100 things about me. (1-59)

100 things about me.

1. I was born in New York City.
   
2. I am first generation American on my biological father's side (Jamaican)
   and second generation American (Irish-Panamanian) on my mother's side.
   
3. I was baptized Catholic and went to Catholic schools but do not consider
   myself Catholic now.
   
4. Although I love ritual, I am uncomfortable with organized religion.
   
5. I used to have a New York accent.
   
6. I'm not Jewish (although my maternal grandfather's father was a rabbi)
   but my closest sister and I swear we have a Jewish mother.
   
7. My maternal grandparents used to own a 200 + year old house where Paul
   Revere slept.
   
8. One set of maternal great grandparents were Irish missionaries in the
   Canal Zone (Panama).
   
9. I have lived most of my life in California.
   
10. When people (especially Californians) see me they think my background is
    black, african, south american, american indian, east indian,
    hawaiian/tongan/australian aboriginal, cuban, or greek.
    
11. My favorite city used to be Palos Verdes, CA. After that it was
    Burlingame, then Berkeley and then San Francisco. Now that I'm over 40
    and realized that every place you live has something about it that bugs
    you, there is no city that I love above all others, although, I think
    that if I could manage to live in Belvedere, Sausilito, Bolinas, or
    Tiburon, CA or Vancouver, BC, Canada they'd probably become my favorite.
    
12. Cities where I choose not to live if I have a choice: (from first hand
    knowledge and in no particular order): Pittsburg,CA.;
    Sloatsburg, Queens, Hemstead NY.; Las Vegas, Reno, NV.; Tijuana,
    
13. Mexico, Douglas, AZ; Peñuelas, Puerto Rico.
    
14. I do have a favorite region in California...the Bay Area.
    
15. I am the product of a blended family. As a result I have a sister named
    Gina, a half-sister named Georgia and I had a step-sister named Jean.
    
16. I only have one brother, a step-brother, named Paul.
    
17. I was married for the first time on Feb. 14, 2004.
    
18. In mid August 2004, it was declared invalid, so I've still never been married.
    
19. I loved being married.
    
20. When I was married, I had a step-daughter, a son-in-law and two
    granddaughters
    
21. I have spent time in almost 20 different countries :Canada, Mexico,
    France, England, Scotland, Denmark, Italy, Greece, Portugal, India,
    Kenya, Tanzania, Puerto Rico (should be independent), Jamaica, the
    Seychelles, Mauritius, St. Martin, Thailand, Hong Kong (independent
    then).
    
22. I have lived abroad exactly once (Kenya).
    
23. I have crossed the equator many times.
    
24. I hate driving. (but I will do it)
    
25. I hate flying. (but I will do it)
    
26. I love reading and writing.
    Off and on, I have kept a diary since I was 14 years old.
    
27. I graduated from college with a degree in International Relations and a
    minor in Russian studies. However, I currently do nothing remotely
    associated with this field.
    
28. My sister, who never finished more than freshman year at college,
    resides in London, England and is a director in a multinational
    corporation.
    
29. Everyone in my immediate family has asthma. I've had it since birth and
    have almost died from it exactly three times.
    
30. I used to think I was adopted because I look so much like one of my
    mother's best friends. I'm not adopted.
    
31. Like almost everyone I work with, I wish I could be self-employed and
    not have to worry about health care. Those that don't wish they could
    work for themselves, wish they were retired.
    
32. In the past I've become bored with my last name. I've changed it
    (legally) exactly two times. I like it now.
    
33. Major Fears: Becoming a bag lady, plunging into the ocean while trapped
    in the back seat of a car, dying of asthma
    
34. In my twenties, I was a DJ, a reporter, assistant TV producer,
    screenplay script reader, a voice over actor, a copywriter and booked
    speaking/performance gig's for a Brit documentarian. But fear of
    becoming a bag lady led me to stable work in the public sector where
    I've been unhappily, but gainfully employed ever since.
    
35. I've been a numerologist for 20 years.
    
36. I want to be a writer full-time in the next 5 years.
    
37. Five of my closest female friends from college are no longer working
    (she jealously noted) outside of the home. They are either stay at home
    mom's or supported by their husbands and/or partners.
    
38. My biological father dated the widow of the president of Grenada.
    
39. I was attending a performance of the national ballet of China, in
    Nairobi, Kenya, the day that Mao-Tse Tung died. (The rest of the
    performance was cancelled.)
    
40. I was scheduled to travel to Nairobi, Kenya on July 4th, 1976, the day
    of the Entebbe Raid in neighboring Uganda. (All flights were cancelled).
    
41. While working as an airline security guard one summer, I checked Raymond
    Burr's, Dudley Moore's and Bill Cosby's bags, got kissed by Dizzy
    Gilespe (I x-rayed his horn) and in a flustered moment referred to Tony
    Bennett as Mr. Tony Randall.
    
42. I lived in L.A for a year without a car. (It was hell.)
    
43. When house sitting that same year in L.A., I became very ill, ran a temp
    of 104 and began hallucinating. It was only the persistent urgings of
    my deceased grandmother and an english-speaking household cat that
    convinced me I urgently needed to seek medical attention.
    
44. I wore braces for almost seven years and still have a gap between my
    front teeth.
    
45. I am a 0 degree Cancerian with Taurus rising and an Aquarius Moon.
    Numerologically, I have a 37/1 destiny, with a 22 master number birthday
    and 22/4 master number soul ambition.
    
46. I am incredibly, excruciatingly, witheringly bored with my life right
    now.
    
47. I can trace my huge phobia of bugs to summers spent as a child at my
    paternal grandmother's house in Jamaica where no one believed in
    screens.
    
48. I used to live in the apartment in Berkeley where Patti Hearst was
    kidnapped by the Simbianese Liberation Army. The original bullet holes
    are still there.
    
49. My partner of 10 years is the seventh child of a seventh child.
    
50. I was once told by an African man who worked for my parents that my elementary school training would fetch a dowry of 22 cows.
    
51. I never dated in high school.
    
52. My sister got married in Liberace's Mansion in the Hollywood Hills. (I
    was her maid of honor).
    
53. I spent eight ill-advised months at a dot.com company (amassing
    T-shirts, free lunches, stocks) before realizing it was not for me.
    
54. On my first trip to Kenya, my sister an I remained on the same plane for
    21 hours and made six stops between the west and east coasts of Africa.
    
55. On a stop in the Congo, we were boarded by the military, which had just
    forced a regime change. We were the first plane to land after the
    coup.
    
56. On a trip to Puerto Rico, my extended family and I once fit nine people
    into an old-school Volkswagen bug (three passengers were kids).
    

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