Just in case you ever needed to know some useless facts about me...
1. Whether I was a boy or a girl, my dad wanted to name me
Reno. And no, I wasn't conceived there or anything. He just liked the name. I was named 'Jolie' because when my mother (who speaks fluent French) was in labor with me, she kept talking to herself in French. My dad says that she was hallucinating from all the pain. Ah, the days before epidurals. My mom kept repeating the phrase "jolie bebe" (pretty baby), and it stuck with my dad. After I was born he asked my mom what it meant. When she told him, he wanted to name me Jolie instead of Reno.
Thank goodness.2. I was born in Whitefish, Montana and I grew up in Dickinson, North Dakota. My family and I lived in the same house for 18 years.
3. When I was 19 I worked as a typist for The Dickinson Press, the local newspaper. I typed everything from feature articles to the police blotter. But my main job was typing
obituaries!!
4. I've been skinny dipping. In a lake. When I was 15. With coed company. At night.
At Bible Camp.5. I can name all 50 states in alphabetical order along with their state capitals.
6. On August 6th, I will be 30. I know that it shouldn't bother me, but it does.
7. I am the oldest of three children. And I'm the only girl. My brothers' names are Derek, 26, and Dylan, 23.
8. I despise sit-ups.
9. I
love cinnamon rolls. Bad combination.
10. I read the Twilight series. And I
loved it. I play for team Edward. I even liked the movie. (Sorry Stephanie, I guess that means that we can't be friends anymore!) I know, I know. What is this? True confessions of Jolie Ramsey? Anyway, did anybody else besides me notice the gazillions of typos and editing mistakes in those books? Holy crow. For a New York Times bestsellers series, this was pretty disappointing. But speaking of Stephanie.....
(not Stephenie, as in, S. Meyer, the author of the books, but Stephanie, one of my mission companions)
11. ....while serving with Stephanie as sister missionaries for
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Vila do Conde, Portugal, we were flashed by some creepy guy while walking to district meeting one morning. ~~~shudder~~~
Yes, that's right. He...err...umm....showed us his junk right there in broad daylight. Not only am I grateful that we weren't harmed during the incident, but I have since been able to completely erase that disturbing visual from my head.
12. I was a Girl Scout all throughout my childhood. Well, except for a year during middle school when I decided that being a G.S. was way too geeky so I quit. But then I realized that being a G.S. wasn't going to make me any more geeky than I already was. And I grew a backbone and stopped caring about what others thought about me. So I rejoined. When I was a Brownie, my troop watched Halley's Comet in the night sky. As a Junior scout I sold lots and lots of cookies. As a Cadet our troop went on a week-long archeological dig in South Dakota. We dug up artifacts from an 18th century Indian tribe.
13. I am the queen of the power nap. A sound 10-15 minute nap can recharge my battery completely.
14. When I was a newborn, I didn't go poo for the first 10 days of my life. Being first-time parents, my mom and dad worried that there was something wrong and took me to the doctor. The doc reassured them that I'd go eventually and when I did, to watch out. Well, that doc must have been inspired because as my dad was loading me into the car upon leaving the doc's office, he figured that he'd better change my diaper before putting me in my car seat. He laid me down on the back seat of the car, held my legs up to wipe, and that's when I unloaded and exploaded. Apparently, a week's worth of baby poo has the projectile power to spray the inside panel of a car door, the entire front side of a stupefied father, the back seat, the floor of the car, and some of the ground outside the car.
15. When I was 18 and newly graduated from high school, I rolled my car on a gravel road driving no more than 35 mph. It was Halloween night and my brother Derek and I were on our way out to a bonfire at a friend's house. Luckily neither one of us was injured. This earned me the nickname 'Roley Jolie' from my friends.
16. Speaking of nicknames, my parents called me Roley Poley Jolie as a baby because I was a super chunk. In high school my nickname was Jolly Tweeters. (my maiden name is 'Teeters'.) The 'Jolly' part came because everybody who didn't know me mispronounced my name. On my mission one of my companions called me Sister Titters. (You know I love you Sarah!) Nowadays, my brothers refer to me as 'Angelina' because 1) they think I'm going to have as many kids as she has and 2) obviously, the 'Jolie' part.
