25 random things

If you're already a "friend" of mine on Facebook, its possible you've read this. But I put enough time putting it together I figured I'd post it here too. It was a fun exercise ... when was the last time you tried to come up with 25 somewhat random and fun facts about yourself? I dare you to try ....

1. Sometimes I play boggle online and I get an unusually high sense of satisfaction when I score really high. I also get really excited when I come up with words that use the V, the X or the Qu, even though its not Scrabble, and there are no extra points for using these letters.

2. I dream in Chinese sometimes. But as my Chinese gets worse and worse (I’ve been home from China for 5 ½ years now) my dreams have become more and more simple, as even the other characters in my dreams can only speak as much Chinese as my head can remember.

3. I wish I’d been an English major in college. You’d think the mere fact that every single elective I took was an English class would have tipped me off … but who really knows what they want when they’re in college, even if it’s staring them in the face?

4. I was a gymnast once. A pretty good one too. I once won 1st place on the bars in my division in the state of California, 4th place all-around. I wanted to be Mary Lou Retton, even had her hair cut. But my parents said I should be a kid and not a gymnast. To this day I don’t remember being as sad as I was that day … though now I see their wisdom and am glad for their decision.

5. I tend to be at constant war with my structured personality, longing to be OK with spontaneity and last-minute changes, instead of needing at least half an hour to deal with my expectations and let the change of plan not ruin my week.

6. I would vote for Jack Bauer for President.

7. Sometimes I buy yarn for which I have no need or project in mind, just because I love the way it feels.

8. I would love to learn how to dance hip-hop. Honest. I think it’s so cool.

9. “True Companion” by Marc Cohn just might be my favorite song of all time. And proof that for all my structure there is a romantic living within me somewhere.

10. All my life I’ve been branded, and even tested, an extrovert. But in recent years, as I’ve discovered more of my true self, and decided to be OK with that, it turns out I’m actually an introvert (admittedly, with extroverted tendencies). Its been the most freeing discovery of my adult life.

11. Even though I’m starting my family a bit later in life than I’d always imagined, I love that I spent my single years doing daring and exciting things, living my life to the fullest I could. Not that there weren’t times in there where I pined for a man, like every single woman getting older, but I didn’t let it stop me from following my own dreams and goals. One of my greatest wishes is for every other young woman out there to understand her intrinsic value in this world, even without a man, and to pursue life no matter her marital status.

12. Honestly, I’d rather be a few pounds overweight and enjoy Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups now and then than be skinnier and utterly unhappy.

13. I still think it would be cool to live on and run a horse ranch somewhere in Montana or Wyoming. I could ride horses every day through beautiful countryside. Winter would look like Christmas postcards and summer would never get above 80. Then I remember just how cold I get in even 60-degree weather, and realize this dream is a silly one, if I were being realistic. But I still love the romance of the idea.

14. Russell Crowe is my favorite actor, Gladiator is one of my favorite movies. He looks a lot like my husband too.

15. Christian Bale comes in close second, having fallen in love with him after Newsies came out so many years ago. I think he makes a perfect Batman and can’t wait for the Terminator movie.

16. Of course, the pairing of Christian Bale and Russell Crowe in 3:10 to Yuma, a Western (my favorite genre), made for a stars-and-planets-aligned moment in cinematic history.

17. On those notes, I prefer action / adventure and creature feature type movies to chick flicks, a fact for which my husband is thoroughly grateful. If I’m ever at a loss for a movie to pop in, I usually choose something like Die Hard, Lethal Weapon or Jurassic Park. Great movies.

18. Lean Cuisine meals, though easy and even tasty, don’t provide nearly enough food to actually get a pregnant woman all the way to dinner time.

19. If I had my way, the world would no longer belong to the morning people. Work would start somewhere around 10, but if you couldn’t make it in until 11, they’d understand. It would end before dinner time, because its important to spend time with family and at home. And because there’s no need to get up early the next morning, its ok that the creative juices start flowing at 9:00 at night. I could stay up until midnight knitting or organizing or cleaning or planning or reading. It would be such a perfect world. Curse the morning people and their tyranny.

20. Chocolate Brown is my favorite color. I love when it’s paired with other rich fall colors like gold and rust and crimson. Fall definitely has the best color scheme of any season.

21. I think one of the most important spiritual truths we can own is that we are free. Unfortunately, I think it tends to be one of those truths that is most difficult to grasp and to own. But just think how much more relaxed we’d all be if we stopped “should”ing ourselves and just loved God, and then did what we want? (This is obviously a very abbreviated summary of what I’m thinking, but hopefully it translates.)

22. I wish I were a better writer. I love to write, and sometimes am even able to impress myself. But then when I read great writers like Harper Lee and Anna Quindlen and Dostoyevsky and Dean Koontz and C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein (with his many initials), I am stricken with an inferiority complex too great to overcome, and thus don’t even pursue the practice as much as I should. Oh how I revere the great writers.

23. I prefer the New American Standard Version of the Bible to any other, mostly for its more poetic phrasing of Scripture. However, it tends to leave me lost when reading along in church or Bible study, as it is not often the version of choice for public reading.

24. If I had more expendable time on my hands, I think I would do more cooking, and maybe we’d have something other than chicken or soup or frozen pizza for dinner.

25. Sometimes I drive with the window down AND the air conditioning running. Who says you can’t have the best of both worlds?