Another meme courtesy of Jaquandor. I’m such a sucker for these things…
Anyhow, this meme apparently started its life as one of those “getting to know your friends” e-mail quizzes but has now morphed into something more bloggy. It comes in two parts, a “things you’ve done” list followed by some questions.
Here’s the list part, with things I’ve done in bold text.
- Gone on a blind date.
Once. And that was quite enough, thank you. My date was very nice and cute enough, so it wasn’t a true horror story, but we had absolutely zilch in common, so it was an evening filled with awkward pauses and that crushing sense of disappointed insecurity you feel every time you volunteer something about yourself that you’re really enthusiastic about only to be met by a blank stare from your counterpart. Ugh. Talk about an endurance exercise. - Skipped school.
Honestly, I was always a pretty straight-arrow kid, even though I did try to dress and act “tough.” (Well, sort of… my idea of tough was basically to not dress like my preppy buddies. All things are relative, you know.) The only time I remember skipping class (or “sluffing,” as we said in these parts), I didn’t even skip an entire day. I’d had an AP exam in the morning that drained most of my allotted mental cycles for the day, so I felt justified in taking the afternoon off. I was only gone a few hours, tops. Still… that was a good day. It was late spring, only a few weeks before graduation, and I had several of my friends with me in my big old Galaxie convertible, just driving around and soaking in the sunshine. - Watched someone die.
I wasn’t with him right at the moment of his passing, but I was around as Lou Gehrig’s Disease did its monstrous work on my uncle over the space of two years. It might not have been dramatic as Johnny Cash standing over that guy in Reno, but I watched a man die, all right. - Been to Canada.
- Been to Mexico.
- Been to Florida.
Yep, back in ’97 or thereabouts. I went with my friend Keith and his parents, and we hit all the tourist traps around Orlando as well as Daytona Beach, St. Augustine, and Kennedy Space Center. A good trip… - Been to Africa.
Nope, but I’d like to… - Been on a plane.
Many times. Often enough that I’m surprised whenever I encounter people in our modern world who haven’t. - Been lost.
Who hasn’t from time to time? Silly question… - Gone to Washington, DC.
Another place on my to-do list… - Swam in the ocean.
I’ve swum in the Atlantic, but only waded in the Pacific. Go figure. - Broken a bone.
Thankfully not. - Been in a traffic accident.
A couple of minor fender benders, nothing where a car has been totaled or anyone hurt. Although the man who hit my Galaxie way back in ’87 came very close to getting hurt… - Cried yourself to sleep.
Yes. I’d rather not elaborate on that. - Been on TV.
Surprisingly, yes. The Girlfriend and I appeared in a local news story about a Salt Lake sci-fi convention. I have a tape of it somewhere; we are plainly visible waiting to get our autographs from old Goldenrod himself, Mr. Anthony Daniels. - Stold (sic) traffic signs.
Jaquandor notes that the original quiz did in fact say “stold.” He chalks it up as a typo; me, I’m thinking it’s more likely a faithful transcription of a regional dialect, as in, “yep, I stold dem signs so I couldz hang em in ma rumpus room.” Anyhow, the things I stole in my younger, dumber days weren’t exactly traffic signs… they were those flasher barricades you see around road construction. Long story, but there was a scavenger hunt, you see, and my buddy and I thought no one else from the party would have the guts to actually boost one of the barricades and that we’d be hailed as heroes… well, the next morning, there was a whole flock of flasher barricades winking away in the hay field next door to the party house. So much for our heroics… - Played cops and robbers.
Sure. Around the same time as the flasher barricade incident, my band of friends somehow decided it would be cool to play laser-tag in the parking lot under the Triad Center. It was the mid-80s and we were teenagers in downtown Salt Lake City, so naturally we had to shout, “Freeze, Miami Vice!” every time we leapt out from behind a pillar and drew on one of our opponents. Ah, the ’80s… - Recently colored with crayons.
Um, no. - Sang Karaoke.
- Paid for a meal with coins only.
Has anyone ever done this? It seems impossibly obnoxious… - Done something you told yourself you wouldn’t.
Damn near every day. - Made prank phone calls.
