25 Random Things About Me

I've been tagged about half-a-dozen times on my Facebook account in the last week for this, so I decided to go ahead and do this (and throw it on here as well!). Please note, I will not be tagging another 25 people to do this. Not that I don't care to hear about other people but simply because most of the other people I would tag have (a) already been tagged or (b) probably wouldn't do this!

1. I love bubble wrap. Well, technically I love popping the bubbles in bubble-wrap. It can be a form of stress release. Especially if you have the bubble wrap with the really big bubbles, then you can just stomp on it if you're really having a bad day!


2. I come from a family with green thumbs. I have a black thumb. This fact is saddening to me because I love gardens and (especially given my recent food issues) would really love to start a vegetable garden. But death, it seems, is the most result of my gardening attempts!


3. One of my favorite things is to wake up in the morning to a tidy house. It somehow starts me out in a calmer mood than if I wake up to a house of messiness.

4. I have lived in 3 countries (lived being defined as being somewhere for at least two full months) and have lived in 20 different houses/dorm rooms/basements. The longest I have ever lived in one place has been my current house in which we've lived for just over four years now.

5. Truthfully, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I thought by the time I turned about 25 I'd have my life all set....not so much I guess.

6. I love the first two Mummy movies (haven't seen the third one). Why - I really couldn't say. But I truly love watching those movies!

7. I want to own my jet ski. I love jet skiing (and snow mobiling for that matter).

8. I've always wanted to learn to ballroom dance with my husband.

9. One of my favorite things is a new notebook. The feel of the crisp paper not yet sullied with finger marks and use, wondering about what will be written on the white loveliness, even the smell makes me slightly giddy with delight! Oh, but I much prefer notebooks that are spiral bound and not flat. In fact, I will barely use a flat-bound book. BLEAGH!

10. On the same note as above, I love office supply stores. Almost as much as I love the Container Store. I imagine I feel the same way about office supplies that many people feel about shoes. I just can't have enough! Except I do restrain myself because my budget can only have so much :)

11. I've always wanted to learn to make my own clothes. In fact, that is something that I want to start learning this year. Why? Just because the idea of not being dependent on someone else to design something that I like would be nice. And it just seems like fun!

12. I like being short. I really do. Yeah, I get a lot of teasing about my rather diminutive height, but truthfully, I wouldn't change my height if I had the option.

13. I am absolutely pathetic at writing letters. Not the actual writing of the letter; that I can do pretty well - in fact - when I do it, I enjoy it! It's the sitting down and actually writing a letter (or an email) that I'm awful at. I've been trying for awhile now to come up with some system to keep on top of my correspondence, but it's not getting any better. Suggestions?

14. The longer I've been married and had "grown up" relationships with people, the more I respect my parents and certain points of their marriage.

15. I truly have a hard time saying what my favorite colour is. I've always said blue, but in reality I love green, I love purple, and if you get me in the right mood or in reference to the right thing, I love red, black, and yellow!

16. I have a serious book addiction. It really is a problem. Sometimes I feel that I can't keep enough books in the house to satiate my reading desires. Fortunately I do like re-reading books, so that helps a bit. But sometimes when I go to a library I get overwhelmed because it seems like no matter how many books I read there are still so many thousands out there that I haven't read and MUST read!

17. I think organizing things is fun. I know, I know, weird. But I really do. Going through clutter and making something neat and (to me) beautiful out of it is incredibly satisfying.

18. I have a tendency to resent people who look at me and assume that because I look young or because I tend to be soft-spoken and generally non-aggressive, that I'm somehow less competent. And I have a hard time letting go of resentments (sad but true).

19. I miss teaching. I don't miss the public school system. But I do miss teaching and hope that someday in the not-to distant future I might somehow find the right niche for me in terms of teaching.

20. I have very eclectic music tastes. But I really do not like most Christian music. Worship music - definitely. I can listen to good worship music all day long. But most Christian music I find to be annoying and very exclusive.

21. One of my wishes in life that will now never be fulfilled (as she's dead!) is to have met Madeline L'Engle. I find her writings - fiction and nonfiction - fascinating and inspiring. And I think I could have gotten along really well with her.

22. I love driving. I really do. I can't even really say why (unless it has something to do with my love of travel). I just know that I really, truly enjoy to drive.

23. Someday I want to get my doctorate. I'm not sure in what. I just know that I love school, I love to study, and I would really love to be Dr Hanna .......!

24. When I was little, I always wanted to grow up to look like Audrey Hepburn. I was very sad when I realized that was probably an unlikely thing to happen.

