A Few Oddities
A couple of weeks ago someone (can't remember who after all this time, sorry!) tagged me for the Ten Weird Things About Me meme. Since then I've also seen it around here and there as the Six Weird Things Meme. Which one I do (or more) will depend on how many things I think of in the next few minutes; apologies in advance for any Weird Things duplicates from previous memes. And I only tag anyone else who wants to reveal to the world how weird they are. :)
WEIRD THINGS
(1) I used to know a Cherokee medicine man named William Goodlett (aka Thunder-Maker-Three Shirts) who lived near my alma mater until his death in January 1996 at the age of 87. He attempted to teach me the Cherokee language, but I only remember bits and pieces now and two characters from the alphabet. He also made it into two books that I know about: Aliens Among Us, by Ruth Montgomery (how I found out about him in the first place), and Ghosts of Virginia, Volume 3.
(2) More than a few times I've caught myself envying the folks whose career passions can be accomplished by getting a college degree and then going out and getting a job in their field. Or at least whose jobs allow them to judge a bit more easily if they're good at what they do or not.
(3) I tend to either like being surrounded by people (friends or family) or being off in as remote a spot as I can get to at the time, either with no one else but Laurie for company or just being by myself. There usually aren't any in betweens (although there are a handful of exceptions for certain people I know).
(4) I had two groomsmaids at my wedding: Barb / kittykatya and Sondra / dravon. Sondra wore a green dress matching the bridesmaids; Barb wore a green vest with her tux! My best man was my father, our minister was my mother, and the other fellow standing up with me was my friend Walt / whiskeyrivers.
(5) A friend once asked me how I could stand to work at a college and be surrounded by attractive young women all the time. I replied, with dread honesty, that lust wasn't the problem. The problem, which in some ways I consider worse, was that at the still-spring chicken age of 36 (well, 34 then) I feel (shudder) protective towards them...even, dare I say it, paternal.
(6) I have yet to actually play a game of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (though I mean to change that soon). So far in the six months that I've had an XBox and the game, I've only run around causing havoc using a finished saved game and a few pages of cheats.
(7) I have an addictive personality. If you don't believe me, see me fight off my soda demons (especially Dr. Pepper). This is actually the biggest reason why (7a) I don't drink alcohol. At all, except for the occasional Communion and extraordinarily rare special occasion (as in, a glass or two of wine once every 1-2 years). I have a potentially dangerous combination: the addictive personality, a family history of alcoholism, and...well, I'm a writer. I'm afraid I'd like the bottle a bit too much, so I don't even touch it. And (7b) as a result, I never once in my life have gotten drunk. A little buzzed...twelve years ago...but never drunk.
(8) A lot of friends of mine at Roanoke College were intimidated by professors there, or course loads, or whathaveyou. I started at Roanoke two months shy of my 25th birthday, so by that time nothing there scared me--except the thought of having to go back to supporting myself on $4.90/hour (this was 1995) at Pizza Hut. Two times when I really started slacking on my homework and studying, I went back to eat at the Pizza Hut I escaped via college, just to remind myself of one big reason why flunking out would be a Bad Idea.
(9) When I was 15, I tried writing a Riverworld novel. I didn't get very far--only a few dozen pages--but I greatly enjoyed writing it. The main character was Groucho Marx; my favorite side character was Charles Lindbergh, who was trying to build a plane to fly up the River.
(10) Something I once wrote an LJ entry about: I don't get bored. At least not except under dire or extreme circumstances. I'm interested in far too many things to get bored at any given time; and at the very least, I'll generally have a story idea or poem running through my head. Very occasionally, if all else fails, I can run favorite parts of books or movies through my head.
(11) And here I thought I'd have trouble thinking of things. I think I journalled about this once too: a lot of places from my past--usually where happy things happened, but not always--take on such a strange, surreal dream-like quality in my memories after a few years that I have been known to go back to those places to be 100% certain they weren't just settings for dreams.
Such locations I've gone back to include (and the dates are times I went back) my grandparents' house in Salem, VA (2003); inside Tabor Hall at Roanoke College (1996-98, when I dated a student who lived there); the built-into-a-cliffside-over-the-James-River farmhouse in Buchanan, Virginia where I lived in 1993 (2002); my old apartment and street in Blacksburg, VA (various times since 2002); and an apartment I shared in Frederick, Maryland (2006). Other locations that I haven't actually gone back to yet are the Dana Science Building at Hollins College; Roaring Run Falls in Eagle Rock, VA; and the downtown and entire university campus at Radford, VA.
