100 Things About Me That You Totally Care About

1. I ‘m Filipina, but I tend to forget I’m Asian.

2.  I’ve known my best friend Lindsay since we were 13.

She’s trying to stab me with her car keys here. She’s very dangerous.

3. The origins of my semi-nickname “meloogal” are in a nonsensical secret language that my sister and I invented years ago.

4. The aforementioned secret language cannot be explained in text form, I’m sorry. It’s just too weird and dumb.

5. I’ve lived my whole life in New Jersey—I even stayed in NJ for college. Needless to say, it’s about time for me to ditch this popsicle stand.

6.  This is my family’s dog, Hickory.

I suffer from My Dog Is Perfect Syndrome. Everything he does is cute to me, from being sprayed by a skunk to drooling on my pant leg.

7.   My original life plan was to be a teacher, but then it all went kaput. You can read about it a little here.

8.  When it comes to food, I’m a big “trier.” I’ll try almost anything and probably like it.

9. There are two foods I just don’t like, though: olives and mushrooms.

10.  My favorite smell is coconut-and-lime. My real favorite smell is rubber.

11.  I’ve been on and off Weight Watchers for the last two years. At the moment I’m intensely “on,” and totally pwning this time.

12.  This is me and my boyfriend, Matt:

Yeah, that pretty much sums  up our relationship.

13.  I started this blog on December 1st, 2007, in the calm before the storm of a Big Crazy Meltdown.

14. I’m obsessed with Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass.

15.  Actually, that’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, but I don’t think anyone else really cares.

16.  I’m kind of an insufferable know-it-all. See above.

17.  I have just one sister, Melanie, who looks like my twin even though she is 5 years younger than me.

18.  My least favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. So. Many. Unmet. Expectations.

19.  Luckily, my favorite holiday is Christmas, so it evens out.

20.  Places  I’ve traveled outside of the country: The Philippines, Spain, Mexico, England, Ireland, and Canada.

21.  Places I’m dying to travel to: Everywhere. Some current faves are France, Japan, Italy, and New Zealand.

22.  Here’s me with my three favorite people in the world:

My BFFs from high school (left to right), Karen, Lindsay, [me], and Ilana.

23.  In high school we acronym’d ourselves MILK (Melissa-Ilana-Lindsay-Karen). Which, come on. That’s pretty effing cool.

24.  Speaking of high school, I was a total band geek.

25. I used to play the flute, but I wasn’t very good. I never practiced.

26. I started taking piano lessons when I was 7, but didn’t really start learning how to play music until I got to high school.

27. I still play the piano, though — I’m an accompanist for my family’s church.

28.  Deep down, though, I’ve always wanted to learn to play the harp.

29.  I was an English major in college.

30.  But don’t ask me to pick my favorite book. I can’t do it.

31.  Nor ask me to pick my favorite: food, color, movie, actor/actress, store in the mall. I just can’t do it. I’ll break out into hives.

32.  Oh wait, I know what my favorite store in the mall is:  Sephora. Duh!

33.  I am incapable of entering a Sephora store without buying at least one overpriced, unnecessary item.

34.  Melanie and I used to fight constantly up until I was about 17. Now we’re BFF!

35.  I was lucky enough to be at President Obama’s inauguration:

This is us after the madness. The experience was 50% awe and elation, 32% PAAAH-HAAART-TAY, 11% frostbite, and 7% Are-You-SERIOUS-Stop-Pushing-Me.

36.   I genuinely worry about zombies.

37.  I used to also genuinely worry about my bed falling through the floor while I was sleeping in it.

38.  And I used to choreograph dance routines to songs from Disney movies and force my classmates to spend recess performing them with me.

39.  I was a really weird kid. (Who grew up into an equally weird adult.)

40.  I have some wacked-out phobias — for instance, moths. If I ever came into direct contact with a moth, I think I would pass out.

41. Another one: I can’t bear to look at polarized images–like photo negatives or thermal maps.

42. YET ANOTHER ONE: Ultra-microscopic images of even ordinary things like paper or skin cells. YUCK!

43. On the other hand, I love to look at telescopic pictures of galaxies and giant celestial bodies, and the vastness of space has always comforted and amazed me. Did I mention that I’m weird?

44.  I love cooking/baking and I’m convinced I’m pretty good at it, even though only like, 2 other people besides Matt have confirmed this.

45.  Everything I know about cooking and baking I learned from Food Network.

46.  Especially from Alton Brown, Giada DeLaurentiis, and Ina Garten (snobby and condescending as she is, she’s a killer in the kitchen).

