It is Vu’s birthday today.  He thinks he is turning 25.  He is actually turning 32.  Maybe as a birthday present today I will let him think he is 25.  Just for today.  Tomorrow it’s back to 32.  In celebaration of his 25th birthday, here is a list of 10 facts about Vu.

7 things most people who know him already know

1. He is OBSESSED with Star Wars.  Every time I see something Star Wars themed in the store I text him a picture and ask if he wants me to get it.    Sometimes he doesn’t respond before I am ready to check out so I don’t get it.  After which he says: The answer is always yes!  He frequently is given gifts of Star Wars items.  At the beginning of our relationship I was among these gift givers.  Until I realized that everything I gave him he already had 2 of.

Exhibit A: the man cave

Exhibit b: His Star Wars MBA graduation party

Exhibit c: His collection of Star Wars character sweat shirts and mugs

2. He is a huge car guy.  Before we got married he bought a new car every 6-9 months.  Each new car requires extensive modifications.  Custom wheels.  Carbon fiber attachments (and really anything that CAN be carbon fiber, WILL be carbon fiber.)  Lowered.  Custom exhaust.  Custom tinted 6000k headlights. Etc.  Etc.  He has been very sad with his “responsible” Audi that he has had to “endure” during grad school.  He is beyond excited to get his dream car now that he is done.

A few of his “babies.”

3. He is extremely patriotic. And has a very real ambition to become the president. Of the United States.  An ambition I definetly don’t share.  He has an American pin for every single suit coat and jacket he owns.  And this is one reason he wants to leave the July decorations up all year long.

4. He has a great thirst for knowledge. He loves learning about everything.  Often when chatting with someone about their job or hobby he is able to ask very detailed and intuitive questions that surprise them.

5.  He loves bacon.  And thinks that every single food could be improved by adding bacon.

(his Tatertot-waffle bacon sausage cheese egg sandwich for his birthday this morning…)

6.  He loves to make people laugh and is constantly making jokes.

(This picture is blurry because I had to be quick, but it was from last year when we were teaching the 6 year olds at our church and as a game for part of the lesson the kids chose to dress him up in these items which they all thought was hilarious…)

7.  He is deathly afraid of bears.  And I mean really terrified.  So much so that friends will often bring him back all different kinds of bears from their vacations as joke gifts.  When we were signing the paperwork to buy our house and there was a bear warning clause in it he just about backed out.

3 things most people don’t know about him

1.  His primary motivation for success in his life, career, school, etc. is me and our future family, to give us everything that he wants for us.

2.  He is a little bit of an OCD clean freak.  It stresses him out if there are things not in their place, like mail on the counter or the shoes in the mud room aren’t lined up properly.  He can’t concentrate on certain things if there is even a tiny bit of a mess around him.  I, to his disappointment, am not an OCD clean freak.  I like things to be clean, but I can forget about it if I am doing something else.

3.  He has the ability to almost immediately take a step back from circumstances, examine his behavior, habits, actions, faults, etc. and then quickly modify and make improvements where he sees a problem.  It is maybe a bit unhuman, you could almost say robotic…