8 Random Facts About Me

I've been "meme-tagged" by my friend Cheryl. At first, I thought this was a reference to my deceased grandmother, Meme, but then I realized it was just some new kind of blog lingo that, as usual, I'm ignorant of. Well, I'm excited to be getting with it at last. First I have to post the rulz:

1) Post these rules before you give your facts.
2) List eight random facts about yourself.
3) At the end of your post, choose (tag) eight people and list their names, linking to them.
4) Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they've been tagged.

Then I get to break them. Well, at least one. I don't think I know eight people in the blogosphere who I can possibly tag, so it's out the window with most of rule #3. Here goes:

1). During the first year of my life, my family and I lived on a sail boat. According to my father, I stopped crying as soon as we moved into a regular house and became landlubbers.

2). My mother's nickname for me is Tweeky Pops. The tweeky part is a reference to the springy curls I had at the crown of my head when I was little, which my mother referred to as "tweeky curls," because she would tweek/pop them.

3). I had a parakeet I named Tweeky Two. He liked to masturbate, especially by rubbing himself on my father's finger. I realize all of this is very Freudian.

4). For a time, my brother and I had to look up words every day and then present our words at dinner time, both the definitions and then their use in a sentence. My older brother always resented the fact that he had to look up four words a day, and I only had to look up two. We had many dictionaries lying around the house, both British and American English. One evening, I came to the table and proudly presented the word swarf. Please note the hyperlink. No one believed that swarf was an actual word. My problem at the time was that I couldn't remember in which dictionary I found the word. We searched through all the reference materials we could find and, to my chagrin, swarf did not appear (this was pre-internet). To this day, every one believes that I made it up. It's gotten to the point where I almost wish I had.

5). I've spent a good part of the first half of my 30s experiencing a belated mourning for John Lennon. I just saw the documentary, The U.S. vs. John Lennon, and I highly recommend it.

"Imagine" was my graduating class song in high school, which would have been great if we hadn't changed all the lyrics to say something insipid and untrue about our wonderful high school memories and bright futures. I was the nerd who, along with cellist Eric Gulbransen (who I went to school with since kindergarten), accompanied my graduating class on the piano. The plus side is that I still know how to play "Imagine." Thankfully, "The Wind Beneath My Wings" has been wiped from memory.

6). I was president of my high school French Club junior and senior year. At one point, I convinced my girlfriends to join by telling them that we'd get to eat lots of good food--cheese, bread, coq au vin, etc. But I also needed some hotties to dance the Can-Can for a French-Club-hosted luncheon on behalf of the Alliance Francaise d'Hawaii. Suffice to day, the Alliance demanded a repeat performance. Looking back at pictures from that day, I realize why--we were young, straddling one another and rolling around on the floor in leotards and tights.

7). I, like Cheryl, will eat fish eyes (but only if they are fried to a crisp).

8). I also love anchovy paste, Vegemite and sardines. Do you know, I can't find Vegemite anywhere right now and I'm going crazy? I heard about some weird, covert ban on it. This is what snopes has to say.

Okay, whew. I did it. I meme-tag:
Lee-Roy of Art & Story
Jesi, the Wicked Witch of the West and
Johnny Hong Kong.