25 Random Things

I'm blogging my own version of this inane Facebook meme to self-indulge and spend ten minutes talking about the best person on earth...me.

1. And that's the first random thing - I'm self-centered and vain.
2. I love ketchup. Anything that's worth dunking and squirting over asks for ketchup. I sometimes feel bad for eating cherry tomatoes with ketchup. I feel like I'm insulting the tomato by dipping it in its pureed cousins...like feeding KFC to a chicken.
3. The four things that frighten me the most: blood, lightning, flying roaches and deep water (if my feet don't touch the bottom, consider me drowned).
4. I'm a gym rat. I've been going to the gym since I was 18 years old.
5. I could be orthorexic. I don't like oily food, I don't eat chicken, pork, beef, fish, and seafood. I rarely eat rice, I'm not a big fan of potato chips and I avoid sweets like the plague. I obsessively count calories.
6. I used to be obese when I was a kid. Which explains numbers 4 & 5.
7. I'm lactose intolerant. If you force-feed me dairy, make sure we're not stuck in the same room for the next 20 minutes or you will die of gas poisoning, I promise.
8. I used to collect Pupung Comic books, and even had one autographed by Tonton Young.
9. My mom took me to a Menudo concert when I was five because I liked Robbie Rosa when I was a kid. I slept during the concert.
10. My teen Friday nights were spent drooling over Jason Priestly in Beverly Hills 90210, and watching Doogie Howser MD type his medical musings in his DOS/Wordstar computer diary. Late Saturday mornings were for Mr. Bogus.
11. I began to be financially responsible at 15 years old, when I got an Easycall pager and started paying for the bills with my weekly allowance.
12. I have a good memory. Assuming I'm not in a sorry drunken state when you meet me, I will remember everything you say and it will be stored in a little file cabinet in my brain with your name on it, ready to be used for future blackmail, I mean reference.
13. I love oatmeal. I can eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Maybe I was a horse or cow in my previous life.
14. I have a high tolerance for heat and hot weather. I could sleep without air conditioning on 38 degree summer nights in Manila, and even snuggle under the bed covers.
15. I used to have a dog named Toffee, who had an undescended testicle (read: he only had one ball) and was assumed to be a homosexual dog. A by-product of canine incestuous relations. So I guess it proves that for your future children's sake, marry somebody outside of your family.
16. I like looking up words in the dictionary.
17. I like reading trivia, half of which I don't really care to remember. I just need to satiate my brain with a 5-second "ahhh" or "hmm".
18. I seldom cry at funerals, or during those Hallmark moments like graduations and weddings. Where everybody else seems to have hyperactive tear ducts, I'm always completely dry-eyed. But I'm a total sap for movies - I cried watching Disney's Lion King.
19. I hate being late. I'm not a very patient woman. The faster we can get things done, the better (disclaimer: this does not apply to "other things").
20. When I was a kid, my school bus would pass by this house inhabited by an exhibitionist. He would crack open the gate and come out naked. Boy, was he bushy.
21. I develop bad phobias from gruesome experiences. My phobia of blood started when I saw two men fighting on the street, with one man being violently clubbed on the head with a metal pipe. The sight of that bloodstained pipe triggered my hemoglobin anxiety.
22. I passed out many times due to hypoglycemia or fatigue. Three out of these several episodes happened during Sunday mass, which led my father to suspect they might be linked to something demonic or un-Catholic, and accused me of not praying hard enough.
23. I had my first beer when I was fifteen. This was when I found out I was allergic to alcohol. My hands became very itchy and were swollen for three days - I looked like I was wearing Mickey Mouse's glove.
24. My first job was working as a graphic designer at a photocopier company, where I got paid PHP8,000 per month. I lasted for two months.
25. The first car that I drove was a 1978 Corona which we named "Honda Civac". It had waded through and survived many a Sampaloc floods, had a steering wheel that required full muscular force to maneuver (ergo, my toned biceps), a windshield wiper that required poking or fistpounding to work, and a stick shift limited to fourth gear.