Only once. As I mentioned above, straight arrow. But I once let a buddy of mine talk me into prank calling a girl I had a thing for who’d been, shall we say, less than receptive to my attentions. It was a humiliating disaster… she knew it was me from the second she answered the phone. - Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose & elsewhere.
I don’t think I want to know what “elsewhere” might be referring to. Regardless, no. - Caught a snowflake on your tongue.
- Danced in the rain.
I’ve seen Gene Kelly do it, does that count? - Written a letter to Santa Claus.
I did that a couple times, but most years I preferred the in-person approach. - Been kissed under the mistletoe.
Yep. And that’s all that really needs be said about that. - Watched the sunrise with someone.
Several times, but one of the most memorable was when I was 12 or so. My dad had been laid off from his regular job and was making ends meet with various odd jobs, including driving a truck. I went with him on several runs, and on one of those, after a very early start, we watched the sun rise from the cab of our rig as we hurtled across the Nevada desert, a father and son drinking coffee and eating donuts, sitting quietly together in the brilliant light of a new day… very cinematic, eh? - Blown bubbles.
- Gone ice-skating.
Once, to try and impress a girl. I did fairly well, as I recall, but I’ve never gone again. - Been skinny dipping outdoors.
Yep, at Bear Lake, which has to be some of the coldest water in North America. A boy remembers a thing like that… - Gone to the movies.
Duh. Who the hell has never gone to a movie? Assuming you’re from this century and not a time-traveler, that is… - Have a nickname.
Well, kind of. I’ve never had a nickname like “Butch” or “Tommy Two-Times” or anything, but the guys I worked with in the old movie theater days used to call me “The Jedi Master,” for obvious reasons. That still comes up from time to time, so I’m going to count it. - Body piercings.
I had my ear pierced for a time, but I pulled the stud out when it got infected and the hole closed over. I’ve never bothered to have it done again…
And now the second half, the specific questions:
- Favorite drink? Assuming that the question is referring to alcoholic drinks, I tend to prefer a simple glass of Irish whiskey on the rocks, although I’ll occasionally go for a mixed drink. In the non-alcoholic category, good old-fashioned cane-sugar Coca-Cola… ahh, nectar of the gods. When you can find it.
- How much do you love your job? Well enough, I suppose. I’m not the captain of my own starship, but I don’t spend most days grinding my teeth.
- Birthplace? Salt Lake.
- Favorite vacation spot? Well, San Francisco was pretty damn cool…
- Ever eaten just cookies for dinner? Um… no. I’ve spoiled my dinner by eating cookies, but that’s not the same.
- Favorite pie? Depends on my mood. I like key lime pie. I like pecan pie. I like pumpkin pie. I like my mom’s Dutch apple pie. Picking just one is too limiting…
- Favorite holiday? Halloween. Thanksgiving is, in my mind, an exercise in family endurance, and Christmas is just too damn much any more, what with the shopping in the September and all.
- Favorite food? Again, I can’t choose just one. A really good cheeseburger with tomato and fresh, crispy lettuce is always good. So’s a bowl of clam chowder on a cold day with warm sourdough bread. A New York strip grilled outdoors. French fries. Pasta, in all its wonderful myriad forms. My mother’s goulash, which we call by the appetizing name “slop.” Peaches and cream. Pineapple. I could go on all afternoon…
- Favorite smell? Hm. Well, there’s all the usual cliche’d stuff: rain, certain perfumes, cooking foods, but the thing that immediately came to mind is a little weird… it’s the smell of mildly sunburned skin and leather mixed with car exhaust. In other words, the smells of driving one of my convertibles — especially the old Galaxie — in the summer.
- How do you relax? I read, or watch a DVD, or blog. I’m also one of the few men in this society who actually enjoys shopping.
- How do you see yourself in 10 years? Oh, god, it’s the question I most dread hearing during job interviews and performance reviews. The honest truth is, I don’t know. I haven’t had any kind of vision of my future since the day I graduated college, looked around, and asked “Now what?” I would hope that a decade from now I will have finally found certain answers and made peace with certain realities, that I will be happy and healthy, but these generic responses really seem like a cop-out to me, and they rarely satisfy the interviewers. No worries, though… as soon as I figure out what I want to be when I grow up, I’ll blog about it here…
