In celebration of my first set being released tomorrow..21 hours from now, not that I am nervously counting down or anything..I thought it would be fun to write down 10 Random Facts about myself. This turned out to be such a fun assignment, making me think about things I don't usually take the time to think about. Hope you enjoy! :) :)
Oh, and I believe some tagging is in order ...@rambo @missy @lyxzen
1. I am a collector of books. I love old books that have that vintage smell, I get giddy when I can go roam the goodwill book section for a bit and I have a slight addiction to collecting coffee table books (of course the Suicide Girls books are an essential part of that collection). I worked at Borders Bookstore when I was in college and I don’t think I ever brought any money home. I would raid the clearance racks and pick up great books like 30 Porn Star Portraits, The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics, Album Covers of the Sixties, and The Complete Collection of Edgar Allen Poe. I don’t yet have enough bookshelf space to house all of the wonderful works of literature that have been collected over the years but I look forward to the day that I can walk into a library like I am Belle living in the Beast’s castle.
2. I’ve never felt like I was much of a girl, or girly enough rather, for the world. I was absolutely one of those girls that had self-esteem issues. I tried to fake it and fit in; tried to learn how to do my hair just right, or do my makeup just right, or wear the right outfit which was hard as the big girl. I could never do the super cute cat eye eyeliner, or the perfect curls in the hair, or wear anything like what my friends were wearing. Trying to be what I thought everyone else wanted me to be took up a huge portion of my life and it led me down some destructive paths. Looking back on that younger version of myself, I hate how much time and energy I spent on things that did not serve me, on people that did not care for me. I suppose that is all how we learn though. When I found yoga, or maybe when it found me, I was able to slowly start breaking down all of the preconceived notions of what I was supposed to be. I have been practicing for 9 years but over the last 5 years especially, yoga has stripped me to my core, allowing me to present a better version of myself to the world every single day. I have also become obsessed with Les Mills Body Combat along the way in this fitness journey, which is something I never saw myself doing (high intensity, choreographed moves, in a room full of strangers?! ‘Fuck that’- the old me would have said). I have broken down my own barriers, not for anyone else other than myself and it feels amazing. At 30, I can finally embrace my minimalist way of life. Sure, makeup is fun, but I feel good not wearing a whole face load of it every day. I like the way my hair looks air dried, with the weird little flip on the left side because sitting and working on my hair just bugs the shit out of me most of the time. I really, really like being able to get ready in 10 minutes. I suppose this random fact just boils down to this: it took me 30 years to learn how to love myself inside and out. It has been the most difficult and most eye-opening journey that I wouldn’t trade for the world. Oh yeah, and yoga. Do lots of yoga.
3. The only jewelry I have every really, truly loved (next to my wedding band) has been my body jewelry. I had a face full of piercings that I just thought made me…more me. I had my nose, my tongue, my labret and snakebites and damn, I miss those things. Piercings were something I could do in between tattoos to scratch that itch and now that I’ve stopped getting pierced I feel a little lost. I still have my first one, the belly button of course; 15 years and going strong. My unexpected favorites are my nipple rings. I love those fucking things so much I have had them redone 3 times (hospital stays mean no piercings allowed). Those are not fun to have done once, let alone 3 times. Hell, @Roz talked me into it that last time! I may or may not like a little pain though.
4. I am a puzzler, but I am particular about the puzzles I want to do; a picky puzzler if you will. I always liked a puzzle here and there as I was growing up but nothing out of the ordinary. Over the last 8 years, I have found such joy in puzzling; sometimes it’s a quiet activity, other days the whole family is hovered over the table. Hubs and I have completed the Ravensburger Ed Hardy collection which consists of 5 1000 piece puzzles, each one with great traditional style artwork. We are currently working our way through the Ceaco/Thomas Kinkade Disney Collection. There were 25 to complete (last time I counted) and we are 9 in so far (Side note: This is an absolutely amazing collection if you have a Disney fan in your life).
