This is a little exercise which I, like Liz, Anna and Mimi, was invited to complete on Facebook for the purpose of sharing various commonly or little-known facts with eachother and learning more about your friends. And as I know that some interested parties do not have access to it there, I have been requested by a few to post it here:
1. I have always thought that German was the most unattractive language spoken by man. However I'm now in a choir which is performing a breathtaking German piece and I'm beginning to appreciate the beautiful hideousness of Deutsch. Ja!
2. I am a girl of many nicknames. Here are just a few:
~Riva (used by my brother David)
~Rico (brother Adam),
~Kiki ( a variation of "kinkachu', a carnivorous mammal belonging to the raccoon family to which I apparently bore resemblance, everyone when I was little),
~Kiko, Kiik, Kika, Kikaputch, Kikaputchinid (variations of 'Kiki'-family),
~Keiko (as in, the whale--various rude people!)~Dirty Bird, Fatso (Dad),
~Jake, Jakey, Stinky (sisters Miriam and Beppy) ~Mamee (sister Miriam),
~Reefer (my druggie friends in high school--I only just learned what a reefer was!)
~Rivkins (said, Reefkins, an old friend)
3.I may have multiple personality disorder--perhaps stemming from the multiplicity of different names I have been called growing up! Chace said once, after a loooong car ride with me, "Ya know what? You should narrate children's audio books." Compliment? Not sure. Among my current alter-egos are, to name just a few:
~a hearty and 60ish Irish lass with a forceful, gravelly voice
~a Japanese Geisha (Chace's favorite!)
~a middle aged British man with a cockney accent who spits when he talks (Chace's least favorite)
4. I love old music and old movies. In fact, I'm starting an old movie night group at the Utah State Mental Hospital. That should be fun. (Any suggestions for catchy group names (e.g. 'Blast from the Past', etc.) or ideas as to how to make it more interesting for the patients? I'm thinking of making some sort of little trivia quiz for them at the beginning with questions about the cast or story line or… something. And popcorn of course.)
5. Speaking of crazies, the craziest thing I've probably ever done: spend the night on the roof of Ackerman Middle School, dodging the eyes of the flighty graveyard janitors who would call the cops at the least provocation--believe me, I know! The second craziest thing I've ever done was to get married at 19. It also happens to be the smartest thing I've ever done!
6. I never really liked my nose until I married my husband, who has now convinced me that it is beautiful--in a Roman sort of way
7. Speaking of noses: Coming home after a lobely evening with an old beau, I leaned over to kiss him goodnight, when after a moment he said, "Why are you all wet?" "What are you talking about?" I said. Then I felt it. Blood was gushing from my nose and down my face (and his!) he almost threw up and I almost died of humiliation. Some things you just don't forget.
8. I feel prettiest when I'm wearing my pearls, either the simple studs Chace gave me as a wedding gift to be married in, or the fancy ones my sister Kathryn gave me for the reception.
9. I regret giving up French. And Italian, for that matter. But hopefully I'll get to live in France and Italy someday and can then learn the languages properly.
10. I have too many scars to count. I have a very high pain threshold and don't even remember how I got most of them. I was always getting scraped up when I was little and doing dangerous things. I don't know how any of us Mikkelsen children survived to maturity.
11. I think I had the happiest, most ideal childhood imaginable. As a child I could often be found outdoors wandering around our property, gardens, orchards or pastures, or in the goat pen, or up in a tree singing, inevitably barefoot, sometimes alone, sometimes with my brother Pietr or my sister Liz. I distinctly remember one sunny afternoon when we played in the hayloft of the red barn, then wandered out to the swing in the cow pasture and Liz and I took turns pushing eachother while singing, "Think of Me" from Phantom, taking turns singing the parts of Christine and Raoul! She was my best friend for much of my life. Sad I don't sing as much anymore, even in the shower.
12. I like old people.
13. I often wonder if I was born in the wrong century. I ungratefully long for the days of balls and gowns and carriages and parasols. But then I realize that the Sonicare Elite (my lectric toothbrush) wasn't invented until a few years ago, and I am content.
