1.     Almost no one has my exact name. In spite of the popularity of the Wizard of Oz while I grew up, almost no one was named Dorothy…and even fewer are named Dorothy Calimeris.  Calimeris is so uncommon that in the Bay Area the only Calimeris’s are my family.  Makes life less confusing in a culture where everyone was named after everyone, in a sea of Maria’s, Nicks, and Georges I was the only Dorothy.

2.     My family was huge, we danced, we sang, we ate, we ate, we ate…..AND everyone is a great cook.  Nuff said.

3.     Goofy pictures of family standing in front of the Parthenon. Starting with a picture of me and Teri in 1979 and a picture of Teri and her daughter Yasmin in 2014, and a picture of Claire, Alexis, and Roxanne in 2014, good to know the generations continue to make the pilgrimage and take the picture as proof.

4.     We’ve based an entire cuisine around olive oil.  Seriously, what’s not to love?!  And we aint talking no drips and drops of olive oil, we’re talking deep dark golden green puddles of olive oil.  Outstanding!

5.     We can’t go anywhere without letting people know we’re Greek.  I love how proud we are of our heritage.  We’re all second generation and if our names don’t tip you off we will make sure you know, we’re Greek.  We book our restaurant reservations under our grandparents name make sure the waiter knows we’re all related (like they care!).  We happily volunteer the information to anyone who will listen.  And after we’ve given folks our life story, we’ll insist you take pictures of us standing in front of the Parthanon.