I got the idea to blog this today from a post I saw on Face­book.  Inspired by blog­ger Jes­sica Bow­man,  con­trib­u­tors post five ran­dom per­sonal facts.  Sounds fun, right? Below my 5 things is a tool you can use to link your blog  if you post five things we don’t know about you. I hope you’ll come out and play!

1. I Mar­ried a Hong Kong Popstar.

Yep, I snagged me a mullet-​​headed bass play­ing hunk of a pop­star back in the 80’s when mul­lets were the sexy look (busi­ness in the front, party in the back!) Jerry and I were serv­ing in  an out­fit known as Youth With a Mis­sion (YWAM). He was part of Chris­t­ian band that ended up gain­ing quite a bit of local pop­u­lar­ity and even gar­nered a nod as Best New Band one year from the Hong Kong Pop Awards (kinda like the Gram­mys).  He’s the one in the fore­front of the lineup on this cd cover. The band went on to put out sev­eral albums and filmed a few music videos that were aired many times on HK tele­vi­sion. Fans would some­times rec­og­nize Jerry when we were out and about and would ask him for his auto­graph. I found it amus­ing to watch my rather shy, intro­vert hus­band get flus­tered when a Chi­nese teenager thrust a pen and paper at him. Oh I wish I could have Insta­grammed those days!

2. I Had a Fling with the Occupy Movement

I attended the first Occupy march a year ago in Octo­ber with a very ten­ta­tive atti­tude. By the end of the day, the new social/​political move­ment had cap­tured my heart and imag­i­na­tion. (I took many pho­tos of the march that day which you can view HERE) I never became a hard­core  Occupy activist, but the mes­sage of jus­tice of the Occupy move­ment hooked me in. I do not regret any of the marches I par­tic­i­pated in and there was even a short film made of my involve­ment by a film maker from Chris­tian­ity Today. You can see it HERE...but oh God, I look so.…fat. Ugh. Vain. I know. But there you have it. I swore I’d go on a diet after I saw the clip.)

3. I Used to be a Pro­fes­sional Clean­ing Woman

tat­too by Traci Man­ley of www​.newrose​tat​too​.com in Port­land, OR

I ran my own clean­ing ser­vice for eight years from 2002 – 2010.  I cleaned hun­dreds of toi­lets in homes and offices and vac­u­umed miles upon miles of car­pet.  I worked alone most of the time and smelled like bleach all of the time. It was a great gig while my kids were in grade school and mid­dle school. I was self-​​employed and worked my own sched­ule. I don’t miss retir­ing my mop bucket but I do miss being self-​​employed!

4.  I Hate Onions. With a Pas­sion. Hate them.

image found at http://​www​.quick​meme​.com/​F​i​r​s​t​-​W​o​r​l​d​-​P​r​o​b​l​e​ms/

This says  it all!   I have a few great sto­ries of how I man­aged to nego­ti­ate a plate full of onion-​​laden food with­out embar­rass­ing myself or the host.  My family’s favorite one is the time we were on a mis­sion in a Mex­ico and our host fam­ily took us to the “best taque­ria in Tijuana.” This place put onions on EVERYTHING. There was no escape. I prayed silently, “Oh Jesus, you said to eat what was ever set before you. Here goes.”  I took a ten­ta­tive bite of the onion-​​infested carne asada taco… then promptly drank my entire Pepsi in one gulp.  I some­how man­aged to save face by insist­ing that I was still full from our deli­cious (and onion free) lunch.

5. Every Night I Obses­sively Check if the Doors are Locked

photo credit by bel­la­me­dia http://​www​.sxc​.hu/​p​h​o​t​o​/​1​1​4​9​600

Every sin­gle night. I will check the front door, the back door, get ready for bed then recheck them.  I will some­times get up from bed if I am unsure that the house is locked up. It is com­mon for me to check three times on aver­age. More if I am feel­ing par­tic­u­larly spooked, like last month when we had a rash of neigh­bor­hood bur­glar­ies.  I also lock the doors in the mini­van. Once while zoom­ing along the free­way, I locked the doors after real­iz­ing they were unlocked.  I quipped to my son, “You’re safe now.” To which he, cheeky lad that he is, unlocked the doors and quipped back, “No we’re not.”

So those are five things you didn’t know about me but now you do.  I’d love to know a few things about you.  Post a com­ment and let us get to know you better! 

Or bet­ter yet, post five things on your blog and link it back here using the Linky tool below. It will be fun!  Just make sure your doors are locked while you blog. Maybe go check right now. Like I’m about to do.…