FEATURES

Bacon, Yes! Pizza, No!

Tuesday, 05 November 2013 06:10

(Photo - JF-F's favorite burger, "The Jiffy.")

Going "Off Course - As a grad student at Iowa State University, Minneapolis multisporter Jennifer Fitzharris-Funk taught "Human Sexuality." If you ever want to know about where babies come from or why guys are in "The Mood" all the time and girls aren't, then JF-F is the one to ask. And though there were 150+ students in her class, Jennifer never developed an elephantine ego because she knew more about naughty stuff than they did.

Being a sex expert, or "Sexpert," isn't the only cool or disturbing thing about JF-F. On the cool side, she loves craft beer and "The Jiffy," which is an awesome burger that is served at The Blue Door. What makes this burger special is that it has peanut butter on it. No kidding. It also has lots of bacon.

Speaking of bacon, another cool thing about Jennifer is that she, like most men, believe that there isn't anything that can't be improved by the addition of crispy, salty, shredded swine flesh....

On the disturbing side, JF-F, and we're quoting here, "doesn't do pizza." How sick is that?

Jennifer Fitzharris-Funk has great taste in music, which is to say that we like most of the same singers and bands that she does. She has red hair and a couple of large tattos. She is fond of Asian authors and if she had her druthers, would eat breakfast three times a day.

JF-F is a very cool and interesting person and we invite you to learn more about her by reading her answers to our questionnaire below.

BACKGROUND:

Name?  Jennifer Fitzharris-Funk

Age? 37 (38 on 11/20!)

Where you live now? South Minneapolis. Tucked between Minnehaha Parkway and Lake Nokomis

Where were you born? St. Cloud, MN

Education? Where? Degrees?

UW-Eau Claire, B.A. in Psychology.  

Iowa State University, M.S. in Human Development (was working on my PhD and left with just my dissertation to complete – always thought I’d finish – but life got in the way!). My plans were to become a professor at some small liberal arts college.

Occupation?  I’m a Senior Consultant in Organizational Effectiveness at Target. What’s Organizational Effectiveness – you ask? In a nutshell, training. I get to use my skills in education even though I never became a professor. I’ve been with Target for 11 years and absolutely love it. I started working in a jobshare two years ago (I work 3 days a week and my partner works 3 days a week). It’s an amazingly flexible arrangement that I’m so grateful to have.

Dream Job if you could do anything you want?  I kinda have it. I know it’s cheesy, but I do. I get paid to do something I’m passionate about, get to work for a great company and still get to find time to balance other aspects of my life since I’m only there 3 days a week!

Former Occupations? (Anything weird or embarrassing here?) While I was in grad school I taught an undergrad class “Human Sexuality” – lots of fun stories there. What’s great is anytime I get nervous about presenting or training in my current job, I think back and remind myself I’ve talked about sex to a room of 150+ people, so I can handle just about anything now.

Family? Wife? Husband? Kids?   My husband Brian (photo above R). We’ve been married for 9 years – no plans for kiddos. He used to do triathlons too, but is more into long distance and trail running nowadays. He’s basically my hero considering I’ve never run further than 18 miles.

(Photo L - Me at age-5.)

Pets? Names?  We have two dogs. Kaiser who we adopted when we were dating – he’s 14 now. And Ruby (aka Ruby the Wonder Dog and/or The Great Roudini). Ruby is my running partner and she’s amazing at it! She’ll even run on the treadmill next to me when I’m inside on the trainer.

Tattoos? Other cool mutilations?  Yup. I’ve got two rather large tattoos. One is a tree on my right side from my hip to my ribcage. The other is a string of four peonies across my shoulders and down my back – one flower for my mom, my two sisters and me. That one took about a year to complete. I’m working on another one now.

Best physical feature?  Well, I’m Minnesotan so I can’t say “best” but I’ll say most recognizable, which is my red hair. I used to hate it growing up – everyone and their mother would comment on my red hair. My dad would always call me carrot top which I’d come back with “The tops of carrots are green dad!!” Great comeback for a 7-year-old if you ask me.

Anything you wish you could change about yourself?  I’d make myself more tolerant to cold. Seriously. I’m constantly cold and I hate cold things; cold drinking water, cold food, cold temps. Probably because my family owned a sporting goods/ski shop and I grew up skiing outside every flipping Saturday – everything can be traced back to your childhood, you know.