25. There are three foods I cannot imagine living without for the rest of my life: rice, cheese, and chocolate.

Pasta Carbonera

I was 16 when we went to England for the summer and an aunt and uncle of mine took us to Italy - Venice and Verona. Somewhere in the Dolomite mountains, I had this disgusting unhealthy and incredibly tasty dish called Pasta Carbonera.


I ran across the recipe for this the other day and decided I had better try and make it. And it's just as yummy as I remember it. And having a better knowledge of calories, it's even more unhealthy. But well worth every tasty bite!



1 pound of spaghetti, cooked al dente

1/2 pound bacon

1 medium onion, minced

2 cloves garlic

2 tbsp fresh basil or sage leaves, chopped fine.

2 eggs

salt and pepper to taste


Cook the spaghetti, draining and setting aside when done.


While the spaghetti cooks, chop bacon into 1/2 inch chunks and cook in a heavy skillet until nicely crispy. As you are waiting for the bacon to cook, mince the onion very finely, chop the sage or basil and peel the garlic. Once the basic is crispy, remove it from the pan and set aside in a small bowl.


Do not dump out the bacon drippings because that's where this recipe gets it flavor. In the pan with the bacon drippings, cook the minced onion, sage or basil, and garlic over medium heat until the onion is soft.


Add the hot pasta and toss well. Crack the two eggs into a small bowl and whisk well. Pour the eggs over the pasta, stirring the pasta quickly so that the eggs coat the pasta as evenly as possible.


Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Jessica

I find it disturbing the things that people will do in a desperate attempt to be "funny."

I had a most unpleasant experience a few weeks ago that while I have laughed over it and it has become a bit of a running joke around here, I have also been very disgusted by it.

Allow me to explain.

I was laying in bed, cuddled up with my husband, and just drowsing off into a nice deep slumber. All of the sudden the phone rang. As it was about 10:30pm and most of our friends/family know that we go to bed relatively early, I was a little surprised by the call. And a little concerned as most calls that have come at that time of night have been because of something wrong. After all, even telemarketers tend not to call that late! So I grabbed the phone.

Me: "Hello"

Unknown Female: "Can I speak to Chris?"

Me: "Who is this, please?"

UF: "This is Jessica...his girlfriend."

(momentary stunned, confused silence from me as my brain tries to wake up and catch up with where this conversation has gone)

Me: "I'm sorry, but I think you have the wrong number."

Jessica: "No, I don't. This is the house of Chris and ..........[I don't actually know for sure what was said at this point - but my memory wants to say that she said his wife]....Hanna."

Me: "Yes. But you can't be his girlfriend because I'm his wife."

Jessica: "You [I'll leave the expletives out!]....let me speak to my man!"

At which point, needless to say, I hung up the phone.

I explained the conversation to Chris as we tried to figure out what that was all about. And then after a few minutes, we settled back down to sleep when the phone rang again. We left the answering machine to get it.

The next morning, before I left for work, I listened to the message. Sure enough, Jessica - in a very non-enthusiastic, lazy kind of voice - "Hi Chris. This is Jessica. I've been thinking about you. Love you. Call me."

No phone number and seriously non-convincing in her tone. Yet rather unsettling, nonetheless.

But this is not the end of my tale. Oh no.

I went to work and was chatting to a good friend of mine there, telling her about the rather random phone call. We laughed about it, but then my friend asked a rather curious question. She reminded me of a girl in one of Chris' classes who had been rather blatantly trying to flirt with - to a point where he was rather uncomfortable around her. Could it be her?

I laughed it off. Surely not. He has made it very clear to her that he's married. She wouldn't be that stupid? Besides, her name isn't Jessica.....I think.

Then I get an email from Chris. He had suddenly put the dots together himself with this girl........and her name was Jessica.

At this point, my heart sank, and I immediately started formulating "accidental death" schemes.

End result - he listened to the message. Wasn't her. In fact, her life has taken a very different (and from my perspective - very relieving) path of having her own relationship.

Since then we haven't heard any more from Jessica and have decided it must have been some kind of cruel prank.

Many random things have since been blamed on Jessica. And yet, especially for the first few days, I couldn't help but be angry at the kind of person who would be willing to do such a thing. If Chris and I didn't have the strength of relationship that we have fostered over the years, something like that could be enough to destroy some relationships that I know of. And what kind of society do we live in that someone would think such a thing is a funny joke?

All I can say is, "Jessica, don't you come back. You'll regret it!"