The One Thing No One Knows About You

I was in Connecticut this past week for work, and knew going into the trip there was going to be opportunity to meet new people in group settings. I like to mentally prepare for these things, which means coming up with stuff like, "What is one thing no one else knows about you?"

I have an AMAZING topic. I love to share it, and tell the story. No one, in any setting where I've said my one thing (so people now know, but I still use it) has ever experienced the same thing. I may have oversold this, but I'm cool with that.

The one thing people offer up about me when it's more trivia-based, and I don't choose the topic, is "Who lives on a cattle farm?" That happened this trip, below is a transcript of the actual conversation, and it's usually the same thing whenever the topic comes up:

Trivia Question: "Who lives on a cattle farm?"
Person 1: "Someone in this room lives on a cattle farm?"
Person 2: "It's Katie"
Person 1, 3, 4, etc: "Bwa ha ha ha ha! It's Katie! Can you imagine if that were actually true? Bwa ha ha ha ha!!!!"
Me: "No, really, I live on a cattle farm."
Room: Silence. Staring as people look at how I'm dressed (amazing), my handbag and accessories (also amazing). Guys...People...do you know what farmers look like? Like regular people. We're crazy like that.

If this is your idea of what a Farm Couple looks like, you may need to expand your horizons.

Ok, so what's the one thing about me that I like to use?

Wait for it...

I fell in quick-sand hiking through a Cloud Forest in Ecuador.

This statement usually leads to the Longest Story Ever (as I've been told) because you don't just say that and walk away. People want to know how that happened, and how I lived to tell the tale. Then all the other random stuff that happened in Ecuador. Like the crazy people on the plane down there. Not being able to breathe due to altitude sickness on the top of Mt. Cayambe. Almost dying on the Road to NoNo on a Pre-Incan trail. Staying overnight in a plantation. Meeting a real-life medicine woman and having roasted guinea pig with her family. Trying on indigenous clothing. Almost getting mugged in downtown Quito because of my atrocious sense of direction. The creepy serial-killer looking guy who was at the "Internet cafe" every day looking at porn. How horribly, miserably sick I got.

See? That's my short story, there's no detail in it, and it's still long.

I've decided to try something, which is to write down my Ecuadorian Adventures and post them in my blog. Mainly because it's a good story. And maybe if I do it this way, I can give people the highlights and then send them here for the rest. So if anyone is interested in reading about my Ecuadorian Adventures, I'll be breaking them into several parts and posting them out here as I finish.

Ecuador Cloud Forest. This was after I fell in the quick sand.