Things you might not know...

So, in the spirit of giving the girls an inside scoop about my life here are some things that they (and you) might not know about me.

1.  When I was 16 years old an adult neighbor had given me permission to use his car but forgot to tell his mom (who was staying at his house while he was out of town).  Celeste and I took the car out one night and his mother told my parents that we had stolen the car from his house.  This was before I had a cell phone so my parents sat at their house with his mom for 4 hours waiting for me to get home - all the while thinking that I'd actually stolen the car.  Needless to say, we ended up calling Luis at about 11 that night so he could clear the whole thing up. 

2.  I never went on a real date until I was a freshman in college.  I had "boyfriends" in high school but never went on dates, except to club banquets and things of that sort.  As a result, I had a lot of fun casually dating boys once I got to college (when I wasn't in committed relationships).

3.  Speaking of relationships, my second longest lasting one - behind Tommy - was with a guy named John.  We dated for about 18 months our first two years in college before breaking up.  We remained good friends and he ended up dating one of my best friends (Joan) for about 2 years after we broke up.  In fact, he was her date to my wedding and I still talk to him from time to time 10 years later.

4.  In college I was fortunate enough opportunity to march in the St Patricks Day Parade in Dublin, Ireland and also to sing in Carnegie Hall in NYC.  Additionally, my college marching band performed the exhibition performance at the BOA Grand Nationals in Indianapolis and I was allowed the opportunity to direct the band from the back sideline.  (Anyone who was there knows that I wasn't very good at it - I didn't have "conductor's hands"!)  Music has opened doors for me that would have otherwise not been available.

5.  My first car was also the first car my mom ever had.  It was her hand-me-down '72 Mercury Comet. It looked like the Dukes of Hazard car but was blue instead of that orange color. I was mortified anytime I had to drive it.  Luckily I was a total Daddy's girl and he often drove the Comet to work so I could take his F150 to school.  ;-)

6.  I was born near Seoul, S Korea on Osan AFB.  Both of my parents were stationed there and we moved back to the US when I was about 11 months old.  Once I was born my parents were not allowed to live on base because I wasn't a "sponsored" civilian who had been preapproved prior to their station there.  I wasn't preapproved because I hadn't been born yet!  You've got to love bureaucracy, huh? 

My babysitters used to pass me around to their friends because everyone wanted to play with the blond haired, blue eyed baby.  My mom would go to pick me up from the sitter and she would say that "The baby is TDY (The military acronym for having to travel somewhere else for temporary duty).  Be home by 7."  Then another woman would drop me back off at my parents' apartment promptly at 7.  It was a different world then, and my parents had no problem with this scenario. 

Tommy is half Korean (his mom's Korean).  However, if you ask the girls why they are 1/4 Korean they will tell you it's because I was born there.  It cracks me up every time!

7.  When I was 3 I would play "kiss tag" with boys at school.  Before starting the game we would determine where they would get to kiss me if they caught me.  Keep it clean, though!  They got to kiss me on my hand or my cheek.  I guess I can't be too surprised that Ali is a flirt when I started much younger than even she has!

8.  I have lived in the following places:  S Korea, Michigan, Louisiana, California, Texas and Oklahoma.  I also spent temporary periods of time in Kentucky and Arizona.  I consider myself a Texan because we moved there when I was 12 and I stayed until I got married at 22.  I fully expect to retire to Texas (preferably the Austin area) in about 15 years.

9.  When we were about 14 years old Celeste and I snuck out of her house when we were spending the night there.  We thought we were geniuses because we placed a giant teddy bear and pillows in her bed and covered them to look like us sleeping.  We slipped out her window and went to visit a friend down the street.  Again, this was before cell phones so we were surprised to find her sister standing outside when we got back home at about 2:30 in the morning.  She had been pretending to smoke so she could warn us that Celeste's parents had found out we were gone.  She told us not to worry too much because Paul and Loretta couldn't stop laughing at how ridiculous that stupid teddy bear looked.  They were firm with us but I noticed that her dad kept "coughing" behind her hand. We were sent to bed with a firmly stated warning that if we ever did it again they would tell my parents.  Celeste and I quickly learned that as long as one set of parents didn't catch us doing too much bad stuff too close together they wouldn't rat us out to each other.  We were like family so each set would punish us as if the additional girl was their own.

10.  I worked as a telemarketer in high school.  One shift there was a man who was terribly hurtful to me and almost made me cry.  I tried to get off the phone but he must have noticed that my voice was shaky.  He apologized and told me that literally minutes before I called - his wife had left him.  She had just walked out the door with all her stuff.  I still feel badly for him and hope that beautiful things happened for him after that.  Another time I called a house in Ohio and the phone was answered by a man who identified himself as the person I was calling for.  We spoke for a little while and he was very friendly.  About 10 minutes into the call I was sure I was going to make the sale - he really seemed interested.  Then he told me that he was the teen aged son of the person I was calling and asked if I wanted to attend his prom as his date.  He offered to fly me out and pay for a hotel.  It was really creepy.  I pretended to have an emergency and passed the call off to one of the male floor managers.

Well, those are just a few stories and I'm sure I'll think of more as time goes on.  Have a great day!