: 25 Random Things about Me
I was reminded by![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
phramok 's post of his 25 things that I could post mine here. I have already posted them on Facebook, but hey, why not kill two birds...
1. I had a bad case of “shy bladder” when I was growing up. I could not use a public restroom unless I was the only person in it. This caused me a lot of stress and anxiety. Even worse, I thought I was the only person with this problem. Then I saw it addressed in a health advice column in the newspaper. The column’s author advised an anxious reader to “force himself to relax” when in the restroom, and that would solve the problem. I thought the idea of forcing oneself to relax was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard; but you know, I kind of practiced it, and over the course of years it seems to have worked for me.
2. A couple of times when I was a baby I had convulsions as a result of dehydration. A doctor told my parents that because of this I would be immune to certain diseases. It did turn out that there were a number of childhood diseases, like mumps and chicken pox, that I never had. I have also never had the flu (or a flu shot).
3. While I was attending graduate school in Greensboro, NC, I wrote movie reviews for the Greensboro Record. I was fired, however, when readers complained because I wrote a negative review of a popular movie.
4. I lived in NYC during the Reagan years. It must have been one of the worst times in history to live in New York. Just walking around was depressing, there were so many homeless people on the streets, so many of the mentally ill who had been unfairly de-institutionalized. The subways were filthy, and there was so much piss on the sidewalks you could skate on them in the winter. And so on.
5. While in NYC I got fired from a job because of Ethel Merman. I was working as a desk clerk at the Surrey Hotel on the Upper East Side, a residential hotel where she was the most well-known (and difficult) tenant. The cardinal rule where she was concerned was: never put a call through to her suite, no matter what. You can guess the rest.
6. Last year, at a staff retreat, I told that Ethel Merman story because we had to come up with some kind of cute and interesting anecdote about ourselves. After I told it, my boss spoke up. “Wayne,” he said, “for the benefit of the other staff, you might want to explain who Ethel Merman was.” I wanted to kill him; I don’t know why I didn’t.
7. I was married when I was in my twenties. Yes, to a woman. Yes, truth is stranger than fiction. Actually, Debbie is a wonderful person, has a son who is a fine athlete, and is a Facebook friend.
8. One of the worst jobs I ever had was scheduling trips for disabled people with a city-operated paratransit service. It was a lousy service that left people in wheelchairs stranded in snowbanks for hours. I was SO glad to get out of there.
9. I was a steady pot smoker at one time. I put it down to stress (see NYC, above). But during the course of my life only one substance has had an unbreakable grip on me, and that is sugar.
10. I think that mankind’s greatest invention is…the Internet. No, chocolate. The Internet. Chocolate….
11. I don’t like houseplants. They take up space that could be devoted to books and papers. (And chocolate.)
12. My father died when I was 17. When I got to college I immediately bonded with guys who had lost their fathers. One of them, Charles, is still my best friend, next to my partner.
13. Charles lives in New York, and recently saw Jeremy Irons on the subway. I don’t get it. When I lived in New York, celebrities never rode the subway. I did spot the following on the street, over the course of several years: Diane Keaton, Henry Kissinger, and Quentin Crisp. I never saw Allen Ginsberg, though we lived on the same block.
14. I own many, many books that I have not yet read. This is embarrassing, but it doesn’t stop me from acquiring more books.
15. I don’t know how I got old. I mean, I know how it happens, but I don’t know how it happened to me. I feel ridiculous when I catch myself starting sentences with “Forty years ago” or “Thirty years ago.” I catch random glances of myself in mirrors and I think, Who’s that? I wasn’t paying attention when my beard changed from graying to solid white, when my skin started losing its turgor. Recently I saw on a Boston Market receipt that the cashier had given me an unsolicited senior citizen’s discount. First time that’s happened, and I have a feeling it’s not the last.
16. I once lost a county spelling bee by spelling “battalion” with one “t.” I still stumble over that word—not that I use it every day.
17. I took four years of Latin in high school and loved it. I was president of the Latin Club for two years, mainly because no one else wanted the job.
18. I hated algebra, and hate it to this day. When people tell me that algebra has many applications in everyday life, I know they are lying.
19. My handwriting is so bad that very often I can’t read it.
20. When other people wear black, it has a slimming effect. When I wear it, it just looks like I’m having an eclipse.
21. I love scary movies, but when you come right down to it, there aren’t very many of them. My all-time #1 is "The Haunting" (1962).
22. It drives me insane when people say they can’t see the point of watching black-and-white movies.
23. My own opinion of my writing ranges from “inadequate” to “worthless.” But there is a book by Rollo May called The Courage to Create, in which he theorizes that feelings of self-doubt and failure are essential components of the creative process—that no meaningful work gets done without them. So feeling like a mothball in the great armoire of literature may be a good thing.
24. My two favorite writers, if I had to narrow the list down to two, are William Trevor and Alice Munro. If I could write like either of these people I would be completely happy, and would never ask for anything ever again. God does not appear to be taking this hint.
25. My partner has parlayed his language skills and medical knowledge into a phone interpreting job that he manages from home. Quite often he finds himself translating for Latina patients at OB/GYN visits. So I will be working here across the hall and hearing him say things like, “I had my last period three months ago,” or “I’ve been breastfeeding and my breasts are very sore,” and so on. Only an immature fool would find this amusing, so of course I find it amusing.
