OK, this is my weak attempt to get more of you to comment on here. I share a lot about my life, my family, my writing, my appletini-drinking-Xanax-induced episodes that leave me yakking in the toilet, so now it's YOUR turn.
(Not the yakking part, the sharing part!)
Here's the deal. I want you to post a comment and tell me something very unique and interesting about you. Something that makes you feel you are different from all the rest. Something I N T E R E S T I N G.
I truly believe each one of you has an interesting story about you. Why are you so interesting? Did something interesting happen to you when you were 12? Seventeen? Thirty-nine? Have you ever sky-dived, swam in the ocean nekkid, screamed at the top of your lungs from a mountain? Shoplifted a tootsie roll and felt so bad about it you couldn't even eat it? Apply to be a contestant on Price is Right?
See, if you think hard enough, dig deep enough, there is something really cool about you. Maybe everyone knows it. Maybe you've got a birthmark that looks like the Bahama islands like I do (well, not sure if it looks like the Bahamas because it's on my backside so I can't really see it that well).
Enlighten me. I want to hear something about Y O U.
To further this contest, I am hoping for 100 comment-entries. Until then, I will not be blogging and the contest will be judged in an interesting way after we hit 100 comments.
You do not need to reveal who you are in real life, but you can't sign in as ANNONYMOUS. You'll have to make up a name, again, something unique, so if you win, I can say, Charmed Latino is the winner, and you will know it is you who wrote the comment. Of course, now that I think about it, if I say "Charmed Latino" is the winner, any number of you can email me to claim you are Charmed Latino... so I guess I'm trusting you to be honest here.
So, until the 100th comment, no further blogging, but there is a real prize involved -- coffee, music, books, a gift card for an undertermined about (of course, it's probably going to be under $20 since I haven't exactly hit the big time yet!), but if you feel like playing, head over to the comments, and tell your blogger pals to stop by Manic's to play.
Thanks for sharing a unique story, thing, trait about yourself. I know you're interesting. Tell me why!
Saturday, February 17, 2007
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105 comments:
I'm arguably the only person who ever hosted a book-signing party for the late bestselling author Robert Ludlum *and* washed his windows.
I wrote a book in junior high that won 3rd in the state competition.
I have many more interesting things (secrets, for now)..but well, my therapist's life is already on the line if he shares, I'd hate to have to add you.
Oh and I'm crazy as freaking loon. But a functioning lunatic, oh wait I'm a stay at home wife with no kids in the future. Functioning may be too broad of a word. Delusion of grandeur if you will.
I was the on air talent for a German housewares company on QVC - I ironed clothes at 7:00am and demo'd a cake holder with "In the Kitchen with Bob" Bob. He was kind of a putz.
Oh, no, I'm only number three; I will miss you till those other guys cooperate and post a comment!
I met Creedence Clearwater Revival (yes, the band; yes, a long time ago) at a gas station in Mississippi when my family was on a road-trip. They were very, very nice and not rude at all (I was a teenager). I almost keeled over dead from joy--I met someone famous!!!
Cora-Ann Mihalik ambushed me outside of Madison Square Garden back in 1998 right after Dennis Rodman married Carmen Electra. She wanted to know what I thought of their marriage. I said, "He doesn't seem like a one woman kind of man." I wished I had backed away from the camera, but I think my brain short circuited in the white hot glare of TV stardom.
I can blow the best smoke ring you ever saw in your life and I'm double jointed.
Why am I single again?
When my mother was dying, she was in a coma like state, unable to speak or even open her eyes. All day I had been taking care of her while surrounded by family but still she hung on.
I took a break, grabbed a quick shower then a snack. When I entered the living room which had become her bedroom, I was overcome with a sense of panic, then a sense of what I needed to do.
I "knew" I needed to clear the house, find the box fan and get out of her face. Which I did and she died 15 minutes later.
My sister and brother-in-law witnessed the entire thing and bother were amazed at the change in my behavior and how I "knew" exactly what to do.
I know that my mother used me to make it possible for her to leave this world. Nothing has impacted me more in my whole life, not even having children.
I'm a Greek-Filipina Californian now married to an Italian - living on the bay of Napoli.
My birth was announced on television on KABC in Los Angeles on September 17, 1974, saying "we'd like to announce a new member of the KABC news team..."
And, at 5, I was on Romper Room...
hmm...how many strange and interesting personal facts are we allowed here?
Last one...on how I ended up in italy...
