Virtual Cocktail Party: Five things about me

Over a month ago, Glennia, author of The Silent I and my fellow contributor over at the Silicon Valley Moms Blog, tagged me for this virtual cocktail party, "Five things about me". It has taken me ages to write this post, mainly because I couldn't think of one thing about me, let alone five, that would be interesting or new to anyone other than family or friends. So here goes:


1) I am addicted to American Idol. I started watching in in the first season, hit the ceiling when Tamyra Gray was voted off, and haven't stopped watching. I'm shamelessly addicted to that feeling of shock/horror/satisfaction I get when America's votes agree or disagree with my own opinion. There is just something about the singers, Paula's weird antics, and Simon's snarky British humor that keep me hooked. However, I have never picked up the phone to vote for anyone -- oh, no, that would mark me as a true AI addict and I'm not that bad (am I?).


2) As a child, I was allergic to chocolate. It was truly unfair. My sister could eat all she wanted, but every time I ate chocolate, my eyes would swell up, becoming all watery and red and itchy. When this happened, my mother would make me go to school anyway, so I was forced to hide out in the bathroom, bathing my eyes in water, hoping against hope that I could get to class without looking like Rocky Balboa after a fight. Fortunately, I've outgrown the allergy, probably because I built an immunity to it by sneaking bits of chocolate here and there and to heck with the consequences.


3) I have always wanted to ski. Whenever we go to Tahoe and play in the snow, I cannot look at the skiers and snowboarders, gracefully swishing down the hill, without ski envy. I see the little kids with their goggles and helmets and wish my kids could do that too. I have three factors working against me. I come from the Philippines. I'm afraid of heights. And I hate going downhill fast. Skiing is like rock climbing for me: it's my idea of cool, but I don't think I'm cool enough to do it. Believe me, I've tried. I've taken lessons and worked my way up to a blue (for non-skiers like me, that stands for intermediate) slope, but never spent enough time in the snow to get comfortable. Then a whole year passes and I'm back to square one. This is definitely on my list of things to do before I die: get back on the slopes again and ski/snowboard down without falling.


4) I do not know how to close a Ziploc bag. This is one of my husband's biggest pet peeves. I swear, I really do close the bags, I pinch them tight and slide my finger along the ziploc line. But I cannot deny the fact that whenever my husband takes out the bag of cheese or ham or ravioli or whatever from the fridge, that darn zipper is just not closed. Same goes for screw-on tops for milk, soda or juice. The fizz always goes out of our sodas because the covers aren't screwed on properly. Once Graham took out a bottle of juice out, holding it by the top, and the whole thing fell out from under him and splashed to the floor.


5) I wear a size 10 shoe. (There, I've said it. That is like admitting I'm a compulsive eater!). I've always hated my big, boat-like feet. When I was 7, I could fit into my mothers shoes. When I was in 6th or 7th grade, I had to have shoes specially made for me because there were no ladies sizes big enough in the Philippines. The shoes they made for me were huge and clunky and awful. To me, big feet symbolizes all that is unsexy and mannish about me. Fortunately now I live in the US, where size 10 is large but not unheard of. I can buy any kind of shoe that I want. And my husband (yes, I did land a husband even with my man-feet!) still has larger feet than mine (but not by much). So I'm over it. Almost.


Now that I'm done, I'm tagging five other bloggers to continue the party:

Erika
Nicole
Laura
Lec
Risa

You guys, I hope you play along. I'd love to find out five more things about you, so when you're done, leave the link to your post in the comments section!