My 25 things...

This was going around Facebook...so I thought I'd cross-post...

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.

1. I am deathly afraid of telephone communication, but only in my personal life. I am terrified to speak to strangers when in need to make an appointment, argue with a utility company, make an inquiry, or even when calling friends. I've always tied this to the fact that we did not get a phone until I was 14 years old, and in my mind phones are for business and emergencies only.

2. I want to be an interior designer when I grow up.

3. I have a secret desire to be a singer in a (nonexistent) cover band for a specific Russian rock band.

4. I dress preppy, and am slightly ashamed of that. But only slightly.

5. I don't spend nearly as much money as I would like to on clothes and nice shoes. That said, 60% of my closet is dress clothes. Also, I'd like to eventually have a job where I could dress nicely.

6. I find that with opera, people either love it or hate it. Which confuses me, because I am totally indifferent towards opera.

7. I spend too much time reading design blogs, and not enough time implementing the ideas I garner from them.

8. I regret not having learned to bake from my grandmother before she passed away.

9. I am an overeducated snob, and proud of it.

10. I look at my high-school years with neither fondness nor regret, but rather a bit of indifference, which I am told is different from other people...

11. I am a classically trained pianist who has not touched the piano in almost 3 years. I miss it.

12. Sometimes I miss my 1.5 hour train commute, because I got a lot of reading done. Actual novels. That was before Google Reader showed up in my life.

13. I walk to work, it takes me 5-7 minutes depending on the snow. LOVE IT!

14. When I grow up and become that interior designer, I will live in the San Francisco Bay Area and probably miss New England.

15. When I was a child in Russia, we had to bring a change of shoes with us to school October through May to keep the school floors semi-clean. I think about that every day as I change into my work shoes under my desk, and then go on to mop the dirty shoe-prints from the newly painted black stage.

16. Speaking of shoes, to this day I don't understand why so many American homes and apartments have front doors that open directly into the living room - you NEED a coat closet and a place to take off your shoes and put your bags down. I feel funny if I come to your house and you don't ask me to take my shoes off.

17. Seeing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in my life in August 1992 was a truly life-changing experience. Seeing the Pacific in 2000 was just as strong, as they are so completely different. Even though I can't see the ocean from where I live, I can smell it on windy days, and that keeps my love affair with the ocean going.

18. I will never understand why theatres in the United States don't have extensive lobbies and cloakrooms. I understand about the cost of real estate and maximizing your profits, blah blah blah. BUT - The first time I went to Lincoln Center, I found people just as dressed up as they are going to the theatre in Russia, and there ARE cloakrooms there. THEN I went to BAM and discovered that I have to keep my coat on my seat, which totally cheapens the cultural experience. When I took my mother to see Chicago on Broadway, and we had to queue in the street in March because there is no lobby, I was embarrassed for the state of the culture in the United States.

19. I am much more fluent in English than in Russian in this point in my life, and that saddens me, as nobody should lose their native tongue.

20. If I never see anyone misuse "lose" and "loose", as well as "buses" and "busses", it will be too soon.

21. I discovered pedicures for the first time in my life at the age of 31. Now I get one whenever I can afford it - the foot massage alone is worth it.

22. I am Russian and I don't drink vodka. So there.

23. If I wasn't agnostic, I'd convert to Judaism.

24. Social interaction exhausts me. I am much better at dinner with 2 people than at a party with 10. If I go to any gathering with over 20 people, I need to rest a day afterward. When I used to teach, two hours in front of a classroom left me feeling as if I'd just run the marathon.

25. I like any ice cream, any time, but even more so if it's coffee-flavoured.