Knitty Banter: Have You Ever... (A Meme)

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Have You Ever... (A Meme)

It's going around... feel free to borrow for your own blog...

1. Gone on a blind date?
Yes, a couple. They didn’t go well. One of them was a blind and double date with the friends who set us up. They were mortified when my date proceeded to drink his dinner (whiskey, on the rocks), eat nothing, and become rude and belligerent. He then got into a heated philosophical debate with me and we were definitely on opposing sides. My friend picked up the tab on my meal as an apology and we never spoke of it again.

2. Skipped school?
Yup. Senior year was insane for me. I’m surprised I graduated, to be honest (brains aside). One time I was granted the privilege of taking the car to school. My friend and I bailed early in the morning and drove to a neighboring little town’s high school about 30 miles away to pick up her “long distance” boyfriend and another friend (for me, another blind date), and of course nobody thought to check the fuel tank, so… how embarrassing to run out of gas on the way home when we were so close to getting off scott-free. Karma, baby. ☺

3. Been on the opposite side of your country?
Yes. Lived on the opposite side of my country for a little over a year. Been to both sides of it. Hmm. Actually, I’ve been to all four sides and crossed all the borders except the Western one! (Into Mexico, into Canada, over the Atlantic to England… I guess Hawaii must be next.)

4. Swam in an ocean?
Yes. Swam in the Atlantic off the coast of Florida. Stuck toes in the Pacific when I lived in California. If swimming in the Gulf of California when we visited my Uncle in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico counts as swimming in the Pacific, then I guess I’ve done that, too.

5. Had your booze taken away by the cops?
No.

6. Lettered in a high school sport?
As if! I was a band geek.

7. Cried yourself to sleep?
Yes, especially in 2006 and 2007. I think I cried myself to sleep every night for a year after my Mother died. And every morning. The day I didn’t was the day I knew I was on the road to recovery.

8. Played a musical instrument?
Let’s see… guitar (acoustic and electric), bass, bassoon, clarinet, tenor sax, french horn and vocals. I’d say yes.

9. Sung karaoke?
Yes. But every time I do, I feel like I have an unfair advantage since I’ve also sung professionally with bands and had lessons.

10. Cheated on an exam?
No. But I’ve had others try to cheat off of me.

11. Played spin-the-bottle?
Sure.

12. Laughed until some sort of beverage came out of your nose?
Yes. Let me say for the record that Coke hurts something fierce, and milk, though you’d think it would be silky smooth, hurts as well. Let me ask THIS: have you ever burped and farted simultaneously? Or laughed so hard that you did that?

13. Watched the sun rise with someone you care about?
Sure!

14. Ever been arrested?
Um, yeah. I was a kid. (As if that excuses it!) OK, also once as an adult but a young stupid one who learned her lesson (reckless op! naughty girl!).

15. Gone ice skating?
This is interesting? OK… sure. I have. Took a few lessons even. Can do a salchow. Or could, when I was 10. Nowadays if I go ice skating it’s not on purpose…

16. Been skinny dipping?
Sure, lots of times. Again. In my youth.

17. Been on television?
Yes, more than once. First time, I was maybe 7? Got onto some Public TV kids’ show as the entertainment. Played Beethoven's "Für Elise" on guitar. It was going smoothly until I looked up, saw the camera, and realized halfway through that I was on TV. I froze like a deer in headlights, and completely blanked out on the place where it changes from the main “deedledeedledeedledeedle deee dah daah” part to the “dah dah dah DAHHHH… duh DAH dah daaaahhh” bridge and just sat there in stunned fumbling silence until something kicked in and I finished the song.

My Mom said I only hesitated, but in my head, I’d stopped for five minutes. That moment has haunted me forever. I’ve always been kind of relieved at the end of an evening when I’ve gotten through the entire set without forgetting a word or musical passage. Must be why I have a mental block about auditioning on bass or guitar, but seem to have no fear when it's a vocal audition.

Then I was on TV when the News came out to the mall to film our band playing. Our band had come up with the Crossover Coalition, a “movement” designed to bring unity among local bands to promote cooperative bookings and the mall concert was a promotion for that (our band and the other Coalition members). In our town, bands competed rudely for gigs. We thought if we worked together to book them, trading off who got to headline versus who opened, it would foster cooperation versus competition and make it better for all of us. My appearance on TV was a brief shot of me and the band. You could hear me singing, and the newscaster commented to the other reporters “She looks like Edie Brickell!” (He was smitten. LOL!)

18. Thrown up in front of a date?
LOL! Yup. Didn’t realize I had, until I came to. It was Halloween weekend, 1982. My college beau took me home for the weekend to party with his friends, BIG party. They liked to drink Jack & Coke. I was foolish enough to think I could keep up with them. I got rip-snorting drunk. We got back to his parents' place after the party and apparently somewhere along the way I’d blacked out… I came to, hovering over the toilet. My beau was trying to clean it up.

I’d missed. I got both of us. Blatantly. I have to give the guy credit though—it must’ve been love, because he took it like a man, and he even did my laundry, though I never quite got over the fact that he washed my favorite black jeans in hot water. They went in a size 11 and came out a size 7. Sigh.

Those days are long ago and far away. Nowadays, I'm lucky if I can swig down three Coronas before I have to go take a nap.

Labels: memes