Inspired by the idea of revealing more about myself – I am going to veer from the normal posts today. I decided to make a list of some slightly random things you probably don’t know about me and you would have done just fine in life never having known. You know the basics of me if you a) know me personally or b) read my blog and even though I always write my articles from my own life experience, I find that I don’t talk much about my actual personality on this blog.  Sure, you know what I like to do with my time, how many grandkids I have, that I have Multiple Sclerosis, but I’ve never shared some of what makes me tick so here is a chance for me to share some dirt about myself with all of you.

1) I am the Google queen in our house.  Whenever we need info fast, I am the gal for the job.  Especially if it will prove that I am right, and they are wrong.

2) I had imaginary chickens that lived in our bathtub when I was a little girl.  One day, someone forgot to close the door after using the bathroom and my chickens escaped.  I never spoke about the chickens again.

3) The Sugar Bowl was a place that some of my happiest memories were made – all kids need a Sugar Bowl in their life.

4) I’ve lived in 15 different towns: The largest being Littleton Colorado at a population of 46,000 and the smallest being Larkspur Colorado at 195.  One of the towns we lived in (Cassiar BC) is now a real Ghost Town.

5) Until the day my mom died, she never knew the truth about how my little brother lost his front tooth.  She thought he tripped going up the stairs, but we know he was riding his bike somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be, and she would have killed us, so we swore each other to secrecy and never fessed up. Sorry Mom!!

6) I’m slightly competitive.  I will play with someone until they start beating me consistently and then I stop playing with them. Unless of course it’s golf where it is perfectly acceptable to cheat occasionally.

7) I will always stand up for myself and get my point across, but I don’t particularly like to argue.  I was always worried that if someone yelled and walked away, that they were walking out on me.  Took me a long time to get over that and my life became much more authentic and real when I let go of that nonsense.

8) I’ve been in Canada for over 30 years now and I still don’t call a hat a toque and I’m pretty sure I never will.

 9) My brother and I have the kind of relationship where one word can trigger an inside joke that’ll have us laughing for an hour. It’s awesome for us but it makes other people crazy.

10) I had my first charge account when I was 13 or 14 at the Sugar Bowl and used it for Chuckwagon sandwiches, Fritos and Fresca.  If I was really in the mood for living on the edge, I would have a Vanilla Pepsi.

11) I’m a pretty good foosball player – not too many people can beat me but those of you who can, know who you are.

12) I eat super slow. Inevitably, I am the last person to finish my meal and I usually don’t eat all of what’s on my plate.

13) I always leave coffee in the bottom of my cup – I have no idea why, but I just do.

14) I watch all kinds of sports on TV – football, baseball, soccer, golf, basketball, horse racing.  You name it, I will watch it.

15) I once won a county spelling bee.

16) I haven’t eaten an egg in at least 35 years.  I’m not allergic, I just can’t stomach them.  The weird thing is that I can eat French Toast and the eggs don’t bother me. I love hollandaise sauce though so I order Eggs Benedict without the eggs.

17) One of my favorite movies is Message in a Bottle. I’ve seen it far too many times, but I stop the movie about 15 minutes before the end because I don’t like the ending. I may or may not have a crush on Kevin Costner.

18) I am directionally challenged. I get lost – ALOT! Don’t tell me to go east or west, tell me left or right. And give me landmarks. Tell me to turn at the road after the house with the white picket fence. I’ll know exactly where that house is, but I’ll have no clue what that street is called. Sometimes not even GPS can help me find my way around.

19) My first big girl job was doing payroll for a large hotel chain when I was 17 years old. I have no idea what possessed them to hire me because I had never done anything remotely payroll related but I could sure kick ass on a calculator.

20) My grades sucked in high school – I was far too busy having fun to study but when I went to college, I was an A student and would argue my way to an A if I felt I was wrongly graded.

21) I always wanted long hair and braces when I was a kid – seemed like all the cool kids had that so of course I wanted it too, but I never could grow my hair past my chin.

22) I love the smell of cigars.

23) I would love to hang glide off a mountain but have no desire to parachute out of a plane.

24) I was a terrible Math student, but a pretty good English one.  My brother got all the math brains in this family.  My dad was a Civil Engineer and could rattle numbers off the top of his head for all his water deals and I need to use my fingers and toes to count to 20. My brother is just like my dad where numbers are concerned.

25) I sat on a fence every day for an entire summer until I had taught myself how to whistle between my fingers.

26) The name Raegan means “impulsive”.  I don’t think my parents thought that one through.

27) I love to vacuum.  Call me strange, but I find it rewarding to hear the dirt get sucked up in the vacuum hose!

28) I have no desire to learn another language.  I can count to 10 in English, Spanish and French and that is bilingual enough for me.

29) I’d love to spend some extended time in Greece.

30) Growing up, I wanted to be Valerie Bertinelli from One Day at a Time.  In my mind, she portrayed the girl who had it all.

31) My daughters are very much like me, but their most redeeming qualities are just like their dad. I love the dad parts of them but the Mom parts of them sometimes scares me.  Our son is all his dad.

32) I can’t carry a tune if my life depended on it (I’m glad it doesn’t). But I sing anyway. A lot. Loudly. And yes, I still suck.

33) My favorite place in the world is home and in a close second is the beach or Las Vegas.

34) I love fried chicken. My mom made awesome fried chicken and I would ask her to make it every year for my birthday. I have never found any chicken as good as my mom’s fried chicken.

35) I don’t have a favorite color. If shoved into the corner and manhandled until I came up with one, I might say blue, green or purple. But I might also change my mind as soon as you walked away.

36) I was born without three attributes: 1) A sense of fashion and color coordination. 2) The ability to carry a tune. 3) Sense of direction.

37) I met my husband at a 3.2 bar in Colorado when I was 18 years old. I was not quite 20 when we got married and 22 when we had our first baby.  I was not even old enough to have a glass of wine at our wedding.  I am married to my soulmate. No seriously, I know a lot of people think that. I am one of them. He is my complete opposite, but he gets me like nobody does. He’s my rock and I am a very lucky woman.

38) I make a pretty wicked Ceaser Salad, but if I told anyone how easy it is, they would think I’m lying.

39) I wish my folks and my father in law were still alive.

40) I went to my first movie when I was 11 years old.

41) I hate it when someone walks around with floppy socks – ask my nephew.  When he was young, he would do it just to make me crazy!

42) I have no desire to go on a sailboat.  I am an excellent swimmer but the thought of bobbing around in the middle of the ocean relying on the lungs of Mother Nature is not comforting or relaxing to me.

43) I never had a birthday party until I was 18 years old and my husband (who was my boyfriend at the time), had one for me.

44) I was on Romper Room once when I was a little girl.

45) My little brother was on a TV commercial and modeled in a catalogue.  That’s the closest I’ve ever been to a celebrity lol.

There you go, 45 things most people don’t know about me are now revealed to the world (or all 30 people who read my blog). Maybe you knew some of these things, maybe you knew all of them, but hey maybe you knew absolutely none of these and you now know me a little better.  Guess What? Now it’s your turn – tell me something about yourself that people don’t know.

Raegan