mi mi mi!

20 things about me. Actually, 25 things to appease those who have not yet read this.

1. I tried to have short hair in my youth but after being confused for a boy on several occasions, I resolved to keep my hair long. I usually had it all the same length except one time when I ran a "Speed Buggy" over my head, got the hair tangled up in it, and ended up with bangs and another time when I tried to use a spiky curling iron on my hair, got the hair tangled up and burned in it, and ended up with bangs. Now, I'm just used to it. Unfortunately, that hasn't made the mistaken assumption about my gender stop - at least when it comes to the online world.

2. The most amazing things I've seen in my life include the synchronicity of a bajillion prayer-goers at Mecca during Hajj (it's like a choreographic dream), the vastness of the Grand Canyon, and the birth of me wee ones.

3. After reading "The Princess Bride," I became obsessed with William Goldman and read everything he had ever written, even an instructional book on how to write screenplays.

4. I used to look down on people who cursed freely and frequently because it indicated to me a lack of imagination and an attempt to sound cool. However, there are times when certain words or even entire phrases go through my head - when someone bites me and draws blood, when someone punches me in the bosom, when someone cuts me off in traffic. One of the more creative invectives I have heard was from the movie "Citizen Ruth." Classic.

5. I used to hate baths. When my mother would send me upstairs to take a bath, I'd run the water in the tub and sit at the edge and read a book for what I thought would be the equivalent time it would take to clean up. I think the stink lines that emanated from my body tipped my mother off.

6. I once walked from the bridge connecting Cairo to the island of Zamalek after spending several hours in the claustrophobic museum through the hottest part of the day under a brutal sun because LB argued with the taxi driver over a few cents and forced us to get out and hoof it back to her dorm.

7. I have visited nearly 30 countries. The only country in which I was not, at least once, mistaken for a native was in China.

8. I have a blog. I have had one for five years now. I considered dumping it time and time again, but always seem to keep it alive nonetheless. Sometimes I read other people's blogs to educate myself. Sometimes to laugh. And sometimes to get annoyed or mad. Deliberately. I can't stand the author or the writing or the subject matter but I just keep visiting it because I'm in the mood to be put out. I believe the correct term is "maddy waddy."

9. I have eclectic tastes. In books (the bookshelf sports classic literature next to the trashiest romance pulp next to graphic novels next to hip, irreverent fiction), in music, movies (I'll be just as likely to see a foreign film as I will a sci-fi film or a Desi fillum or a stupid comedy or a brilliant documentary or an animated film), etc.

10. I envy my sister's gift of organization and creativity.

11. When I was in college, I stopped wearing a wrist-watch. I used to have a pocket watch that hung from my neck by a leather strip. In law school, I had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle watch that, when flipped open, would say, "It's pizza time" or "Cowabunga, dude" (I can't remember which). I have a Rolex that I wore for a while but now it's sitting in a box while my cell phone does double duty.

12. I will always prefer being hot over being cold. If not for the mosquitoes, I could have it be summer almost all year long.

13. When I got my first video game console (Atari), I played Space Invaders so much that I developed a blister on my thumb from clutching the joystick so tightly with my sweaty little hands.

14. I watch TV with the closed captioning on and DVDs with the subtitles on because I don't want to miss a thing. It all started after 9/11 when the constant roar of helicopters above and police sirens below prevented me from hearing anything.

15. [cribbed from upyernoz] When I was growing up, my parents made me take all kinds of lessons. I took tennis lessons, swimming lessons, piano and flute lessons, ice skating lessons, ski lessons, golf lessons, cooking lessons, sewing lessons, painting lessons (the last three from my mother). I never became a good tennis player, swimmer, flute player, ice skater, skier or artist, but I did learn how to have a whole bunch of disparate hobbies and to do them all half-assed.

16. As athletic and fit as I used to be, I hated to run unless it was towards something (a base, a ball, a goal) or away from something (another person, a bee, my sister). Now, I just hate exercise all around.

17. I have met Mohammed Ali and he has been to my house.

18. When I was in high school, one of my best friends got me hooked on "Days of Our Lives" to the extent that I'd tape it so I could watch it when I got home from school. Now, I can't stand more than a minute of it and I can't even see what I found so compelling about it.

19. When I was in high school, another one of my best friends and I used to listen to Dr. Demento followed by Dr. Ruth on the radio on Sunday nights and discuss what we learned during study hall the next day.

20. Death only scares me in that I worry what will happen to my husband and kids without me to boss them around and take care of them.

BONUS FIVE
(for those of you non-facey types)

21. I know "The Lord's Prayer" by heart because I attended Catholic school for three years.

22. I have had to get my fingerprints taken so many times now that I've lost count. The most recent time was a few weeks ago. You'd think with all the CSI-type techmology out there, they'd already have copies or access to a database that has my prints already.

23. When I concentrated really hard on something, I had a tendency to bite my lips (I've now since stopped that habit) or chew the inside of my cheeks (working on it). Upon reading the final book in the Dark Tower cycle by Stephen King, I think I may have been close to biting my way right through.

24. I have low blood pressure. In my youth, if I got up too quickly, I would often get dizzy and, on occasion, faint. One time, I fainted in a bathroom in college and the floor was filthy and disgusting but felt so cool to my cheek that I just lay there for a while. One time, I was praying during Hajj and I fell right smack down on my face and the impact forced my glasses to busticate my nose. One time, I had just had an appendectomy and I had to use the restroom and as I was fainting and sliding down the pole that held my IV, the nurse right outside my door saw me and helped me back to the bed.

25. I never thought I'd see the day when the President of the United States and I share a name.