Pet Peeves?  When people misuse I and me because they’re afraid the proper use of me doesn’t sound smart. Facebook statuses and snaps are rampant with them “Here’s a pic of John and I” people, its John and me.

Bad Habits?  Online Shopping. I hate shopping in the stores, but online shopping for me is scary. The day our postal carrier commented that she was surprised she didn’t have a parcel for me – I knew I was in trouble. I’ve also received two notes from online retailers thanking me for being one of their top customers and helping grow their business.

Embarrassing Moments?  I can’t think of one. Which either means I don’t embarrass easily or I don’t take enough risks in life!

FAVORITES:

Movies?  I can’t say I have one favorite, but my new favorite way to watch is at the Parkway Theater, right by my house. Old movies on the big screen while sitting on a perfectly worn leather couch drinking a Surly. We watched The Godfather a few weeks ago and just went to see The Godfather Part II this week.

Actors/Actresses?  Leonardo DiCaprio – man that guy can play anything and play it well. Gangs of New York might be my favorite of his.

TV Shows?  Ugh. I’m embarrassed to say – anything on Bravo. I’m a Real Housewives junkie.

Books? For nearly the past 2 years, I’ve been (happily) stuck in a genre of historical fiction focused on female stories and relationships in China.

Authors?  Lisa See, Amy Tan, Gail Tsukiyama

Musicians/bands?  I love local music – Pert’ Near Sandstone, Cloud Cult, Jeremy Messersmith, Mason Jennings, Trampled by Turtles, Field Report (kinda local). We’ve got a great music scene going on here! I’m also a fan of My Morning Jacket, Dawes, Fleet Foxes, Elliott Smith. I could go on and on, but then it’s not a list of favorites, is it?!

Songs? Impossible for me to list one.

Restaurants?  Hands down favorite is Hot Plate, they serve nothing but breakfast. Within walking distance of my house, funky “art” on the walls and c’mon their motto is “A day without bacon is like a day without sunshine” - they had me at bacon.

Meals?  Breakfast. Breakfast for breakfast, breakfast for lunch and breakfast for dinner (known as B for D in our house). Anything involving bacon and eggs and I’m there.

Junk Food? I’m not huge into sweets so anything salty (including bacon) would be my junk-food of choice.

Favorite Crunchy Snack Food?  Shoestring potatoes, the kind that comes in the old pop-top can (they always remind me of my dad).

Favorite Pizza?  I don’t do pizza, I know, my husband doesn’t believe it either. Anytime I ‘agree’ to order or have pizza with my husband – it’s a special day for him.

Favorite Ice Cream?  Ohh…Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Therapy. My one ‘cold food’ exception. They only sell it at Target (a limited edition partnership). Go out, get some, you’ll thank me.

Favorite Hamburger?  The Jiffy from Blue Door in Longfellow. Bacon, peanut butter, pepper jack cheese, mayo, pickles – it shouldn’t work, but it does.

Favorite Alcoholic Beverages?  My husband is a home brewer – so a pint of his current batch is usually my go-to beer of choice. If the keg is dry, a Summit EPA will do.

Non-tri hobbies?  I don’t do it nearly enough, but I love to crochet! A hand-made scarf, hat, mittens or blanket is one of the best gifts to give. I’ve been doing it since 1999 and have yet to make a blanket for our house. I did start one in 2009 and but it’s still not finished.

Dream vacation destination – I would love to do one of those Backroads cycling trips – maybe in China or somewhere in South East Asia. They’re insanely expensive, but cycling through a new country would be such a cool way to see and experience the culture!

Dream Car? I’ve never been into cars. Between Brian and me, we have one car and nine bikes (we walk/bike everywhere we can). I guess I’d buy a Volvo and pick it up in Europe so I could combine a vacation with getting a new car!

Anything you’d like to add about yourself?  My hyphenated name makes for some fun race announcements. Rarely does the entire thing fit on the race entry line so I’ll often hear Jennifer Fitzharris-Fun or Jennifer Fitzharris-Fu (once pronounced phonetically as “eff-you”) and one time, Jerry I think it was you who said “she gets compliments on her hyphen” and I heard “known for her bikin” when I foolishly bragged to my husband he politely corrected me.