25 Random

1. You know how on the news they have random citizens remark on a news story? I was once that random citizen. They were doing a piece about the price of property on Lake Calhoun. Since I had just moved from New York none of it really shocked me (“4 million dollars? That’s it?) I gave the piece a nice angle. Even funnier is that I was in the news piece with my ex-boyfriend of ten minutes. He was visiting me in Minneapolis from New York City. We had just broken up and decided to take a walk along the lake before I drove him back to the airport.

2. In the fall of 2008 I attempted to hike Mt. Kilimanjaro.

3. I ran out of cash in Pennsylvania on a trip between New York and Minnesota. I went to a rest stop with no ATM and started crying. I was so overtired I was convinced I wasn’t going to be let out of the state because I couldn’t pay the toll. A kind man gave me twenty dollars. I’m still in touch with that kind man today. In fact, we’re Facebook friends and just chatted tonight.

4. I was a card carrying Libertarian and went to gatherings of the Fabiani society for about a year in New York City. I’m kind of over that.

5. I dated the author of “Love Monkey” – a book that eventually became a show on CBS. All I have to show for it is a paragraph.

6. I raced on my high school downhill ski team. I had a fleece with my name on it. I still have that fleece. That’s as close as I came to organized sports.

7. Well, except for synchronized swimming. That’s another random activity of mine.

8. I got a date to the Junior Prom by putting on my emergency flashers so that the guy behind me would stop and I could ask him. That’s cute, not desperate. Right?

9. Ok, while we’re on the “random ways to get a date” thread, I’ll admit that I asked a guy out who I met in the Banana Republic fitting room. We met for iced tea at Panera Bread a week later.

10. I was introduced to Art Garfunkel by his son at a post concert event. His son James said “Dad, this is Jamie.” I wanted to call Art dad. I didn’t. But I did gush. Art gave me a hug and said “We’re all just people, Jamie.” And then gave me his autograph.

11. Oh heck, while we’re talking about famous people. I lived in the same building as Laura Linney in New York. One day I was locked out and was in front of the building looking harried. At the same time Laura comes out of a limo and asks if I’m alright. I tell her I’m locked out and she invites me to hang out at her place until the landlord returns.

12. I’ve done open water swimming in the Hudson. The best part was that the taxi was not the leased bit phased when I got into the cab in a wetsuit. It took about 3 showers for me to get rid of the smell.

13. I prefer to drip dry rather than towel dry upon completion of a shower.

14. I had eight different addresses in New York City.

15. During the summer of 2007 I lived on a farm in Cary with a friend. We had goats and horses. They got out quite often. It was like “The Simple Life.”

16. I have a deviated septum and can’t breathe out of my nose very well. The first time I kissed a boy I passed out. He thought it was his kiss. Really, it was just the lack of air. After years of smooching, I’ve worked it out.

17. One Halloween I dressed up as a cereal box. I made holes for the arms on the side of the box. My arms weren’t very helpful when I tripped over a root and fell. On my face.

18. About 20 years later I dressed up as a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and lost costume contests to a chicken, dragon, Christmas Tree and almost to a sheep.

19. I’ve been scared of being alone since I saw the movie “Taken.”

20. I spent 13 summers of my life at a summer camp in Eaton Center, NH. About 4 of those summers were in a cabin that was a treehouse. I met my best friends at this camp and am still in touch with many of them today.

21. I grew up in CT, went to school in the town of Cows, Colleges & Contentment in Northfield, MN, moved to NYC, moved to Minneapolis, back to New York City and then down to North Carolina. West is next, I think.

22. For a while, I was obsessed with mechanical pencils and pencil lead. That kind of stopped when I joined the working world as Accounting didn’t accept expense reports in pencil.

23. I gave up on five years of being a vegetarian because my stepmom made steak fajitas and they looked delicious.

24. After a long drive from New Hampshire to Minnesota I inadvertently cracked my windshield five times with a rubber mallet. The mallet did a great job getting off the ice – I just didn’t realize that it was also affecting the glass. Try explaining that to your insurance company. Er.

25. In the last year, I’ve taken to trying to participate in activities that either frighten me or challenge me. Among those things are swing dancing and improv classes. They make me feel clumsy. That’s good for me.

I’m tagging people who have something to do with these 25 interesting things. I always feel a little cheated when I see that someone has been tagged in a note and then there’s nothing about them in the note really.