Sixteen Things...
As seen over at Tom's place...
- My first day of Kindergarten, I came home, looked my Mom square in the eye and said, "Gee, those kids sure are dumb". It was then that she explained how it was that I was supposed to be kind and help those who were having trouble. Been doing it ever since. Helping others, not calling them stupid...To their face... LOL, Just kidding! Gosh...
- Since a huge celebrity just came out about this, I will too. I don't use deodorant. Never have. Not even sure why, just never did. I'm sure it has it's uses and all, but it just seems kind of icky and all. I'm either a natural kind of person or I'm just to lazy to put it on. Or maybe a little of both. I dunno. In any case, you've been warned.
- I prefer not to tie my shoes unless participating in a sport. Seriously, my shoes are never tied. Well, I own one pair that I slip on that is tied, but those are my going out shoes. I have to look good when I go with the Missus...
- I rarely wear pants. Even in the Winter. I will wear shorts all year round and coveralls to work, with shorts underneath. I just don't like slacks and have found very few pairs of jeans that fit my legs just right. I have these awesomely huge muscled legs and thighs, which are not conducive to the typical big and tall mens theory of short and stubby legs. When I buy pants, they are too tight in the thighs and look like I've got a bag of potatoes hanging out of my ass back there. I almost always wear undies, but rarely pants.
- Up until a year ago, I brushed my teeth about four times a year including dentist visits. Still only have seven, eight cavities and almost all of those are the ones I got when I was still in my teens at school. What changed? In the last year, or two I have been taking better care of my teeth because of what the rest of the family has been going through. Lots of teeth problems. I actually went to the dentist after not going for several years, (closer to 15!!) and they only found one small cavity between my rear molars.
- I have a high tolerance for pain. If given the choice of going to the doctor to have a piece of glass removed under anesthetic from my foot or cutting it out with dull scissors and no pain killers, I choose the scissors every time. If you don't believe it, just ask my Sweetie, or Doctor Sweetie as I call her. Of course, she was reluctant to create a half inch deep hole in my foot to get it out, but she persevered... Ok, come on now, it's not so gross. Sometimes I use an Exacto knife too, WITH a fresh clean and sharp blade. Like for those fiberglass slivers I got in my thumb that got all icky looking...
- Some nights I sleep so lightly, yet soundly that noises won't wake me, but I remember anything I heard the next morning. Then there are times I sleep so deeply, my wife will wake me, tell me something and I will never even remember she woke me up, let alone told me. It's a pain in the ass when I go to hotels, because I sleep very lightly then adn all the constant traffic and chatter keeps my brain busy all night.
- I've never had a cup of coffee. Ever. I had a coffee ice cream once and only finished eating it because I paid like three bucks for it. I love the taste of dark chocolate, even the 99% stuff once in a while, but coffee? Nah...
- I have a piece of paper that says I know IT. Kind of like Neo knows Kung Fu I guess. LOL. Anyways, I always try and use my IT powers for Good, not Evil. Unless I'm messing with the heads of the nefarious IT Department. Then I become the Dr. House of IT, sans cane...
- I am a Cheetoholic. I've been Cheetoh free for several weeks now. It's been a rough time in my life. Oh, I've been known to sit down and polish of a whole bag of them. I've done them all. Regular, crunchy, wavy, curly, jalapeno, habanero, the whole gambit. I was a different person when I was on Cheetos. I'd get that look in my eye, like Grossburger in Stir Crazy, eating his dinner. I used to keep bags stashed about the office, at home, in the truck. I even thought about going to the bulk store and buying them by the case, but that was when I realized... I have a Cheetoh problem... Although I've never had that Cheetoh/Porn problem that some people do, when they get caught orange handed...
- I sleep with my feet off the end of the bed, or over the edge of the bed. I always like having one foot out from under the covers. Oh, and I apparently snore when I sleep, but I stayed up all one night to see and sure as anything, I didn't snore once. And I sleep HOT. My wife waits until I've gone to bed to crawl in so that I can heat up the bed with my body heat. My temperature is about one degree above normal and it's been driving my doctor crazy for years...
- My favorite breakfast cereal is Frosted Flakes. After several years working in a cereal manufacturing plant, it's about the only one I can stand. I like egg muffins for breakfast too and could eat them pretty much every day. Although, occasionally I do like Sugar Smacks. I rarely if ever eat raisin bran anymore, since I ate about a whole box when I was a kid, on a bet of course (damn brothers), then threw it all up about half an hour later...
