OK. It' must be an epidemic of some sort. I decided to write "100 things about me" thing. Everyone whose diary I read, wrote this one way or the other, so why not me? Ahhh, nothing like being a copy cat :) So, here it goes!

1. I was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and lived there for 14 years.

2. As of this year, I lived half of my life in the US.

3. I have green eyes, light brown hair which drive me crazy because they're way too curly.

4. I'm 5.1. - very short! and fairly petite although apparently my weight is an issue for my family.

5. I've been playing piano since I was five, and I have perfect pitch. I also was in a choir for about 5 years back in Russia, and we got to tour the country!

6. I have bunch of really cool friends in russia, and I am still in touch with most of them!

7. I used to play Musceteers with my girlfriends and had a biggest crush on an actor who played d'Artagnan in the Russian version of Three Musceteers.

8. I was d'Artagnan in the group. And I learned how to sword fight with swords made out of tree branches. I also learned how to make the neatest wax seals on letters written by real ink and feathers.

9. I went to high school in the US, and it was a religious Jewish high school. We're talking Orthodox religious - Sabbath, no pants, kosher food...

10. I still prefer skirts to pants, and most of my wardrobe consists of skirts of various types and lengths. But then I'm a woman, after all! :)

11. Mike's family considers me "too fasnionable" (I think!) as a standard of dress there is a jeans and T-shirt. It's a big puzzle for everyone how we ended up together because his standard dress is Tie Dye and jeans.

12. I married Mike 4 months ago and I can't even count my blessings. He's awesome, and we love each other very much.

13. Before Mike met me, he went on a camping trip that lasted 1.5 years, and he's been to 47 states. In the car, with the dog.

14. I wanted to be an early childhood teacher after I graduated high school. I went to Israel for a year to study in the religious institute to be a preschool teacher.

15. While in Israel, I got completely disillusioned about religion and being Orthodox, though I still have a strong affinity with being Jewish, I realized that I don't need religion to make myself "belong".

16. After coming back from Israel, I started working in the kindergarten. I got completley burned out within 1 year, and the pay was below what they pay now for working in a fast food restaurant! Not a great career choice, even though the kids loved me.

17. After that, I went to live in New York for 1.5 years, in hopes to create my own rock band with my friends who lived there.

18. I played piano, guitar, and did some vocals in the band, but it never took off because basically we sucked and my friends were way too preoccupied with politics.

19. One of the greatest memories of the band was a performance on top of a huge truck. It was really cool aside from a constant fear of falling.

20. I moved back home and went to a community college without any idea of what I want to do. Then I decided to get an associate degree in Administrative Assistant program - amazing, I was an admin with a degree, even though technically only a high school diploma is required for this profession.

21. My best friend is from Petersburg too, but we never knew each other there. We met in high school. It irritates me when people ask how come we never knew each other in Russia. St. Petersburg has 5,000,000 people population! It's not exactly a farm, you know. :)

22. My best friend has green eyes with brown speks. She really has multi-colored eyes. It's pretty cool. She's also the best cook, and is going to open her own business soon.

23. My favorite food is chocolate. I'm a true chocoholic. I try to stay away from it lately though, because I think I over-do it, and it makes me hyper.

24. I have been writing poetry since about 10. I haven't written much this past year though. I also write prose, but my main "novel" is currently "under construction", and I haven't worked on it for a while.

25. I currently am translating one of the coolest Fantasy books written in Russian into English. It's a tedious job, but I can spend hours doing it. Perhaps I should be a translator?

26. I decided to go into graphic/web design after working for a year in a Document Center of Dow Chemical company. The management sucked and eventually our whole department got dispersed, but I learned a lot about graphics and designing from there - did several ads for their seller department.

27. I'm 10 months away from getting a Bachelors Degree in Visual Communications. How cool is that! I enjoy print design more than web though.

28. I do Jane Fonda aerobic workout almost every day. My poor husband has to listen to her voice/same music every day as well. He knows the workout routine by heart now.

29. I play ping-pong fairly well. My parents have a ping-pong table in their basement and we always play. Mike plays worse than me, but he catches on quick. We never play for scores though - he's very non-competitive.

30. My favorite color is black. Most of my clothes are black. But lately I started going for more and more color in my clothes. I prefer primary colors though, highly saturated. I hate pastels. Everyone says that my new interest in color comes from Mike and his tie dyes.

31. I'll never wear a tie dye. I feel that I'll look like a parrot. It looks good on Mike though.

32. I hate cooking. I am the worst cook on the planet. The highest accomplishment of my cooking was learning how to bake meat. I never baked a cake in my life.

33. I love traveling. If I ever was a millionaire I'd just cruise the world.

So far, I've been to Russia, Israel, France, England, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Austria (for only two days though), and Mexico. I dream of going to Egypt and Switzerland.

34. I've been to New York, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, St. Paul, Des Moines, Cape Code, and New Orlenas within the US. I'd come back to New Orleans in a heartbeat! It's so beautiful there.

35. I've known to do crazy things for love. My family regards me as highly eccentric (or plain crazy). I flew to an unknown city to Russia, in Siberia, to visit someone I fell in love with.

36. I love cats. I had a huge cat growing up, named Mitya. He died when I was 20. Currently, I own a brand new baby, Oreilla. She's a Maine Coon, and gorgeous!

37. I have a snake phobia. There's no reasons for me to hate snakes because I never really encountered one. However, it freaks me out to look at snakes, even on TV.

