Let's Talk About ME!

It seemed like a good, introspective night to draw up a list of some 25 little-known, and somewhat-known things about myself. I needed an excuse to get back to my blog after such a long absence. So, in case you were interested...

1. I was born the year of the Tiger and under the sun sign of Cancer, and I actually do see qualities of both astrology signs in my outward personality.

2. When I was 5, I won 2nd place in a kids' singing contest in a refugee camp in Thailand, and the prize was a 2 lb. bag of rice, a blanket, some hard candy, and a weird plastic toy that I really loved.

3. I don't think John Taylor is as hot as every other woman my age thinks. He's just okay. I only say he's hot and act all in love to keep my 80's cred when the subject turns to Duran Duran.

4. The thing I miss the most when I'm away from my beloved is the way his breath smells when we're kissing.

5. I like talking about myself a lot. I try not to, to be sociable, but I really actually like doing all the talking, and my favorite subject is me.

6. I fear that I'm already losing my hearing, and I'm not even 40 yet.

7. I'm not sure I ever want to have kids because my older sister's kids are SO amazingly cute, and I just don't think I can top them. It genuinely worries me that I wouldn't love mine as much because of that.

8. Sometimes I think Marisa Tomei should play me in a stage production of my life, but then I'm afraid that Janeane Garofalo will get the role because she's more like me than Marisa is, and Janeane is a VERY mouthy woman! Plus, Janeane and I are exactly the same height.

9. I talk in my sleep. I have fully coherent, thoughtful, emotion-filled conversations with people in my sleep, and never know anything about it the next morning.

10. I probably would've gone back for my PhD in archaeology eventually if the radio bug hadn't bitten me.

11. The first sentence I ever learned to say in English was: "I hit, you die."

12. Even though I'm so arrogant that I sometimes feel like I'm better than my two older sisters because of the experiences I've had in life and the choices I've made, I can't live without their approval and support, and this makes me sure that I either still love them very much, or I need therapy very badly.

13. I am an excruciatingly slow reader.

14. I secretly love looking at pictures of Britney Spears (the pretty ones, not the awful candid shots) because she's everything I wanted to look like when I was 12.

15. I wish I'd known my grandfathers, both of whom died before my parents ever met. I have this very sacred and idealistic vision of what a close relationship with a grandfather means to a child.

16. When I was 15, I tried to write my own grocery store check-out stand smutty paperback, but had to plagiarize all the sex scenes because I didn't know enough about it to write any of those parts myself.

17. I actually believe that connecting with people and fostering strong bonds is what I was meant to do in this life. It's why I can't take friendships lightly.

18. I'm very strangely afraid of wind and alligators. It's as if I was killed by an alligator on a windy day in some previous life.

19. After almost every meal, I can't feel clean again unless I can go wash and rinse my mouth out with warm water. I don't need to floss or brush, just wash and rinse.

20. I'm ridiculously afraid of June Bugs, those rust-orange colored beetles that fly, and crash into your hair and face because they've got terrible vision or something.

21. I'm glad that I'm good with words, even if it means that I'm terrible with numbers. That's okay. If given a choice between the 2, I would've picked this way, anyway.

22. When I was 8 or 9, I used to read bedtime stories into a tape recorder and play it back for myself at night when I went to sleep because no one could read to me before bed. It used to freak my mom out when she walked into my room at night after I'd already fallen asleep, and be able to hear me alert and reading out loud in the dark.

23. When I'm in my 40's or 50's, I want to go live in Italy for a few years to learn how to cook authentic Italian food and speak the language.

24. I can't watch commercials on T.V. or listen to them on the radio. I mute them and turn away every time a show goes to break. Commercials make me panic and I start to fear that I can fall victim to some weird form of 50's-era mind control experiments.

25. Everybody thinks I'm really self-confident, but it's all an act. I've got more monsters lurking in my anxiety closet than that kid Binkley ever dreamed of!