The Simple Life at Home

Stacey from The Truest Thing tagged me for this (and blessed me with the accompanying award) quite some time ago and I've been too wrapped up in my own chaos to both thank her and forward it on. Sorry for being so neglectful, Stacey, but here you go - some absolute random weirdness about me to make up for it!!

Here are the RULES:

• Link to the person that tagged you.
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Now, just because it was so funny, I'm including Stacey's vow that she made you take when reading her post. It's really funny and I can't resist putting it in and substituting my name. Hope you don't mind, Stacey!

"Now before I get started, everyone raise your right hand and repeat after me:

I, ________, solemnly swear to not laugh at, be shocked by, nor hold against Lori, any of the below stated facts. I promise to continue to visit and support her despite any awkward vibes I may feel after reading her facts. I will not remove her from my Google Reader as a way of punishing her for her random weirdness."

Now that we got that out of the way, here are 7 weird and/or random facts about me.

1. I'm totally addicted to reading. I read all the time. My favorite place is the library. I buy at least 1 magazine every time I go to the grocery store. I will read the back of boxes if there is nothing else to read. It's how I relax.
2. I have a secret boyfriend. Well, maybe not so secret. And he's not actually my boyfriend, I just like to pretend he is. Who is this mystery man, you ask? Jon Bon Jovi. Love him, love him, love him. Yes, I hate his politics and I understand that some of his song lyrics are inappropriate. But ever since the day that I first saw him strutting around in his ripped jeans with his big hair singing, "Living on a Prayer" he's held a secret place in my heart. And hey, I think he's held up pretty well over time, don't you?
3. Other teen crushes who did not hold up so well over time - David Lee Roth, Prince, Micheal Jackson, Scott Baio, Gopher from the Love Boat, George Michael, and Leif Garret. Some of those I just shudder when I look back upon. Bet you can guess which ones!
4. I almost did not graduate from high school. Because of typing. Yes, you read that correctly - typing. My parents made me move in my SENIOR YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL (an event which I am still in therapy over). My new high school required 4 more credits to graduate than my original school. Consequently, I spent my senior year in high school working after school for credit, going to night school, and coming in 1 hour early to take an extra class (instead, of course, of having fun like all seniors should be doing!!!). One required course was typing, which I did not do well at - ironic since I would later make a living typing papers for college students. I was getting an "F" and they were going to make me go to summer school. Only the irate, screaming phone call of my mother saved me from such a fate.
5. Moving on from high school trivia, we now move onto my criminal background. As I mentioned before, I worked as a missionary in Austria in my 20's. I worked mainly with refugees from behind the Iron Curtain (dating myself here, I know). The timing couldn't have been better - right before I came home, Communism began to crumble. The Berlin Wall came down, the Velvet Revolution took place in Czechoslovakia, Ceausescu was overthrown in Romania. A very thrilling time for me, but even more so for those people I had been ministering to who were watching their homelands being set free. I was blessed to be able to help some of those people sneak across the borders of Austria back into their home countries. Yep, human smuggling.
6. Prior to that, in 1988 I spent a month in Poland on a short-term mission. Guess what we did? Yep - more smuggling. But this time it was Bibles. Trust me, passing through the border from West Germany into East Germany, with barbed wires, towers with gun guards trained on you, and landmines on the fields along the roads to prevent running away made me awfully nervous. But we got through without any problems, thank God. As you can see, I'm a hardened criminal.
7. I am unable to blow dry my own hair. I mean, I can get it dry, but it looks terrible. Frizzy and not straight and beautiful like the salon does. I don't get it. Can anyone help me with this? It's a tragedy of epic proportions, I know.

Ok, now you know my whole sordid history. Seriously, the whole "I had a crush on Michael Jackson" thing? That right there is cause for questioning my judgement for life.

Ok, I'm tagging these people to play along:

Leeann - from Is It Morning Already?

Mylinda - from The Buggy Crew

Tammi - from ValleyGirl

Tiffany - from Life on the Road

Amy - from A Handful of Children

Laura - from My Quotidian Mysteries

Charity - from Faith, Hope and Charity

Have at it, ladies!!