1.13.2006

Randomness abounds

Ages ago (alright, a week ago) my good friend Jay tagged me for the "Five Random Things" meme. I'm finally getting around to completing it. So, in the interest of getting to know your blogger, here are five totally random and not even remotely interesting facts about me:

Random Fact #1: I am a rockstar in my car. I turn the radio up really loud and sing along, making hand gestures and silly faces until all the other drivers on the road take the time to point and laugh. This wouldn’t be so horrible if it weren’t for the fact that terrible 70s AM rock is most likely to make me bust out the vehicular vocals—damn you Gordon Lightfoot!

Random Fact #2: My first name also happens to be my sister’s middle name (though hers is inexplicably spelled Anna Maria). We jokingly refer to it as "the name so nice, mom used it twice." My mother has never given us a satisfying explanation as to why she recycled the name; her excuse is, and I quote, "I just like that name." The name redundancy has caused some problems though—my information has ended up on my sister’s credit report and vice versa (despite wildly different social security numbers), and when my sister got married, people read the invitation and assumed the wedding was for me. Imagine my surprise when checks starting rolling in from distant relatives!

Random Fact #3: Speaking of sharing names, my last name has some interesting associations as well. There is a crime family, a chain of drug stores on the east coast, and an infamous murder victim. I’ve also learned that it is the name of a brand of coffee, an agricultural equipment retailer, and a variety of basil. I share a name (but not necessarily a philosophy) with scholars Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Eugene Genovese. n.b.: It is pronounced "jen-oh-vay-zay" not "jen-oh-veez."

Random Fact #4: My hair color is naturally jet black, but I’ve been an artificial redhead for about ten years. When your skin is as pale as mine, you do anything to temper the goth factor—it was cool at fifteen, not so much at twenty-eight.

Random Fact #5: In middle school, I was a two-time state champion in the Science Olympiad. How’s that for geek cred?

Kurt and Kerri--it's your turn!

annamaria at 11:03 AM

4 spoke

4 Comments

at Friday, January 13, 2006 10:12:00 PM  Kurt said...

I think #5 is very cool. I wouldn't have done the work it took for that sort of honor.
And I probably know the words to almost all of Gordon Lightfoot's songs once they start to play. And Simon and Garfunkel. It's part of the curse of being the little brother - I can't say how many hours I rode with my big sister while she listened to those 8 track tapes....

 

at Tuesday, January 17, 2006 10:18:00 AM  Dane meets Simone said...

Ok, I'l bite. ;)

1.I grew up a Pistons fan. In Texas. We didn’t get the Mavericks till the ‘80s, so if you were a basketball nut, like me, you had to go abroad, domestically, for teams. First it was the 76ers because we (my twin and I) loved Dr. J. Then he retired and I still hated the Lakers and Celtics and along came Isiah and the rest of the bad boys to give me someone to love. And back then I did not like most of the white players (except Bobby Jones of course), so it was amazing that I managed to even like Bill Laimbeer. He stepped in between me and my self-hate for about two seconds. Anyway, I like to think that this long association with Pistons fandom explains what the hell I’m doing in Michigan. Cuz nothing else does.

2.Speaking of Detroit, I’m developing a love/hate relationship with it, as if I’m really from here! On Saturday I made G accompany me to the Salvation Army on Fort St (“the big one!” I told her with excitement). Never mind that G doesn’t like thrift stores. Then I got there. I understand impoverished and underpopulated and generally abandoned by TPTB. But god I was so hoping we could do a f*cking thrift store! But no. There were maybe 12 racks? 15? And I know there are truckloads of shit from the suburbs sitting somewhere so I don’t get it. And the furniture was all shoved together in spaces with no aisles to walk, the general msg being we don’t give a shit whether you buy anything or not cuz this ain’t no real store. Not that there’s any one person giving this msg, of course, because that would be too easy on my brain. The black woman cashier was waiting on a white women she clearly hated, and the white woman was being too stupid to notice, so continued being obnoxious, and by the time G and I got our turn, we hated both of them. It was like Iraq—everyone to your separate groups and HATE. Ugh. I was so depressed by the time I left. And of course all of this happened after we trekked down to the Blue Moon Coffee House because my friend in Ann Arbor told me it was a great place. Was a great place, that is. Now it’s all boarded up. Again, started with love, ended with hate. I’m a walking Royal Oak I guess (though maybe it went the opposite way w/RO).

3.My hair is brown and I’ve never colored it and think I never will. This might be a dyke thing, but I think it’s a Texas thing, as are way too many of my things. I.e., reactionary. I will not carry a sequin purse. I will not carry any purse. I will not have frosted hair. I will not have any hair. Not much anyway. It goes on and on like this.

4. Love. Older. Women. There is a fortysomething waitress at the Cass Café, in bad clothes, who I could not get over loving the other day. Even when G got irritated with me for staring, still I could not stop. I just thought she was SO HOT. And of course I was at the Cass Café because I wanted a latte, though it’s not that kind of café, and can’t be or else I wouldn’t have been able to find out everything after the fact. So I had a walnut lentil burger (which I could have had three of easily) and pretended to be full while I people watched and wondered who is going to live in all these fucking condos. I don’t think the older woman is one of the people, though if she trades in those black jeans, my g-friend might put her up in Ferndale.

5. I cannot claim science cred of any sort, but my golf team did win state two years in a row, with my sis and I the stars. And still the dyke memo did not come. Go figure.

 

at Tuesday, January 24, 2006 12:38:00 PM  Dane meets Simone said...

6. I have the same birthday as Annamaria. (happy birthday, girl.)

 

at Tuesday, January 24, 2006 1:13:00 PM  annamaria said...

And a happy birthday to you! :)

 

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