March 18, 2013

I recently read a good friends Facebook post about 25 random things about her.  The rules of this exercise are: "Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you. Or, more likely because you already tagged me and I'm bored and decided to do the same." 

Thought it would make a decent diary entry, so what follows is a stream of conscious effort.

I've been taught to leave something better than when you found it, so one of the items below is not true and challenge you to guess which one it is.

1. I once ran over my friend Ched's legs in my Pinto station wagon.  Wasn't on purpose, he was trying to get out of the back seat Dukes of Hazard style.  Nothing broken.

2. My favorite food in the world is a good meatball sandwich. 

3. I've had 6 knee surgeries.

4. I have a recurring dream that I'm up on stage in a band playing guitar, and don't know how to play it.

5. I call myself an Atheist, mainly because I distrust all religions.  A famous quote I cite often is, "I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."  Yet I find that I pray to God often.

6.  I've made guacamole on 5 continents.

7.  Never knew what I wanted to do/be when I grew up, and still don't.

8.  Drove from DC to LA after college with my buddies Matt and James in James' El Camino.  Stopped for a night at Matt's relatives in Panhandle, Texas and ate some homemade beans at a July 4th party in his cousin's barn that caused the smelliest farts I've ever had.

9.  I used to consider myself a Republican, and would still call myself a fiscal conservative, but cannot stand the rigid dogma, high school name calling and insensitive social agenda of what I see in today's Grand Old Party so much that it many times makes my eyes rattle around in my skull

10.  I went undefeated in singles badminton during my junior year at Arcadia High School.

11.  Drove 5 hours through the teeth of Typhoon Saola in a rental Toyota Camry with the kids.

12.  I met my wife in Argentina in 1986 and we have been married for 18 years, but with the wind chill factor, it feels like 30.

13. I have seen a lot of live music, and the best single show I ever saw was Midnight Oil at the Bayou in DC in 1984.  However, the music event that changed my life was going to all three days of the first US Festival in 1982,  That line-up:
Friday, September 3
Gang of Four
The Ramones
The English Beat
Oingo Boingo
The B-52's
Talking Heads
The Police
Saturday, September 4
The Joe Sharino Band
Dave Edmunds
Eddie Money
Santana
The Cars
The Kinks
Pat Benatar
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Sunday, September 5
Grateful Dead
Jerry Jeff Walker
Jimmy Buffett
Jackson Browne
Fleetwood Mac
Looking at that line-up still gives me the shivers.  Drove there in the aforementioned Pinto wagon, it was 110 degrees the entire weekend, and my 17th b-day was on the 4th.  We were woefully unprepared with food and camping supplies, and these wonderful Deadheads we parked next to took us under their wing.

14.  I love to cook, but came to it late in life.  Am not very good at it but am trying hard to be better.  There is nothing more satisfying than putting food on the table and having someone go Mmmmmmm when they take a bite.

15.  I ran one season of  Cross Country in high school and hated every second of it.  Trained 5 days a week by running 5-10 miles a day in a smoggy SoCal summer, only to totally suck on race day.  Joined the team because of a girl and never did catch up to her.

16.  I've read Isaac Asimov's entire robot series, from I, Robot through Foundation and Earth, twice.

17.  I have lived for various amounts of time in; Los Angeles, CA, Melbourne, Australia, Washington D.C., Martha's Vineyard, MA, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Seattle, WA and Taipei, Taiwan. 

18.  My claim to world fame is being the first person to yell "Get Laid, Get Fucked" during the breakdown in Billy Idol's version of Mony Mony.  1984 at the 5th Column in Washington D.C.

19.  I prefer the company of women over the hanging out with the fellas.

20.  I have not missed an episode of Adam Carolla's Loveline or morning radio show, or his current podcast since 2001, and have seen all 500 episodes of the Simpsons at least twice.  And still anxiously await the next episode of each.

21.  I hate camping, but I am not Jewish. 

22.  Saw the fifth Space Shuttle (STS-5) landing at Edwards Air Force Base on November 16th, 1982.  In 1986, I would travel to Argentina for a study abroad semester with the son of one of the astronauts from that mission.  The astronauts name was William Lenoir, but cannot remember the name of the son as we only called him by his nickname, Cowboy. 

23.  My nickname in college was Gomez.  Freshman year, I had a mustache and wore a poncho, and a very high friend said I looked like the guy that made the coffee...Juan Gomez.  I mentioned he was really high, right?  30 years later, my wife and all my friends from those days only call me Gomez
.
24.  The first band I ever fell in love with was Kiss...they were also the first concert I ever saw.  1976 (Cheap Trick opened) at the Fabulous Forum

25.  I climbed Australia's Uluru (then called Ayers Rock) in bare feet. 

Whew.  That was actually kinda fun.  Why don't you give it a try?  Would love to read yours.