15 May 2006

Random Quizzilla

1) Name a hobby/sport/activity that you've tried but eventually gave up. Why?

Sailing.
When I was 12, I joined Community Boating on the Charles River and absolutely loved it. When I first started out, I spent most mornings sailing with my instructor, a preppy Napoleon Dynamite look-alike who had a few bong hits for breakfast every day. In a glassy-eyed trance, he’d tell me how sailing was “as close to flying as one could get.” When he got excited about something, he’d become shrill, do a quick knee bend, and use exclamations that I’d never heard before like “Oh my Head.” For a few weeks, sailing with Napoleon was all well and good. However, once I earned my Solo rating and was able to take a boat out by myself, I constantly found myself on the wrong side of the wind. Suddenly, sailing felt less like flying than it did struggling with a golf umbrella by the John Hancock tower on a windy day. The first two times I sailed alone, I capsized. By the third time, Napoleon was monitoring me from a neighboring boat. When he saw me start to keel over, he started screeching and flailing his gawky limbs, “Hike out, hike out" For me -- then 80 pounds -- "hiking out" was an exercise in futility. When I capsized for the third time, Napoleon somehow decided I was doing this on purpose...which was ridiculous. Nobody in their right mind would have chosen to take a fully-clothed dip in the Charles River during the 1980s – it was an unswimmable cesspool of filth. I had to get a tetanus shot and then, if that weren't punishment enough, was forced to scrub bird poo off the decks. After that, I was placed on probation and paired with another Solo-non-grata -- Kristina from Brookline who chain smoked and wore pearls every day. It soon became clear that two wrongs did not make a right: While attempting to tack upwind, we ended up spinning in circles by the MIT boathouse and put a gigantic hole in the side of an old wooden boat. Got into BIG trouble and that was the end of that. Ever masochistic, I tried the Boston Sailing Center in high school where I learned that sailing did sort of feel like flying -- as long as I was a passenger. Moral: If you don’t know which way the wind is blowing, you should not be the captain.

2) Describe your hairstyle:

Suburban hippy. Unkempt. Past due for a highlight.

3) Do you sleep on your back, belly or side?

All of the above. Now would someone please crystallize some Lunesta so I can smoke it immediately?

4) What is the last album you *loved*?

It’s sad but I can’t remember the last time I listened to an album in its entirety. For several years now, I’ve been downloading single songs. I keep telling myself that it’s like buying one chapter of a novel and that I’m missing out on the larger context. But at the same time, I’m pretty cheap. While I’d sooner die than part with my iPod and digital tunes, I do miss the tangibility of new music, not to mention the ceremony of it. I miss popping in a CD for the first time and lying on my couch reading the liner notes and lyrics. Sure, you can Google all of this info but it’s not the same and I never have enough printer ink anyway.

Again…I digress. The last album I *loved* was one of the last CDs I actually purchased the old fashioned way: “Sea Change” by Beck (2002). This record is so deliciously sad that it almost makes you wish you were going through a break-up purely for the catharsis.

5) Admit something – anything:

I am addicted to the Lost Experience online game but am completely befuddled by it. There are a lot of numbers and anagrams and patterns and my mind simply does not work that way. Between James’ fantasy baseball league and my Lost obsession, it’s a total Dungeons and Dragons fest over here.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

1) Bowling. I suck, Kate beats me.
2) Wavey Gravey
3)Belly, usually with one pillow on my head and another protecting me from Carolines kicks.
4)I loved "All That You Can't Leave Behind" The album was downloaded within seconds of becoming available in October 2000. Saw 3 shows that year. The best with everyone in the box that Paul rented. Drank too much Vodka that night but had a great time.
5) I never change the radio when I hear a Boy George tune. Do you?

Anonymous said...

