I have been tagged to list 6 weird things about myself, which I appreciate because it allows me to talk about myself without actually going into anything relevant/current. Like Whet, my two word answer is, of course, "almost everything," but I'll try to stick to the non-obvious and the non-TMI.
1. When I was around two, I started having recurring dreams about "giant blueberries." I put them in quotation marks because I don't actually recall anything about the dreams (or the blueberries) themselves. Just that they were about "giant blueberries" and they were recurring. (Subsequently I was given the Most Easily Deconstructed Dream Award by the American Psychoanalytic Association)
2. One more about my childhood and then I'll stop because it's too easy. A few months ago my sister relayed to me a memory she has that I've completely forgotten (this is why it's handy to have a twin), but that I don't doubt at all because it perfectly encapsulates what I was like as a kid. So, our mom would always mention to us her half-serious hopes for our future husbands - so-and-so's son who was about the same age, etc - which like most kids we internalized far more than she expected. Apparently, Kirsten and I would be playing in the backyard and suddenly I'd start prancing around, probably on my tiptoes, and speaking in (my five-year-old self's version of) a prim and proper British accent, and Kirsten would be like, "Why are you acting like that?" And I'd whisper, "Because you never know - Prince William could be hiding in the bushes!!"
3. I'm phobic of many bugs, but especially snails and slugs. And I don't mean phobic in the "Ha ha, let's stick a snail in Danielle's face and she'll scream but then we'll all laugh and laugh" sense. I mean phobic. If you did something like that, I would probably start crying and then I would barf on you. Even worse than a live snail is a stepped-on snail. If I step on a snail by accident, I cry. If I'm eating something and I see a snail, I will not only lose my appetite for the rest of the day, but I won't be able to eat whatever I was eating for years because I will associate it with snails. If I try to eat it, I will start gagging. I actually haven't eaten tuna for a really long time and I think it was because it was right underneath the escargot at the Hyde Park Co-Op. This is actually getting worse, and my diet is getting more and more limited, and I really hate it. If anyone has any advice, please do share. (An aside, one of the nicest things anyone ever did for me was in Athens, when Ariel removed all the snails from my balcony so that I could sit out on it. It makes me so happy, in an embarrassed/humbled sort of way, when people are understanding and accommodating of my idiosyncrasies.)
4. I take two showers a day. I think it started as a boredom thing but now I'm so used to it that I feel grody if I don't.
5. It's no secret I'm a celebrity gossip fiend, but what's kind of weird (and annoying) is that what artists (of any kind) are like in real-life significantly affects my enjoyment of their work. Basically, it boils down to whether or not they're nice. If I find out that a musician I like is actually a dick, I won't be able to listen to his music anymore. Some people are exempt from this (e.g. Madonna, I'm sure she's a total bitch) but I haven't figured out a formula yet for who and why.
6. When I was in high school - freshmen and sophomore years - I was really into New Age philosophy, and Richard Bach was my favorite author. But I never got totally into the whole crystals and healing spells and incense and so forth element because I secretly feared that it was EVIL and if I did, I'd go to hell. (I'd spent the preceding two years attending Assembly of God youth group meetings every Wednesday. Evangelistic friends.)
I'm subletting a room in Oakland now, and I'll be moving to Berkeley at the beginning of April. I'll probably be living in a studio adjacent to the house where Burcu and Carlos live, and Loreal is right across the bay in San Francisco. This is a fascinating place and could take a lifetime to explore. I love it here.
1. When I was around two, I started having recurring dreams about "giant blueberries." I put them in quotation marks because I don't actually recall anything about the dreams (or the blueberries) themselves. Just that they were about "giant blueberries" and they were recurring. (Subsequently I was given the Most Easily Deconstructed Dream Award by the American Psychoanalytic Association)
2. One more about my childhood and then I'll stop because it's too easy. A few months ago my sister relayed to me a memory she has that I've completely forgotten (this is why it's handy to have a twin), but that I don't doubt at all because it perfectly encapsulates what I was like as a kid. So, our mom would always mention to us her half-serious hopes for our future husbands - so-and-so's son who was about the same age, etc - which like most kids we internalized far more than she expected. Apparently, Kirsten and I would be playing in the backyard and suddenly I'd start prancing around, probably on my tiptoes, and speaking in (my five-year-old self's version of) a prim and proper British accent, and Kirsten would be like, "Why are you acting like that?" And I'd whisper, "Because you never know - Prince William could be hiding in the bushes!!"
3. I'm phobic of many bugs, but especially snails and slugs. And I don't mean phobic in the "Ha ha, let's stick a snail in Danielle's face and she'll scream but then we'll all laugh and laugh" sense. I mean phobic. If you did something like that, I would probably start crying and then I would barf on you. Even worse than a live snail is a stepped-on snail. If I step on a snail by accident, I cry. If I'm eating something and I see a snail, I will not only lose my appetite for the rest of the day, but I won't be able to eat whatever I was eating for years because I will associate it with snails. If I try to eat it, I will start gagging. I actually haven't eaten tuna for a really long time and I think it was because it was right underneath the escargot at the Hyde Park Co-Op. This is actually getting worse, and my diet is getting more and more limited, and I really hate it. If anyone has any advice, please do share. (An aside, one of the nicest things anyone ever did for me was in Athens, when Ariel removed all the snails from my balcony so that I could sit out on it. It makes me so happy, in an embarrassed/humbled sort of way, when people are understanding and accommodating of my idiosyncrasies.)
4. I take two showers a day. I think it started as a boredom thing but now I'm so used to it that I feel grody if I don't.
5. It's no secret I'm a celebrity gossip fiend, but what's kind of weird (and annoying) is that what artists (of any kind) are like in real-life significantly affects my enjoyment of their work. Basically, it boils down to whether or not they're nice. If I find out that a musician I like is actually a dick, I won't be able to listen to his music anymore. Some people are exempt from this (e.g. Madonna, I'm sure she's a total bitch) but I haven't figured out a formula yet for who and why.
6. When I was in high school - freshmen and sophomore years - I was really into New Age philosophy, and Richard Bach was my favorite author. But I never got totally into the whole crystals and healing spells and incense and so forth element because I secretly feared that it was EVIL and if I did, I'd go to hell. (I'd spent the preceding two years attending Assembly of God youth group meetings every Wednesday. Evangelistic friends.)
I'm subletting a room in Oakland now, and I'll be moving to Berkeley at the beginning of April. I'll probably be living in a studio adjacent to the house where Burcu and Carlos live, and Loreal is right across the bay in San Francisco. This is a fascinating place and could take a lifetime to explore. I love it here.
