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16 fun facts about me!
unburyingthelead: tagged me…
Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 16 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 16 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.
1. I like talismans. It comes from my grandmother and a catholic upbringing. I usually have in my possession/wearing: a set of my dad’s first dog tags with the year 1968 on it—-one of the most brutal years in American history—-a rubber band or two, and recently a JFK silver half-dollar.
2. I stayed at a well-known Naval medical center for a month. I was hospitalized once for a terrible skin condition. While it’s a common condition, mine was particularly bad and had Navy doctors baffled. All I really remember is how alone I felt. I played in a room with other kids when my parents weren’t there, but I can’t remember why I was always in the corner. I think I might also still be a case study. The condition was a confluence of several allergies and my genes, and which I took shots for and Benadryl pills for— for some years. It practically went away after moving to a more humid climate in the Philippines and what my mom credits: a local vitamin drink called/marketed as “celestamine.” What I remember fondly about my stay in that hospital was the die cast metal helicopter toy that I received from an uncle who visited me.
3. I was in the Young Astronauts program growing up. I was the only “black kid” in my chapter—though I’m technically mixed. It always made me feel weird. And so when Guion Bluford or Mae Jamison—-whom I had a crush on—- would sometimes be mentioned: I would perk up, a bit. I collected Space Shuttle mission patches until the age of nine.
4. I believe in ghosts and “residual haunting.” Again, this is from my grandma who was very spiritual and believed in “good” and “evil” and would bless me before bed sometimes, by gesturing a cross on my forehead with her thumb before sleep. When I was in Japan, the rumor that a woman jumped off one of the tower apartment complexes in my area, obviously plunging to her death, had haunted this particular building of a close friend of mine, only made things worse. Particularly, after one of the “tougher” kids (who lived in that building) was seen by a friend just after he had claimed to finally see “the tower ghost,” and reportedly was visibly shaken up. That was not the only incident I was told about, before or after.
5. When I used to go to Mass in the Philippines, my favorite thing was the scent of the perfumed holy water that sometimes had rose petals in it.
6. At Mass, I also lived in fear that the very life-like Jesus crucifixion would come to life and I’d see him in even more pain.
7. I was supposedly “gifted”…They (teachers) tried to put me in a specialized program. My father left it up to me. I didn’t enter it. I think it was based more on my drawing, than my intellectual prowess at the time. Now, my drawing is only mediocre, compared to others who practice. And well, any other “prowess” is substantially muted to nonexistent. At drawing, I’m most likely better than most, but not as good as I once was.
8. I have a thing for sneakers. I always have. It came out of being a F.O.B. kid in middle-class California and always wearing flip-flops and LA Gears until about seven. The older kids who were already “YO! MTV Raps-ed out” (Starter jackets, ’90s Nike, etc.) made fun of me because of this, sometimes. I wanted to fit in, and so it became an obsession. Also, every boy on my block played all three major sports, and sports marketing being what it was at the time, sneakers really mattered to all of us. My parents usually rewarded good report cards with a pair of Jordans, usually one of the alternate colors of a pair I had already received. This later turned into a love for all sports apparel type things for me, but died after that ’90s Golden Age. Still, I wear a lot of vintage Nike stuff and licensed apparel from the ’90s. I’m on ebay a lot.
9. I have several scars, but the one with the best story is: the one right above my right eyebrow (almost wholly unnoticeable). It came from my going down a hill on a scooter with no brakes and me panicking and jumping off. I directed the scooter towards a driveway and grass and jettisoned—- impacting my face partially on the concrete and partially on the grass. My friend said afterwards that when I jumped I “looked like Superman.” What’s left of the damage is only a minuscule, superficial scar that can’t be seen, but can be felt.
10. I committed a couple of petty crimes: I, along with other friends, was witness to another friend starting a small field fire that was promptly put out by our local fire department. It was the result of a firecracker. I also used to “boost” mechanical pens and bubblegum from department stores in Japan. (Report me, no one cares, now.)
11. I have an enduring crush on Tatyana Ali.
12. I’ve never met either of my grandfathers, they passed before I was born. I did, however, leave a note for one, upon my graduation from college, at his burial place on the East Coast.
13. I think of my father and me as James Jordan and Michael Jordan. (Not in some egotistical way, but in how their relationship has been portrayed in biographies. This will look bad, I’m guessing.) My father is the only person I trust with almost everything. I still keep some stuff to myself, but he’s the only voice that really matters in my life. I trust almost no one else, and it’s starting to prove itself a good tact…sadly.
14. My high school graduating class had a person in it that male Tumblrs like to talk about (kinda). Also, there was the son of another person who was very important to American defense policy.
15. I was afraid of being abducted by aliens and the resulting levitation and missing time phenomena that reportedly happens when one is abducted at night from their bed. (I’m not kidding, I read a lot of Ufology material.)
16. I used to have braces on my legs like Forrest Gump.
I don’t want to “tag” anyone—memories of The Paper Chase—- but share if you’d like…
