The Random Things, by Tatiana – In The Mix #8

February 5, 2009 Tatiana EL-Khouri 8 Comments

For the past two weeks, I’ve been serving jury duty. Like a lot of people I know, I balk at a jury summons and loathe the day I wait to find out if I will be on a case. However this is my second case I’ve served as a jury member, and each time it makes me proud to be an American and excited about fulfilling my civic duty. I feel like a magnet for the lawyers because despite my reasoning for why I shouldn’t serve, they pick me.

A City client of mine told me it’s probably a novel idea to have an artist on the jury because I represent the cross section and the diversity in the city of Los Angeles. Well with that said, one of my favorite parts of the process is meeting my fellow jurors and learning about people from all walks of life. I’ve only just begun to learn everyone’s name in the last days of the case. But everyday as we have gotten slightly more comfortable with each other we’ve learned fascinating tid bits of each other that adds levels to the brief description of ourself when we met the first day. Everything from a veteran nurse whose leisure escape is leading a billards team, an ex-employee of the financial industry who’s real passion is musicals and acting, to a chemist who also runs a doggy day care.

Like the movie Crash exemplifies, we often don’t learn the random things about people we cross paths in our daily routine. I think the random things are what makes people so fascinating to me.  So below I’ve shared 25 random things about me, some fun facts and others integral things that have shaped me.

I invite you to list some randoms things about yourself in the comments!

1. My love of Video Games inspired me to pursue a career in Art.
2. I’ve been actively recruited by a convent to become a Nun. I still get letters till this day.
3. I was taken out of preschool when my brother was born, so I subsequently failed my Kindergarten entrance test. I went back home and in two weeks learned all my colors, numbers and shapes, then passed the test!
4. I begged my parents to let me take gymnastics as a child, they finally let me when I was 12. My class was filled with 4 year olds.
5. I lived in Africa as a baby.
6. I’ve done about 10 marathons and half marathons.
7. I’ve been to Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch.
8. I’ve owned a season pass to every amusement park in the greater Los Angeles area: Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, Six Flags, Universal Studios.
9. My first visit to Disneyland, I was 3 weeks old and I was bigger than most of the babies that were 6 months older me.
10. The day I was born, I was the biggest baby in the hospital, 9 lb 11oz.
11. I was always skinny growing up and finally broke 100 pounds when I got to college, it was a miraculous day.
12. I taught myself how to swim, one summer vacation at a time.
13. One day I will own a 1957 Chevy Bel Air.
14. 5 and 7 are my favorite numbers. They also happen to be my birthday, my height and the year of my future car.
15. I’ve always been addicted to knowledge. Before the easy research of the Internet, I was addicted to the Encyclopedia.
16. As a child, I wanted to be an Archeologist and discover something fantastic and groundbreaking. But someone convinced me that I would probably never be on a site and only write papers and do research but I think that sounds fun too.
17. I don’t like when parents kiss their children on the lips. Too close for comfort!
18. I didn’t become a Nun because I knew one day I wanted to have kids of my own. At the time that was the only reason, now I have plenty of reasons. 🙂
19. I’m an adrenaline junkie.
20. I love logic puzzles and think math problems are fun! I like the solution process.
21. My favorite channels are Discovery, Food Network, Science, Showtime, and Comedy Central.
22. I love Abba. They really know how to tell a story through song.
23. I only eat with spoons. I hate metal forks on teeth.
24. I have a piece of art in the Pentagon.
25. I write a weekly column, In The Mix, it’s about my journey as an emerging artist.