A little (too much) about me, based on Karishma’s awesome post.
1. My earliest memory: being two and a half, lost at Milwaukee’s Summerfest, crying, and finally being led to my mom by a kindly elderly couple. Personality Traits: Melodrama, Drama, Directionally Challenged
2. When I was 3 or 4, I was convinced I’d been brought to Earth from Jupiter, and that the “Friendly Animals” were fixing my space ship in Kansas. I’m not sure if the animals had traveled with me or if they were earthlings. It was many years before I was completely disabused of this notion of being from Jupiter. Personality Traits: Imaginative, Creative, Confused
3. I had a fondness for both Rice-a-Roni the food and Rice-a-Roni commercials. Somehow, as a 5-year-old, Rice-a-Roni led me to believe God lived in San Francisco. Why wouldn’t he live in the land that gave us glorious boxes of rice pilaf? Personality Traits: Addictive personality (food, TV), Ontological Confusion
4. I had an invisible friend who was a vulture. Such was my belief that I thought he attended a Sharon, Lois, and Bram (of The Elephant Show and “Skinnamarink”) concert with my mother and me when I was around 4/5/6. This was such a strong belief that even thinking back to that concert now, I picture a grey vulture sitting on the seat-back in front me. Vulture is dancing in this memory. Personality Traits: Imaginative, Creative, Slightly Disconnected from Reality
5. Many years later, while in grad school, I worked at a summer camp. We all went by nicknames; nature-inspired names were common: Daisy, Butterfly, Vega. My name was Raptor. Every Monday was a staff meeting where volunteers were asked to teach the group a song. The senior camp leaders were quite concerned the week I raised my hand. I led the group in “Skinnamarink.” Wasn’t so bad after all. Personality Traits: Theatrical, Scary
6. My father took sick when I was 16 and died when I was 18. He loved to cook, but as his health faltered, he wasn’t always physically up to the task. I regret now not learning more from him when I had the chance, so I cherish the few recipes I did pick up. One was creating the perfect honey-ham sandwich. Oh no, not enough to use honey ham, or to drizzle honey on the bread or meat. One must fry the ham in butter, slowly add honey, and cook until caramelized. I don’t even like this sandwich, but I will never forget how to fix it. Personality Traits: Perfectionist, Nostalgic, Sad, Slipping into Southern Usages
7. I saw my first Bollywood movie also when I was 16. It was a bootlegged copy with no subtitles. (It was Duplicate, if you are wondering.) I was entranced, enthralled. My friends were very accommodating when I asked questions, though rightly laughed in my face when I asked, “Is it just me or are there a bunch of guys named Khan running around?” (At the time, and even now actually, there were three popular actors with the surname Khan, but they all look very different.) Personality Traits: Racist, Unobservant, Trying to Learn, Realizing a Larger World
2 replies on “10-Second Anecdotes that Reveal Too Much About Me: Natasha”
The vulture ah, I love it. Nameless vulture?
His name was Vulture. I’ve never been very creative in naming my toys — I had a bear named Bear, a raccoon named Rocky Raccoon, a penguin named Penguin.