- If you haven't heard, I have a major back problem from about fifteen years ago when I lifted this huge electrical transformer off a shelf and put it on a cart to take it out to a job. It made this squishy popping noise that sounded a lot like when you disjoint a chicken wing. Only multiple times. I couldn't sit down for a week without sweating, grunting and screaming. It took me longer to sit down to eat lunch at work,yes I still went to work, than it did to eat lunch. I never went to the doctor or filed a medical claim. I also have broken cartilage in my breast bone from when I was in High School wrestling, where a 410 pound wrestler flipped me over his hip and landed on top of me with his hip bone square across my breast bone. It too, made that same squishy popping sound my back did.
- I was swimming in the same lake, the same day, the same stretch of water where a water-skier let go of the rope and slid to a stop just off shore. Right into a nest of water snakes. They were bit so many times, they died pretty much instantly. This was the same trip where we would meet a woman aptly named the porta-pottie lady. Her husband had to go back into town and she didn't want to pack up everything and go with him, so he left her there, with this porta-pottie thing with a curtain all around it. It started to rain just after he left, so she crawled inside, pulled the curtain closed around her and hid out on the crapper while it rained. Also the trip where I sat in the campground crapper reading my book for so long, my mother called the forest rangers to look for me. Ah, childhood memories...
- That was also the lake where I sank a huge treble hook all the way into my elbow doing some shore-casting. I also got stuck again with a tetanus booster shot the same day. Teach me to fish from shore with a rod that's too short. I have since rectified that problem and haven't been hooked since, knock on wood...
- I once entered and won the Grand Champion Cookie contest at the local fairgrounds growing up. I used the recipe on the back of the tollhouse morsels to make chocolate chip cookies. Go figure. I was like seven years old. My middle brother attributes me winning to him reading off the wrong amount of ingredients, which I know to be untrue. Because if he really did have the secret recipe, he would have sold it a long time ago to a cookie company.
Anyways, that's sixteen more odd facts about me that you may or may not have already known, depending on your stalker level. LOL. So, rather than tag people, how about you tell me at least ONE thing about you?
Comments
You've really never drank coffee? Not even a sip?
If it's been a year, you deserve the medal. Every time I go to the store, I hear them mocking me, calling me, like the Siren's call. You know that scene in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? When they are at the river with those women? That's like me at the store with Cheetohs...
I see Cheetohs... they're everywhere...
I tasted some instant coffee crystals once, but other than that... Nope.
my mouth is watering, literally. And the only crap thing to eat in the cabinets are pizza flavored chip rings. Ew.
Ok, something strange about me, I was once comforting a ground mole outside that the neighbor's cat got ahold of and it bit me on the nose and hung on. It hurt like HELL!!! I am a nature lover and I was only trying to comfort this poor creature. That will teach me!!!!! My husband never laughed so hard in all his life. He nearly peed his pants laughing. You should have seen my explaining it to the Dr and him trying to keep a straight face.
There are little alligators in the retention pond here at work. My husband constantly tells me to stay away from them and that he just knows that one day, he will get a call from me, frantic, because the baby alligator bit my hand off. I have actually jumped off of the deck at work but the baby alligator was too fast and sprinted into the water before my feet even hit the ground. Smart little fellow.
1) My first day of kindergarten-story is that when the bus came down the gravel road, my mother had to grab me because I tried to run TO it...before it stopped. I hadn't figured out that school, while a place away from my family, wasn't necessarily the oasis I'd dreamed about finding.
2) I sweat, a lot. I don't necessarily stink -- you can cure that with soap and water.
3) I grew up going barefoot often on the snow if it was just to run out to grab something and get back quickly. After 6 operations on my feet, I wear house-slippers or shoes almost all the time. Due to the lupus, I don't heal well, either, so I'm sooooo not wanting to injure my tootsies.
4) Since I grew up on a farm, doing "man's work," I always wore dresses and skirts when away from the farm. I still prefer skirts (they're comfy, maybe you should try a kilt?) but my latest wardrobe-building is an attempt at what "professional" people wear. Basically, I'm sick to death of wearing skirts with t-shirts or turtlenecks (what I wore at uni, 2 years teaching and the past 13 years in theartdept).
5) I'm so proud of you!