47.  I am, however, not good at several other useful things, such as mental math (or any math, really).

48. Or saving up money.

49. Or changing a tire, keeping a steady job, public speaking, finding a good parking spot, catching the good sales at the mall, or participating in a conversation about politics without becoming offended and indignant.

50.  I’m working on it all, but I can only do so much, people. Would you like a banana nut muffin in the meantime?

51.  When I was a pre-teen I was absolutely obsessed with Hanson.

52.  And I stayed obsessed with them for way longer than was fashionable. I wasn’t a very popular kid.

53. And then, when my hormones stopped raging, I found out that I genuinely liked the music they were putting out (particularly their third studio album, Underneath) and decided to stay a fan.

54.  Fortunately I’m no longer fixated on their personal lives and their flowing blond tresses and the very slim chance that I would meet and marry one of them.

55.  Okay, maybe still on the flowing blond tresses. It really is 50% of their appeal.

56.  I have a pet hedgehog.

I named him Huxley after the British writer and intellectual Aldous Huxley.

57.  Did I mention that I was an English major?

58.  I used to read really, really fast, but college knocked that ability out of me. I’ve since learned how to properly pore over texts, even children’s books.

59.  I have too many first cousins to count.

60.  But I’m really only close with the ones my mom’s side.

61.  I didn’t have my first kiss until I was 17.

62.  And I was 20 when I got my first kiss that counted.

63.  I have never been stung by a bee.

64. I have the lowest alcohol tolerance of any of my friends and peers. All I really need is one drink. Just forget about shots.

65.  All I really want is to go to Disney World with my boyfriend someday.

66.  I love to sing, especially in the car.

67.  Especially along with Broadway show soundtracks.

68.  These ones are the best for car singing.

69.  My best Halloween costume (so far) is “Asian Juno.”

I held a bottle of Sunny D all night. (Also, Linds is Piglet.)

70.  But my favorite costume is “the ugly one” from Teen Girl Squad — each member of MILK dressed up as one of the four. (No pictures, this costume predated digital camera days.)

71.  In high school I developed massive lust crushes on men who were much older than me.

72.  I once wrote a fan-fiction about then-Nickelodeon start Mark Saul and gave it to Linds as a present.

73.  I have NO IDEA why I thought that would be a good present.

74.  Speaking of half-baked ideas, in 8th grade Linds and I made a time capsule that we vowed not to open until the end of our senior year of high school.

75.  Fact: Everything you think is important in 8th grade is either meaningless or embarrassing by the time you are 18.

76.  Fact: We will never make another time capsule.

77.  I have awesome hair, when I make the effort to style it.

78.  I know way too much about makeup, and I never put my knowledge to good use because I rarely put it on and I never try to do anyone else’s.

79.  I have really dysfunctional skin. It’s super dry and sensitive.

80. And it’s allergic to nickel and mosquito bites.

81.  But I have nice straight teeth!

82.  However, I never had braces and felt very left out when all my friends started getting theirs off and it seemed like they had suddenly transformed.

83.  I just don’t like sports movies. I try very hard to like them, but it’s no use.

84.  Instead, I LOVE Teacher-Changes-The-Lives-Of-Students-Against-All-Odds-And-Using-Unconventional-Methods movies. So. Much.

85.  I also don’t like it when animals are killed/injured in movies.

86.  I (as well as my mom and my sister) sometimes talk and even sing in my sleep.

87.  I prefer to sleep on my back, with a pillow or blanket covering my face. I have never met anyone else who understand this.

88.  Seeing, talking about, joking about or even thinking about human poop makes me sick to my stomach.

89.  See also: toilets.

90.  I really love to go to museums, aquariums, zoos, and science centers.

91.  I want to get a tattoo before I’m too old for it to be cool.

92.  I’m not sure what I want yet, but I want it to be reminiscent of this illustration from my favorite chapter in Alice In Wonderland:

93.  I don’t like soda; the carbonation hurts my mouth.

94.  One of my favorite snacks used to be a piece of white bread slathered with butter and then folded in half and pounded cracker-thin. I DON’T KNOW.

96.  In my senior year of college, when I had basic cable and only got 15 channels, I watched QVC for fun.

97.  I’m one of those people who knows a little bit about a lot of things.

98. Unfortunately I’m oftentimes one of those people who talks like an authority about something I know just a little bit about.

99. I’m working on that one.

100. It took me almost a MONTH to write this list. I sure hope you enjoyed it, because it was tough.