15 things

1. I openly advertise that I play piano and guitar, but I don’t often mention that I have also played cello (like several other tumblrs, it would seem) since the 4th grade. It is, I think, one of the sexiest things about me.
2. My father’s family immigrated to the U.S. from Hungary when he was a teenager to escape the communist rule, and before that he had several relatives who died in internment camps during the Holocaust. His family raised him and his brother as Catholics because they had ‘converted’ to avoid persecution. We did not know any of this until about 5 years ago, when his last living relative of his parents’ generation was about to pass on and she decided it was time to reveal their whole family’s secrets.
3. I snore loudly.
4. My earliest memory of childhood is when I was about 4 years old and my sister and I were playing (separately) outside in our front yard. All of a sudden she came running towards me screaming and before I knew what was happening, I was covered–head to foot–by a swarm of bees. I screamed and ran and shook, but they stayed on me until my mother came and shooed them away. I had several stings (thank the good lord I’m not allergic to them) all over my body, and I had nightmares about it for years. I am, to this day, scared to death of bees.
5. While I’m thankfully not allergic to bees, I am allergic to every single plant that I was tested for 5 years ago (something like 52 plants in all), including common, everyday grass. My allergies were a major handicap for me until I got allergy shots–3 shots a week–for 3 years. Now I breathe easy almost every day and it’s an unbelievable blessing. And I’m no longer afraid of needles, either.
6. I’ve pretended to be colorblind to get girls to help me shop.  It has, believe it or not, gotten me one phone number.
7. Once my sister pushed me down the stairs and I broke my arm (seems like she’s caused me a lot of grief). That was the one and only time that I’ve broken a bone.
8. When I was twelve I got awards from both the fire and police departments, commending me for my “heroic action” of rescuing a child from drowning.
9. Once, and only once, I tried to kill myself. I was, clearly, unsuccessful. I think because, as unhappy as I was, subconsciously I was still afraid of dying.
10. The closest I ever came to being in a bar fight, was in Tokyo 2 years ago, when I was (stupidly) competing with a very buff man for the attention of the same girl. Him and his ‘thugs’ surrounded me, grabbed me from behind, and were about to give me a beatdown when 2 enormous Yakuza dudes came out of nowhere and tossed the 4 guys out of the bar like they were nothing. Their boss came over and apologized for the behavior of the men, and I didn’t pay for a drink for the rest of the night.
11. I’ve vowed to myself to never have a long-distance relationship ever again.  It’s torturous.
12. I hardly ever carry much cash on me, but if I do, and a homeless person asks me for money, I always give him or her every bit of cash I have, I ask them their name, and later I’ll write down in my journal their name, the time, location, and the amount I gave them. I don’t know what I’ll do with it, if anything, but it’s something I started doing not too long ago and for some reason I’m compelled to continue it.
13. I dated a girl from my senior year of high school through to my sophomore year of college. When I told my mom that we broke up, she immediately began to cry. It was completely unexpected to me (I was not crying at the time, and she never really felt like the girl was right for me), and it ended up emotionally affecting me almost more than the breakup itself.
14. Over the years, I’ve seen Ben Folds play live 14 times.
15. I love watching sports–particularly hockey, tennis, and baseball–but I’ve never really seen the amusement in following sports.