17. I used to own a 6 foot tall cardboard cutout of Darth Vader. He stood in my living room in my first apartment in college. Then I got a roommate and she and I would decorate him for holidays. He was known to wear a Santa hat, a Shamrock tie, Easter Bunny boppers, a Superman cape for Halloween, and an Uncle Sam hat for the 4th of July.
18. I play the clarinet, piano, and trumpet. I started piano lessons when I was 6. I began the clarinet when I was in the 6th grade and played until I was a sophomore in college. I actually got pretty darn good at it. I was 1st chair most of the time, always went to state music festivals, and was even voted 'band president' my senior year. Should I really be bragging about this? Does holding the title of 'band president' mean that you are good at what you do and that your peers esteem your accomplishments, or does it mean that you have achieved the highest level of the Order of the Geeks and you were simply chosen to be their fearless leader?? You decide.
19. I learned the trumpet when I was 19 in order to participate in a Drum and Bugle Corps. I was a member of the Troopers from Casper, WY, from 1998-2000. Drums corps from around the U.S. compete against each other during the summer months, touring the country and performing in football stadiums. The shows are nothing short of exhilarating and electrifying. Being a part of a drum corps was an amazing experience and I made so many endearing memories. Plus, it was friends I made in the corps who introduced me to the LDS church and dared me to talk to missionaries when I got home at the end of the summer in 2000. In so many ways, this was a life-changing experience for me. If you want to know more about drum corps, check out Drum Corps International's website.
20. I am left handed.
21. When I was 4 years old, my best friend was a boy named Dane who lived across the street from us. We were playing together in our front yard one day and my mom overheard me say this: "Okay Dane. Let's play house. You be the daddy and I'll be the boss."
Maybe I should have told Josh this story prior to our wedding. Then at least he would have received a heads up that I've always been a strong-willed, pig-headed person at times.
22. And along those gender-role-defying lines, when I was in kindergarten, we were supposed to make pilgrim hats out of construction paper for Thanksgiving. The girls in the class were given white paper to make a bonnet-looking hat. The boys were given the option of using black paper to make a top hat or brown paper to make an Indian hat with feathers. I did not like the girl option one bit and wanted to make a black top hat instead. Well, the teacher, Mrs. Karn, took a picture of the class donning our crafted hats. The girls in the class knelt in the front row while the boys stood in a row behind them. And who was standing in the midst of the boys?? ME. Smiling wide and proudly sporting my top hat.
23. Among his other inventions, my great-grandfather invented the revolving Christmas tree. What was the impetus to his "grand design"? Every Christmas season he'd take the agitator out of my great-grandmother's new, state-of-the-art washing machine (a fact that annoyed her to no end every holiday season, I'm sure.). He would attach it to the base of the tree and let 'er spin in their living room window. Their neighbors in Cambridge, Ohio enjoyed walking by their house each year to witness the famous revolving Christmas tree and it quickly became the buzz of the town. So he had his idea patented.
24. I am so uncoordinated, it's pathetic. Growing up I attempted sports like basketball, volleyball, ice skating, and track and field. Let's put it this way. My junior year in high school I tried out (again) for the volleyball team. When the coach was going to put me on the sophomore "B" team (yes, not the J.V. team or even the sophomore "A" team) I took that as my sign to bow out with a shred of dignity still intact. Oh, but I did play softball as a teen and did pretty good at that. As long as they put me in the outfield. ;-)
25. My biggest pet peeve? Four-way stops in Ellensburg. It's not so much the intersections that annoy me. It's all the stupid people who can't seem to understand the elementary rules of the four-way stop. C'mon people. I really don't want to sit in my car and die of natural causes while you figure out whose turn it is to go. Guess what. You are to the right of me. IT'S YOUR TURN!!! JUST FREAKING GO!!!!!!
I need to work on my patience.
