This tag to tell you seven odd things about me came from Mai, who whips up her own brand of kitchen wizardry and documents it to torture people’s tastebuds through her blog. (Hallo, Mai! I’m finally getting the chance to do this!)

1)    I have a single letter for my first name—“J.” The period is included; not a dash, thank you very much. It isn’t short for anything. Some people think it stands for Juana, because there are lots of ‘em in my family on both sides, but not really. My parents were just weird about naming us. (My brother has “W.” as his first name. Talagang tinopak yung mga magulang namin. Our parents were just seized with a fit of the crazies.)

2)    According to Mama, the “Ana” from my second name is from the story of Anna And The King Of Siam. I like that my second name isn’t so random. I liked it even more growing up because in The King & I, that classic movie from 1956, Deborah Kerr gets to wear gorgeous dresses as Anna Leonowens, and Yul Brynner was actually kinda hot. Ahaha.

3)    I recently bought a purple leather wristlet. I love it, but that’s a strange fact, because I used to HATE purple with a pithy passion. Purple in all its incarnations: ube-jalaya purple, lavender, Barney-The-Dinosaur-purple, etc., = EW. But then I saw this. And I wanted it. And I loved it with all of my shallow, girly heart. But it was PURPLE! My brother encouraged me to get it. His advice: “You should be color-agnostic.” And so, fine. Hello, new purple thing. I heart you.

4)    I was stuck in an elevator at work for an hour two months ago. I was (embarrassingly) dancing to my iPod alone in the elevator when it came to a thudding halt on the ninth floor (I was on my way to the 12th). Then it dropped about a foot, and I made like a crazy woman and plastered myself against a corner, my hands and feet splayed out against the walls like my life depended on it, worried that I was going to plummet to my death. I was stuck somewhere between the seventh and eighth floors. They pried the door open and I could only talk to people through a slit at the top (see below for evidence). I read a magazine to pass the time. After the whole thing was over and I stepped out of the elevator, some officemates who’d been there started clapping and snapping pictures. I was sufficiently mortified. The office maintenance guy now calls out when he sees me, “Hey, Elevator Girl!”

5)    I’m Protestant but was schooled Catholic all my life: Salesian in grade school, Benedictine in high school and Jesuit in college. I’m more Catholic than some of my Catholic friends. I love teasing them by calling or emailing someone (especially the more heathen ones!) randomly and saying, “Did you remember to pray to the Sacred Heart? It’s First Friday today!”

6)    I can’t groom myself in public. I blame Social Graces class in high school. We were taught that a lady is never supposed to fix herself out in the open. You’re to gracefully steel yourself to the safe ceramic confines of the ladies’ room to powder your nose or retouch your lipstick. In school, if a class officer caught you brushing your hair in public, you’d never see your beloved Denman again because it would be confiscated and sent to hairbrush heaven. People have started to think me weird and antiquated these days, so I’m taking baby steps with lip balm. Like on the bus, or at the table after a meal. I still cringe a little, though!

7)    I can cuss in Arabic. I can also say, “I’m fat,” in Arabic. There’s a Lebanese lady at work (see # 4 for evidence again—she’s the one peering down at me) who I pester for Arabic phrases. It’s such a romantic language, but so far, I’ve only succeeded in remembering how to say “I love you,” how to call your mother a name that will warrant washing your mouth with soap, and how to say that I’m rotund. I really should expand my Arabic vocabulary because that’s just majnoon! (Crazy!)

This was fun. Anyone interested can pick up this tag. Go and be random!