Things from Five Years Ago it is! :) (They are all still true...well, except #19, now that I have a smart phone and can't function without it.)

1. I am half Samoan, half Southern. Basically there was cannibalism on one side of my family and in-breeding on the other. 

2. Dubious heritage aside, I love my family more than most things. I would rather hang out with them than do just about anything else. 

3. I am related to Tori Amos. She is my second cousin once-removed (my great-grandmother was an Amos, and Tori is her brother’s granddaughter). I got to meet her at a concert in Salt Lake a few years ago. 

4. I only went to kindergarten for a few months and then I skipped up to first grade because I could already read. I turned 17 three days before graduating from high school. 

5. I am the worst procrastinator ever born and I am late to almost everything. It makes me fail at life sometimes but at least it gives other people something they can rely on in their lives…right? 

6. I wrote a satirical essay for my 9th grade English class about Bill Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky scandal in which I said that we should just create a new post for a Presidential Mistress, because the President is an important man with important “needs.” Just institutionalize the adultery and take away the shame, I said. I’m not sure what wellspring of cynicism that came from at age 13, but I read my essay in front of the class and it made people laugh, so it’s a good memory.

7. In high school I was on the debate team and the track team and (for one year) the soccer team. I am not very confrontational or very athletic – I just wanted to try things that didn’t come naturally to me. That may sound brave but it was pretty embarrassing at the time. I lost a lot of debates, I scored a goal for the other team in soccer, and my attempts at the high jump probably should have been taped for America’s Funniest Home Videos. I like to think of them as “character-building” experiences now, it makes me cringe less when I remember them.

8. Probably half of all the guys that ever asked me out when I was single were shorter than 5’8”. Not sure what it was about me that inspired such confidence in shorter men. Sometimes I like to think it was some sort of evolutionary drive to ensure the continuation of their genes – if they could have taller offspring, their children would have a better chance of finding mates and therefore having their own offspring, etc. But really, it was probably just me finding them non-threatening and being able to be myself. 

9. I didn’t eat spicy food before I met my husband. Now I say, BRING THE HEAT. 

10. I like to cook, especially for other people. I've made an entire Thanksgiving meal including turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, rolls, green beans, cranberry sauce, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and pies. YUM!

11. In my ideal future home, I would love to tear up the front yard and plant a big garden. Front yards are a waste of space anyway IMHO – a lot of mowing and maintenance for something that’s just for show and never even gets used. 

12. I only cry when I’m angry. 

13. I am not an animal person. I can’t handle their hair being everywhere. I think they’re cute and I’ll pet them and whatever, but then I’ll immediately want to wash my hands and will keep a mental track of everything I touch until I can. My husband loves dogs though so we’ll probably get one one day and then I’ll have to get over myself. 

14. I am very sensitive to violence in movies and TV shows. When I was little, I used to run out of the room if things got too intense during Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. I feel like I could probably desensitize myself to it if I made myself watch it, but something about that idea strikes me as really immoral. Turns out I prefer being a weenie. 

15. I love to sing. I was in the BYU Women’s Chorus for 3 years and loved every minute. I got to sing in the Mormon Tabernacle and in the Conference Center. 

16. Josh and I traveled to England, Scotland, Ireland, France, and Italy last May with only backpacks for luggage. Parts of our trip were really fun, and parts of it were really miserable (see #17).

17. Coming home from Europe, we almost missed our flight out of Rome b/c we were told that it would cost 45 euros ($60) to take a taxi to the airport but if we wanted to walk it was only 30 min away on foot. Cheapskates that we are, we tried to walk and ended up getting lost in a neighborhood where no one spoke English…carrying our 20 pound backpacks…at 5 AM…in the pouring rain…with only one umbrella. And not enough money to buy new tickets home if we missed our flight. It was pretty much a miracle we made it back to America.

18. At some point in my life I would love to go to: Scandinavia; Peru, Chile & Easter Island; Australia, New Zealand & Samoa; Japan; and Greece. 

19. I have a cell phone that I rarely use for anything but texting.

20. I’m a spelling and grammar nerd. I definitely notice typos and misplaced modifiers and all of that. I’m a slow writer because I can’t not fix them right away. The double negative in that last sentence is yelling at me right now. Also, there is a comma splice in my #7 that I'm going to ignore.

21. I wanted to be an architect when I was little. I drew lots of floor plans for my dream house on huge sheets of paper. It was basically the same house every time – a big rectangle filled with luxuries like a movie theater, an indoor pool, and My Own Room. I dreamed big. 

22. My religion informs the best parts of who I am and who I try to be and it frustrates me when people dismiss it (or religion in general) as warped or evil. It’s because I believe that people are all children of God – that the people around me are all literally my brothers and sisters – that I try so hard to empathize with others and to put myself in their shoes. 

23. I can’t stand when people are rude or condescending or hateful. I hate politics and the internet (and especially politics ON the internet) for that reason because they seem to bring out everyone’s inner douchebag, and that really interferes with my trying to see people in a positive light. :)

24. Getting married to my husband was the best decision I’ve ever made. I was nervous about it until the day of our wedding (b/c forever is a long time, and I always second-guess myself), and now my husband likes to tell people I didn’t love him until 6 months in, but it’s the one decision I’ve never regretted. 

25. I absolutely love being a mom. I am unfazed by diapers or vomit.