I’ve been blogging for such a long time, and those of you who have been reading for at least a few years probably know quite a bit about me. Some of you have been following along since the beginning, have seen me through other relationships, through high school and college and moving to a new city. Some of you have watched Tessa grow up through the years (and graduate!), were there when I lost loved ones, and even when I occasionally lost my mind. But for all of the new readers out there, I thought it was about time I introduced you to a few random facts about myself – which I’ll be sharing on here, now and then – and I hope you’ll share something about yourselves, too.

1) I’m a lifelong insomniac, and I can’t fall asleep for multiple reasons. One, I obsess about things. I sometimes have mild anxiety attacks while I’m laying down, just thinking about stuff or trying not to think about it. Two, Bobby snores – and he falls asleep immediately. But he got this little snoring contraption that has been helping with that. There are many other reasons, and sometimes there’s no reason other than I just can’t fall asleep. But lately, I’ve actually been getting a lot more sleep than usual; it has been such a relief.

2) I’m a horrible dancer. Awful. The worst. I come from a family of very gifted dancers, but I was born with two left feet. To add insult to injury, I was also the one with Broadway dreams. I majored in Musical Theatre, but never could improve upon my dancing. I eventually accepted reality and moved on.

3) All of my animals were rescued or adopted. Vester and Lacy were dumped with the garbage on the side of the street, Kitty Boos was a stray orphan kitten on a neighbor’s farm, and Miku was adopted when she was a tiny pup. And since my animals are basically the best of the best of the absolute best in the whole entire world (I might be a little biased), that should be enough proof that adopting is the way to go.

4) My favorite movie is Harold and Maude.

5) If you’re wondering where the name “Keiko” came from, I’m 1/4 Japanese. I was named after my Oba – my paternal grandma. And if you’re wondering how to pronounce it, it’s Cake-Oh, not Kee-ko. But I’ll answer to either, because I’m used to people mispronouncing my name (it doesn’t bother me)! I love my name, and can’t imagine myself with any other.