Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.
(To do this on FB, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)
1. My first car was a Chevy Cavalier hatchback. I named it Siegfried and I got all teary-eyed the day I left it on the car lot after trading it in for a Saturn. I couldn’t help but think how betrayed he must feel after years of service.
2. In high school, I was particularly fond of reading romance novels, aka smut books. Nothing like sitting in the hallway of your Catholic high school before class reading about throbbing man parts and dewy lady bits.
3. Every guy I’ve ever dated (or wanted to date), with the possible exception of my first high school boyfriend, was a soccer player at some point in his post-pubescent life (i.e. not just a group of 5-year-olds kicking each other in the shins). I really like soccer players.
4. The first albums I ever bought were cassettes of Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits and Barry Manilow Greatest Hits. I bought these because my brother refused to sell me his old cassette player unless I also took these tapes off his hands.
5. I have always fought a “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” mentality, with an urge to collect just about anything one could collect. As a child, in addition to my straw collection, I used to collect pretty rocks at the beach. I was limited by adult supervision to only the rocks I could fit in my pockets, but I would fill up my socks as well so I had lumpy cankles. I didn’t fool anyone, but I usually got an “A” for effort and got to keep the extra rocks.
6. I am really good at weaning orphaned foster care raccoons. Not only do I make a really nice looking raccoon diet, one that you might consider eating if it weren’t for the fish and mouse bits sprinkled throughout, but I can also work the tough love. If the raccoon is fat and healthy, I will aggressively reduce the number of bottles and amount of formula once they hit weaning age. I’m okay with letting them get a little hungry so they have a reason to explore the bowls of luscious fruit, yogurt, egg, and meaty bits.
7. I started volunteering at WildCare after going to the Marin Humane Society to look into volunteer options there and coming home with another cat.
8. I hate having people look at me when I cry. My dad and I have an unspoken agreement that, if we are watching a sad movie together, we will silently, without speaking or looking at each other, retreat to separate ends of the house to compose ourselves in private. Steve got this memo but ignores it and always looks over to see if I am crying. Yes, I’m crying! I always cry!
9. Music moves me emotionally. Even if a movie is not very good, I can be quickly moved to tears by an emotional or patriotic swell of music. The one exception to this is at the end of The Wrath of Kahn. The first time I ever saw it was with Steve. I got sufficiently teary-eyed when Spock died, but I burst into laughter when Scotty started playing Amazing Grace on the bagpipes. The idea that Scotty, about whom there was never an inkling he played the bagpipes, was suddenly playing them because, of course he would, he’s Scottish, was absurd to me. I continued laughing as the full orchestral version surged. Steve still hasn’t forgiven me.
10. When I was in 6th grade, my best friend and I used to play GI Joe. We would trade off who was Lady Jaye and who was Scarlett. It was a tough call because Lady Jaye was obviously so much cooler, but Scarlett got Duke who, at the time, I thought was cuter. I’ve since realized I was wrong and Flint was definitely the manlier man.
11. When I first moved out to California for an internship at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, I didn’t know anyone except my cat. I had adopted Cassady my senior year of college and we drove across the country together that summer. Appropriate since she was named after Neal Cassady who was the basis for Dean Moriarty in Kerouac’s On the Road. Anyway, when I got to California and knew no one, I used to take Cassady with me as I drove around getting a sense of the area. I even put her on her leash and harness and took her with me up to the regional park on a couple of occasions.
12. I would consider going vegetarian for ethical/humane reasons, but I really don’t like many vegetables and beans and have trouble accepting tofu. I don’t know what I would eat other than cheesy pasta all the time.
13. I like tomatoes but I don’t trust tomatoes with an unknown provenance. Unless I have at least purchased the tomato and cut it up myself, or preferably grown it myself, I just don’t trust it and will usually pick it off of whatever it is on. I will make exceptions depending on the food item and who is serving it. After all, it’s hard to hide it when you’ve scraped all the tomatoes off your bruschetta.
14. I remember my First Confession because I was so nervous I totally forgot what I was supposed to say. I blanked once I got in the confessional. The priest practically yelled at me when asking who I was. I finally managed to stumble through “Bless me Father for I have sinned” and made up a few sins to confess. I think my first Confession was also my last.
15. I played the alto saxophone in grade school band. Kenny G was hitting it big when I was in 6th grade or so and I begged my parents to buy me a soprano sax. They had the good judgment to put me off a year until I lost interest in the sax altogether.
16. I have never been athletic. I ran track and played basketball in junior high, but was never very good. Our basketball team actually won some championship when I was in 7th grade, but it was certainly not due to my efforts. I believe I made 1 basket in 2 years. But I was pretty good at defense, never letting the person I was covering get a hand on the ball.
17. I skipped 8th grade; for a very long time I was always the youngest person in any group of peers. It was a real shock when that stopped being the case.
18. I used to pull my own hair when I was a baby. Apparently, the harder I pulled, the louder I screamed, and the louder I screamed, the harder I pulled. My mom loves telling this story.
19. I did a radio show for 2 and a half years with a friend in college. I recently digitized my old tapes and transferred them to CD. Steve keeps saying I should post a clip to my blog. I will if I ever come across one that doesn’t make me cringe with embarrassment.
20. When I was in 1st-2nd grade, I saw a speech therapist because I had a hard time pronouncing my “S”’s.
21. I started college as a musical theatre performance major, but gave up the performance dream after my first year. I got so nervous at auditions that I was almost incapacitated. In fact, I came very close to skipping my audition to get into the School of Theatre Arts in the first place because I felt so sick to my stomach. Since college, I have gotten better and done a few shows with the local community theatre, but I still struggle with auditions. I never have the same trouble with performances because there is validation in being cast and it just seems easier and more natural to me. I sometimes wonder what might have happened if I had had access to beta blockers back in college.
22. I am very frugal and hate to waste money. I bring leftovers to work every day for lunch and I maintain an iron control over the thermostat at home. But I can’t pass up a good sale so I sometimes buy things I don’t really need to save a few bucks.
23. I want to do a volunteer vacation at the Best Friends Animal Society in Utah someday.
24. My first job was at Taco Bell. I worked there for 8 hours every Saturday through the school year (more in the summer) from age 14-16. I started working there because I wanted to go to Europe with a chorale group and my parents made me pay for half. I appreciate that they always made me pay for the extra stuff I wanted. When I started at Taco Bell, I made $3.35 an hour. Later the minimum wage was raise to $3.45 an hour. It took a while to pay for half of that Europe trip.
25. When I got my belly button pierced a few years ago, I would fill a glass with warm salt water and sit with it cupped around my belly button for a daily soaking. I really freaked my dad out that Christmas when I used one of the glasses he usually used to drink scotch for this purpose. I can be wicked this way.