25 Random Things About Me

1. I have SAD (Season Affective Disorder).  As a kid, it really wasn't a problem.  As an adult, being cooped up behind computer monitors and beneath florescent lighting for 8 hours a day is devastating (especially during daylight savings time).  While living in Syracuse, NY, my partner Nicole convinced me to get a light therapy box.  The first time I used it, I felt a warm-tingly feeling in the middle of my brain.  With some helpful reminders, I use this thing religiously on rainy days, over the winter season and during any solar eclipse.

2. I don't trust people very often.  During my formative years, the people closest to me underestimated me, or let me down in profound ways.  I often feel that if I want something done, and done right, I have to do it myself.

3. As the only girl in my little nuclear family, I was not encouraged to express myself outside of traditional roles.  At home, I would have my hand soaking in dish water, while my brothers got to play outside.  As a result, I am often rebellious, contrary and ornery... Often, and usually for no good reason.

4. I am not a nurturer.  I see someone scrape their knee and my initial reaction is, "Get up! Don't be a cry baby!"  However, I will go out of my way to help someone on their death bed.  I hope I'm better at this by the time I have kids.

5. Starting around the 3rd grade, I played classical piano at home.  My piano teacher Mrs. Johansen used to rave about my technical skill and constantly criticize my lack of feeling.  I have never been as showy as my older brother.

6. I love music, but cannot for the life of me remember any lyrics to any song without serious effort and constant practice.  I really love singing old church hymns but NOT the contemporary song and praise stuff that has guitar accompaniment.  I prefer the stuff that is a capella or requires a pipe-organ.

7. My brothers and I used to put on operas using stuffed animals as "singers" and tape record them.  The only operas we knew were the one's from Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes.  I hope my mom has a tape hidden away somewhere...

8. Bugs Bunny was my first real crush.  My first girl-crush was my best friend in elementary school.  We stopped being friends one day after she fell off some playground equipment and I didn’t respond as she would have liked (see #4).  My first boy-crush was a little boy named Tom.  He pushed me into a row of empty fold-up chairs during a Valentine's Day dance.  Little boys are mean. Girls have very delicate feelings.  Looney Tunes are forever!

9. At OLV my 8th grade teacher Mrs. Barnett punished my class (for something I've completely forgotten) by keeping us from seeing a Nazareth Academy Band performance.  I begged her to go.  Well maybe not so much begged as debated the pros and cons of why it was wrong for her to do this to us.  Flabbergasted by my disrespectful yet completely logical argument, she said, "OLV does not have a band.  No OLV student will ever join band in high school.  End of discussion."  

10. I was a HS band nerd.  There was no band program at my junior high (see above).  However, at St. Joe, I learned to play oboe and cymbals.  At VHS, I switched to bassoon and pit percussion.  -- Take that Mrs. Barnett! --

11. I think my family was the _only_ Asian people in my hometown.  I carry around stinging memories of discrimination and unwarranted hatred.  When I was very, very little, I remember my mom being attacked while working at a diner.  A crazy man came in with a hunting knife and threatened to kill her for murdering his brother during the Vietnam War.  My mom is Korean… not Chinese, not Japanese.  Korean.  Okay.  And no… not the Kim-Jong-Il kind.

12. I cannot stand injustice, or intolerance.  It breaks my heart and drives me into a fury.  If I see it happening, I will speak up, tactfully at first and then...!

13. I thought I was an ugly-monster until... maybe... my freshman year in high school.  Now I don't think I'm half-bad!

14. I still love (in a way) my HS sweetheart.  He showed me what it was like to have a sweet, dependable, caring, and affectionate person in my life.  He also showed me that I could be just as awful, codependent, obsessive, psychotic and jealous as my mother.

15. I love my mother, but she scares the crap out of me (see 2, 3, 11 and last sentence of 14).

16. I love my brothers.  They will always be my best friends.

17. I had terrible vision until the miracle of Lasik.  I couldn't even shave my legs in the shower without my glasses on!

18. I am not good a team sports.  I think I could have been a decent athlete were it not for my terrible vision and my Jr-High PE teacher, Ms. Hall.  I think we just didn't like each other.

19. My older brother thinks I'm very brave.  Once he even said I was braver then he!  I don't mind picking up snakes, crawdads, etc.  Despite the odds of finding a sleeping water-moccasin, I don't mind splashing through ditches and creeks.  

20. One time, my dog and I were tromping through Barton Creek. I noticed a cave at the top of a hill that I hadn't seen before.  We ran up and peeked inside.  Into the cave I yelled, "Heeeelllllooooo?!"  Suddenly, I felt a rush of wind above my head and heard a loud hissing sound.  My dog, Carson tucked tail and ran behind a boulder.  We had disturbed a very large vulture's nest.  It was so funny/exhilarating I laughed/ran all the way down the hill!

21. I _LIVE_ to be outdoors, playing in the dirt.

22. In a former life, I think I was an archaeologist.  On hikes/walks, I am constantly scanning the ground for fossils/arrowheads etc.

23. If I could go back in time and redo college… I’d want to study the Classics and Anthropology.

24. I am very handy.  I changed all the electrical outlets in my house one weekend... and not just the wall plates!

25. I _LOVE_ Habitat for Humanity and wish I could volunteer more.  I also wish I had more power tools to play with in my garage...