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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

25 Things About Me

Yes, I am finally doing this.

You are also supposed to finish this by tagging 25 people but I feel like I'm the last one to do it so...if you are a slacker like me, consider yourself nudged since you've probably already been tagged.

1. I love long names--the twins each have two middle names for a total of four names each.
2. I have a mortal fear of mayonnaise.
3. I hate surprises so no surprise parties; but I also hate surprises so much that I rarely see a film unless someone else has already seen it and told me everything that will happen. Even with non-scary/sad films. I also made Josh give me a three month window for when he was planning to propose so that I could prepare myself for it.
4. I also don't like receiving flowers. Seeing them outside the house is great. Inside the house, not so much.
5. When I travel, I carry a picture of myself taken in the Galilee after our boat broke down.
6. For the translation portion of my degree, I worked on a project translating the short stories of Etgar Keret and Orli Castel-Bloom. I thought that I'd be a translator after I was finished with school. That didn't happen.
7. I go to Chincoteague every summer. It is one of my happy spaces.
8. Josh and I got married in a library not just because we're both writers, but because the space reminded him of the Long Room at Trinity College and we fell in love over our mutual affection for Ireland. In fact, my sister and Josh found the wedding space while I was in Ireland.
9. I had an audience with the Pope (John Paul II, not the current one).
10. If I wasn't Jewish, I would probably be Quaker. I love going to Meeting and think about it every time I drive by our local Meetinghouse. The thing that stops me from going is that Sunday is my lie-in day and sleep trumps everything else.
11. We rarely get the mail--sometimes a full week will pass before we remember to check the box. The postmaster loves us. This is true even when it's our birthday and we're expecting cards in addition to bills. We are just not mail people. Yet I send out a lot of mail--cards and letters.
12. I can't stand perfume or cologne.
13. I wish I knew how to speak Spanish fluently.
14. I love sea salt.
15. If I didn't get into grad school, I was going to live on a kibbutz for a year.
16. I can't concentrate if there is music or television playing in the background. I need it quiet to think/write.
17. In Gematria, my name adds up to 100 and I've secretly always thought this makes me special.
18. I like clementines but I never eat them because I refuse to peel them. I hate having my hands smell like oranges but don't care if they smell like lemons.
19. I am terrible at judging time or distance.
20. I love to clean. It is one of my favourite things to do. I dream of a night that Josh turns to me and says, "let's clean. All night. Organize the storage room and scrub the floors."
21. I really like going to Disney World. This is a new discovery, but since I decided that I like it, we've been three times.
22. I don't love anything around my neck (including scarves and turtlenecks).
23. I have a really sensitive gag reflex. I am a dream patient for every dentist.
24. My dream is to one day own a shower that has a window in it (positioned high up around head-level). I bathed in a shower like this in Rome and I've never stopped coveting it.
25. I am incredibly loyal. If I have your back--as a person, organization, or product--I'll put your happiness before my own and remain committed always. Even if someone shows me a competing product or organization that I like better, I will stick with the first one indefinitely. And I am happiest doing so.

27 comments:

April said...

this was fun to read. i am so with you on #2. in fact, i was at a conference yesterday and almost cried when my lunch arrived smothered in mayo. my colleagues looked at me like i was crazy!

luna said...

I love this. um, do you think you could talk to my hub about #1? it's kind of an issue arising in current discussions at home.

Anita said...

#20 made me laugh because it is so true for me too! :)

Anonymous said...

can you talk to E about #1? He thinks the fact I have two middle names is odd. Trinty College? Yeah! I am a former Oxford student.

Kathy said...

Love reading these Mel! Thanks for sharing! :) I posted mine yesterday (both on FB & my blog), so feel free to check it out.

Curious to know more about your audience with the Pope (I know not the current one). I got to see him too, at one of his Wednesday audiences when I was traveling in Rome in May of 1996. However I didn't have an up close audience with him.

You aren't the first person's 25 Things list that I have read over the past few days that talked about loving Disney... I haven't been since the 5th grade and makes me want to plan a trip! :)

Anyway, enjoyed reading your 25 Things! Have a great day! :)

Kristin said...

I really enjoyed reading this. I would have loved to meet JP II.

Baby Smiling In Back Seat said...

I have never heard of a meme that involves tagging 25 people.

You know, sometimes you can find Quaker meetings on non-Sundays. And I know people who are both Jewish and Quaker, so they're not mutually exclusive (at least from the perspective of Quakerism, can't speak for Judaism).

With or without gematria, you are special.

Anonymous said...

I love that you got married in a library. You just keep getting cooler (well, geeky-cooler) every time you post.

kate said...

