I was recently asked to give some fun facts to share as an introduction. For new readers here, I thought I would do a round-up of random Karen facts:

1/ I’m the eldest of three; even though my siblings and I are well, well into adulthood, our 88 year old Mom still manages to rule us in not so subtle ways.

2/ I’ve been with my husband for almost 40 years; married for 32 of those. I like to think we got married as infants.

3/ I have two kids, a boy and a girl, both in their 20s now. We struggled with infertility and were very fortunate that things worked out for us. I am not shy about that fact, even though the subject is still often kept on the down-low these days.

4/ I was also fortunate enough to take a couple of breaks from my career to stay at home with my kids for several years. Which provided fodder for me to …

5/ Blog. I have had two other blogs, which I started while off with the kids. I was quite into the blogging community in the early 2000s, even dabbling a bit in product reviews. Blogging in its heyday with the BlogHer tribe, was such a blast!

Can you imagine if I had taken that further? I suppose a precursor to being an influencer, which is a totally legit career these days. Who would have even imagined that as a path?

6/ I still have this relentless urge to work, hence I’ve had to brush off some old reading:

7/ I’m a huge fan of music, especially 80s and 90s alternative, British, all of that. My husband made me a mixed tape when we started dating, which had songs by the Cure, Japan, David Bowie to name a few of our favourites. We binged the miniseries “Mix Tape” recently, finished it in one evening. A fantastic playlist!

We love live music (not stadium concerts – done with those). You’ll see a lot of posts of that sort here.

8/ I am a dog lover. We never had pets growing up, but we adopted a 4-year-old cormungdeon Shih Tzu, Cody, in 2012 and he became the centre of our universe. He crossed the rainbow bridge in June, but we still miss him every day.

Will we get another dog? Probably, but not for a bit. The last couple of years were tough while the little guy was in decline. But I do look at rescue sites and Petfinder more than once in a while, so it may be only a matter of time…

9/ The gym is another passion of mine, I’m a regular at group fitness classes, even certified as a Les Mills BodyJam instructor. I stopped teaching when Covid hit and the gym industry took a massive downturn. Workouts have been my salvation, in fact I ballooned up during the pandemic. All those snacks, wine, and working out alone wasn’t cutting it for me. I’ve made many new friends and social circles from my Bodyjam, Bodycombat and Bodypump classes – yes, I’m the one yelling and high fiving and clapping in the classes.

Bonus is that I’m feeling stronger, healthier, and I’ve lost almost 20 pounds since my all time max weight of 4 years ago.

10/ I am Canadian, born of immigrant Chinese parents.

11/ Totally random – I’ve met both the King and Queen of Denmark, when they were the Prince and Princess. (They got promoted in 2024 when Queen Margreth abdicated.)

12/ I’m an extroverted introvert (see above, re:gym). I like a good party and then the next day I’m happy to be alone with my book or binge-watching a show.

13/ I love to dance.

Would love to get to know facts about my gentle readers too!