Fifty things about me, part 5

Part one. Part two. Part three. Part four. Part six.

33. I like Jackie Chan movies. And some Jet Li movies, too. In fact, when I come across them late at night while channel-surfing, I have been known to actually rent them so I can see the whole film.

34. Pursuant to the above, I think Asian men are hot. I have a thing for guys with that epicanthic fold. What can I say? If I ever find a single Jewish Asian man, I will be in absolute heaven.

35. I hate being tickled. I hate people coming up behind me and putting their hands over my eyes and saying, “Guess who”? I hate kids hiding behind things and jumping out and yelling “Boo!” I blame all of these things on my brothers, except for the tickling thing. That, I blame on being a control freak. But my brothers used to hide behind things and under things and around things so much while I was growing up that I sometimes had to be pulled off them after striking back for being frightened. (That was when my older brother hid underneath my quilt, which was rumpled because I’d already been in bed and got out for some reason. He jumped out and yelled “Boo!”, I started crying and punching him. Brothers.) I actually have to disappoint every child I know who becomes a regular part of my life, because kids loving jumping out and yelling “Boo!” The nice thing is, they do understand when you tell them you really don’t like it.

36. My family moved about every three years from the time I was five until I was nearly fourteen. I went to six different schools from K-12. We weren’t military brats. My mother was divorced. In the days when nobody had divorced parents.

37. Due to the fact that I was the new kid in school every three years, I got into a lot of fights as a child. Actually, that wasn’t the reason. The reason is because, well, I fought a lot as a child, and my coping skill for being the new kid was to wait for someone to pick on me—and somebody always did, boy or girl—and meet them after school. We’d fight, I’d win, nobody would pick on me any more. I learned much later in life that there were other ways of coping with being the new kid in school. Too late. Oh, there was the little matter of beating up anyone who picked on my brothers, too. I was a scrapper as a child.

38. Sometimes, even as a grownup, I think that a good fight is still the way to settle some issues. I know, I know. I haven’t raised a fist in anger since I was thirteen. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to, sometimes.

39. My younger brother and I were picked up by the MP’s at Fort Wadsworth one year when we sneaked onto the base to watch the NYC Marathon start. Our dad was running in it, and that was the first year you couldn’t stay on the Verrazano Bridge to see them off, because it got too big. I was over eighteen, and scared to death this was going to go on my record. Dave was a wiseass who, when asked where he lived, gave our address, and then said, “But I have a summer home in Newark.” One of the MP’s, obviously from the area, laughed. His partner, a girl from Kansas or some such state, looked puzzled. I was not pleased, and told David to be serious and shut up, because if anyone was going to jail, it was going to be me. The MP’s just took our names and information and then dumped us off outside the base and told us not to come back.

40. Judy Garland is probably my all-time favorite actress and singer. I’ve seen nearly every movie she’s ever done (minus a bunch of the teenage “Let’s put on a show!” films), and got into arguments with one of my early boyfriends, who insisted Streisand was better. I saved our relationship by deciding to declare Streisand the best living singer, and Garland the best deceased. But I didn’t mean it. I was lying. Garland was superior to Streisand vocally (politics don’t come into play here; Barbra is a phenomenal singer, but not as good as Judy was). Oh, and I liked Judy before it was cool. Comes from growing up with a mother who always watched movie musicals on TV.

And one more post ought to do it.