I’m not into making New Year’s Resolutions but Toe of kurokuroatbp tagged me to name the ten things I would never do.  I like her very much, so I gave in.  These are not exactly resolutions anyway, so here it goes: 

1.       Wear a bikini or bathing suit.  My mother used to dress me and my sister in bathing suits when we were kids.  But somehow as I grew older, and my body developed, I heard people point out my big behind, my flat chest, my short chubby legs and I also developed a low self-esteem and this body consciousness that I can’t let people see me in a bikini or bathing suit.

2.       Have a perm.  I have thick straight hair and I used to have perms all the time when I was younger that people thought I had naturally curly hair.  But then I had a disastrous perm just before I got married.  I felt aversion from my groom and I actually had second thoughts of going through with the wedding.  That was the last time I ever had a perm.

3.       Wear bangs.  (Yes, women have this thing with their hair.) The first time I had a boyfriend, I asked my aunt to cut my hair and give me bangs.  I wanted to hide the scar on my forehead and I thought I’d look cute with bangs.  It turned out that the boyfriend preferred long hair.  That relationship didn’t last long but I kept the bangs for about 20 years.  Three years ago, I let it grow and it was such a pain waiting for it to grow to the same length as the rest of my hair.

4.       Eat canned sardines.  I used to love Mackerel canned sardines.  But when I was pregnant with my oldest child, I had morning sickness and threw up a lot.  One morning I ate rice with sardines for breakfast and when I got to work, I threw it all up in the ladies room.  It wasn’t a pretty sight and I still remember the smell.

5.       Wear a size small.  I used to wear a size small and sometimes even XS (extra small).  But after three kids, I don’t think that’s gonna happen anymore.

6.       Smoke.  Bad for the health.  My father was a chain smoker.  And I think that contributed to his early death.

7.       Drink alcohol.  My father was an alcoholic and I have bad childhood memories because of it.  I once tried to taste beer just for the heck of it.  I didn’t like it.

8.       Complete a course.  I once took a tax preparation course with H&R Block.  This was when I was still working at a garment factory and I wanted to work part time with H&R Block to amend our income and also to practice my accounting background here.  But I was then pregnant with my second child and I just couldn’t keep up, so I quit.  Then I also enrolled for a correspondence course in Sewing.  I wanted to learn how to sew my own dress.  I didn’t finish it either.  Just three years ago, I registered yet for another correspondence course, Breaking into Print.  I wanted to get published in magazines and publications.  And perhaps, I thought, write a book.  Yeah, I got ambitious.  I was only three assignments away from completing the one-year course.  But the demands of motherhood and work made it tough for me to finish the assignments.  So I once again dropped it.

9.       Let Arlene clean my teeth.  She is the dental hygienist at my dentist’s clinic.  She just has these heavy hands and my teeth would hurt after my cleaning.  Once, she used newly sterilized instruments – as in just out of boiling water – to clean my teeth.  She didn’t realize how hot they were because she was wearing gloves and the instrument almost burned my mouth. Ouch!  It was just during my last cleaning appointment when I had the courage to tell the receptionist, “I don’t want to get anybody in trouble but will you please give me another hygienist other than Arlene.”  The receptionist politely accepted my request with no questions asked and she marked my file so that I won’t ever get Arlene again.

10.   Say never again.  But this is just for fun.  So if you ever catch me doing any of these things, please don’t hold it against me.

I’m tagging JO, Pining, Kathy, Karen, and Ann.

Happy New Year everybody!