15 Things Most People Wouldn’t Know About Me

*exhales* Let’s do this. Below are 15 things most people wouldn’t know about me – maybe only the closest people in my life.

I have been researching my family history for the last 8 years.

I have utilized ancestry.com for this. Through this service, I have discovered that my grandpa’s side of the family has had a long history of dying from brain-related issues like hemorrhages, & epilepsy – which is interesting because he had strokes & seizures the last 20 years of his life before he died. Things like this are important to learn. That same grandpa – his grandmother is unknown. His mother’s mother’s birth certificate says under ‘mother’, “unknown”. Which is VERY strange… Doorstep baby that was born at home unattended?I’ll never know… Another thing I’ve learned is that Saint John Fisher is my 16th great grandfather. He was beheaded by King Henry VIII, due to speaking out against his marriage to Anne Boleyn. I’ve successully gone back to the 1300’s in one branch, but only to the early 1900’s in another due to a dead-end & no records that point me further.

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I love to be organized.

I LOVE a clean, organized space. I do not think this makes me strange, & I do not have a diagnosed condition such as OCD. I just like to organize & reorganize. I like things to look tidy all the time, & I invest a lot of time into making my home & work office less cluttered. I like things to look the way I want. Lol What can I say?

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My spiritual gift is discernment.

I do not have the gifts of mercy, giving, or prophesy… But it was through speaking with a therapist that I learned that I have the gift of discernment. The Holy Spirit gives the gift of discernment to enable certain Christians to clearly recognize and distinguish between the influence of God, Satan, the world, and the flesh in any given situation.  I haven’t always used this gift. I have been known to push it back & ignore my gut-feelings about people, but I know better now. Blogger A Pinch of Healthy said this: “I am highly perceptive and have razor sharp intuition. This does not mean that I know everything, and it does not mean that I am never wrong. But my instincts about people, events and situations are usually spot-on.”

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I live with a condition known as “Painful Bladder Syndrome” (aka Interstitial Cystitis), & Raynauds.

Cystitis is a condition caused by certain bacteria that enters your urethra. When the bacteria reproduces in your bladder, it causes your bladder wall to become seriously inflamed. I have to take medication in order to pee on my own. (How lovely) Doctor’s do not know if I will have this condition for a lifetime, or if it will someday heal. My bladder has contractions that can at times be excruciatingly painful. … Now, on the flipside – Raynaud’s is a phenomenon, & not so much a disease. It is a blood vessel condition that causes extremities to turn purple/black, and/or white – completely devoid of blood flow. My particular case is only in my feet, & sometimes my feet will FREEZE & turn purple/blue or black – then other times they will SWELL blood red & feel like they are going to explode with heat. It affects me more in the fall & winter months.

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I once was on my way to a friend’s house to spend the night, when she text me out of nowhere & told me she no longer wanted to be associated with me & to never speak to her again.

LOL I never did figure out her reason. She had put me through that crap so many times that I just did a 3-point road turn & went home without question. Lol

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I had a ridiculous crush on Daniel Day Lewis for almost 10-years.

In High School, we were forced to watch “The Crucible”, & from that moment on, I was slightly attracted to a puritan named John Proctor.

There’s just something about those puritans right? & the Quaker oats man… LOL

The Crucible is still one of my favorite movies to this day, simply because it is brilliant, especially this scene. (Thanks Mrs. Ramsey!)

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I am defensive about my parents.

If you do something to intentionally hurt my parents, I have a problem with you for life as far as i’m concerned… I am not proud of this, but the struggle is intensely real.

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I have a deep passion for the color orange.

That burnt, autumn, pumpkin orange… Yeah, you know what i’m talkin’ about. 🙂 The orange that makes you think of a baked sweet potato…

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I have been known to go into extensive studies about certain historical topics at random.

Topics such as the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic, the life of President Lincoln, & the settlement of Jamestown, VA have held my fascination for many years. I am also really interested in medieval history, & disasters such as the story of the Donner Party, Pompeii, etc. I did not do well in history in school, but LOVE it now. My favorite movies are actually historically based dramas like Master & Commander, Pride & Predjudice, etc. Once I get obsessed with a topic, I can’t seem to release my grip on it. Lol

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My name was supposed to be Jonathan Brian.

But as we can see… that didn’t go according to plan because, reasons… lol

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I have had this weird occurence happen:

I used to l lie in bed at night sometimes (not being asleep yet), and I would feel the corner of the bed press down. Just like someone gently sat down on the edge. It really felt like some kind of weight was there even though there was no one there. I used to think I was crazy, or that it was a ghost of some dead native american on our property or something. Lol. But later in life, I learned it was called a “hypnagogic hallucination”. I still don’t have a concrete explanation for this & I honestly don’t like to think about it much or else I get freaked out. I don’t talk about it much because it makes me sound like a loon, but for real – this used to happen to me. A lot. I have not had this happen since I got married & moved away, which is very odd. I remember peering down at the end of my bed toward my feet & seeing nothing, but feeling it there. Its weird paranormal crap I dont like pondering on lol

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I once raised 6 chickens. Indoors.

When I still lived with my parents, they let me raise chicks in a large storage tub indoors for their first 8 weeks. It was an awesome experience…. until one got the wire off the top somehow & flapped around my room in the middle of the night. Then they were given to someone else. Lol

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I went through a crippling break-up a long time ago.

Around 10 years ago, I went through a very nasty break-up, & the effects have been long lasting. The circumstances surrounding this event, which I will keep private, caused me incredible turmoil, & I had to go to therapy on/off for years afterwards. Because I felt my life would never be happy again anyway, I made horrendous decisions. Quite frankly, I no longer cared at all what happened to me. I am glad to say that things changed & I am happily married now to someone else, but the hurt I felt from that old situation is still very much there. The whole thing was jacked up, & I felt severely mistreated by everyone involved; however, there is hope in the heartache I felt and I have grown from that over time into the person I am today. I’ve had other breakups but none hurt at all like that one… My last relationship before I met my now husband – I trashed his house because I found out he was soliciting women for sex – not my proudest moment, but I admittedly don’t regret it.

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My first car was a black 1997 Chevy Cavalier.

I wrecked it twice before it’s demise: Once when I rear-ended somebody at 45 MPH & they were at a dead stop. (long story) – They left the scene of the accident & left me there knocked out cold in my car. Lol. The second time, I saw a spider on my visor & panicked & hit a mailbox & it busted my windsheild. Eventually, it started having issues with overheating, so it would no longer pass inspection – so I got rid of it & purchased a new car after that.

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My favorite toy as a child was a box of toothpicks.

We had carpet with really dense pile, & I would stab toothpicks into the carpet & make all kinds of things like racetracks, fences for my dinosaurs & farm animals. I was never a kid that needed anything pricey to have fun. I could make a whole drama play out with a pencil & eraser on my desk in Elementary school.