Have you tried flossing? Flossing always seemed like b.s. I mean, what didn't the brush get? Well, flossing keeps the time with a hygienist SHORTER if nothing else. That means it has been working. I go in once-every-other-year to a dental visit (don't have insurance). I'm a pro brusher, though: recommend sprinkling a goodly amount of baking soda on top of your paste. If you're not accustomed to daily brushing yet, it may be easy to start that habit and it's MASSIVELY helpful on getting crap out. Consider it sand-blasting to remove paint chips and you'll see my point. :)
6) If you haven't killed yourself yet, sounds like you're doing fine.
7) That's different! It's like a super-power.
8) I'll keep the coffee and tea, thanks!
9) You haven't yet inscribe a wee "sh" in front of the IT? "See? I know some **IT!"
10) Sorry about the recent glut of ... that word photos and references.
11) Dude! My natural body temp is 69.something now. For years, it was 97.1. I had to "do the math" to see how bad a fever was but it's even lower now. Pretty weird. I used to have really low BP, too, but now that I'm older (and heavier and have a cholesterol problem), my BP is "perfect." Chalk on up for having solids in the arteries!
12) Can't take those extra-crunchy ones like Cap'n Crunch or...Fruit Loops? Hell, no! They tear up the roof of my mouth. I'm a delicate flower. Can't eat hard-core kids-cereals.
13) Augh! I recall you got hurt at work and didn't take it easy but AUGH!
14) Augh!
15) Augh!
16) A chef at 7!
Okay, I'll discuss body odor. I rarely have any in the area where one would use deodorant? I think I don't believe in Having An Odor. But I don't like a chafing sensation I sometimes experience there, so I use an anti-perspirant that makes the skin soft and smooth and feeling nice. Reports about aluminum being bad for you are not at all convincing or well-substantiated enough for me.
You already know that my normal temperature is a degree below normal. But I was never particularly sensitive to cold until about 10 years ago.
I wear shoes as seldom as possible.
I have always enjoyed the aroma of coffee, and mostly always the flavor. But most coffee is prepared like rotten, and I am pretty sensitive to caffeine. So I make myself one carefully prepared cup in a day, just to enjoy the combination of bitter and sweet and cream, and that is all.
#4---my husband has a different take on pants for bigger men. He can't ever find pants that are short enough for him. He's got a 'short but round' frame and if he finds pants (or shorts) that are big enough around the waist then they are so long and wide that they look like he is wearing a skirt.
#14--this is the reason that you will not find my snake-phobia person in a lake or river any time soon. I am officially in a state of hyper-awareness after only reading your almost snake encounter.
Random fact about me----
At 44----I'm scared of the dark and have been my whole life. When I was young I did my best to hide my fear from my parents. I must have done a good job because when I came clean with them a few years back they were totally surprised at the depth of my fear.
In 2nd grade, I discovered he loved Disney princesses.
Random fact?
Sometimes I have to sleep with my TV on because I need light in my bedroom. Otherwise, I feel like a creature is going to attack me in my sleep. I'm 23 and this still happens.
Jalapeno Cheetos? Why have I been kept in the dark about this?? Wow!
I really like what you said in 1, it's interesting how just one "speech" can influence us for the rest of our lives. My one thing is that when I was 15 I joined PETA because I loved animals. They sent me mean stickers to put on cosmetic products. Pretty soon I got more bold.
One day a friend and I entered a local drug store and I tore up a hunting magazine. My friend was livid because the owner was a nice guy, and she pointed out, I could have just told him the magazine offended me and he probably would have stopped selling them. I didn't talk to my friend for a week but it made me realize that vandalism was wrong and I've been objecting to PETA's extreme tactics most of my life just because of my friend Ann.
It blows my mind how full of detail your memories are, Kzinti!
I remember very few facts...but here's a 43-y.o.one I'll dredge up.
I am almost 6 yrs. older than my only sib. When my Dad and I went to fetch him and my mom, who'd been in the hospital for the standard week(!) after giving birth/being born, I finally got my first gander at this wondrous creature that everyone had been going on about. From the back area of our Austin Mini I peered over my mother's shoulder and looked down to see my lil bro. All I could see was his face/head and swaddling. He looked odd as as there were spots on his nose. I asked my mum, Why does he have spots? and she said, "All new babies have spots." For many years I thought this to be true and being an "expert" on new babies proudly repeated it, much to the puzzlement of others.
