tell me something ... interesting ... about you

I was at a party last week and bumped into someone I'd seen before and had been hoping to chat with. But my mind went blank when, after introductions, she said "so. Tell me something Interesting about you." I'm great at that question during a job interview, though it's usually phrased as "tell me a little about yourself". But in a social situation, I was totally unprepared.

It's popular in blogs to list 100 facts about oneself. I find that toward the end, those lists devolve into boredom, repetition, and usually both. So I promise to stop well before 100. And maybe I'll be better prepared for that question next time it's asked.

-- I became a vegetarian over the course of five years, starting when I was 7. I slowly cut things out of my diet until I was a total vegetarian. My mother was fairly supportive, but made me responsible for getting enough protein on nights when her offering contained meat. Later, on an extended sojourn in Spain, I started eating fish but not shellfish. (At the time, I felt like it was either the fish or me, so it was an easy decision.) These days, I suspect I'd survive just fine in Spain without fish. I now eat fish anywhere between a couple times a week to a couple times a month.

-- I moved out of my family's house when I was 16 and spent my senior year in high school living in a group house of responsible adults. I had my mother's moral and financial support, though I tried not to be a burden. So I ate very lightly that year. I did my own laundry, grocery shopping, and cooking, and went home once a week for dinner. I also calmed down a lot that year. By the time I got to college, I was fairly well grown up, and it was slightly amusing to watch my cohorts deal with their first taste of freedom.

-- I've always loved cats and have assumed that my leanings are as hard-wired as a person's sexuality. I like dogs fine, though I don't understand them well. My father's family always had cats and dogs; my mother's family just had dogs and hated cats. My very first cat wouldn't eat during one extended absence when I went to visit my maternal grandmother. So my mother made the supreme sacrifice of driving the cat to stay with me for the rest of my visit. My grandmother made the supreme sacrifice of coexisting with the cat for the remainder of my visit. The cat started eating again and lived. There was a long gap when I did not have a cat as a child, but the first thing I did when I left college and moved to Cambridge was get a cat. I've had at least one nearly continuously since then -- nearly 30 years.

-- I used to speak French and Spanish fluently. I now speak them haltingly but can understand both and can make myself understood, especially after a few days of immersion. My husband, who claims to have no facility with language, often understands conversations conducted in other languages. He can also often order food in languages that he doesn't speak, especially if he's had some exposure to the language.

-- Because I moved around a lot as a child, I have almost no childhood friends. My oldest friend dates back to high school. I met her on my first day of ninth grade. Many of my closest friends made in adulthood have died. I now no longer depend on a friendship being a long-term proposition, though I'm delighted when that happens. I can tell that I'm getting attached to someone when I start worrying that they're going to die. That fear does eventually pass for each person.

-- I'm now in my longest relationship ever (14 years and counting) and have lived longest in my current house than anywhere else (16 years and counting). My second longest relationship -- five years -- was with my first husband. My longest-held job was 11.5 years, although perhaps that doesn't count because I switched groups, bosses, and responsibilities many times while at that company.

-- I love to travel. My most recent exotic trip was to Egypt, and there was dancing involved. My most recent trip out of the country was to Costa Rica, but it was my third trip there and hardly seems like it counts.

-- I rarely see movies except on airplanes. I love documentaries and mockumentaries, though, and recently saw Prairie Home Companion, which I enjoyed -- the combination of Robert Altman, Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, and Garrison Keillor was irresistable, even to me. However, I see a lot of live performances every year, probably around 50, including music (classical and folk), dance (mostly modern), and theater. I enjoy theater at all levels, performed by people who don't have a day job and by people who do. I'm not fond of amateur classical musical performances, though. Somehow, the enthusiasm doesn't usually overcome instruments that are out of tune and performers who can't coordinate their timing with that of the conductor.

-- Our local travel often sees us traveling east to the seashore in the winter and west to the mountains in the summer.

-- I like nearly all food that's on my diet. I despise okra and try not to eat it. Occasionally I do eat it and very occasionally I actually like it.

-- Although I'm near my heaviest weight, I'm probably in the best physical shape I've been in for 25 years. At nearly 50, I swim two miles a week, contra dance, and go on long walks. I'm especially proud of this accomplishment because I'm shot through with arthritis and manage to keep it at bay most of the time. In fact, I once had a full body scan and the technician said "I'm not supposed to make any diagnoses, but it looks like you have arthritis all over." And then he proceeded to ask if certain areas of my body hurt all the time -- the areas where he saw the most buildup.

-- In my early 20s, I realized that I was in pain all the time. I had a professional massage one night and sat around for the rest of the evening feeling like something was dreadfully wrong. When I realized that I wasn't in pain, my boyfriend said "Oh, so you actually like me?" (well, duh, yes. I just couldn't be very nice -- the pain was too intense). It took me about ten years to work through enough of the physical and emotional issues to get out of constant pain.

-- I used to suffer from frequent migraines. They run in my family. Learning my way out of them also involved a long journey. In the beginning, I didn't know what they were because even though my mother suffered from them fairly frequently, and even though she had had them diagnosed, she had never named them to me.

-- Both my parents have changed careers multiple times. I have changed careers a few times, but the last time I thought I was going to end up doing something entirely different, my next job ended up being in the same field as my previous job.

-- I like cars. When I first left college, I took a car repair course and then worked on my own car at a self-service garage for a while afterwards. So I basically understand how they work. I used to have a boyfriend who didn't know the first thing about cars. I would ask a mechanic a question and he'd answer the boyfriend. It would get kind of irritating, but at least I'd get the answers I was looking for. I can often recognize cars when I can see just a tiny detail or from a long distance. I don't name my cars unless someone else insists that I do. I have named a few cars for other people, though.

-- Although my mother traveled to Europe a lot, she barely traveled in the United States when I was growing up. The first time I saw the Pacific Ocean, I was overcome with emotion. I was on a five-week trip around the country with my then boyfriend (the same one who thought I didn't like him). We traveled across the north edge of the country on US Route 2, then south along the pacific coast, and back through Arizona, New Mexico, and then drove as fast as we could to get back to the east coast. I now love traveling to the west coast, though I don't get there very often these days.

And I hope that's well under 100 items, and that I'm leaving off before either boredom or repetition strike.