I came to Italy to do a month-long theatre workshop and ended up going to Rome on a visit and realized that I was suppossed to move there...no, not in a year, not in a few months, but right then and there which at that time meant NOW. I did just that and never went home with the rest of the group of american actors.
OK, so I'm not all that exciting or interesting, but I had an 11 pound 2 ounce baby in 2005 and I sang in many cathedrals and castles in Poland when I was in college. I really can't think of anything else, but had to participate so we can get that number up to 100 quickly! :-)
One-tenth of the way, and this is so much fun for me because I am finding out some very interesting and cool things about all of you, and I am also discovering new fun blogs!
Something about me, which does not count for the contest: After I attended the Steve Miller Band concert at the Summerfest in Milwaukee, my two big toenails bruised and fell off and I feared they would not grow back in time for my wedding (which really didn't matter cuz I wasn't wearing open-toed shoes, but still...)
Keep 'em coming guys! This is great!
I have 3 nipples and I was a child model. My picture was up at Sesame Place for many years.
(OK the first one isnt true) :)
My mom picked out my name while she was pregnant with me while on vacation in Hawaii. While she was grocery shopping, she stumbled upon "Alani Orange Juice". In Hawaiian, Alani means orange tree. After she purchased the juice and went back to the condo she said to my dad that they would name me Alani, not only because she loved the name, but because Hawaii was such a huge part of their lives. Now, whenever I look at that framed Alani orange juice box hanging on my wall, I know that my name, and life story, started out very unique. I've been back to Hawaii since, and in recent years, they no longer make the juice :(
Anon--you can't be included unless you give yourself a name, so why not call yourself, Three-Nip-Girl, or guy? LOL!
Alani--SO NICE TO SEE YOU ON HERE!
Oh this is not fair, I am probably the most uninteresting person on the blogosphere......yet, I figure that everyone should flock to my blog to see what I am thinking about.
I cannot think of anything interesting that I haven't already shared on my own blog...hmmmmmm
I'm an amazing break dancer for a girl with no rythym!!
Mike Mills from R.E.M. painted my toenails red at 3:00 a.m. in 1994 (ish) (I can't remember exactly) and I didn't have to paint his in return!
My most unique trait is probably tat I have been blessed with a "silver tongue". I can talk myself out of and anyone else into, practically anything. And we're talking anywhere from a big discount wherever I shop, to being a civilian on a flight line at an active Air Force base and not getting in trouble. I don't even get traffic tickets (knock wood!). And my friends have learned to bring me with them when they buy big-ticket items because I can haggle like my life depends on it.
I get the "charm" from my dad, a very handsome, dashing Italian gentleman. But unlike him, I am quite unremarkable looking, so I come in under the radar ;) I must just have "one of those faces"!
So if I don't win how about a Starbucks coupon instead?? Great idea MM!
P.S. Can anyone tell me why my name in my comments no longer links to my blog? (Weird fact part deux: I am a complete Luddite and practically computer illiterate!)
DebbieS--what's a Luddite?
And also: STARBUCKS HAS COUPONS?!?!
Here's another weird thing I feel like sharing...
I have had my eyeball licked, and it is very sensuous, and it wasn't done to me by my husband. The same person who licked my eyeball also shaved my legs on a bus to Daytona when I was a freshman in college.
Man, that guy was H O T !! I still Google him, but haven't found him.
And no, I cannot vote for myself on this one! LOL!
I have been reading your blog for a very long time and decided that today I would come out of lurkerdom and say hello. is that interesting enough for you? ;-) i love caramel appletini's and long walks on the beach...I am a Pisces....
Lyn
When I was in the eighth grade I grabbed my jeans out the dryer, threw them on and ran to the bus stop.
It was tradition in my school that the day started with the Pledge of Alligence and a moment of silence for the hostages in Iran...so there I am in patriotic form--standning hand over heart--when I look down and there by my right foot is my pumpkin orange cotton bikini undies trimmed in cotton cream lace. I was mortified! I quickly swooped down clutching the panties in ball form in the palm of my hand and tucked them quickly into the pocket of my navy blue wind breaker. Thank God I wore a jacket to class that day!
It seems those sexy little panties got trapped in the leg of my jeans in the dryer and worked themselves free at the exact, most embarrassing moment-- in my first hour American History class.
No one ever said anything to me so I still go with the theory that every single one of my classmates had there eyes affixed on the American flag. However I can't shake that moment from my mind.
I have never purchased a single pair of orange panties since.
