I was tagged today by jo_annie in Hawaii for this meme, so here are…

8 Random Facts About Me

1. I’ve only had a cell phone for the last 3 years. Yep, before that life was all about home phones and answering machines and actually making detailed plans on where to meet up with friends.

2. With all the chaos around tuberculosis these days, maybe you’d be curious to know that I had a positive skin test for TB. I spent a year working for an AIDS clinic in Uganda in 1999, and many of our clients had active TB. Plus, a friend of mine worked at the TB clinic across the street, and I would go and hang out with him once in awhile. I had a negative chest x-ray, but had to take 9-month course of Isoniazid just to be sure to kill off anything that could potentially develop into TB. That stuff is toxic for your liver, and is the reason why I can’t take Tylenol anymore, but better safe than sorry.

3. I can’t whistle. Don’t ask me why.

4. For about half a year in 2002, I had cherry red and platinum highlights.

5. No matter how much I travel, domestically or internationally, I always have to get to the airport freakishly early in order to avoid an overwhelming sense of anxiety that I’m going to miss my flight. This is sometimes tempered by traveling with my opposite-minded boyfriend. Once when flying to Seattle, we heard over the intercom, “Will passengers Mandi and Daniel please board at Gate 9? Your flight is ready to depart.” We’re working on finding a compromise somewhere in the middle.

6. The only thing I’ve ever had stolen, both at home and during my travels, was a battery-operated alarm clock that I foolishly had sitting visibly in the front mesh pocket on my backpack in Kigali, Rwanda. It was either taken while I was wearing my backpack, or when the backpack with in the back of our matatu with the other bags and cargo (and a chicken). Maybe the chicken lost her rooster?

7. If I’m in a deep subway station and I see a set of stairs next to an escalator, I ALWAYS have to take the stairs. Even if it’s 4 or 5 flights, even if I’m tired, even if I’m wearing heals. I think it’s a mixture of pride and stupidity that makes me do this.

8. My Dad used to (okay, maybe still does, once in a while) call me Mandirella.

The Directions

“Each player posts eight random facts/habits about him/herself and then tags eight other bloggers to participate. In turn, the folks who are tagged write a post listing their own eight facts/habits, along with these rules, and then tag eight more people . . . and so on.

Each blogger must list the eight people they are tagging, and visit their sites, leaving a comment notifying them that they have been tagged and inviting them to read your entry.”

And I’m Tagging…

1. Tyson & Traci

2. Travel With Emily

3. Schipegan

4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Whoever else reads this blog and hasn’t already given a go at the 8 Random Facts!