14. I love BYU. I'm sitting here in the Talmage (math) building overhearing a conversation about
mathematical proofs and the gospel! I can only hear snippets, but it's something about Lehi's proof of contradiction (whatever that means!) One of them is laughingly saying, "How can you feel the spirit when you say that?!" Now one of them is leaving, saying, "It's getting too nerdy in here!" Ahh, it's a beautiful campus full of beautiful people where so many different kinds of truth are taught. As I write a girl leans over and asks me how long I'll be here. "Oh, another half hour or so. Why? Do you need something?" "Well, I wonder if I can leave my stuff here while I go in for an interview. Could you watch it for me?" So here I sit next to this stranger's things: a new laptop, a stack of expensive looking text books, a cell phone, a backpack, probably a wallet if I had rummaged. Trust and honor are not dead!
15. I love a breakfast of hot cereal with nuts, blueberries and honey and a tall green smoothy (made green by spinach mostly, though I may venture to add chard or kale one day.)
16. When I want to procrastinate, I cook. One has to eat! Right? Today I should be studying for Abnormal Psych or reading Virginia Woolf. But I'm making Fumi Salad. Yum!
17. One of my favorite days was, oddly, when I was sick. So was Chace actually. After a whirlwind 2 weeks of top-to-bottom Italy, we detoxed in the loft of a friend's beach house in Sicily. We had it all to ourselves for a week. We ate pasta and pesto when we were hungry, and made lemon granita from the massive
lemons off of the lemon tree in the garden. We laughed and cried as I read aloud Dickens' Tale of Two Cities all day long. And when my voice got tired we mozied out to the patio or down to the shore to dip our feet in, or hopped on some bikes and rode into town.
18. I love to ride bikes. I also love to open doors for people. For some reason, I just feel so good about myself when I do!
19. Once, at a time in my life when I was too blonde, too tan and too skinny
I was accused of being a dead ringer for Paris Hilton. Insult or compliment? I'm not sure, but my goal is never to resemble her again in any way. (Thank goodness we are less frequently bombarded with her face in the checkout lines these days!)
20. Another goal is to remember and implement this quote in my day-to-day life: "It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations–these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit–immortal horrors or everlasting splendours." (C. S. Lewis, "The Weight of Glory")
21. I'm jealous of those people who look exquisite when they cry. I look hideous.
22. When I was a very little girl I sometimes napped on the back of our old horse Aplomado while he grazed. He was the sweetest, most gentle creature. We all learned to ride on him. Oh the things we put him through! Braiding his mane and tale like a Barbie doll, setting up saw horses and fallen trees as jumps for him in the pasture and pretending we were riding the steeple chase, racing him against the other horses, playing horse-back tag on the logging trails, eating all the corn kernels out of his grain before feeding it to him! Every child should grow up with a horse like Plommy. I have a feeling I'll meet him again in heaven. And my dog Zara.
23. I must be getting old because I'm beginning to acquire all those 'adult-acquired' tastes, like asparagus, plain yogurt, herbal tea and butter pecan ice cream.
24. Playing in a park one night with my friends, laughing and singing and joking, we suddenly found ourselves being closed in upon from every direction by about four flashlight-wielding police officers, telling us tersely to give them our beer and our pot. "What?" we said. "Officers, we're not drunk! And we're not high! We're just playing in the park!" They were dubious at first, but upon staying a while and ascertaining that we were, in fact, not doing anything illegal or immoral, they laughed and left, congratulating us on our ability to have such a good time without the use of booze or crack! Boy did we ever!
25. My parents are some of the most beautiful and amazing people I know, followed by my brothers and sisters. It is from them that I have learned everything I know about being good. I hope I make them proud of me.
It also makes Chace feel like he's back in Europe- a cup of hot chocolate and a muffin for breakfast, while studying a foreign language, in this case, my old French textbook. Are we nerdy or what?!
I shriek again. Where am I? Georgia? Then much to my relief, he strums a soothing melody and sings me back to sleep.
It was fun for Boosey to get a little taste of what he'll be doing in a few months, as he will be reporting in May and serving in the KaoHsiung Taiwan mission, just south of Pietr.
Pietr was so excited/impatient to get going that it was a struggle just to get him to stop for the must-have picture in front of the MTC sign. But we prevailed upon him and even snuck a couple more inside...
Towering over two other elders reporting, cool, calm and collected...
