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All Ye, All Ye Outs in Free!
Last month, Gregory tagged me, and I’ve spent much of the time between then and now debating how I might respond.
First, thanks Gregory: even if you admitted to struggling with the names of blogs to mention, I think it’s cool that of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, [you] walked into mine.
Second, here are the rules of tagging and being tagged:
- Post eight random facts/habits about yourself.
- Tag eight people who should then write their own blog entry about their eight things and post these rules.
- Leave a comment alerting the chosen bloggers they’ve been tagged.
Now, on with the show!
Here are eight (8) random facts about me:
- While between careers, I seriously considered going to school to become a mortician.
- As a pre-teen, I was a member of the Sacramento Unicycle Club, and I rode a 6-foot tall unicycle in parades—often I juggled as I rode.
- I cry whenever I hear Peter, Paul, and Mary sing Puff the Magic Dragon.
- When I was eighteen, I competed in the Ms. California Golden Bear contest at the California State Fair—it was a women’s body building contest, not a beauty pageant.
- If I won the lottery, I’d quit teaching to write fulltime and play poker on the side.
- When I was in my late twenties, I walked on coals.
- My first grade teacher and I remain friends; in fact, we have the same birthday. For the past 15+ years, we’ve met up on our day and celebrated together. This year, I’ll turn 43, and she’ll turn 79.
- I have said the perfect thing once in my life: about ten years ago, just before my first Cirque du Soleil experience (Mystère), I was wandering the floor of the Treasure Island Casino when I (literally) bumped into Alex Trebek. With no hesitation, I looked him in the eye and said, “What is, excuse me?” (Fortunately he laughed because his circle of body guards was not in the least amused by my having run into their charge.)
Here are eight (8) blogs I’m tagging; however, I’ve placed them into categories for reasons I think will be clear.
Blogs whose britches are too big to pay attention to a little gnat of a tagger like me:
Wil Wheaton: Yes, he played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the guy found his real calling when he became a writer.
dooce: Among the other really great (and often edgy) things you’ll find here, Heather Armstrong writes a monthly newsletter to her daughter—they are some of the most touching reads around.
Blogs for which the rules of tagging simply won’t fit:
Indexed: little cards—big thoughts, and when Jessica Hagy is on, she is really on.
TwitterLit: Twice each day, Debra posts the first sentence of a book. (Yes, she’s an Amazon affiliate, but how does that diminish such a cool idea?)
Blogs I love that have already been tagged:
red Ravine: This site reminds me of the sub-title of Anne Lamott’s wonderful book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Their tag post is here.
The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing: Sharon Lippincott shares tips, tricks, advice, and experience geared towards discovering who you are and how you got there via lifestory-telling.
Blogs I lurk at and thus cannot really announce “I’ve tagged you”:
Paperback Writer: Beyond having the best name on the Web, this site is filled with great reading—the blog kind and the book kind, and it’s just plain fun to hang around there.
I, Who Can’t, . .Teach: Another teacher telling it like it is, but this one deals with kids—makes it clear to me where some of mine come from.
And there you have it!
August 14th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Hi, Shawn. Debra from TwitterLit here. I love your list, particularly number 8, which made me laugh aloud.
So, TwitterLit’s not the place for memes, of course, but in fact I already did this one, on my personal blog, so I shall share: http://www.the-deblog.com/2007/07/eight-things-th.html
I’m happy that my auto-Googling led me here. I’m subscribing.
August 16th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
The best part about this meme is that we learn such fascinating things about people. Case in point: that you walked on coal, were a competitive bodybuilder, and rode a unicycle while juggling. Do you ever tell your students about these experiences? I wonder what they’d think about you if they knew. I bet they’d be impressed.
Thanks, Shawn, for the compliment and the links to our site. As a big fan of Anne Lamott, I’m kind of bowled over by that description.
August 16th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
p.s., I should have added that if you take special requests, I’d love to see a post on “all ye, all ye outs in free!” on Grammar Police. Another one of those phrases I butchered as a kid.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:13 am
You met Mr. Trebeck? Wow… I barely remember his name, but I have the theme song when the competitors have to write the final question stuck in my head. I use that to pressure my students at times during in class writings or tests. Playfully, of course.
I’m envious. I’ve never met a tv star, much less run into one.
How many bodyguards did he have?
Gregory
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:11 am
Debra,
Thanks for sharing your list: I enjoyed it, and you’ve got me hooked on those daily games!
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:21 am
ybonesy,
I’m not sure I could think of a single way to segue into a comment about any of that stuff! (Plus, from where I sit, most of it is no big deal.)
In truth, my favorite thing is the Alex Trebek experience, and that borders on over-the-top dork, so I only pull it out on special occasions.
As for All Ye, All Ye Out in Free, I’ll see what I can do, but don’t feel too bad if you were an Ollie Ollie Oxen Free kid: I was, too!
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:25 am
Gregory,
I’d be pushing it to use the word “met”—it really was just a brief bumping into him thing.
Having never been in a casino before, all the lights and noise and activity had me overwhelmed, so while I tried to watch where I was going. . .well.
As for the body guards, at the time, it seemed as if there were about one million of them, but I think there were probably only three or four—they were basically in a box around him.
I’m not sure how I got through to do my bumping into him thing, but I do remember Mr. Trebek being much taller and broader in person than he appears to be on television.
To this day, I don’t know if I got a ha-ha laugh from him or merely a courtesy laugh. (I probably was such a geek when I spoke that I deserved the latter, but I was rather awestruck at the time.)
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