89 random things about me
Over on Facebook, there’s been a thing going around called 25 random things about me. Inspired by Pim posting hers, I thought I’d do the same.
Except I got carried away, editing and adding a few more.
1. When I started my blog, I wished I have done it anonymously so I could really say what I wanted to say. Now I’m glad I didn’t, because I can actually say what I want to say, and stand behind it, too.
2. Whenever someone who smokes shrugs and says to me, “I don’t care. When it’s time for me to die, it’s time for me to die”, I wonder if they’ll say the same thing when their larynx is removed and they’ll have to say that through a hole in their throat.
3. I am very proud of all the Americans who started small-batch chocolate companies. I think it’s one of our proudest achievements and sums up the best qualities of America.
4. When people ask me how do I stay so thin, it seems like common sense that the answer is because I do the opposite of what people do who become fat.
5. If I have cookies around, I will eat at least one first thing in the morning, before breakfast.
6. I think Flickr is the best-conceived, and best-used, site on the internet. I hope it never changes.
7. I hate being served breakfast. Especially in fancy hotels. I’d rather stay in a dump than face a lavish hotel breakfast and fawning waiters in the morning.
8. I wish I could talk more dirt on my blog but I’m wary of offending people.
9. I wish people were less-concerned about what is “the best.”
10. If I could better in France, I would write my blog in French as well, but my written French isn’t good enough and I’m still smarting from the nasty messages I’ve gotten when I’ve misplace an accent or used the wrong preposition.
11. I’m glad that people in Paris seem to like me. It’s nice to defy the perception that the French are anti-American.
12. I can’t decide if I want to live in France for the rest of my life.
13. I think it’s odd that people say I’m “lucky” to live in Paris. Luck would have involved winning an airplane ticket and a free apartment. (I don’t need a plane ticket anymore, but if anyone knows anything about an apartment lottery, please let me know.)
14. For the life of me, I can’t get my head around all the vocabulary for French banking terms.
15. I really, really want to be able to get American television in Paris. I miss mindless entertainment sometimes. I’m still not able to get Hulu to work for me in spite of installing a location blocker.
16. I think people in America are out of their minds who are against universal health care.
17. I’m afraid to open my mail, because most of it is stuff I don’t want to deal with. Like the bill for my health insurance.
18. I think professional lobbying in America should be illegal. It’s so obviously not fair that the folks and corporations with the most money have so much influence over public policy.
19. I pretty much stopped eating fish because of the devastation fishing has done to the planet.
20. I really miss eating sushi.
21. I rarely buy organic produce.
22. I really don’t like whipped cream and always prefer ice cream.
23. I’m so lactose intolerant that my parents wanted to rush me to the emergency room several times before I knew about it, but I think all those people that are lactose intolerant who panic about consuming a few spoonfuls of ice cream are overcautious.
24. I don’t like things that are terribly sweet. (Except the Chez Panisse Almond Tart.)
25. I don’t care at all about percentages of dark chocolate and wish everyone would stop caring about them as well.
26. One of my life goals is to sit down with the ladies of The View.
27. My second goal in life is to tell off that blond shrew on the program.
28. I’m sorry to say that I do wish the worst on someone: Anne Coulter.
29. I love Asian food so much I wonder why I’m not living in Japan or Korea.
30. I love how Koreans stir their food for five minutes before they eat it.
31. It’s funny that the French are so happy that Barack Obama was elected as President of America, but why when I ask them if they think a minority could be elected as President of France next, they look as though I told them the Martians will be landing in five minutes and turning us all into green croissants.
32. It drives me ape sh-t that there aren’t any minorities reading the news on French television. (Okay, someone pointed out to me on Facebook that there is, indeed, one.)
33. If only Ronald Reagan had mobilized the country during the beginning of the AIDS crisis with the same ferocity that he did when seven people died from tainted Tylenol during the same time period, I’d have a slightly better opinion of him as a leader.
34. I got the same feeling watching George W. Bush leave after the Obama inauguration that I did when OJ Simpson got to just walk out of the courtroom, scott-free, the first time.
35. I think it’s funny that people think I don’t like living in France, because why would I live here if I didn’t?
36. I don’t get angry at nasty messages and comments. On the contrary, I feel sorry for the people who write them because I assume they treat everyone in their life like that.
37. Snark can be funny, mean never is.
38. I’m so sarcastic, I find myself using too many ; ) online so people don’t think I’m being mean.
39. It’s funny that I got bad grades in high school for my writing but I’ve published four books.
40. I love all the stuff I’ve learned from my commenters.
41. I wonder what would happen if we gave the same amount of the attention we give to iPhones to stopping the genocide in Darfur?