1. Skiing the bumps. Pete and James, Pete especially, could make it look so easy. "Just pick out your line and go for it" have been the instructions I have been given for years....I pick my line only to be getting tossed around the moguls within seconds of my decent to which I try to get to the side as fast as possible and ride the flats down with my quads burning.
2.Hairstyle - Used to be very short boys hair cut but now letting it grow longer. Been called everything from a weave to a shaggy mop.
3. On my side clutching to a pillow.
4.Elton John came out with an album several years ago named 'Songs from the West Coast' and it reminded me of what made Elton John, Elton John. The songs have great lyrics and the music is reminiscent of the Elton John songs of the 70's. Burning Down the Mission,Levon, and Tiny Dancer quality.
5. I love watching American Idol and vote via text messages for Katherine McPhee too many times for a normal person.

KJ said...

I can't wait to see your new 'do, EPB. We may be having dinner at Toro this Fri..we'll give you a ring. xo

Anonymous said...

1) Basketball. I actually played a bit in Jr. High but gave it up for obvious vertical challenge reasons and because I have zero hand/eye coordination.

2) Frizzy, overgrown, plastic-doll, polyester-wig texture hair. Awful. It shall be cut within 10 days into something resembling a proper 'do.

3) Oh, I'm all over the place.

4) The Replacements' "Don't Tell a Soul". It was the first CD I ever bought.

5) I love a Dolly Parton song. "Here You Come Again". Just heard it on an episode of My Name is Earl and practically welled up while downloading it off iTunes. WMD made me turn off the volume of the computer and put on a pair of headphones. Also, I loved the movie "Dirty Dancing."

BAGS said...

1) Sport given up: Darts. As an 8 year old I [accidentally]threw one that stuck in brother's head. My parents haven't allowed me to participate since.

2)My hairstyle, plastic. Gel keeps it that way, otherwise I'd look like an overgrown Chia pet.

3)Sleep on my belly. It upsets Auntie since she can't do that anymore.

4)Vertigo - U2

5)I've never changed a diaper before. Celine tells me that 36 year streak is coming to an end in October.

Code Red said...

1) Skiing. After doing one too many Sonny Bono impressions down the slopes, I decided I like my bones right where they are and gave up on being a snow bunny. I'm still scarred from the time I took lessons when I was 12. We were skiing in a row behind the instructor when I hit a patch of ice and picked up some serious speed. I flew past everyone, including the teacher. The only thing that stopped me was a large oak tree. I hit it dead on and was thrown out of my skis. I guess it wasn't my time to visit the pearly gates because I put my skis together just before hitting the tree and saved me from eating a bark sandwich. My skis were embedded in the tree and my instructor had to pry the points out of the tree with all her might. Whatever! I hate the cold anyway.

2)Strawberry blonde mop.

3) I sleep on my sides. Unfortunately, this position has caused me to crick my neck so many times that I resorted to purchasing a Temperpedic pillow. I may look ridiculous but I don't wake up with my head on sideways anymore.

4) Coldplay - X&Y. Loved it even more after seeing them in concert at Great Woods. Oh, I mean the Tweeter Center.

5) I still love the Muppets. Not Elmo and the like, I mean the the "Muppet Show" muppets....Kermit, Fozzie, the Swedish Chef, Miss Piggy, Gonzo and those two old cranks up in the balcony...love it! The sight of Kermit the Frog in a trenchcoat doing the news still makes me laugh and don't even look at me when he's belting out "Rainbow Connection." If they ever make another Muppet movie, I may have to steal one of your kids so I can see it and still hold my head high. :)

Anonymous said...

Code Red you don't need to grab one of the kids....I'll go with you then we can grab some grown-up drinks after! Its more fun....

KJ said...

Is anyone as troubled by Jimmy's "boy george" comment as I am? Please weigh in.

Anonymous said...

1) Tried to learn how to read music. Apparently second graders can do it but I can't.

2) I just tell the girl "#4 clippers on the sides and back and cut the top short. Don't care what it looks like as long as it's short"

3)All three, hopefully without an accidental forearm shiv to LP's head.

4) Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds "Live at Luther College". Double album of his best songs with just him and Tim Reynolds playing acoustic guitars.
(Sublime; self titled gets honorary mention)

5) I not only shot JR but I popped a cap in Montgomery Burns fossilized ass as well.