this really is the next to last tag i'll ever do.

from marius:

10 things you may or may not know about me (depending on who you are)

1. though most people who know me know i have perfectly healthy and really strong teeth (i've never had a cavity and i can easily break hazelnuts with them), few realize that my teeth used to be extremely crooked (as tovarasa ibricescu*, my elementary school teacher, once told me in class[!]: "tavaloiu*, you'd be a very pretty girl if your teeth weren't so crooked"). so to arrange them a bit i had to get two teeth pulled out and wear braces for a couple of years. but because of the crookedness, there were some problems with one tooth that used to always be hit by another one and for this reason i had to get a root canal. this happened in high school. now everything's a-ok.
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* names have been changed to protect the privacy of those involved

2. my dad voted against ceausescu in 1989, and so we were doubly happy (if such a thing were possible) that the revolution/coup came.

3. after 1989, at 12-13, i was pro-monarchy for a while there. ha ha. no, seriously. this was probably because "monarchist" was the farthest from "communist" that one could think of. oh, and i was really into it, too, i fought with my teachers who were known pro-fsn-ists (the national salvation front, the majority party made up of "new and improved" old-school communists) and would get upset that i wore crown pins to school! i also fought with my two classmate buddies who politically were my arch-enemies: the "fsn-ist" and the "iron guardist." (these two were best friends.) such good times! (ps: now i am not a monarchist but i think that's NOT a little-known fact about me. :P )

4. i know some breakdance moves, because when i was in gymnastics in the late ‘80s we would often interact with breakdancers through our club (it was a period when breakdancing became super-popular even in communist romania, amazingly!), our team even went to see a couple of competitions and we'd breakdance for warm up. also, as a pre-teen, i was quite the disco-goer, so basically i was temporarily insane (and by "insane" i mean not myself).

5. throughout college, i made money (and payed my first-year tuition) by helping in the business office of my department, filing, receiving packages, moving heavy things around, labeling chemicals and inventorying really old scientific equipment (this was the ancient metallurgy and mining building on campus). i also did a lot of babysitting during that time.

6. i've been known to read "trashy" novels on occasion. they can be awesome. but i am still very picky about them.

7. it doesn't embarrass me at all to say that my first serious crush was on george michael. and i still think he's an excellent songwriter. and hot. for real! my second major musician crush was on chris cornell from soundgarden. my most recent - and longest standing - crush is al from the butchies (it comes full circle, because she also likes george michael).

8. one year in middle school, i qualified for both the romanian and the math national olympiad and i chose to go to the math one, thus profoundly disappointing my romanian teacher, who then punished me by calling me "maria" for the remainder of my middle school career.

9. ok, most people know this but i was taken out of my "senior year" ("grupa mare") in daycare by my parents in order to stay with my baby sister. i was a barely 6 year-old nanny. and it actually rocked (i loved being entrusted with the responsibility, even though i hated not being with my friends in day care)!

10. i like tomatoes in general, but i loathe tomato sauce, especially the kind that goes on pizza. therefore, i don't like most pizza (but i love some pizza - thanks to my italian friends who know from pizza).

alright, that should do.

i don't know who to tag. i guess ileana and janna and valerie. if they want.