Ten Random and Weird Facts About Yours Truly

(This gem of a photo was taken by accident when I asked my husband to take some outfit pictures. Even though it’s totally overexposed and decidedly ridiculous, It ended up kinda being my favourite.)

A zillion years ago, I was tagged in one of those things where you’re supposed to share 10 random facts about yourself on your blog. I was in the midst of a really busy season at the time and didn’t get the chance to write the post. But after that, I kept a running list of things I *would* include in such a list, if ever the opportunity arose again.

Well, I finally just decided to turn that list into a post, just for fun, and forget about the right opportunity.

Here are ten random, weird, pointless, silly facts about Yours Truly.

• I don’t like coffee. Or tea. Or any other hot beverage, for that matter. I just don’t get it. I don’t need a drug addiction, thanks. And for me, the whole point of drinking a beverage is to cool off your mouth. Why would you put a hot liquid in your mouth? Especially in the morning, when your mouth is the warmest and yuckiest? Like I said: I just don’t get it.

• I’m left-handed.

• I’ve never had my ears (or any other part of my body) pierced. For the first twenty years of my life, it was because I wasn’t allowed. (Conservative Mennonites are opposed to all jewelry, but especially that which requires altering the body). And after that — i.e., after I got married and moved out of the house — I just never found a compelling enough reason to do it. Then I would have to buy earrings. Who has time and money for that?

• In fact, I still don’t really wear jewelry at all. I never got in the habit. I have a couple of 7-year-old $10 necklaces that I bust out for events like weddings. When my ($500) wedding ring broke, I started wearing a plain band of steel that my father-in-law made out of a piece of pipe, which just happened to fit my ring finger perfectly. I have been wearing it for five years now. It’s so much more comfortable!

• I routinely get mistaken for a man on the phone. I’m totally used to picking up the phone, saying, “Hello?” and hearing, “Hi — Ben?” When I worked in publishing, I got, “Hi — Dan?” Even my own father mistook me for my husband once. And once, after talking to one of Ben’s clients on the phone, the client’s son called and said, “Can I talk to the guy my dad was just talking to?”

• I have all my wisdom teeth. At first, I kept them because I didn’t have dental coverage and couldn’t afford to get them pulled. And then I discovered that they were just fine just the way they were. And, well, we still don’t have coverage. Besides: why fix something that ain’t broke? When I developed cavities in a few of them, I just got them filled.

• My most embarrassing moment: I once announced to an entire 500+ congregation that a woman was dead. She wasn’t. (Background story: I used to act as “host” at our church’s Sunday morning services, welcoming people and doing announcements, offering an opening prayer, etc. One Sunday before the service, a bunch of people came to me at once and gave me a bunch of last-minute details on a few new announcements. In all the commotion, someone told me something about an elderly woman in the congregation, and I got the details a little wrong.  After my announcement, the pastor had to come up and assure the congregation, “Mrs. Reimer did not DIE. She broke her HIP.” Needless to say, I resigned from my post shortly thereafter.)

• I didn’t see a movie in theater until I was 13. Again, I wasn’t allowed before then. My first movie was How the Grinch Stole Christmas (The Jim Carrey version). The theater was packed, and we had to sit right up in the front row with our necks craned up. I was underwhelmed by the experience.

• I write in a journal (by hand) every single night. I have been doing this since 1996 (at age 11), though I started writing periodically in 1992 (at age 7). I have 24 full journals. My very first entry reads, “J and D [my cousins] came over and we collered. And then we played tachtag and got swety.” (March 8, 1992). I use the word “swety” no fewer than four times in the first four entries.

• I started working to help support the family when I was 11. My family picked green beans for some extra income that summer. I continued to do manual labour jobs every summer from then on. (When we talk about working “on the field” in our family, we mean working on a literal field. With plants growing on it.) 75% of our earnings went to the family; the other 25%, we kids could keep to spend on clothes, eating out with our friends, etc. In addition to beans, we picked tomatoes, peppers, and apples, and we detasseled corn. When I was 13 I packed tomatoes and cucumbers, and throughout high school and university I picked mushrooms at a mushroom farm on weekends and during the summer. I got my first non-manual-labour job when I was 20, when I worked as a research assistant for a professor. To say that I have had enough of working with produce would be an understatement.

Aren’t you glad you know these things about me? If you have a blog, I would be tickled if you made a similar list and shared it. If not: feel free to tell me one weird thing about yourself that I probably don’t know.