Sunday, November 09, 2008

Tagged, Again...

I was surprised to see that Andee from Germany had tagged me to reveal seven random or weird things about myself, as I had just been tagged a week or so ago. (CLICK HERE to go to that post.) However, I'll play along again. Though I think I'll have to take a break from the meme love for a while after this one. (So, if you tag me and I don't play along, know that I still love you - I'm just running out of things to say. The only random thing about me left to tell will be my social security number!)

1. I don't really care for hot-dogs. I haven't eaten one in at least a decade, except on a trip I made with Sheila to Coney Island two years ago. (CLICK HERE to go to the post chronicling the trip.) But that only confirmed my desire to steer clear of them. Ugh...

2. I have a birth-mark on my stomach about the size of a silver dollar. Azalea has a matching one, just in a different spot on her stomach.

3. My friend Jenni gave me a ring about 15 years ago that I still wear daily. It's silver and has a Celtic knot, symbolizing unending friendship. She got it at a street fair in New York (way before I had any intentions of moving to the City.) I only wear it when I leave the house. Otherwise, I pretty much strip down of all my jewelry when I enter my apartment. If by chance I should leave the house without wearing it, I feel naked and keep fiddling with the empty spot. Once, when I was caught without my ring during a rather stressful day of meetings, I had to tie a rubber-band around my finger to simulate the ring to keep the void from distracting me.

4. I dislike doing laundry, but love the smell of fresh laundry. Thusly, I used to go to the laundry mat down the street from my apartment to read when either my air conditioning or heating unit wasn't working. Sometimes I would hang out there for hours, even after everything was all folded up and ready to go.

5. For a brief amount of time, I wanted to be a professional dancer. (Weird, no?) I practiced for months and scrounged up free lessons where ever I could find them. Enter the homes of a handful of drag queens (you'd be surprised how many of them are classically trained dancers) and you'll probably still see murals I painted in exchange for lessons in all different kinds of dance. It wasn't until I went to my first casting call that I realized that I didn't really have the talent and was too much of a slow learner and didn't have the necessary skill of picking up moves instantly.

6. I once stuck a nail into an electrical outlet. I was knocked unconscious and my mom thought I was dead. Luckily I came to before she buried me in the backyard.

7. We come from a working-class family. I started helping out with my father's landscaping company when I was 7 years old. I really couldn't do much besides ride the mower and weed flower beds, but it was still pretty hard work. We worked after school, on our breaks from school, and sometimes on the weekend (if we were running behind or had an extra job). While most kids hated going to school, I liked it quite a lot, because it was a break from working and there was blessed air conditioning.

Okay, so I'm going to break with tagging tradition and not tag anyone else. Although I find it wildly fascinating to learn new and weird things about my friends and fellow bloggers, I think I'm going to sit this part out.

6 comments:

andee said...

Thanks for playing along, sorry that I didn't notice you've only been tagged recently. :)

Beth Hikes said...

Ditto on the laundry -- love the smell; however, even though I hate housework I love the process of doing laundry. Very meditative :)

Glad you're mom wasn't swift enough to bury you!

Unknown said...

Hi Andrew I wanted to be a Ballet dancer too. When I was 13 my Father took me to André Eglevsky a Russian born teacher. Had I had him much earlier in life I may of stayed in ballet but had had reg local teachers and by that time I was burnt out. I still love the Ballet tho especially The Nutcracker Suite at this time of year!

Andrew Thornton said...

Hey Andee! No problem. I think that in moderation it's sort of fun. It allows people to share really unusual things about themselves that normally wouldn't come up in conversation or in blog posting.

Andrew Thornton said...

Hey Beth!

The laundry mat that I take my clothes to has a group of regulars who hang out and play mahjong. Now I just have to learn how to play. Then I can hang out for hours!

Oh! I'm glad she didn't bury me either. She had already started on the hole in the backyard.

Andrew Thornton said...

Hey Janet! When I think of dancers, I think of extreme discipline and expression using the body as the vehicle. I am in awe of someone who can make something so difficult seem graceful and full of light and air.

I definitely started too late. Where some people can pick things up fast, fast, fast, it usually takes me a little while. I can't memorize poems or number systems, or exact formulas, or in this case dance steps. I'm HORRIBLE at remembering birthdays! However, I often times remember people and places and exact conversations from various points with crystal clarity. Weird, no?

Perhaps I'll have to make it out to a show of the Nutcracker. It's been years since I've seen it. I think it might be a lot of fun.