42. I have no idea why strangers write and want to get together with me. I’m actually not all that interesting.
43. I think being an inconsiderate neighbor is one of the worst character flaws of all and tells a lot about a person.
44. If one more person asks me why I moved to Paris I’m going to scream.
45. Aside from the food blogger that I have a crush on, I have a crush on the spouse of another food blogger.
46. I can’t figure out why in America, most of my friends were men.
47. I can’t figure out why in France, almost all my friends are women.
48. I’d like to have more men friends.
49. I don’t think I’ll ever use that jar of candied clementines in my refrigerator.
50. I would love to see my abs but I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.
51. I stopped caring what people thought about me some time between three and six years ago. It’s been pretty great ever since.
52. I don’t like to pick on television chefs and I think people should give them a break since it’s very hard to make a living in this business.
53. I’ve never made a recipe by Alice Medrich that didn’t come out perfect.
54. I think it’s odd that people say they can’t go to yoga classes because they’re not flexible. That’s like saying you can’t take piano lessons because you can’t play the piano.
55. I have a first-degree black belt in karate and a second-degree black belt in aikido. I guess I should tout is more, but it’s not something I did to boast about.
56. I hate when people ask me if I could kill someone. If confronted with a fight, I’d run away.
57. I was mugged once at knifepoint by a drug-crazed dude in my car in San Francisco and gladly gave him my wallet. When people asked why I didn’t fight him off, I explained that it wasn’t worth $41 to get my throat slashed.
58. Someone once told me I was too nice and wouldn’t get ahead because of that.
59. I’ve had six piercings.
60. I’ve saved, and probably still have, every plastic container I’ve ever used in my life
61. At least a few times a week, when I get into bed, I think about how incredibly thankful I am to have a warm place and a roof to sleep under. And I think about those who don’t, who are outside.
62. I’d rather have a sex change operation without anesthesia than be stuck in an economy-class airplane seat for eight hours.
63. When people ask me, “How often do you go back to the states?” I’m going to refer them to #62.
64. I’m really glad I discovered what a difference good olive oil and salt make.
65. I’m amazed at people who can tell the difference between all those different kinds of fancy teas because I can’t. Like, at all.
66. I once took a comprehensive series of psychological tests and the psychologist told me she’d never seen anyone solve the puzzles or find the solutions so quickly. She didn’t tell me whether that meant I was highly-intelligent or completely crazy, though.
67. According to IQ charts, I’m considered “Moderately” gifted.
68. If I’m so damned smart, how come I can’t figure out Movable Type?
69. It drives me crazy when people don’t load the dishwasher correctly.
70. My best friend for a long time was incredibly good-looking with an amazing body, so much so that people were always hitting on him and he got pretty much whatever he wanted. But I was never jealous because he was such a mess on the inside.
71. I’m the least-jealous person in the world.
72. I worry way, way too much about things. It is my worst quality. I hate it.
73. I just can’t get all that excited about Greek-style yogurt.
74. I never wanted to eat at Alinea until this week. Now I really want to but I live too far away.
75. I always thought it’d be great to have a best friend who’s a huge celebrity.
76. I always wanted to have a television show, not because I wanted to be on television, but because it would give me a chance to interview and feature some of my favorite cooks.
77. I wish every cup of coffee that passed my lips was perfect and I can’t understand when coffee isn’t properly prepared since I don’t know anyone that likes bad coffee.
78. I understand why people dislike Starbucks but I also remember too well the sheer impossibility of finding even a halfway-decent cup of coffee if you were traveling or stuck in the middle of nowhere.
79. 25% of my job is washing dishes.
80. Washing dishes is least-favorite part of my job.
81. Putting the dishes away is my second least-favorite part of my job.
82. I don’t know how he does it, but I think George Clooney seems like a really good guy. I’d be really disappointed if I met him and found out he wasn’t.
83. I wish I saw Funny Girl on Broadway with Barbra Streisand way back when.
84. At €130 a pop, Romain is going to have to be content that I’m not going to see Liza Minelli in June.
85. I really think that Larry King is an alien sent here to do weird experiments on us, like erasing our ability to think.
86. I agree with Laurie Anderson that Dolly Parton doesn’t really want to ‘go back to the country.’
87. I think it’s odd that people want to know how long I’m going to be living where I’m living. I didn’t realize that other people planned out the rest of their lives.
88. If I had one wish, it would be to be able to sing really well.
89. I have amazingly good intuition and I’m always right when I trust it.
