15 Random Facts Tag

Hey everyone,

I've seen this tag going around several blogs, but after seeing it on FunnyFace Beauty I decided that I should do it too. Because I love reading those random facts from  other bloggers, so I'm sure someone will find this interesting.

1. I am addicted... no OBSESSED with kimono. I wear it fairly regularly, and always look for opportunities to wear kimono more often. You can check out my Strawberry Kimono blog, devoted to.. yup KIMONO! Because of kimono I already have friends in many countries, and it definitely helped me a lot when I moved to UK because I already knew several people, and after meeting them in person we became even better friends. I can only imagine what will happen if we ever get stationed in Japan..... ;P

2. Aside from kimono, I'm also in love with all kinds of funky and fun shoes. Irregular Choice would be my all time favorite brand. In fact, just yesterday I bought myself 3 pairs of their shoes on sale, and 1 pair off eBay. Bad, bad Lyuba! My new favorite thing is to wear western shoes with kimono. ;P At some point I had more kimono shoes (zori, geta) than western, but now I'm all caught up and western shoes definitely win. 

3. I love reading and always bring a book with me anywhere I go. Currently my collection consists of Russian, Ukrainian (although they are harder to come by) and English books and I tend to read either fantasy or women/cultural studies or history books. And I don't like sci fi. My all time favorite book is Tarzan, I own the complete series in Russian and currently collecting Grosseet&Dunlap early prints in English. It's a lot of fun to read those books when they were originally published, some words are rarely used now or have a completely different meaning! "He ejaculated his words" is just one of those examples that make me GIGGLE like crazy every time I read it.

4. I'm extremely comfortable with my body. It all happened after I decided to cosplay Red Sonja at San Diego Comic Con 2006. Until then I was very self conscious about my body, thinking I was getting fat and doing all kinds of stupid diets (yes, now I realize how stupid it was and don't have those thoughts any more). After SDCC I realized that hey, I actually LIKE myself the way I am stopped obsessing over things that were not true (like me being fat) and started appreciate what was given to me by parents. My latest costume is Jungle Girl, although I hated the way my wig looked so I went with my natural hair. I haven't posted these photos anywhere yet, so I guess you can say my readers are getting a sort of preview.

Image credit

5. I took photos with a real alligator. Yup, I am pretty proud of it even if the day was kinda ugly and photos did not turn out as well as I wanted them to. But at the same time, how many of you can say that you sat on an alligator, walked away alive and had photos to prove it? ;P You can also see me riding one in this video.Photos and videos were taken at the Alligator Alley in Alabama, which is an alligator farm and rescue. Really cool place, next time I'm visiting in the States I will make sure to visit it again.

6. I have two cats, Mittens and Echo, and they are my "babies". I call them "my little kitties" and anyone who knows me knows that I am a crazy married cat lady and will not shut up about my kitties ;P But they are my very first cats, so I think I'm allowed to cherish and love them right? I'm very happy that I have them, especially when my husband goes deployed I still know that there is someone waiting for me at home. And yes, they do greet me at the door every day and Echo (spotted bengal) even plays fetch with me :) :) :) Oh no, crazy cat lady mode had started! ;P

7. I rarely have a bad hair day, but I have bad eyebrows day quite often. The thing is, my eyebrows are so LIGHT that you can barely see them and I have to fill them in every single day. Sometimes it turns out, sometimes it doesn't. Needless to say, this is one aspect of makeup that I'm looking forward to the least.

8. I refuse to learn how to drive a manual transmission car. It is one thing that I feel is very childish, yet  I do not want to give in. I like my automatic car, I enjoy driving with one foot, and I can wear kimono and drive in automatic. I doubt I will be able to do it in manual. But even if it was possible to wear kimono and drive a manual car, I still refuse to learn. Maybe it's because a lot (not all of course) of manual car drivers, including my husband, look down on automatic cars and it drives me crazy. So I'm making a PRO-automatic car stand lol.

9. Another thing that I refuse to do is listen to any American music. I'm not saying that I don't like it, or that it's bad, but you won't find it on my ipod. Of course, there are few exceptions, but they are so few that I don't think you can consider me hypocritical for it. I only listen to Russian, Ukrainian and occasionally Japanese music. Why? Because when I lived in Ukraine, about 80% of music played there was foreign, and about 90% of that foreign music was American. So now, after moving to US, I want to listen to MY OWN country's music, something I wasn't exposed to growing up and something I would like to be exposed to now. LOL my husband and I argue about this all the time, because he is refusing to accept my reasons saying that he listens to MY music, yet I refuse to listen to HIS music.

10. I am addicted to my phone, it's my link to life. I'm also addicted to texting, but sadly here in UK I don't have as many people to text to as I had in the States, and I miss it terribly. I can't wait to get an iPhone, and get that free texting application that would allow me to text my friends in the States for free :) :) :) Just couple more month, I can do it!

11. I am very particular about being called Ukrainian instead of Russian. And yes, I speak both languages, and speak primarily Russian, but that doesn't give anyone right to tell me that it makes me Russian. People in Brazil speak Portuguese, yet no one calls them Portuguese, they are called Brazilians. Just because Ukraine was under Russian rule for centuries, does not mean that Ukrainian is just a Russian dialect (yup, several people told me that). It just means that certain parts of Ukraine are still primarily Russian speaking, yet EVERYONE in Ukraine knows Ukrainian too. And can choose which language to speak. It is not unusual to see two friends talking, one will be speaking in Russian and another replying in Ukrainian. I choose Russian because my mom's side of family moved to Ukraine from Russia in 1970s, and primary language in my family is Russian. Also, the area of Ukraine where we're from is primarily Russian speaking. Yet when I had a choice of picking my nationality, because mom is Russian and dad is Ukrainian, I choose Ukrainian and I would like people who ask me where I'm from to respect that. Can you see it's a little bit of a sore subject for me?

12. I did not know how to cook until 2 years ago when I got married. I even used to think that maybe I'm a bad cook, but turned out it's not true. I'm a pretty good cook, I just never had a need to do it before marriage. :)

13. I can be pretty bitter about my status of a military wife and all the negative things it brings. Yes, there are some good thing but until we go to Japan I refuse to see them lol. It is not unusual to see me complaining about negative aspects, even if I knew pretty well ( but why no one warned me that it will be a lot worse than I imagined?) what I was getting myself into. But after complaining to my heart content I move on until the next 'down' period. 

14. I miss Barnes & Noble!!! It is my favorite American book store, and so far nothing in England quite compares to it. Yes, Waterstones is nice but where I live we only have a small one so it's not the same. Back in the States I used to go to BN almost every day, and write letters to friends or do homework. Or read manga. It was my home away from home, and I miss that a lot.

15. I love organizing things like trips or events. Back in the States I dragged my poor friends and husband around to all kinds of different festivals or conventions or fairs. Or other places that I could think of. I have a little bit harder time doing it in UK, mostly because I do not have many friends where I live, and all my other friends live too far away. But I still try. :) Kimono de Jack events are just one of the examples that I started in UK (although the idea originally came from Japan) and now my kimono friends are helping me with ideas and organization.

I don't have anyone specific to tag, so I'm just going to tag my readers :) I would like to read some random facts about you.

~ Lyuba