random facts

[laurenhat]

I'm actually doing a meme-type thing, because it's pretty freeform and possibly fun, and because sandrylene tagged me as a way of requesting more information about me. Oh, and because I'm procrastinating like crazy, but that kinda goes without saying.

The part of the rules that I am actually following:
"Write 20 random facts about yourself." (I actually tried to elaborate a bit on each thing that came into my head, so as to be more informative-like.)

1. I used to know how to say "I am a cucumber" in 7 languages, a plurality of them Eastern European. I think I'm down to just a couple now, though. I can still say "Please go away; I have a gun" in French. I enjoy being equipped with somewhat absurd things to say in various languages (same as English, I suppose). However, I enjoy actually learning to speak the languages more. I used to have a pretty good grasp on German, but it's mostly fled... I also know snippets of Spanish and Russian thanks to language tapes and living in the Russian house at Stanford for a few years.
   
2. I miss taking walks in the Seattle drizzle, feeling rather like a vegetable in the produce section being gently covered with a cool and refreshing mist, except for the part where I'm wandering around on my non-vegetable-like limbs and enjoying the smell of fresh dirt and Douglas firs.
   
3. I am currently reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. It seems that, over time, I'm slowly overcoming my suspicion of and aversion toward things classified as "real" literature. Partly because I've discovered that quite a bit of it is whimsical and funny and creative, and not at all pretentious. And partly because I have, in the end, grown disappointed with some of my old favories in fantasy and sci-fi and looked to branch out a bit and seek new types of tales (not that there isn't still lots of great stuff in those genres, but some of my old "comfort" books are now sorely lacking when I go back and reread them, and some common themes seem very tired).
   
4. I miss the weather in the Bay Area, but not very much of the scenery. The people, though... they are why I go back. The friends I have there always make it feel like I'm coming home whenever I visit.
   
5. I'm writing a short story that involves lesbians. All my stories about adults seem to either involve lesbians or be mistaken for being about lesbians (or bi girls). I'm not quite sure why my writing bias is so strongly in that direction, as I have more personal experience with opposite sex relationships myself. My NaNoWriMo project is definitely going to involve some interesting poly relationships, but I'm not sure yet of the genders involved. Anyway, I suppose it will provoke interesting discussion with the fundamentalists in my family should I ever get anything published.
   
6. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, and I think almost everyone else in my PhD program does, or at least has a better idea than I do.
   
7. I missed most of my sophomore year of college because I was having migraines all day, every day due to a nasty neck injury after I fell from a horse. I can't remember almost anything that happened during that time. Pain isn't something we can really store well in memory, and that's a good thing. I do factually know that I spent lots of time going to various doctors and specialists, and slowly getting better due mostly to the passage of time, but also to some drugs and treatments. And I remember that at the beginning, my visiting friend H. helped keep me sane, and after she left and the pain intensified, I thought that I didn't particularly want to keep living if life was going to be that painful forever. But it wasn't. It got a lot better, even if I don't remember most of the recovery. And now I only get migraines a few times a week, and Excedrin usually kills them promptly.
   
8. I like food a lot -- many kinds of food. Sushi and Thai food are my absolute favorites and are pretty much always the first things I will suggest when the topic of what to eat comes up. I can't eat cilantro, though (migraine trigger, and ICK), and tree nuts (nuts except for peanuts) give me a mild allergic reaction sometimes.
   
9. I have been overheard saying, "I think I'm allergic to my pants." I recently and very suddenly became extraordinarily allergic to metal, and I've had to sew patches over or paint fingernail polish onto all the rivets on the insides of my jeans.
   
10. I played flute and piccolo badly in the Stanford marching band for a year. I can also play guitar and piano very badly. I don't subject anyone to any of these "skills", or to my singing, except for me. I don't even subject myself much to any of them except the singing, though.
    
11. I kinda dig this one musician guy, Peter Gabriel. I may have flown to another state to see him in concert once. I may have also attended a different concert and run up to the foot of the stage and shouted ridiculously adoring and possibly occasionally obscene things at him during "Digging in the Dirt" and other songs (and almost danced out of my pants while bouncing up and down overenthusiastically during "Solsbury Hill"). I may, in fact, have even written really embarassingly awful Mary Sue fanfics about him when I was much, much younger. And we're not getting into my Phil Collins phase, which preceded that. Or my recent dream about the Johns from TMBG and the 40 foot mattress (not really what it sounds like, actually)...
    
12. I'm bad at following directions (though good at procrastinating). That's all the facts from me for the moment!