Tags: biography, writing
I was reminded by
phramok 's post of his 25 things that I could post mine here. I have already posted them on Facebook, but hey, why not kill two birds...1. I had a bad case of “shy bladder” when I was growing up. I could not use a public restroom unless I was the only person in it. This caused me a lot of stress and anxiety. Even worse, I thought I was the only person with this problem. Then I saw it addressed in a health advice column in the newspaper. The column’s author advised an anxious reader to “force himself to relax” when in the restroom, and that would solve the problem. I thought the idea of forcing oneself to relax was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard; but you know, I kind of practiced it, and over the course of years it seems to have worked for me.
2. A couple of times when I was a baby I had convulsions as a result of dehydration. A doctor told my parents that because of this I would be immune to certain diseases. It did turn out that there were a number of childhood diseases, like mumps and chicken pox, that I never had. I have also never had the flu (or a flu shot).
3. While I was attending graduate school in Greensboro, NC, I wrote movie reviews for the Greensboro Record. I was fired, however, when readers complained because I wrote a negative review of a popular movie.
4. I lived in NYC during the Reagan years. It must have been one of the worst times in history to live in New York. Just walking around was depressing, there were so many homeless people on the streets, so many of the mentally ill who had been unfairly de-institutionalized. The subways were filthy, and there was so much piss on the sidewalks you could skate on them in the winter. And so on.
5. While in NYC I got fired from a job because of Ethel Merman. I was working as a desk clerk at the Surrey Hotel on the Upper East Side, a residential hotel where she was the most well-known (and difficult) tenant. The cardinal rule where she was concerned was: never put a call through to her suite, no matter what. You can guess the rest.
6. Last year, at a staff retreat, I told that Ethel Merman story because we had to come up with some kind of cute and interesting anecdote about ourselves. After I told it, my boss spoke up. “Wayne,” he said, “for the benefit of the other staff, you might want to explain who Ethel Merman was.” I wanted to kill him; I don’t know why I didn’t.
7. I was married when I was in my twenties. Yes, to a woman. Yes, truth is stranger than fiction. Actually, Debbie is a wonderful person, has a son who is a fine athlete, and is a Facebook friend.
8. One of the worst jobs I ever had was scheduling trips for disabled people with a city-operated paratransit service. It was a lousy service that left people in wheelchairs stranded in snowbanks for hours. I was SO glad to get out of there.
9. I was a steady pot smoker at one time. I put it down to stress (see NYC, above). But during the course of my life only one substance has had an unbreakable grip on me, and that is sugar.
10. I think that mankind’s greatest invention is…the Internet. No, chocolate. The Internet. Chocolate….
11. I don’t like houseplants. They take up space that could be devoted to books and papers. (And chocolate.)
12. My father died when I was 17. When I got to college I immediately bonded with guys who had lost their fathers. One of them, Charles, is still my best friend, next to my partner.
13. Charles lives in New York, and recently saw Jeremy Irons on the subway. I don’t get it. When I lived in New York, celebrities never rode the subway. I did spot the following on the street, over the course of several years: Diane Keaton, Henry Kissinger, and Quentin Crisp. I never saw Allen Ginsberg, though we lived on the same block.
14. I own many, many books that I have not yet read. This is embarrassing, but it doesn’t stop me from acquiring more books.
15. I don’t know how I got old. I mean, I know how it happens, but I don’t know how it happened to me. I feel ridiculous when I catch myself starting sentences with “Forty years ago” or “Thirty years ago.” I catch random glances of myself in mirrors and I think, Who’s that? I wasn’t paying attention when my beard changed from graying to solid white, when my skin started losing its turgor. Recently I saw on a Boston Market receipt that the cashier had given me an unsolicited senior citizen’s discount. First time that’s happened, and I have a feeling it’s not the last.
16. I once lost a county spelling bee by spelling “battalion” with one “t.” I still stumble over that word—not that I use it every day.
17. I took four years of Latin in high school and loved it. I was president of the Latin Club for two years, mainly because no one else wanted the job.
18. I hated algebra, and hate it to this day. When people tell me that algebra has many applications in everyday life, I know they are lying.
19. My handwriting is so bad that very often I can’t read it.
20. When other people wear black, it has a slimming effect. When I wear it, it just looks like I’m having an eclipse.
21. I love scary movies, but when you come right down to it, there aren’t very many of them. My all-time #1 is "The Haunting" (1962).
22. It drives me insane when people say they can’t see the point of watching black-and-white movies.
23. My own opinion of my writing ranges from “inadequate” to “worthless.” But there is a book by Rollo May called The Courage to Create, in which he theorizes that feelings of self-doubt and failure are essential components of the creative process—that no meaningful work gets done without them. So feeling like a mothball in the great armoire of literature may be a good thing.
24. My two favorite writers, if I had to narrow the list down to two, are William Trevor and Alice Munro. If I could write like either of these people I would be completely happy, and would never ask for anything ever again. God does not appear to be taking this hint.
25. My partner has parlayed his language skills and medical knowledge into a phone interpreting job that he manages from home. Quite often he finds himself translating for Latina patients at OB/GYN visits. So I will be working here across the hall and hearing him say things like, “I had my last period three months ago,” or “I’ve been breastfeeding and my breasts are very sore,” and so on. Only an immature fool would find this amusing, so of course I find it amusing.
Current Mood: 
contemplative
contemplative