I was tagged by the fabulous Frida to come up with eight things you might not know about me. You would think that since I played along with this sometime back (here), I wouldn’t be able to come up with eight more. But guess what? I love to talk about myself, so here you go! (And feel free to play along with me in the comments section.)

1. Generally, I’m not one to idolize rock stars or movie stars. It’s just not what I do. With the exception, ahem, of Ben Harper. If you’ve ever heard me wax poetic about his music, an incredible combination of highly skilled musical ability and social messages, you’ve seen me get as close to giddy and giggly as I get. And there’s more of that to come after I report back from his Radio City Music Hall show on September 15th. My heart is racing with excitement even as I write this!
2. I’ve never had a manicure or pedicure. Even though I’ve lived above a salon for three years. I’m afraid they will run away screaming once they see my runner’s feet full of callouses. And I’m secretly afraid that I won’t be able to run anymore if they remove the callouses!
3. When I was living in Uganda, we bought a turkey for American Thanksgiving. A live turkey, who was mean and stubborn and lived in our compound for awhile. I remember coming home late one night with some of my other housemates, and being petrified that the turkey would attack us in the pitch-black darkness (there was no electricity that night because of “load-sharing,” meaning there was only enough electricity to power up half of the city at a time, so you had to take turns). We slowly opened up the gate and ran quickly into the house, slamming the door behind us. Little did we know, the turkey was actually being housed in one of the kitchen cabinets overnight because being in enclosed spaces make them tame and sleepy.
4. My parents met each other in Seattle, but by coincidence, both of their families hail from Butte, Montana. We spent many summers as a family in Butte and other parts of Western Montana, and I have wonderful memories from there and it remains close to my heart, even though I haven’t been back in almost 10 years.
5. I traveled down to D.C. on April 25, 2004 for the March for Women’s Lives to join a million other marchers, and I will never forget the power of that day.
6. I can’t dance, but if I could, I would make dance videos in front of famous monuments like Davey Dance. Especially if people would clear out a dance space for me like they did for him at the Brandenburg Gate.
7. When I lived in Seattle, my apartment was at the bottom of the seriously steep Queen Anne Hill. Whenever I would go on a first or second date (which was quite often in those days), I would suggest walking up Queen Anne to Kerry Park to check out the beautiful scenic views of downtown and Puget Sound. Sounds pretty romantic, right? But it was also my devious method of separating the wheat from the chaff. If he was huffing and puffing and complaining all the way up, that was usually the end of that. On the other hand, if he powered up the hill along with me, I could tell he was worth investing a few more dates in!
8. I’m going to see Sonic Youth tonight perform their Daydream Nation album in it’s entirety at the McCarren Park Pool. Shhh..don’t tell anyone that I’ve never actually listened to the album before.