Seven Defining Things

My friend Kamee tagged me and challenged me to post seven defining facts about myself. Since I recently posted 100 not-so-defining things this is pretty tough! Here's what I have come up with:

1. I have four scars. Two are from chicken pox that I picked at. One is on my jawline, one is on my right thigh. I have a scar on my chin below my lip where I fell off a horse and a rock went straight through. My fourth scar is on my left index finger. A canning jar fell and broke when I was probably five or six years old. My mom told me not to touch it (duh), but for some reason I went in there later and was running my finger across the jagged edge. Some of us just have to see to believe...

2. I LOVE history. Not the "memorize these dates" kind of history, but the social history. How people lived, how they made their livings. What they wore, how they curled their hair. I guess I love anthropology (even though I didn't do too hot in the class in college). I enjoy the History Channel and HGTVs "If Walls Could Talk" and all those shows that give me a glimpse into what life used to be like. I think my post about how many beauty products I use in a day stems from this fascination. Will people find OUR lives fascinating 100 years from now?

3. I care way too much about what people think. I have gotten good at not showing this (for the most part), but I tend to obsess a bit about stupid things I say or do. When I get nervous around people that I care about impressing, I talk WAY too much. So if you ever find yourself wishing that I would just shut up, be flattered. It probably means I care about what you think. And rest assured that I am probably telling mySELF to shut up, too.

4. I have worked in both fast food and retail. I think that EVERYONE should have to work at some entry level customer service job in their life. It changes how you interact with everyone. I worked at McDonalds while I was home from my freshman year at BYU. I was SO sure that it was below me, but I was grateful for the money, the hours, and the flexible schedule that allowed me to work another job, too. I learned that some people are real jerks. I learned that the people who dropped out of high school and have made a career of working at McDonalds are nice, funny, and just trying to make a living with what they can do. I learned that it really isn't THAT easy of a job sometimes. I learned that some men will hit on you just from the sound of your voice in the drivethru. I learned that other men will come through and buy sundaes with pennies to be cute and then ask you on a date. I learned that people really do come through and order MASSIVE amounts of artery clogging food with a DIET soda to drink. And I learned that I will always be polite to the workers, no matter how slow the line is moving. Because it is rarely the fault of the person at the window.

5. I am a voyeur at heart. I love the Internet -- that it allows me to legally and anonymously peek into peoples' lives via blogs and myspace. I think this is tied in with #2 up there. I just like to know how people live. Are we all that different? What makes us tick? What ticks them off? Why do my neighbors have three brand new cars and only two drivers? Why are there people at Safeway buying milk and cereal with foodstamps, but driving away in a brand new monster truck whose payments are probably about as much as my mortgage? And don't the highschoolers know that when they post pictures of themselves in a slightly less than sober state on Myspace that EVERYONE can see those pictures and read the comments?????

6. I really wanted to be famous when I was younger. I KNEW I was going to be successful. My first venue was going to be ballet, but I looked in the mirror one day in class and realized that my hips were better suited to birthing children than dancing. Then I started taking voice lessons and found I was good at it and I really enjoyed it. I began my college career intent on being an opera singer. But my first year showed me that I wasn't cut out for the world of auditions (see #3 up there). I was good enough, but it was hard to sing a song and have three people hear the same performance and have such different comments about it. And as much as I wanted to be famous, I still wanted to be married and be a mom. And it is hard to do that when you are spending all your time auditioning or rehearsing. So I changed my degree to Music Education. My dream of my name being in lights is on the back burner. Maybe someday.

7. I am a path-of-least-resistance kind of gal. I will do what it takes to get the work done, but I am not patient and I tend to cut corners. I would not be a good ward activities chair person because I would leave out all of the cute things that make the party memorable. Like over the top decorations, or little touches that may go unnoticed to many, but that mean alot to those who DO notice. This personality quirk annoys my children sometimes. I avoid crafts because it tends to be messy and make more work for me. So I pay to send them to preschool to do crafts. This also costs me a little bit of money because I will spend the extra dough on things to make life a bit easier. If it's disposeable, I'll take it.

Okay, I tag Sheila, Jodi, Aundrea, Jenn, Bonnie, Michelle, and Marie.