I myself am a person who has a hard time "coming out" of my shell. I tend to be rather self-conscious and only open up one of two ways. Either I'm super nervous & I start rambling only to say way too much and make a fool out of myself or I truly feel like those I'm with are my friends and I am comfortable with them which allows me to freely make a fool of myself. Being this way has led me to dislike things such as large group activities, spot-lights or stage events, and most of all mixers. However, just because I dislike these things and would 100% not choose to do them in front of strangers does NOT mean I'd ruin a fun game around my friends! After all, aren't our friends the people we are supposed to be ourselves around? And what is more "being yourself" than being willing or able to make a fool out of yourself in order for everyone to have a good time?
Anyway, Don't you just 'love' mixers as much as I do? Sense the sarcasm. That's because I truly do totally, completely dread them. Mixers usually involve one of two things-
1 - Putting yourself out there to get to know new people in embarrassing or odd ways through the use of games. Don't get me wrong I love new & exciting games. Especially ones that truly are hilarious and or challenging. But I personally think that any games which are totally out of my comfort zone (i.e. embarrassing, odd, humiliating) are only supposed to be played with my friends, not total strangers! I mean after all, who else are you supposed to look like a fool in front of if not your friends?
or 2 - through those fabulous pre-set questions - "Tell us your name, how old you are, where you're from and something no one else knows about you..." SERIOUSLY? Whatever variation the questions are two are almost always included, your name (duh) and where you're from. Why is this a main question in every group mixer? I seriously hate this question. This question is not easy to answer because it to me it can be interpreted many ways. Are they asking where I was born? Where I lived the first years of my life? Where I've lived the most? Where I live now? Come on now people, its not like these questions all have the same answer! (at least not for me!)
I for one, do not have a set answer to that question. Each way it can be interpreted is a different answer for me. Undoubtedly when I answer the question with an "I don't know where I'm from" I end up getting another question like "well, where do your parents live?" or "where do you live now?" or "why don't you know?" Then I have to go into a long explanation of why I live in X but was born in Y but spent the beginning of my life in Z and lived the longest in A but now live in B and oh yeah my parents live in C... as you can see it gets pretty complicated! So if I ever run into any of you who don't know me or want to have a "mixer" please read on so you know the answers to the "typical" questions & come up with some new ones, okay? This perhaps is also why I plan to never move again!
Just so you know/realize what I'm really talking about...here's a recap of all my moves from my first days until now. I was born in Sibley, IA, but at 2 months old I was moved to Napa, CA (not that I complained during that move!) until I was 5 years old. Just before my 5th birthday we moved from California back to Iowa where I lived in Rock Valley until I started college. (That move I complained about but can you blame me,..California to Iowa? seriously who does that!)
When I graduated from high school I decided that as I'd watched each of my siblings move away to go to school I really didn't like people leaving & wanted to stay close to my parents so I moved only 20 minutes away & went to Dordt in Sioux Center. After only a semester there my parents decided that Dad had to take the call (he was a minister) to a church in Lethbridge, Alberta - in CANADA - not 20 minutes away but more like a 20 hour drive! Okay so its only 18 hours but still its not "close by" like I wanted! Apparently I had little to say about it because by May the house was packed up & off they went. I then had to find a place to live once my freshman year of college was over - not like I could go "home" again like most people! So I moved into my first apartment in Sioux Center. I lived there a whopping 8 months or so before my roommate moved home & I had to find a cheaper place to live. Micah found me a basement apartment which was affordable so I jumped on it & moved in - - after discovering I really didn't like having to walk through the older woman's kitchen & living room to get to the basement door where I had no kitchen of my own and certainly didn't have much privacy I moved again (after only six months) to another basement apartment. This one came equipped not only with a private entrance (that actually locked!) but a heated garage stall, a kitchen, and tons of square footage! It was finally a place I felt like I could call home!
Then when Micah & I got married 8 months later there was NO way I was moving! We stayed there past the 1 year anniversary of my moving in and right up until May of 2006. At this point Micah, my husband, decided he wanted to please those in his life (other than me) and agreed to go to Vet School which meant "we" had to move to Ames, Iowa. I say "we" because after purchasing a trailer home (not "trailerish", like you might imagine or are picturing in your head right now - I was insistent on that) and moving our stuff down there so I could start my new job, Micah remained in Sioux Center working and we saw each other only on the weekends for about two months until he finally came down to Ames and found a part time job to do before school started. 
After 4 months of living in Ames and a whole week and a half of vet school, Micah decided he did not want to live other people's dreams for his life & instead wanted to make his own plan for his/our life so he quit vet school and we headed back to Sioux Center.
Only at this point we only had our trailer in Ames and no place to live in Sioux Center. So what did we do? We moved in with his parents and siblings.
Only at this point we only had our trailer in Ames and no place to live in Sioux Center. So what did we do? We moved in with his parents and siblings.
It took about 6 weeks of living in an upstairs bedroom before we started renting the old Dordt swine farm house. Let me tell you - that place was a real beauty! - Definitely spacious as long as you didn't mind sharing your home with mice, wind, and spiders! We lived there about 9 months before we bought our first house! Most people think we're crazy but we now live only 4 houses from Micah's parents.
We have been living on the Middleberg blacktop for almost two years and loving almost every minute of it! I have absolutely no plans to ever MOVE again, expand, remodel, & redecorate plans but definitely no moving plans! Especially after watching and helping my sister Sarah & my mother build a house together - I've decided I am completely content to live right where we are! So now you know all my moves & you can come up with your own answer to the "where I'm from" question. Hopefully Alexa will thank me someday for being able to always know her answer to that question!
Anyway I think that's enough of a tangent for me to go off on for today. Perhaps again another time.
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