Friday, May 18, 2007

Meme of Eight

Sean Ferrell has tagged me to share eight random facts about myself. These kinds of memes are always fun! Here is how it goes:

1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.

2. People who are tagged write their own blog post about their 8 things and post these rules.

3. At the end choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names.

4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and to read your blog.

So, with that in mind, I cleared the decks and let eight things pop into my head. Here they are:

1. I'm generally pretty mechanically inclined. I even fixed our furnace once. However, when we were in Disneyworld in February, I came out of the bathroom and told my wife, hey, there's one of those emergency pull cords in the bathroom. Um, not so much. It was a retractable line for hanging clothes to dry.

2. I think I had true hypothermia once, and it had nothing to do with winter. In my late teens, I used to go exploring by motorcycle in the winding mountain roads of western Pennsylvania. One late summer/early fall afternoon, I got lost. Before I could get my bearings, the weather changed. A cold front came in and started to bring on nighttime early. It also started to sprinkle. When I found a familiar road, I was already late. I rushed over the mountain in the cold dark. By the time I got home, I could barely uncurl my fingers from the grips. I completely covered myself in blankets and didn't stop shivering for close to two hours.

3. I have a faded scar by my eye where the obstetrician grabbed me with forceps. However, my difficulty in being born had nothing to do with my mother being petite and small-framed, I'm sure. I think she just made me work for it.

4. Speaking of eyes, I really should have lost my right eye when I was around 11 or so. My friend and I were messing around in the woods. He was cutting something with a pocket knife, and suddenly it sliced through. The knife point flew up towards my eye and barely penetrated the white (sclera). I had a nasty sensation of having something in my eye, and my friend saw a small line of blood. It disappeared in a few hours. Mucho lucky.

5. In high school I used to carry (and demonstrate) one of those martial arts butterfly knives. Certainly can't do that stuff today (it was in the mid to late 80's).

6. The closest thing I've ever had to a man crush is Rob Thomas. If I had the skill and opportunity to be a musician, I would want to be like him, I think.

7. Back to number 4, my friend and I may have been doing something naughty. I discovered that when you burn a certain hollow, dry weed (no the weed, mind you), smoke would come out the other end. We used to smoke them and think we were uber cool. I never did develop a general smoking habit, though.

8. Although my friends and I drank in high school and college, I've never tried any other drug. To be honest, it really wasn't offered to me. I think I would have turned it down, but part of me wonders what LSD would have been like. Not that I would try it now. The window for doing that stuff has long since closed. Chalk one up for Nancy Reagan, I guess.

Tagging eight people feels kind of excessive, so I'll only tag a few: Scott, Canterbury Soul, Kaycie, Jade, and Joni. No pressure though!

10 comments:

Terri said...

Rob Thomas, eh? Well I'm not a man so I can happily say I'm nuts about him :) Not only is he hot, but when he sings it's like his voice is making love to you. me. you know what I mean.

Scott said...

Jeez, this is my third tag on this meme. Ok, check me on Monday.

And thanks!

Interesting recollections, Jason. I once took a knife in the hand and thought I was cool for surviving it. You are so damn lucky. I can't believe that. In the eye!

I tried acid a few times. You didn't miss out on a thing.

Kim said...

I'm sure you realize I'm a new reader and a new blogger. I've never been tagged before, so . . . cool.

I am a little surprised that we are around the same age (though I think you're a bit younger) and there is another person in my generation who's never done any kind of drug. Does that mean we're nerds?

AngelConradie said...

knives and eyes eh? is it just me or was there a theme for these eight things... very cool dude!

Jaye Wells said...

As a mother, the eye thing makes me want to yell at you. It's amazing so many of humans live to adulthood.

Anonymous said...

i love rob thomas. i'm such a fan of his music.

and i've never done any other drug either. i've been curious about ecstasy, but i'd never do it. way too scared to mess around with that stuff.

LiVEwiRe said...

I'm laughing about the butterfly knife. Not because you did it but because the second I read it I was reminded of my own days in high school trying that. It's amazing I have fingers left, I'm so clumsy! Also, I like your 'man crush' comment. Know why? Because you didn't need to validate or qualify that with any other statement. =)

Anonymous said...

Terri, wow, that's a great compliment to Rob! :)

Scott, thanks about the "didn't miss out" comment. I can cross that one off the list. :) (Stabbed in the hand...ouch.)

Kaycie, yeah, we were probably nerds, but our little generation in the 80's was different. I think we were a cool group. (Re being a new blogger--that's why I tagged you!!) :)

Angel, definitely a theme, lol. That's the problem/benefit of just letting my mind wander.

Jaye, the knife thing was a total accident. I can't say that we were doing anything dangerous. Now, the time I opened up a defunct mine shaft...that's another story.

Kate, I hear ya. =) The thought of drugs like heroin totally freaks me out. You probably remember my little story "Television" a couple weeks ago. It's hard to imagine how people let themselves be destroyed.

Livewire, ha! Once I took a friend's knife to "do" it, and I didn't realize it was constructed opposite of mine. I cracked the knife side, rather than the dull side into my finger. Yeow. Thanks, re the non-qualified comment. :)

Anonymous said...

thanks for the tag, Jason! Will post it up in a day or two.

i like your sharing. sounds like you were quite an active kid. :)

Scott said...

Hi Jason,
I finally posted the meme on my blog. Thanks again for tagging me.