Happy Birthday

Hi there everyone… Long time, no speak…

In fact, it’s been so long that I decided to reintroduce myself here with 52 random facts that most people don’t know about me, in honor of turning the BIG 5-2 today:

1.        I don’t actually believe I’m interesting enough to come up with 52 new facts about myself that most people don’t know, but I’m gonna try.

2.        As of this past weekend, I have 44,650 pictures and 593 videos to sort on my desktop, dating from September 2025 until now. That doesn’t include the pictures currently on my phone.

3.        One of Jack’s nicknames is “Mister Mister,” and for a while, I called Gus “The Cult Jam.” If you grew up in the 80’s, it may make more sense.

4.        My favorite painting of all time is “The Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh, which is funny considering I can’t stand the color blue.

5.        Before walking the dogs, or even going to the bathroom, the first thing I do every morning after I get out of bed is make it.

6.        For some reason, I will not deliberately listen to music of an artist who passed in my lifetime, like Michael Jackson, but I’ll totally jam to it if it’s randomly playing.

7.        My first cell phone was a gold Nokia that I got shortly after 9/11.

8.        I used to have a recurring dream that I was on stage performing with the Backstreet Boys, but I couldn’t remember the words to any song. Luckily, I realized I was Kevin, who at the time didn’t sing many solos.

9.        Only a select few can confirm this, but I tend to match my underwear with what I’m wearing.

10.  I had an ex-boyfriend tell me that our relationship was best summed up by the song Do You Know What It’s Like?  from the off-Broadway show Zanna, Don’t. I won’t tell you what song from Dreamgirls I think of when I see pics of him now.

11.  I call Gus my Stinky Butt Boy, and not only does he smile when I say it, but he also turns his butt to me to spank it.

12.  My favorite cereal is Oops, All Berries, but I haven’t eaten it in maybe 3 years.

13.  Until the day he died, my grandfather called me “Professor.”

14.  I’ve been plotting this year’s Halloween costume for at least 2 years now, and I will present my annual clues in October… although I think this is the first year people already know what it is.

15.  My favorite song of all time is actually NOT by Madonna. It’s If I Can’t have You by Yvone Elliman.

16.  When I started college at LIU Brooklyn, my major was Pharmacy, but I got freaked out after one of my professors gave a lecture on lawsuits and the many medications that began with the letter A.

17.  On the advice of my Endocrinologist at the time of my initial Hypothyroidism diagnosis, I do word and coloring puzzles daily to keep my mind sharp.

18.  I don’t wear black often because I hate when it fades in the wash.

19.  People say I either sound like Mona Lisa Vito from My Cousin Vinnie, Fran from The Nanny, or Horshack from Welcome Back Kotter.

20.  When I changed my name, I unknowingly gave up having a middle name.

21.  I never drank Diet Snapple, but once they rebranded it as Zero-Sugar Snapple, it became my beverage of choice.

22.  Back in 1985, my grandfather bought me the Madonna issue of “Playboy,” which I brought to my first day of 6th grade in Yeshiva.

23.  I detest couples that wear matching outfits. However, I would like to one day do a couple’s costume for Halloween.

24.  Growing up, my mother was very adamant about not naming a child after her, so I decided that if I ever had a baby girl, I would name her either Pilar, after her favorite character on Falcon Crest, or Persia, which was her Hebrew name transliterated.

25.  I’ve had the song Versace on the Floor by Bruno Mars stuck in my head for at least two weeks now.

26.  This is much more daunting than I realized, but I’m half-way through making this list.

27.  I’ve been contemplating going back to school and studying to become a guidance counselor.

28.   Although everybody and their mother knows I love The Met, my least favorite museum in all of New York City is The Cooper Hewitt.

29.  Not only am I the oldest of my siblings, but I am also the oldest of all my cousins on both sides of my family.

30.  On the first weekend after Labor Day this year, I hit 80 galleries, a Snoopy Pop-Up, The Devil Wears Prada 2 Auction viewing at Christie’s and checked out The Studio Museum in Harlem for the first time.

31.  I got in trouble in high school for telling Rabbi Yudin that I liked to grab my crotch and say fuck a lot. In my defense, it was after he made the statement “Some boys like girls, and others, like Jack, like Michael Jackson.”

32.  Back in 2004, I got a nipple piercing on a dare. It lasted somewhere between 24-48 hours.

33.  I completely relate to Billie Dawn in both the original and remake of Born Yesterday, because people tend to underestimate my intelligence.

34.  Unless you count the World Showcase at Epcot Center back in 1987, I’ve never been out of the country.

35.  The last thing I said to my mother in person was “yeah, the paparazzi’s coming.”

36.  Ever since I was little, I wanted the first dance at my wedding to be to the Jermaine Jackson/Whitney Houston song If You Say My Eyes are Beautiful.

37.  If you were to ask me what I think my best body part is, I’d say my calves, because I tend to get lots of compliments on them.

38.  I weigh less now than I did in high school.

39.  When he was younger, Jack would climb on my chest first thing in the morning, and I would respond by lifting him up in the air while singing Circle of Life.

40.  Ever since my grandfather passed, I rarely ever wear a watch. And I own 4 of them.

41.  There’s been a lot of talk lately about me slowing down, but I don’t see it happening anytime soon.

42.  Of all the celebrities that have passed in my lifetime, the one that hit me the hardest, and I still can’t come to terms with, is Shannen Doherty.

43.  If I were to pick where I would want to live for the rest of my life, my dream would be to own a loft in SOHO.

44.  My first AOL screenname was goldfone74.

45.  As I get older, I realize that I’m no longer kid friendly, but I think it has to do more with entitled parents than the kids themselves. In fact, I tend to often crudely say out loud “so I should be penalized because you spread your legs.”

46.  The exfoliating scrub I use on my face after shaving is the same one I have used since Mark Vanderloo told me about it during my “modeling days” back in college.

47.  I have no idea why, but I’ve been thinking A LOT lately about acting in some kind of stage production.

48.  I’m currently a member of 8 museums: The Met, The Whitney, MoMA, The Brooklyn Museum, The Frick Collection, The New York Historical Society, The Museum of the City of New York and The New Museum.

49.  I cannot pronounce the word brewery correctly, no matter how hard I try.

50.  There is literally not a single picture in existence of me with my maternal grandmother, which is sad because I’m the only grandchild she ever met before passing.

51.  This year’s birthday activities will include attending the Armory Show at The Jacob Javits Center, seeing my first ballet at Lincoln Center and going to a member’s event at The Gugenheim. That is if this Nor’easter doesn’t mess things up.

52.  This list is finally finished, and it took about three weeks to get here.

And just for good measure, here’s an extra fact for good luck: The picture at the beginning of this blog was taken on September 28, 2014, at my “surprise” 40th birthday party (I continue to stand by the fact that I made the guest list). It is pre Trulicity/Ozempic/Mounjaro for me, and it is the last picture ever taken of me and my mother together.