a little while back, my friend and blog colleague, Juhi, tagged me to write 7 random/strange things about myself. I've been thinking about it the whole time i was in NY and i think i've come up with some things. Hopefully there will be 7 in total.

1. Whenever i go on my travels, I am always accompanied by a Beanie baby turtle, Speedy. I got Speedy sometime in 1998 and ever since then he has been globe trotting with me. He's been on a dig in Germany, has ventured into the Sinai, has sat on a hotel room nightstand in India, and has warmed himself up on a Thai beach among other adventures. Right now he is relaxing on a bookshelf in Milwaukee.

2. Sometimes when I have absolutely nothing going on in my brain--a zoning out if you will--or when i'm feeling particularly happy and good, I sing a song from a Russian movie version of Merry Poppins. It's a nonsensical song about a barber who shaves a lion's mane and meets a ghastly end because of it. The chorus is great; loosely translated it goes, "This happened last summer, sometime in the middle of February/ in a faraway kingdom which has never seen a king/"

3. This could be strange or maybe not, don't know as i've never heard anyone else confess to this but then again this is the first time i mention it aloud (as a few other things that will follow) so here it goes--I talk out loud when i walk sometime. I don't know how it happens but sometimes on a long walk I'll play out a potential conversation in my mind; this could be something that might happen or something entirely impossible (like meeting Steve Buscemi in a park, chatting casually with him about this and that and then inviting him over to a friend's place). So while i'm playing out these potential dialogues in my head, i start talking them out loud. It's always under my breath as I am aware i am doing it and i don't want someone walking behind me to think i'm insane. Which i'm not. Honest. Also, when i go through the conversations, I know that this conversation will never take place. It's kind of sad, 'cause usually i think about dialogues that i want to happen, but as soon as i say the things i think i want to hear, i know i will not hear them.
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4. I never remember anything about a movie outside of the fact that i liked it or not if i've only seen it once and it's been over a year since i've seen it. It's very irritating but i do have to see a film two or three times in order to remember plot, characters and specific and memorable scenes and bits of dialogue.

5. I collect movie tickets. I started collecting them after i saw the film "Kids" in 1996 and was introduced to the wonderful world of independent cinema. I only keep the ticket stubs of the films I enjoyed, and i'm very annoyed with the new flimsy credit card receipt like tickets that are now in use.

6. I don't believe in a deity and I don't believe anything happens after death and I don't believe in powers of fortune tellers and psychics but... i act through certain superstitions and i'm not sure why. I don't know whether it's just out of habit or some sort of self imposed tradition that i knock on wood, or glance in the mirror when returning home because i forgot something, or pretend-spit over my left shoulder when i think something nice about a child. It's odd. I don't think i actually believe those things guarantee anything but then again, when i was a child i had a terrible recurring dream. It was frightening and it appeared over and over. Finally when i told my mother about this, she called a Greek friend of hers to our house and the friend did what's called a "reading" over me. I don't think i was more than 5 years old but i remember the dream and the "reading" very clearly, and I also remember that I never had that dream or anything similar to it again.

7. and finally (wow, i'm actually on number seven already) I think about death a lot. My thinking about it is not like Juhi's though. What would happen is that I would think about a possible event that would lead to my death--a plane crash, a traffic accident, a drowning--and then i would think about all the things that would happen after my death. All the minute details from who'd be called first, what would they discover, what would happen to my body (if i'm abroad for example), who would be at my funeral, how would people whom my family doesn't know first hand find out about my death. Things like that. It makes me sad and it makes me think about writing a will and it makes me think about designating someone to know all my passwords and such. It's very self-involved isn't it? I have no idea where that comes from.

So that's that. Seven things. Now I would like to tag a couple of people who blog but i don't know if they'll do it. I'll ask David, Cliff and Vaughn so maybe this will keep going. I'm glad Juhi sent this to me--it's a good exercise on self-reflection.

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