6 Things You Don't Know About Me

I’ve been tagged by Becci from Bedrest and Beyond. I am supposed to write 6 things about myself that you don’t know. This is a hard task because there are a few people who read this thing who know an awful lot about me. I guess I’ll just do the best I can assuming that most people who read this don’t know much.

1. I hate toothpaste.

That sounds gross, right? Because it suggests that I don’t brush my teeth? I do brush my teeth, and I like how it feels afterwards. I brush at least twice, sometimes 3 times a day.

There are two levels to my toothpaste hatred.

Level 1 is unused toothpaste issues. I will gag upon viewing a tube of toothpaste that has any toothpaste crud on the sides or around the opening. It is so nasty and disgusting, especially if it is not mine. And I really don’t like using other people’s toothpaste if I can avoid it. I am a slob in other areas of my life. In fact, my old roommate (who I know reads this) is probably nodding vehemently about my slobbiness. Oddly, I am rather OCD about the cleanliness and neatness of my toothpaste.

Level 2 is the actual foam. There is nothing grosser than watching people brush their teeth in movies and on TV. Sometimes they have the gall to add a love scene to toothpaste brushing where people actually make out with the nasty foam in both mouths!! Ew! Seeing this makes me hide my eyes while screeching as others do in horror movies. My husband can get me scurrying out of a room by leaving toothpaste on his face. Toothpaste is a necessary evil, but that is all it is. I hate it. It is totally disgusting.

2. I ran the NYC Marathon 2 months after September 11th and it was really inspiring.

Wow. Was that 5 years ago? Damn, it’s been a while. You have to understand that living in NYC during September 11th and the months after was extremely intense. I mean people breaking down regularly on the street intense, missing person posters in the subway intense, makeshift shrines all over town and at all the fire houses intense and smelling the rubble in my Brooklyn apartment when the wind was blowing East intense. So, you can imagine the endurance test of training for a marathon, plus New York at that time making the marathon quite an experience.

3 important memories: 1) A fireman who was running in honor of his fallen colleagues. He wore a t-shirt listing their many names and some sort of “We will never forget” logo. In fact, he was one of many runners I saw that day running in memory of one or many that made my heart ache. 2) Running by a firehouse where the guys were cheering me (and the other runners, I guess) on. I just wanted to hug every big burly handsome one of them and thank them thank them thank them for all they sacrificed. 3) Crossing the finish line to experience some wonderful New Yorky New Yorker medal me while yelling “you just ran the New York City Marathon! You ran a marathon in the greatest city in the world!” At which point, with the preparation finally realized and the September 11 emotion, I LOST it. I mean big sobby sobs as I limped away from the dude, who I think was still yelling at me.

It is my goal after this pregnancy is over to run another marathon.

3. I worked at Planned Parenthood while my husband was in law school and when his law school friends talked about abortion policy, I got really annoyed.

It’s not that I disagreed with them, and they talked about it thoughtfully. It’s just that they were so emphatic about their intellectual opinions, and their right to them without ever having set foot in an abortion clinic. Actually, not entirely true; at least one of them had been to an abortion clinic:)

4. I have 4 brothers and one of them is moving to Switzerland.

It’s true. I grew up in a big old Irish-Catholic family the only girl in a Catholic/Protestant suburb of NY. It’s sort of funny I ended up marrying a NYC Jew who is an only child. Needless to say, my home town doesn’t always feel super welcoming to him. ANYWAY, right now I am quite sad that my big brother who lives down the road in Santa Cruz is moving to Switzerland and leaving me the only pioneering West coaster in my family!

5. I think Tom Cruise is a good actor.

Hold your horses! Stop moaning! I know! I know! Believe me; I feel the same way about TomKat as you. Probably even more so because I am social worker and have seen what happens to my clients without their medication. It is more than irresponsible to suggest that psychotropic medicine is unnecessary (and with my own diagnostic skills, I admit to thinking Tom has a touch of Mania). I know we all want to hate him, but I don’t care. I think he is a good actor, and further more, Jerry Maguire is a better movie than you think! There. I said it.

Five Tom Cruise movies with good performances: Collateral, Born on the 4th of July, Rain Man, Magnolia and yes, Jerry Maguire.

6. My due date is also my 33rd Birthday.