38. I was born 2.5 months prematurely. I was born Cancer, and was supposed to be Virgo. Mike jokes that I'm an earth sign in a water sign body. I don't believe astrology anyway.

39. I used to love picking out mushrooms in the forest, in Russia. I don't anymore. I still can tell good ones from poisonous ones though.

40. I'm very interverted. I am becoming better about it lately, all because of Mike. I hate speaking in public. I also hate being made center of attention in a group.

41. I speak Hebrew - it used to be fluent, but I lack practice. I still understand most of it though.

42. I love Russian rock. It's a childhood love that isn't going away. The only problems is that bands that I love are either old (Aquarium), or not existent because of death of their members.

43. I love opera. I've seen many throughout my life. My favorite is Carmen, by George Bizet.

44. I started to hate TV lately. It robs me of my brain cells. I try to limit my TV to watching Seinfield and Simpsons.

45. I love foreign films. I'm a sucker for anything French-made. I enjoy French love-triangles and affairs, and it seems like the movies we get here from France are exclusively on that topic. It's weird and funny to watch those.

46. My ears are pierced.

47. I used to dream of learning karate and becoming second Bruce Lee. I took one karate course, but it never went further than that.

48. I'm very bad at math and math-related subjects. I have a high IQ but it only works a certain way. I understand how to plug in formulas but never see a "big picture" in math.

49. I always loved writing letters. Lately, I switched to e-mail almost completely.

50. I love spicy food. I'm a sucker for authentic little restaurants, with ethnic origins. I cannot stand anything Baker Square related. French fries make me puke.

51. I was a vegetarian for a year, because I hanged out with some Hare Krishnas. Neither their religion nor life style appealed to me though. But vegetarianism was fun, though I felt after a year, that I need meat.

52. I used to have a crush on Axl Rose from Guns N' Roses. I thought he was the sexiest man alive.

53. I also had a huge crush on Arnold Vosloo, a guy who played The Mummy in the recent film. I was about 25 at that point. Am I a kid or what!

54. My best friend and I once slept on the stairs of a 2-story building because her mom woudln't let us in.

55. Our first "dining out" experience, ever, was in a tiny kosher Chinese restaurant. We had an incredibly expensive meal (kosher meat is expensive), and felt on top of the world. We were 17.

56. Very recently, we had our officialy most expensive meal ever - again in a kosher place which is considered to be highly "fashionable". $10 per glass of very average wine, how's that! Never again.

57. I want to have 3 kids. 2 girls and 1 boy, please! I told Mike that he must prepare himself mentally before we do it, to get the right sex down :) After all, male determines the sex of a future child.

58. I have one cool cousin who lives in Israel. We have 20 years difference or so, but we're almost the same personality wise. I wished she moved here.

59. I'm very scared to gain weight. I think it's a mental problem, partially induced by my family. I hate dieting though - I just try to eat sencibly and exersice.

60. My best friend thinks that I'm obsessed on my body. She's probably right. The biggest size I ever wore was 12, the smallest was 8.

61. I'll never be a model.

62. I hate manicures. I bite my nails. I never did my nails, even for my wedding.

63. Everyone around hates this habit of mine. Some consider it a proof that I'm a psycho.

64. In the "ideal" version of me, I have long, absolutely straight black hair. I've never wanted to be blond.

65. Even a 3-month artifficial straightening job worked for only 2 weeks. My hair curls beyond normal.

66. Right now, I have it cut so short, not even an inch. They actually look almost straight. People marvel.

67. My nose is long. When I was a kid, people said I looked like Mona Lisa (got similar long hair going at the time).

68. I don't necesserely like Mona Lisa. She wasn't pretty.

69. I read a lot. I've been reading ever since I can remember myself. My parents taught me to read by the age of 5.

70. I like books where you feel lost half the time... where the author gives you feeling of surreality. Victor Pelevin is great in that aspect.

71. I have a bunch of weird/stupid/mean relatives (minus the cool cousin)

72. I have a cool brother though. He's getting married soon!

73. I like being friends with guys.

74. I wish I was taller.

75. My dad spoils me. I'm daddy's girl.

76. I consider myself lucky to live in the US.

77. I think if I was an animal, I wouldn't survive evolution.

78. I don't really believe we came from monekys though. I'm agnostic about god. You could tell, I'm really messed up.

79. I hate gossipy people.

80. I hate to say this, but I value smartness over niceness.

81. People think I'm "too nice" - isn't it funny. I think I'm normal.

82. I'm punctual to a fault. I am never late, anywhere. Sometimes I come places early. It annoys even me!

83. I have no sence of direction. The words East, West, South, North have no meaning to me. The only directions I understand is "go on such and such street and turn right (or left).

84. I get lost a lot.

85. My best friend is amazing with directions. She makes fun of me a lot. She's also a better driver.

86. I only can sleep on my sides. Never on the back or stomach.

87. I don't snore in my sleep!

88. I'm very sound-sencitive. Any little thing could wake me up.

89. I like sleeping by the wall. I used to fall down my bed when I was a kid, every day.

90. I get cold very easily. It's a problem, because Mike is always hot. I always wear extra layers of clothes.

91. My favorite fruit is peach.

92. My favorite alcoholic drink is red or rose wine.

93. I hope I die a natural death.

94. I hope they'll never cut me up.

95. I hope to have my kids, and raise them to be good people.

96. I hope Mike doesn't die before me.

97. I totally am in love with him.

98. My engagement ring is gorgeous. I want my grandchild to have it and wear it when I die.

99. I hope I'll be cool even when I'll be old.

100. I enjoy writing this diary!