7 Random and Weird Things About Me

The topic of this meme is a bit outside the scope of this blog, but I've been tagged by Paula Kawal to share 7 random and weird things about me.

It's a challenge to disclose a few choice details while staying entertaining and engaging as the other participants of this meme have done. I've enjoyed their responses, and since I'm a fan of less anonymity and more humanity online, I'm happy to contribute as well.


Most of the time I wear men's cologne instead of perfume.
My favorite is Pi by Givenchy.

I use bizarre terms of endearment for my close friends.
Honey, Sweetheart, and Darlin' are in constant rotation. But you're just as likely to hear Chickpea, Sugarbeet, Doll, or Ace. Strangely enough, I despise pet names in romantic relationships.

Aside from English, I speak three other languages. My grasp on German, Arabic, and Farsi is not as firm as when I actively studied them, but I can still recite beautiful poetry in each from memory, and translate on the fly.

Some favorites are Rainer Maria Rilke's The Angels, Nizar Qabbani's Letter from Under the Water, and Jelaluddin Rumi's The Breeze at Dawn . . .


My cartoon character alter-ego is Norbert F. Beaver, of the Nickelodeon show "The Angry Beavers". He and his younger brother, Daggett D. Beaver, epitomize my sister and I in 2-D.

Norbert is older, more suave, convinced of his superiority, and blonde. Daggett is younger, more endearing, hyperactive, and brunette. The similarities between their interaction on the show and our own shenanigans are uncanny.

The Angry Beavers, which chronicled the daily escapades of these siblings after they were forced to move out of their parents' dam, was hilarious, especially in it's early days.


If I had to choose only one food to eat, every day at every meal for the rest of my life it would be . . .
Tunisian-style couscous with chicken, squash, and root vegetables. My friend from Sousa showed me the recipe when she was teaching here for a year on a Fulbright Scholarship.

The scent of the spices in the bubbling pot transport me across oceans and deserts: cumin, turmeric, coriander, cardamom, red chili flakes, fennel. The only alteration to the traditional preparation I make is adding half a cup of sweet white wine to the vegetables while they simmer.


I am a dancer.
Once, an acquaintance from a ballroom dance class introduced me to a group of his friends by saying "This is Sarah, she's a dancer." At that moment, a bell chimed in my head and I thought: "Yeah. I am a dancer."

That was so cool. In addition to Ballroom, I also do Salsa and Bellydancing, and might explore Argentine Tango and/or Flamenco as well.


I once spent the night in a police station in the mountains of Virginia after fleeing my vacation cabin from the intrusions of what I thought was an axe-murderer.
That's all I'm going to say about that.