10 Things About Me

I think I'm the last blogger to do this! And I don't even think I got tagged. :) But I know you're dying to learn 10 new things about me, so here it goes.

1. Pope John Paul II gave me a high-five. Ok, not exactly, but something close to that happened! And I have the picture to prove it! (I need to find it, scan it and upload it.) In 1997 my high school choir traveled to Europe. We sang for the Holy Father after his Wednesday audience. Afterwards he spent about one minute with us and gave the group a blessing. When he put his hand up to bless us, I stuck out my hand (I was in the second row) as far as I could to touch him. In the picture it looks like he's about to give me a high-five! Ha ha... because I am so bold I did reach out and actually touch him.
Now I can say that I have touched a saint. Little did I know at that time he would become my hero. (I studied at the Pope John Paul II Institute for grad school.)

2. I used to work at Disneyland. I grew up just 20 minutes away and it was one of my summer jobs during college. I was a conductor on the Steam Trains (the ones that circle the park.) It was so much fun! I loaded people on and off the trains and gave a spiel into the microphone between each stop. It's the only ride in the park that you get to ride while you work. The only downfall was the costume: I had to wear pants, a long-sleeve shirt, vest, tie and hat. It was pretty hot in the summer!

3. After graduating from college I volunteered for a year with JVC (Je.suit Volun.teer Corps.) This is what brought me to DC and it's how I met my husband! My plan was to volunteer for a year and then move back to California. Nine years later I'm still here... :)

4. I blog about this all the time, so you already know I'm a huge college football fan. You might not know that I actually worked for the football team during college. For two years I was a Football Recruiting Guide. This means I hosted the high school recruits before the game. We served them lunch, walked them to the field during warm-ups, escorted them to their seats for the game and brought them to the locker-room afterwards. It was really fun! After growing up a USC fan my entire life it was so fun to work that closely with the team and spend time on the field.

5. My undergradute degree is in Biology. For the first couple of years in college I was pre-med. Even after I realized this wasn't the path for me, I stuck with my major anyways. What was I thinking? I suffered through BioChem, O Chem, Physics, Calculus, tons of labwork, etc. Thankfully I minored in Musical Theater, so I had some fun classes.

6. I've never broken any bones and the only times I've been in the hospital was for my IF surgeries. Oh joy!

7. I was in a sorority during college. I still have most of our songs memorized - including the Greek alphabet song. It comes in handy once in awhile when I need to know it!

8. In addition to singing for JPII in high school, I was able to sing in the Papal Mass Choir when Pope Benedict was in DC a couple of years ago. I have now made it my goal to sing for every Pope!

9. My husband and I were on ESPN a couple of years ago. Both of our teams played each other, so we went to Nebraska for the game. If you've ever watched "College Gameday" on Saturday mornings you know that people make funny signs and try to get on TV. We got to the stadium really early and ran down so we would be close to the cameras. As you can see in this picture my dad was also with us.

I can be pretty bold (just like I was with JPII) and harassed the camera people until they put us on. It was so great! This footage isn't the best, but I will post the YouTube link below. You will see our crazy faces around 16 seconds.



10. As if that weren't enough excitement, we were also on the evening news the night of that game. I didn't mention that both of our families were also there. My parents and I went to a USC luncheon at a restaurant, while my hubby ate upstairs with his parents. (They didn't want to be with all the USC fans!)
The local news crew came in to film some footage about the big game - so I shamelessly told them our story (husband and wife cheering for opposite teams) because I knew it would make a great story on the news!

If you are really bored you can follow this link to the news clip. They begin interviewing us at 1:00 minute. :)