5. Speaking of Disney… I am a huge Disney geek. I look back fondly on the few years that we had annual passes. Disneyland is my home park and I was a 45 minute drive away…I took advantage of that almost every day. I was a stay-at-home mom with just 1 kiddo at the time, so her and I would wake up and just go…all day. We made some of the most amazing memories there, celebrated big moments and I am so appreciative of every single second we got to spend there. I can’t watch a Disney commercial without tearing up a little, but there is Disney everywhere, every day in this house. From movies (my favorite is Sword in the Stone), to stories (raiding goodwill for vintage Disney books makes me very happy), top video games. Infinity has been pretty fun and the Kinect Disneyland game is a good fix for “I really miss Disney” days. The walls are filled with Disney puzzles and pictures, the shelves are filled with collectables and my head is filled with tattoos I want to get to make my love a little more permanent. The beginning of this process took place with my Jack and Sally tattoo. A little spin off of Shakespeare, the quote “Has my heart loved until now?” is written below the two, a graveyard headstone bears our wedding date. I haven’t quite decided on how I am going to finish the sleeve out yet, but the ideas are definitely there.
6. I love to cook and experiment in the kitchen. I grew up watching my dad cook and the more I am in the kitchen, the more I realize I am turning out to be exactly like him. That’s not at all a bad thing though. Like my dad, I will follow a recipe to a tee the first time around, but after that I am all about eye-balling it, going by taste and making it my own. One of my favorite things to do is find a dish at a restaurant I really like and try to recreate it at home without a recipe, just to see how close I can get. I have had some great successes over the years, but my favorite has been the shrimp shack pasta from Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. It was a flavorful blend of lemon, garlic and butter tossed with fresh green onion, Roma tomatoes, penne and feta; a simple and delicious dish that sticks out in my mind 9 years later. I am constantly expanding my horizons in the kitchen, too. For example, I never used to be able to bake; cook yes, bake no. I would even ruin the pre-made cookie dough… it was bad. Since moving to Colorado and embracing the higher way of life we have here, I can bake like nobody’s business. I can only bake high though…which makes the goodies not last as long and I think if I opened up a bakery I would have to call it the Baked Baker…or something like that, you get the idea.
7. I have not had a job outside the home in 9 years and now that made my kids are getting older the real world kind of scares me. I received a Bachelors in Human Services, Concentrations in Substance Abuse Counseling and Non-Profit Management in 2007, but have never done a thing with it. The closer I get to having no kids at home, the more I have to think about what I want to do, what makes me feel happy and fulfilled beyond my family. I have to be honest, it is not coming to me and thinking about it proves to be frustrating more than anything else. I am beginning to think that I am just not built for the real world because that whole housewife/mom thing really works for me. I do have to say I am very grateful that I have the opportunity to be home and have been home with my children thus far. I know there are many parents who do not have that option available to them and I do not take a single day for granted, even the bad days that make you want to run away from it all.
8. I could watch all of Family Guy, Looney Tunes, The Simpsons or Archer over and over and over. I was raised by Looney Tunes biggest fan (my dad) and he loved his Simpsons; my mother hated that he would let me watch that with him. As far as Family Guy and Archer, I just can’t imagine life without it. Literally every day there is a Family Guy or Archer reference being made, a line being quoted, something from either myself or hubs. Every night when we crawl into bed for legitimate “Netflix and Chill”, we always think we are going to watch something new or finish an episode of the current show we are watching but no, we usually go right to Family Guy or Archer….every…fucking…time… and I love it.
9. Colorado is most certainly home from here on out but there is a piece of my heart that will always be in Hawaii. Having been in a military family, I moved around a lot when I was little but settled down in Hawaii when I was 8. I did all of my growing there- school, marriage, kids -and it is easy to miss it. From the North Shore, to the food, to the Gordon Biersch at Aloha Tower that overlooked the water (it was absolutely one of my favorite places to go, especially for a cold brew at sunset). Luckily, there is a bitchin LnL BBQ down the road from me and so many great beers to be had in Colorado! Yay for upsides!
10. I love beer and wine but more than that, I love to make it. My dad has been a homebrewer for close to 25 years now and he has been the owner of a homebrew supply store on Oahu, HomebrewinParadise, for about 10 years now. He was so thrilled when I was old enough to teach, or should I say, when I was old enough to care about good beer and how to make it. I am a lover of IPAs but have found in these colder Colorado temperatures lagers, stouts and porters treat me very nicely. With a love of craft brew and home brewing, this state could not be more perfect for us to have settled down in.
If you made it to the end then a very big thank you for reading my first blog homework. I know this 10 Random Facts turned out to be 10 mini short stories, but I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about me. I also hope that these can be a fun conversation starter between myself and all of you amazing people.