Quirky Fun Facts About Jennifer

15 Fun Facts About Me You Probably Didn’t Know Before

In order for you to trust me for projects, consulting or teaching, you need to know who I am. I was challenged recently to be more open, personable and authentic. To give you more of an insight into me, to go ‘beyond the bio’. So I brainstormed a list of fun facts I don’t share all the time. It turned into a BIG list of quirky info. So, there’s fun fact #1 –  I tend to go overboard and create even more than is necessary on projects I’m really into!

For now, here are 15 quirky bits of info about me:

• I learned to drive with a stick shift on the ‘other’ side of the road – yes, in England with a right-hand drive car, shifting with my left hand.

• I met my husband on a blind date, each of us set up by friends who knew each other, and us. It went well. We’re still friends with those folks too. [PS the blind date was a group outing to see ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’]

• I’m a serious wine geek and have been since a teenager. Hey, I lived in Europe, it was ok to drink! I used to collect the labels and now I keep the corks. [And our wine collection is in a database, with lots of metadata, accessible via a mobile app. Like I said, geek.]

• My beloved childhood pet was a tortoise shell-tabby mix named Pizza.

• As a kid, the professions I most wanted to be when I grew up were: Architect, Indiana Jones or the President [now I dig for info, build collections of resources and I’m President of my own company – see, dreams do come true]

• My front tooth is fake. How that happened is kind of a long story. No one notices until it doesn’t show on an x-ray.
  

  My Morning Sucks socks

• I co-managed a babyGap after I left advertising– that was the toughest year and job ever. I learned a lot about customer service training, matching customer needs to products and how to listen. Selling was actually a lot like the reference interview – or that’s how I approached it. No wonder I wound up in LIS school right after!

• I am an absolute, hard-wired, genetically coded night owl. I was even born at night. Mornings are kryptonite.

• I’m grateful my elementary school librarian didn’t disapprove that I preferred nonfiction that was well beyond the lower grade, juvenile ratings. I loved historical biographies of WWII heroes and military histories of famous (awful, potentially gory) battles. [have I mentioned I’m a nerd AND a geek?!]

• One of the best parts about being a work-at-home, solopreneur – I don’t have to dress up. My work wardrobe is jeans and a t-shirt. I have some tees I like so much I’ve bought them in bulk, all the colors and patterns they came in.

• Except pink. Never pink. I hate the color pink. It’s a deep, psychological thing.

• I’m a big sports fan, nut, geek. I love seeing games in person if I can. I’ve been to NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB games, the Olympics, plus many minor league games.
  • 18 baseball stadiums (inc Wrigley, old Yankee Stadium and Fenway); 4 football stadiums; plenty of college stadiums and minor league stadiums.

I need a separate post just for my sports bucket list – the events that are done and still left to do.

• The dissertation research I started in my Information Science PhD program was about how digitized primary source materials [created by libraries, archives, museums] are used (or not) by secondary school history/social studies educators and how libraries can improve their use. [the research and notes live in my basement now]

• I’m not a fan of the phone. In fact, I have phone phobia. Text or email me please.

• I had a rare medical condition more than a decade ago (ok, technically it was a brain tumor but it wasn’t the awful kind) that caused me to be mostly deaf in my left ear. I wear a digitally programmed hearing aid. I call it my bionic ear.

 

So now you definitely know more about me. What quirky facts should I know about you?!