10. I consider joining the Quakers all the time. There's a meetinghouse I always pass on the way home, and they have the coolest things on the marquee outside- always something clever about non-violence or anti-death penalty stuff, or about putting thought between prayer and decisions. It all just seems so wise.

18. I love when my hands smell like citrus, but I still don't eat clementines- it's too much work for such a small (amply seeded) reward. I do love tangerine juice, though. Yum!

23. Me, too. I have to warn the dental techs that if they aren't fast enough with the x-ray machine, they will have a bowlful of vomit on their hands. Some listen, some don't... The ones who don't do learn their lesson quickly though.

24. My shower has a window in it, but not up high. I had to cover it with a film-thing that obscures objects on either side, but still lets in light. We replaced that window and got one that opens from the top or the bottom, so now (when it's not butt-cold), we can open just the top and let in light and air without offering up our nudity to the (very elderly, very Baptist) next door neighbors.

I put mine up over on facebook...

Anonymous said...

I love these lists, yet I never do one of my own.

I despise ketchup with every fiber of my being, so I can totally get your mayo issues.

AnotherDreamer said...

LOL, I totally did this on Facebook too.

Jamie said...

I love your random facts! If it makes you feel any better, I am also a terrible judge of distance. Don't bother telling me how many miles down the road some place is. It would be a waste of breath.

Rebecca said...

Aw, I love these! I'm tagging myself just because I wanna be just like Mel! LOL

Anyway...

Re: #2. Have you considered therapy my dear?

16. I'm just the opposite...my 10 years as a 9-1-1 dispatcher working in an environment with phones ringing, radio traffic from 5 different channels and my partners yelling across the room, has conditioned me to thrive on noise. Not a lot of noise...but I have to have some music going when I need to concentrate on something. Matter of fact, I have iTunes up playing right now!

19. I'm the same way. And actually around here (St. Louis MO area) directions are usually not given in miles, but in how many minutes it should take to drive there...and amazingly, everything is almost always "20 minutes". LOL

Paz said...

I think you left something off the list... something about a small bug that goes chirp-chirp.

I'll peel clementines for you anytime, I absolutely adore that smell on my hands.

I also love sea salt – some may call it obsessed. And I detest perfume and colognes...and scented candles too. yuk!

Anonymous said...

Cool, Mel! I am trying to figure out how to post mine on fb...thanks for the inspiration!
peace
shlomit

battynurse said...

I wish I spoke Spanish fluently too. It seems some days like half the patients I care for speak only spanish and all I can ask them is if they had pain and when they last ate.

Coffeegrljapan said...

You got married in a library? That's awesomeness. Could be I'm a little biased what with being a librarian and all...but I love me some books and learning regardless.

AwkwardMoments said...

I was nodding my head on #11.

I could really use you to help me get organized!

Deathstar said...

Why don't you like flowers on the inside? Does it remind you of funerals? What did you wear to meet the Pope?

HereWeGoAJen said...

Matt also has a fear of mayonnaise.

Come to Disney World, quick! Before I move away!

I also have a massive gag reflex. I made it a lot better by practicing not gagging when I brushed my teeth. Now I am not so bad at the dentist. (I used to have to have my X-rays taken over and over because I would always gag on the film and accidentally spit it out.)

the misfit said...

Hilarious. Your personality really shows through your writing.

I'm a non-mail-checker myself, but I only WISH I loved cleaning. It's often very satisfying - but hard to get myself to do it. And I'm fascinated by that degree of hatred of surprises. I can't handle suspense movies, but that's not nearly so strong an aversion. Bad association, maybe?

Anonymous said...

Hilarious! Amen on #4.

Barb said...

If you come to Disney World again, you had better give me a call woman! (well.. e-mail.. but then I can give you a number to give me a call. ;-)

Anonymous said...

I wish I loved cleaning, y house would love e for it...

I live in France and a lot of bathrooms here have the 'high up near your head' window... I always thought that was quite strange... what is it that you like about the?

(Oh, an I've got one of my own... not to make you jealous or anything...)

(;

Kir said...

loved learning all about you. (and my house could use a really good "spring cleaning" so whenever you're ready, I LOVE 'surprise' visits!!!!)

:)

Rachel said...

The Trinity Library was probably may favorite part of Ireland.

Billy said...

With you on 4. I hate the fact that flowers are picked only to dry out in some kind of vase.

Regarding 18.... I just love the smell of oranges and the likes, and on hands when peeling.. (complete opposite of you :-))

22... also don't like stuff round my neck.

P.S
The gimetria - is that on your Hebrew name?