Five Things

Some of you  may have seen the "Five Things" going around in blog land. For those who haven't, it's kind of a "tag you're it, quick tell us five random things about yourself!" I've been tagged by not one, but three wonderful ladies - Heather, Sheena, and Natalie. I'm honored and embarrassed that it has taken me so long to get to it. Well, here goes (and I'm unashamed to cheat by only listing five things rather than 5x2, or 5x3, it's been a rough week)...

1. I love to read, I really do. Fiction, non-fiction, you name it. Probably as a result of this fact, I only missed one question on the Verbal portion of the SAT (don't worry; I more than made up for it on the Math portion). 

2. I also read every book I was ever assigned in college. Because I liked it.

3. Speaking of college... By the time I was nearly done there I had spent a lot of time thinking about my ideal man. I kind of had a growing list of qualities in mind. Okay, let's be honest. I basically created an entire narrative of how Mr. X would need to be [including but not limited to interests, childhood experiences, education, and career] to catch my eye and hold my interest for a lifetime. I even had "a feeling" that his name would be Mike. I won't go into too much detail (you're welcome), but I figured that he would have to be an intellectual, probably a philosopher, who was into adventurous stuff like rock climbing, who loved to travel, was a little bit older than I but not too much, blah, blah, blah. 

Out of the blue, a friend called and wanted to set me up with his roommate, a new philosophy professor, just a little bit older than me, named... Mike! He sent me a pic, handsome guy in outdoor gear, looked like he had just finished a hike in the mountains. Could it be? The providence of the good Lord was finally conforming itself to my omniscient wisdom? We arranged a phone call, and... He was really easy to talk to, but there was no spark (now I'm not saying every lasting relationship is founded on the unshifting sands of spark, but there has got to be something). Mike, however, thought it went great with a capital G and asked me to send a pic and if it would be alright if he called again. Sure, I said; I thought maybe I just needed more talking to find spark. 

I didn't have a camera at the time and most phones didn't either, so I sort of forgot about the pic. And Mike never called back. Months later I ran into my friend. I suspected that Mike had gotten scared off when I didn't send a pic, so I asked my friend. No, no, he assured me, that couldn't be it. Why not? Because he had taken the liberty of giving him a pic from a youth conference that we attended when I was 16. I'm not sure what the pic looked like exactly, but I think it was something more along the lines of this: 

than this:

I was a late bloomer. Take courage all you awkward youths.

4. After the Mike debacle, my mom did comment that she wasn't surprised that there wasn't spark. In reference to the not so subtle similarities between the list and my own personality, she said, "Did you really want to spend the rest of your life with yourself?" Touché.

5. It all worked out for the best, though, because my soulmate turned out to be a handsome guy by the name of Joe who is not a philosophy professor, and is my opposite in personality. We dated for six months, got engaged, and got married six months later.  It seems fast, but I just knew. 

I knew enough to not be deterred or disturbed by the fact that random people kept asking me the same question, "Are you sure you aren't supposed to be a nun?"Who asked? The priest who was going to marry us and my pastor (individually and on separate occasions, both were polite enough to ask Joe to leave the room first), several Polish sisters from St. Faustina's order at the Divine Mercy Shrine, and the Mother Superior of a group of cloistered nuns in the Polish countryside (through the very grate, I might add!). I didn't even bat an eye, because sometimes you just know.

And there you have it folks, five things.

And now, I tag Mary, Sarah, Laura, and Kallah. I know that's only four but I am sick and quickly running out steam. 

I'll see you next week for more fun (and wardrobe building)!