8 things Katie (and most everybody else) didn't know about me

This is the second on the trifecta of meems Kategirl tagged me with. I didn't want to do it, but I am powerless against her girly charms.

1. Sorry Katie, but you are not the first Jewish gal I've had a crush on. The first to have that (dis)honor would be the Kessler sisters of Howell, Michigan. The Kesslers lived down the road from us and my sister Sandy was best friends with Susan Kessler. I was 11 and she was 15 and oh boy did I have a crush on her. She was the cutest thing I had ever seen in a bikini, that is until I saw her sisters in theirs. Her sisters were Janice, who was one year older than Susan, and Nancy, who was the oldest of the three. I dug Susan for her looks, Janice for her looks and her sense of humor, and Nancy because she was the eldest, was so nice to me, and was so quiet, but she was quiet in a "she would rock your world if you ever got ahold of her" way. We moved down south before I could ever act on my crushes and so that means that I will always remember them as they were in 1973, young, pretty, bubbly, and so much fun to be around.

2. The universe self corrected my life for me when I was 18. I had signed up to go into the when I graduated high school. I had chosen my job, which was in communications, and was supposed to serve a 6 year hitch. A few months before I was due to report to some base in Texas for basic training I was at home in Bristol, TN and I had smoked just smoked a big ass joint with my cousin. I decided I was going to show off and slide down the banister. So I jumped on it and proceeded to slide but when I saw the newell post fast approaching I jumped off, when I put my left hand up against the window at the bottom of the stairs to stop myself from falling, my arm went through the glass, was gashed open to the bone, and when I pulled myself off the window I made the gash bigger. I staggered outside as blood poured from my arm. A neighbor guy who saw what was going on came running across the street and he clamped his hands on my arm and he stopped the blood from spurting so bad. He stayed there holding my arm until the ambulance got there and took me to the hospital. I never got a chance to thank him properly, but dude if you are reading this, then thanks, I owe my life to you.

A couple of days later a couple of guys from the Air Force came to see me in the hospital. They took one look at my arm and said thanks but no thanks, we don't want you anymore. So I went to college instead and my life is much richer and better because I did so. Sometimes horrible accidents have a way of working out in the long run. I probably would have been kicked out of the Air Force anyway because I would not have been able to take orders from idiots.

3. I love the Olympics but I love the winter Olympics more than the summer games because the potential for seeing someone get a serious injury and or die accidently is much higher in the winter games. Therefore I admire winter Olympians more than summer Olympians. I can tell you the host city for every Winter Olympiad staring with the first one in Chamonix, France. Even though I love the winter Olympics I can not for the life of me ice skate, snowboard, or ski. Go figure.
4. My girlfriend and I were standing in the check out line at Barnes and Noble one day after Brokeback Mountain had been released. It was busy as hell and there were all kinds of people in line and others running around in the store within ear shot of me.I turned to look at my girlfriend and I said in my best Jake Gyllenhaal cowboy voice, "I wish I knew how to quit you."

We laugh about it now but if she had a gun when I said it, she would have shot me, I just know it.

5. I'm an idiot sometimes. It took me almost six weeks to get a joke that I told night after night in a play I was doing. I delivered the line the same way night after night and I could not for the life of me see why people laughed. Then one night it dawned on me and I felt like I was the biggest idiot in the world for not getting it sooner. It was good thing I didn't tell a certain woman in the cast that I was so stupid or she might not have gone out with me and I'd be all alone now.

6. Just because I am paranoid that doesn't mean people aren't trying to wipe out all traces of me from planet earth. The hospital I was born in was torn down and both Major League Baseball stadiums I've been to, Tiger Stadium in Detroit and Atlanta Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta, have been torn down.

7. One of elementary schools I went to in Detroit was named Warren G. Harding Elementary. Harding was universally thought of by historians as the worst President we ever had, until we got saddled with Bush that is.

8. I won an essay contest in high school. My prize for winning was I got to go on a week long trip to New York city. That was over 30 years ago and I still remember every detail vividly. Most of the other kids on that trip hated NYC and they could not wait to leave. I on the other hand loved it. I felt right at home and if I could have gotten away with it, I would have stayed there for the rest of my life. I also got to see Washington DC, Philadelphia, Gettysburg, and Niagra Falls on that trip. Those few weeks were some of the best times I ever had in my life.

I think I am supposed to tag 8 people, but I think most all you have done this one. So I will just tag Kelsi and Fran because I don't know all that much about them. So have at it ladies and let me know when you get it done, if you decide to do it that is.