Tuesday, January 15, 2008

meme - Seven Random Facts

katerinafiore tagged me to write seven random facts about myself. Here we go.



I had to take a speech class for a semester during elementary school because I said "ting" instead of "thing".

I cannot drink Pepsi.

In second grade my teacher Mrs. Munoz put tape on my mouth for talking in class. She did warn me and told me to stop chatting in class, which I did. Unfortunately, the boy behind me showed me a picture book that had puppies in it. All I said was "they are so cute" and bam...tape went on my mouth. When my mom picked me up from school she was not happy. My dad came home from work and made me stand in a corner as punishment. I've been a cat person ever since.

I have a crush on Andrew Ibifiniwari Dan-Jumbo (aka Andy, from all those home improvement shows on TLC).

I had my first brush with scotch at age 5. According to my mom, my dad's friend was over and they had after dinner drinks. My dad put his drink down on the coffee table and I drank some of it. He had no idea. My mom worked from 3-11 (she was a nurse) and the next morning she wondered why I was acting weird. They put two and two together. She was not happy. This happened over 30 years ago but last year she said to her husband, "I can't believe you let my child get drunk."

I also have a crush on ABC foreign correspondent Jim Sciutto.

When we lived in New York, the girl across the hall used to babysit me sometimes. Her name was Brenda and she was in high school. I thought she was the coolest person in the world. She had a huge afro (like Beyonce's in Austin Powers) and was very pretty. She used to let me play her records and I would spend hours looking through her magazines. I'm sure she would have rather hung out with her boyfriend instead of an eight year and a four year old (my brother) but she made us feel like she actually enjoyed spending time with us.


There it is, seven random facts.


The bloggers I would have tagged have done this one already. If spirit moves you to do one, let us know.

14 comments:

Shelley - At Home in Rome said...

Fun!

If I'm not mistaken, a teacher here in Italy was arrested or nearly arrested for having put tape on a child's mouth. I don't remember the details, but it made headlines.

erin said...

i love reading these. so fun. I love the "I can't drink Pepsi". So random :) Is this because you don't like it or because it doesn't agree with your stomach?

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

shelley - It was New York City in the 70's. I don't think teachers can do that now. Parents would freak out and probably sue the school. How dare a teacher curb their child's "creativity". I do feel sorry for teachers these days.

erin - ha. It's because I can't stand the taste. I drink Coke. (and yes I can tell the difference)

Moi said...

Ah, i had a babysitter like that-- Pammy Goodman. She had an afro as well, and the coolest ways of making us laugh. She was my idol since I was 4 and now she's my friend...

gibber said...

Love this. Not that anyone asked, but here are my 7 random facts:

I too can't drink Pepsi.

I have a serious thing for men in uniform. Specifically those who carry weapons.

Good classical music makes me cry.

I got my first kiss in fourth grade when Kenyon Martin kissed me on the cheek for valentines day. Of course he kissed 10 other girls too.

When I was in kindergarten, one day while waiting for the school to open I found a book of matches. I tried to light a match and burned my finger. TO THIS DAY I hesitate when lighting matches from a flip book. I prefer the box, thank you very much.

I still can't swim without a floatie thing.

In the 8th grade I got caught passing notes with Karen by Mr. Otenstein (Barry O as we called him) and he gave me a choice of punishment - read the note to the class or detention. I chose detention because the note talked about a huge crush I had on a classmate.

Jen said...

Definitely fun list! And yes, I remember the tape punishment, and no, they can't do that now. (And they didn't in my NYC school, because I went to a weird, alternative, hippy school). They can do the read the note to the class or detention thing, though, and that's threatened often for 7th/8th graders because most of the notes talk about massive crushes, lol.

I might try this!

Tina said...

Those were great!

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

moscerina - That is cool that you are still in touch. I wonder what Brenda is doing now.

gibber - okay, those are some random ass facts. :)

jen - We also did not call our teacher by their first names. When did that change?

tina - grazie.

Anonymous said...

That's a sad picture-an image of a 2nd grader with tape on her mouth. Teachers surely can't do that now, but I guess it helped the cats.

Anonymous said...

I remember way back when I was in 5th grade our teacher was always taping some noisy kid's mouth shut. She used a metal spool of Johnson and Johnson adhesive tape, 20 or 30 pieces of tape(!!!) over the offender's mouth. Mouth taped shut for the rest of the day.

And that tape HELD, I know from experience.

Of course this was back in the early 1960's, when people thought nothing of it. Folks here are right, teachers can't do that any more. Though you do still run across the occasional news story about it, usually with the teacher getting fired or sued.

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

J. doe - that is funny. It was just one piece of scotch tape, but the psychological impact was felt for years!! I'm kidding.

gary - you are correct, that teacher would be fired and sued so quickly regardless of the child's behavior.

Liane Spicer said...

Don't even get me started on the teacher issues. Everything is abuse now, from spanking to scolding to taping to isolation from the rest of the class. I'm sure the don't-you-dare-or-I'll-kill-you looks my mom used to give me in public would be considered abusive now. No wonder the children are running amok!

That tape on your mouth scarred you for life, didn't it? :)

Jeez, I told you not to get me started.

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

wordtyrst - My dad had this one move called, "I will hold your upper arm, until you act like you have some sense", that and the infamous "look" used to put me in check, ASAP.

Now many parents want to be friends with their kids. It's crazy.

Anonymous said...

Great list! My mom was a nurse too. Her weapon of choice was the wooden spoon, though she was never able to catch us!
I would have killed that teacher with my bare hands if she did that to my kid. I went to catholic school in the 70s and 80s and there were some pretty screwed up teachers there too. But, I agree that parents should discipline their children more.