Now show me your weirdness!
WEIRD THINGS
(1) I used to know a Cherokee medicine man named William Goodlett (aka Thunder-Maker-Three Shirts) who lived near my alma mater until his death in January 1996 at the age of 87. He attempted to teach me the Cherokee language, but I only remember bits and pieces now and two characters from the alphabet. He also made it into two books that I know about: Aliens Among Us, by Ruth Montgomery (how I found out about him in the first place), and Ghosts of Virginia, Volume 3.
(2) More than a few times I've caught myself envying the folks whose career passions can be accomplished by getting a college degree and then going out and getting a job in their field. Or at least whose jobs allow them to judge a bit more easily if they're good at what they do or not.
(3) I tend to either like being surrounded by people (friends or family) or being off in as remote a spot as I can get to at the time, either with no one else but Laurie for company or just being by myself. There usually aren't any in betweens (although there are a handful of exceptions for certain people I know).
(4) I had two groomsmaids at my wedding: Barb / kittykatya and Sondra / dravon. Sondra wore a green dress matching the bridesmaids; Barb wore a green vest with her tux! My best man was my father, our minister was my mother, and the other fellow standing up with me was my friend Walt / whiskeyrivers.
(5) A friend once asked me how I could stand to work at a college and be surrounded by attractive young women all the time. I replied, with dread honesty, that lust wasn't the problem. The problem, which in some ways I consider worse, was that at the still-spring chicken age of 36 (well, 34 then) I feel (shudder) protective towards them...even, dare I say it, paternal.
(6) I have yet to actually play a game of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (though I mean to change that soon). So far in the six months that I've had an XBox and the game, I've only run around causing havoc using a finished saved game and a few pages of cheats.
(7) I have an addictive personality. If you don't believe me, see me fight off my soda demons (especially Dr. Pepper). This is actually the biggest reason why (7a) I don't drink alcohol. At all, except for the occasional Communion and extraordinarily rare special occasion (as in, a glass or two of wine once every 1-2 years). I have a potentially dangerous combination: the addictive personality, a family history of alcoholism, and...well, I'm a writer. I'm afraid I'd like the bottle a bit too much, so I don't even touch it. And (7b) as a result, I never once in my life have gotten drunk. A little buzzed...twelve years ago...but never drunk.
(8) A lot of friends of mine at Roanoke College were intimidated by professors there, or course loads, or whathaveyou. I started at Roanoke two months shy of my 25th birthday, so by that time nothing there scared me--except the thought of having to go back to supporting myself on $4.90/hour (this was 1995) at Pizza Hut. Two times when I really started slacking on my homework and studying, I went back to eat at the Pizza Hut I escaped via college, just to remind myself of one big reason why flunking out would be a Bad Idea.
(9) When I was 15, I tried writing a Riverworld novel. I didn't get very far--only a few dozen pages--but I greatly enjoyed writing it. The main character was Groucho Marx; my favorite side character was Charles Lindbergh, who was trying to build a plane to fly up the River.
(10) Something I once wrote an LJ entry about: I don't get bored. At least not except under dire or extreme circumstances. I'm interested in far too many things to get bored at any given time; and at the very least, I'll generally have a story idea or poem running through my head. Very occasionally, if all else fails, I can run favorite parts of books or movies through my head.
(11) And here I thought I'd have trouble thinking of things. I think I journalled about this once too: a lot of places from my past--usually where happy things happened, but not always--take on such a strange, surreal dream-like quality in my memories after a few years that I have been known to go back to those places to be 100% certain they weren't just settings for dreams.
Such locations I've gone back to include (and the dates are times I went back) my grandparents' house in Salem, VA (2003); inside Tabor Hall at Roanoke College (1996-98, when I dated a student who lived there); the built-into-a-cliffside-over-the-James-River farmhouse in Buchanan, Virginia where I lived in 1993 (2002); my old apartment and street in Blacksburg, VA (various times since 2002); and an apartment I shared in Frederick, Maryland (2006). Other locations that I haven't actually gone back to yet are the Dana Science Building at Hollins College; Roaring Run Falls in Eagle Rock, VA; and the downtown and entire university campus at Radford, VA.
Now show me your weirdness!