Ouchie! I have been bitten by a hamster that way once. We used to raise just about every type of rodent known to mankind, or at least it seemed that way...
But really, I'm sure they were laughing with you, not at you... Lest they unleash the wrath... LOL
I just don't even know how to reply to your replies except to say, "Augh!" LOL
I'm not even sure why I don't wear deodorant, jsut that I never seemed to start. LOL
I'm not really sure why some people are hotter or colder body tmeperature-wise. All I know is that I am happiest in cold weather and that I sleep miserably in hot weather.
I rarely wear shoes in the house, unless I go in the basement where it's anyones guess as to what may be lying on the floor at any moment. Nails, glass, etc... When I go outside, I wear them, but again, do not like to tie them.
And finally, coffee... I like the smell of coffee in the morning, I jsut don't like coffee. Nor coffee flavored anything. Not sure why that is, just don't. I read an article about people who are super-tasters, that have special abilities when it comes to tasting. There is a test for it that you can set and appointment to take, perhaps I'll do that one day. There is a chemical that you will not taste if your taste buds are normal. To a super taster, they taste extremely bitter.
My legs aren't all that tall, I think I'm a 32 inseam. Been that long since I've bought pants I can't remember. LOL. I have three pairs and have had the same three for about 12 years now. I wear them about a dozen times a year or so.
That snake thing, wow. That was really scary. Worst part is that we didn't find out about it, or rather my mother didn't tell us about it until after we had packed up and were leaving... Thanks mom...
I know everyone who knows must ask this all the time, but what is it about the dark that brings out your fears? I know I'm real squidgy about spiders because when I was a kid on the farm, I ran across a whole bunch of huge ass field spiders that were about as big as a silver dollar body-wise while I was out mowing the field. After that, I checked for spiders everywhere on the farm I went.
Awww... I will have to remember who the girl in school was that captured my heart. I know one was a girl named Donna, who I kind of stalked. Well, not really stalked, but acted stalkerish towards. At least what we know today as stalkerish. She was a real cutie and a very nice person. I used to go to music class with her and have them play Summer Loving and the whole time it was playing, I would just dreamily stare at her...LOL. Stalker...
Creatures? No... It's the Ninjas you have to watch out for. They hate Billy Mays though, so keep the infomercials on late at night.
Oh, the jalapeno ones are sooo damn good. I got four people at work hooked on them. I ought to be selling them on the corner...
PETA has good thoughts, but their intentions are turning very crazy. I believe that people ought to take on the care of an animal as if it were a person, a child. Of course, having said that and seeing the abuses people put animals through, I will say that there are people doing the same things to children. Ah, society...
Spots? Like dalmations? LOL.
It is very odd how we hear things growing up and take them to be true. Only to find out later on that they weren't true. Remember the one about, "If you make a face it will stay that way"? It scared you, but then you realized that later on, your parents just lied to you. Like Santa, The Easter Bunny, etc... And then you become upset. You go into the kitchen and open the drawer thinking, "Those lying bastards..." And then you reach in a pull out... Wait, where was I? Oh yeah. As we get older, we learn better. LOL
Did you know that beet sugar has a bitterness as well? But you can't really tell when it's mixed into stuff, the way you can with fake sweeteners. You could smell it coming from that awful plant down near the Missouri River, though...
Anyway. Yes. I wonder if you and I have a middle ground we could agree upon regarding comfortable temperatures!
You're so interesting!!!!!!!
Seriously.
And funnily, too.
Water snakes? Eek.
Feet off the end of the bed? Perfection.
No coffee? I love strong black coffee...but I totally "get" not ever eating or drinking something. I've never even TRIED cottage cheese. *gags*
And a few other things everyone else eats.
Sorry about your back and that transformer.
Yes, avoiding doctors is the way to go...Healthcare DIY is often just fine!
Cheetos!! Last time I ate them was when I was still drinking alcohol (12 years ago) -- they were salty, cheesy, crunchy, YUMMY enablers, so I walked away from them, too. But wow....what sweet memories...
*goes back to read more*
I can still see the look in her eyes.
How close she was to crying, from exhaustion, from four kids and all those things that make up a mother.
The guilt stayed with me for years
(till one day, 15 years later, i mentioned the story to her and she laughed. she had no idea what i was talking about)