my 25 random things

**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. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

I've been tagged how many times already, and while I've always had fun reading their random things, I never got around to writing down mine until now. So here goes.

1. I used to have an irrational fear of ghosts and the undead. It reached its peak while I was staying at Edith Carson Hall, a dormitory in Silliman University, rumored to be built on a cemetery. When I was a kid, I would cry so hard whenever anyone tried to frighten me with ghost stories.

2. A lot of people used to make fun of the mole on my forehead. Claudine named it Mole de Guzman. Dirgy once photoshopped it in class. hahaha.

3. My writing in high school consisted mainly of sappy love poems that I already burned. I used to join Division Press Conferences but never won because I didn't know what an editorial was or the dos and dont's of news articles. I didn't even read newspapers back then. Imagine my surprise when I majored in Mass Communication and found out that I should never ever use "I" in an editorial.

4. The most challenging part of my college life was when I was the editor-in-chief of the weekly paper. I fell asleep in classes, on a bench in the office (which everyone else called the rape bench because mura kuno ko girape when I sleep there na dead to the world kaayo). I went home at 3am on Monday nights and was subjected to head butts by the other editors.

5. My year in Japan was like a vacation. I didn't study, didn't work. P40,000 just appeared in my bank account every first of the month. Once, Verna and I went clubbing the entire night, went to Harajuku in the morning and shopped till the afternoon. We went home looking like zombies.

6. I love traveling. My dad and mom used to load up the car and head to Manila or Baguio on a day's notice to my elementary teachers. My first plane trip was to Davao when I was a year old. Now, I love writing down my own itinerary and budget and planning out trips. When Claudine and I went to Kyoto, it wasn't really planned. We were just talking about spring vacation. The next day, I had a "KYOTO BUDGET AND ITINERARY" all mapped out for us. Guidebooks and the Internet are my friends.

7. I hate videokes. I can't sing to save my life. I used to belt out that Little Mermaid song "Part of that World" when taking baths, and my mom would always bang on the bathroom door to make me stop. I could hear her laughing through the door.

8. I don't mind clutter in my room at all, to my mom's eternal dismay. I have a lot of things, from clothes to college notes to books. When my sister and I move houses, we need an entire jeep for all the boxes to fit in.

9. My sister and I used to fight a lot as kids--over the remote control, who gets to press the elevator button. When things got out of hand, we didn't hit each other. We had shouting matches.

10. The only sport I can do is swimming, which I'm pretty good at. Aside from a couple of gold medals when I was a kid and a 1st place in that godforsaken final PE swimming class, I don't really compete.

11. Sports, especially team sports, hate me. I once joined the MassCom softball team for the uniforms. I could run and hit the ball, but when it comes to catching, they put me in the outfield between 1st and 2nd base (go figure). I also joined a kickball team at Larena Hall (they made me a shortstop), but I never could stop that darn ball. There was also one time I teamed up with my Japanese tennis teacher (who's really really good) for badminton, and we lost because of me! Because the other team kept on hitting the birdie at me!

12. I used to be a CYF member in first year college. I'd attend Sunday morning and afternoon masses, Wednesday Midweek Services, Saturday Bible Studies, and was even a counselor for the Camp Ministry!

13. Now, the last time I've been to church was during the Commencement on my graduation day. I had to go to church because I was one of the liturgists.

14. I stay away from churches now because I don't see the point. I don't listen anyway. I believe there's a Higher Being, but the leap of faith that organized religion requires is something I cannot do.

15. What I do believe in though is the beauty of nature. I've joined two environmental groups, STSCM and Solar Generation, but I wish I could do more. When I was little, and snorkeling at Daruanak Island, my dad would catch those beautiful coral reef fish, and I would cry so hard just so he would put them back in the sea.

16. I don't have an appendix anymore. I got operated on when I was 13.

17. The most amazing, frustrating, challenging thing I've done in my life was to climb Mt. Fuji. We started at 11pm and walked without sleep until 3pm. The sunrise over the 8th station was breathtaking. But since we moved so slow, we had to leave the 9.5th station (the 10th was at the top) so we could get back to the bus to Tokyo on time. The walk down was a seemingly endless five hours.

18. Speaking of amazing, one amazing moment in my life was being named a TOSP Region 7 awardee. Another one would be the graduation honors and the university honors. A third? It was when I realized we managed to publish The Weekly Sillimanian consistently every Wednesday morning for a year.

19. I used to have a thing for basketball players in school.

20. I want to do the following before I die: go on my solo Baguio-Sagada trip, get a scuba diving license, visit Italy and New York, sky dive, skim board, swim with dolphins, try out the corporate life, among others. I have been fortunate that in the list of 20 things I want to do before I graduated, I was able to do 17.

21. I'm a big fan of: men's tennis and Roger Federer, Disney movies and Disneyland, the Harry Potter series, the Golden Compass trilogy (His Dark Things), Roger Ebert's reviews, Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews Band and John Mayer--well, this is all I can remember for now. It's weird because when people ask me about movies or books or music I like, I can't give a name or a title. I just don't pay that much attention unless I really, really like it.

22. I used to be able to eat an entire pizza all by myself.

23. I used to dance in front of our wall-size mirror for the entire afternoon. I'd wear a little top and shorts and tights, and just dance which could only be pathetically described as modern dance/jazz. Still though, it's embarrassing. When the mood hits, I still dance like a lunatic in front of my sister and mom.

24. My dad is an extremely strict parent. He didn't allow us to eat junkfood and drink softdrinks until high school, go out with friends or sleep over at other people's houses. No dating too until we graduated.

25. My sister calls me Mikaela or Marshee, depending on her mood. No one calls me Eve.

**I tag the bums.