Oh boy, there is a tag trend going on as I’ve been tagged twice simultaneously by Kertong (you a soft-hearted for listening to the moron’s whinings and changed the tag on me!) and Euge to tell five quirky things about myself. I’m not gonna list five things twice ‘cuz if I did that, no one would want to visit my website again. Here goes:

5 random quirks/factoids/quirky factoids/factual quirks — you get the idea…

1) Initially wanted to have four or five kids in the future ‘cuz I’m so damn tired of having a small family—only four of us, my parents, my grandma and me—at thanksgiving or christmas every year. You see, my dad’s an only child, so am I and we have no siblings. My mom’s parents passed away before I even got to the US and she has a brother but we haven’t seen him in two years or so. It’s probably the deaf thing, how sad. My dad’s father passed away two weeks after I left for college. My grandpa was a nice kind quiet guy who served in the World War II, loved the St.Louis Cardinals, had not one but two heart bypass surgeries (they used the artery from his left leg to replace the no-good artery to his heart) and let me smoke his long pipe. I still remembered his last words to me. I was visiting the grandparents for the last time a day before my parents and I get on the road trip to Washington DC. As I was going to leave, my grandpa, sitting in his favorite la-z-boy chair, asked me when I will be back visiting them again (he would say please come back soon whenever I come to visit them) and I said no this is the last time before I head to college. He spurted out “Oh shit! I better get up and hug you for the last time.” Indeed, we hugged for the last time ever. So, it’s been four of us ever since and it somehow feels smaller and smaller every year, if that’s even possible. However, now that I realize how expensive is to raise a kid, I’m not so sure about wanting four or five kids anymore.

2) Ok, the first one was pretty long. For some reason, I don’t like putting on my clothes in the bathroom after I finish shower. I guess I get claustrophobic in there. I just dry myself off, wrap the towel around me, walk out of shower to my room and put on clothes or just shorts if I’m not going anywhere.

3) When I first came to the US, landing at the O’Hare airport in Chicago, my first ever meal in America was nonetheless a happy meal from McDonald’s. My parents and I were all snuggling together in the backseat with my uncle (mom’s bro) being the driver. My stomach was starting to grumble a bit and that’s when I spotted the golden arch of McDonald’s and I pointed my finger there. My dad immediately knew what I mean. It was probably our first communication exchange and the first time anyone actually understood me. ASL (American Sign Language) rules!

4) I’ve broken my bones three times. First one was when I fell off a monkey bar, and I was dumb (blame my stupid reflexes) to stick my left arm out as the first point of impact when I landed on Earth again. Second one was my ankle when I was playing basketball and went up hard for a rebound and on the way down, my left shoes caught someone’s shoes and my ankle touched the hardwood before everything else did. Third one, hopefully my last one, was my wrist when I was fighting for an extra yardage while carrying the football in a varsity high school game. One linebacker was holding my shoulder pads by the neck (it’s called a horse tackle which is being illegal in the NFL this year and that’s how Terrell Owens got hurt last season) and then one fat lineman just jumped out and landed me onto the ground and my wrist got stuck between me and the ground, then *snapped*. Ouch.

5) Ah, last one.. uhh, oh, whenever I’m waiting for something, like an elevator or metro subway to come, I would do a golf practice swing, pretending I’m out on a golf course, hitting a hole in one or a 300 yards drive. The purpose for this is to stay in form and check my swing technique.

Now I get to TAG three people and they are kimmisan, elisa, and adam. :-)