So my last post broke the internet. Okay, not really, but a girl can dream, can’t she? I do have to say, it feels good to have been missed. Thank you for plumping up my ego a bit. And in all seriousness, thank you for reminding me why writing is fun. Knowing that people enjoy my little bits of sharing is what makes the work of it enjoyable.
I thought it might be kind of fun to share some things with you that you might not know about me. No, no, this isn’t that game where I share 10 things and then you have to guess which one is the lie, though that could be fun… These are honest to goodness, real facts about little old me.
No. 1
Several of my front teeth are not real, or or are partially real. And in true Leslie fashion, I came by it dramatically. Story time… It was the night of my 14th birthday party, and we went to youth group. That night we were out at a farm, where there was a tarzan rope. Across an empty creek bed. And this girl was watching and telling her friends to be careful because they were almost dragging their knees on the rocks in the dry creek bed. A friend who was fatigued by these warnings may have blurted out, “If you know so much about this why don’t you go!” Um. Okay. Until not okay. As in I swung across, my hands slipped, and the first thing to connect with the ground/rocks was my face. In one fell swoop (literally) I almost knocked out my front teeth, almost broke my nose, gave myself a black eye, and needed 6 stitches in my upper lip. Along with a trip to the ER, I also got an emergency trip to my dentist at 9 pm at night so he could check out my teeth and reasure us that they weren’t going to fall out (they didn’t). I had to wait two weeks for them to stabilize so they could fix them. Good job Les!
No. 2
I once owned a purple Nissan pickup truck that everyone called Barney. I got it for a grad present and loved it for a good couple of years.
No. 3
I can be sarcastic. And I’m pretty funny. Unless you ask my husband. We both have this issue of our spouse not thinking we’re funny, because we have very different senses of humor. I LOVE witty humor. Love. It. I love sarcasm too. Chris loves Andy Kaufman and enjoys trying to make people feel awkward. It’s a very intersting combination.
No. 4
I have deceptively thick hair. To the naked eye it looks to be a moderate thickness. Every time I go to a new hair dresser I warn them that it’s pretty thick, and I typically get, “It’s a little thick, but not too bad.” That is, until they’re done cutting it. I kid you not. One time we had a visitor that was Korean, and he was just finishing up his training as a hair stylist. He offered to cut my hair while here, so I obviously took him up on that offer. We were talking about my hair, and I gave him the usual warning. His response? “I cut Korean girl hair. THAT’S thick hair!” And then he cut my hair. Dry. So when he was done he had two racoon sized balls of hair on the floor. And he was flabbergasted. He’d never seen anything like it and actually said, “You warned me. I didn’t believe you. Now it looks like there are two animals down here.” Ha! The irony of this is that I hardly had any hair until I was 3. I just had enough to make DQ twist on the top of my head and snap a barret on. My mom was worried I would forever be bald. I guess I made up for it.
No. 5
I’m a cryer. My eyes are like gysers. You look at me sideways and I cry. I yawn and I cry. My tearducts are abnormally active. It drives Chris crazy because I cannot hold it in. We talk about something happy and I get all smooshy and the tears start rolling down. We talk about something sad/hard and the tears start rolling down. We watch Parenthood and I ugly cry. It’s not pretty. But, it is part of who I am. I have come to terms with it and have just accepted that God has given me a sensitive heart that I wear all over my wet, snotty face.
No. 6
I LOVE airports. And I especially love airports when I’m travelling by myself. I love watching people. I love seeing what every airport has to offer. I love wandering and seeing what stores and restaurants there are. I love watching the arrivals area. I love it.
No. 7
I am the only member of our family that has just one passport. Yep, it’s true. Chris is a dual citizen and has both a US and Canadian passport. Alex is now a dual citizen with both a US and Canadian passport. Olivia currently has a Canadian and expired Haitian passport and we’re in the process of applying for her US citizenship, so she’s going to tip the scales with having 3. I feel kind of left out…
No. 8
I don’t do well with having to pick favorites on anything. I just can’t seem to do it. I think part of it is because I’m a bit indecisive, which stems from making decisions about things like food and colors based on the current mood I’m in. I can’t honestly tell you things like what my favorite flavor of ice cream is, because it depends on what I want when I go buy icecream. I can tell you what my favorite quality of icecream is, but not flavor. I can’t tell you my favorite place to travel, because I like things about all the places I’ve been. I can’t tell you what my hands down favorite color is, because there are too many beautiful ones to choose from. This can make decisions hard, but I think it also makes me open to a lot more than I would be if I zeroed in on certain things.
No. 9
I’m a Jill of all trades and master of none and have been since before my time here in Haiti. Before moving here I worked in restaurants in food prep and cleaning, summer camp counselor, coffee shop barista manager, apple picker, florist, administrative assistant, youth pastor and probably a few other things I forgot. Here in Haiti my job includes general admin stuff (emails, letters, office work), accounting, graphic design, website maintenance, volunteer recruitment, visitor hosting, teaching training classes, managing staff, social media, writing… more things that I can list. I also get side gigs in woodworking projects (building things like cabinets), designing buildings (3 of them now), mowing the lawn, and anything else that needs to be done. Most of these things I’ve learned by just hacking my way through it.
No. 10
I have, for a very long time, wanted to write a book. My issue is not being able to narrow it down to a specific focus. That and time. I have ideas, but have not put anything down on the screen to move in that direction. It’s definitely something I want to explore. When/if it does every happen, I feel like it’s going to be an interesting combination of things.
No. 11 – Bonus
In my last post I mentioned that I wrote for Esquire magazine’s website once. And then the Russian print version of Esquire asked if they could publish a bunch of my blog posts from after the earthquake, and I let them. Somewhere rattling around in the house I have a copy of the magazine, but can’t actually read it, because Russian. Another interesting fact – when I was asked to write for Esquire it was a paid gig. But I didn’t ever get paid. When it came time to fill out the paperwork I couldn’t complete it because they sent me forms for US citizens, which I’m not. When I asked about it, I didn’t ever hear back. So, I didn’t actually get paid for that, but I can claim that I did it, so that’s something, right?
No. 12 – Bonus Bonus
Because I’m generous, I’ll give you one more.
I have this ability to write a lot of words in a short period of time. I don’t know how this came to be. It just is. I remember being in my mandatory Grammar & Comp class in my first year of college, and our term project was a 3000 word research paper. It felt massive. It felt impossible. 3000 words! That’s so huge! I remember how much I hated writing that paper. And most papers, except probably anything to do with counselling. Anything else though – ugh! And now? How long does it take for me to write a blog post? Well, with no pictures and minimal editing I can punch out 3000 words in less than two hours. If I’m on a really good roll I can do it faster. Depends on what I’m writing about and how often I get distracted. I laugh at the fact that I thought 3000 words was hard one day. This post? It’s already over 1400 words and I’ve been working on it for about an hour, if not less. The End.
See, conversation leads to learning new things! Aren’t you so glad you stopped in today?
~Leslie
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