Um, well...I HAVE swum nekkid in the ocean. Several times. And one day I was surfing and I looked over and the guy surfing next to me was nekkid. Y'know there's WAX on that board...ouch! Kinda creepy. I paddled in after that...
i've hooked up with multiple people who have more than two nipples!
I am not sure how I finished college, but I did. I have been engaged a grand total of 6 times and only married 3 of them. (Had 2 divorces before I was 30). I would rather eat candy than real food. I hate the beach and I do NOT enjoy having my ears licked or kissed.
I met my husband on match.com
When I was ten, my best friend and I were playing outside and a man pulled up in an old beatup car and asked us to get in it and go away with him. He was nasty. So we remembered the license plate and went to tell my mom. She called the police and they picked him up and he pretty much admitted that yeah, he was going to kidnap us, and said something skeevy like "he didn't think he would have really hurt us." So I had to go to the police station and make a statement about him. Creepy.
I once got my daughter out of kindergarten to have a screen test for "Three Men and LIttle Lady"...I think that was the name of it...with tom Selek and Ted Danson...she tried out for the "Lady" part...didn't get it...jerks...but that really isn't about ME is it?..it's more about her..okay, another one..
I can touch my tonsils w/ my tongue, AND I don't have a toe nail on my little toe. I got a very nasty case of athletes foot and the YWCA and it had to be removed. gross.
I sent tim tams to a person I never met on the other side of the world... (Now this should win me a prize)
I married my pen pal....
I was on the beach in Thailand when the tsunami hit in December of 2004. At first, as the wave was coming in, everyone was scrambling for their cameras -- and then, when we realized how big it was, all of us were running for our lives.
I've been engaged twice to the same man and both times he's broken it off because he says he doesn't feel the need to get married -- although we're still together and, strangely, very much in love. He's 37, I'm 26 and we've been together for 4 years. Last month, when we were still engaged, we bought an apartment in New York. He lives one-third of the time here with me, one-third in London, and one-third in Brazil. I used to travel with him all the time but now I'm trying to focus on my own life and career (writing and, as of last week, working at a literary agency).
I was evacuated from my old apartment, in lower Manhattan, on 9-11. Since I moved to New York from Nashville (in 1998 to go to NYU for playwriting) I've lived in ten apartments -- though this is the only one I've owned. We've only spent eights nights here and I'm still afraid to buy anything for it that I don't love. In the interim, it's paper plates and plastic sporks...
I'm also a yoga teacher who loves red wine and chorizo.
Manic, I found your website through your comments on SK's -- and I love it. I can't wait to read your novel and have every faith it will find a publishing home.
I left home when I was 14 to live at a boarding school. I lived at home for summer and Christmas breaks, but not anything else. My family still thinks I'm the same person I was when I was 14, even though I'm turning 30 this year.
I was in a campaign commercial for the Oklahoma Superintendent of Education when I was 7. I had never even met the candidate before that day, and when I did meet her, I thought she was mean.
Back when I was in 1st grade, we were supposed to raise our hands when we finished our tests. I had a crush on a girl at the time, and when I finished I intentionally waited until just the moment she raised her hand to do the same. Somehow I thought she'd like me more if we were both as smart as each other.
I'm a first time blogger. I will have to think of something "interesting" about myself. I have time, right? I have been reading everyone's comments and they are great! Can you put a link to my blog? I'm not sure how to get an audience as I just started! Love your site, read it often! Can't wait for your book too!
I'll give three since I am untra-competetive and want that prize...
1) I know all of the words to "Rapper's Delight." The long version.
2) I once had a somewhat erotic experience with a glass of ice with the drummer from The Who (not Kieth Moon, the other guy) when I was 18 and working backstage.
3) I think some of my dreams are prohetic.
I won third prize in an Emeril's cooking contest (me and 200 people)but there were thousands that entered :-)
I spent the day with the last man to walk on the moon, Gene Cernan (worked for my company as a "special consultant" which meant I use him to get high level executives to agree to meet with me to hear about my company's solutions. Worked, but Gene really had an ego that I didn't want to deal with ever again, never used him after that.)
I have been around the world many times with my job, but in one trip I snorkeled in Guam with my sister and we were "flashed" by another snorkler (MPs arrested him), then I went to Australia and climed the Bridge, and then went to India and got to see the Taj Mahal. I returned from this trip on Sept 10, 2001 (what timing).
Manic,
I'm such a loser compared to most of these nice folks! Okay, here goes.
Sylvester Stallone shook my hand at the opening of Planet Hollywood in Aspen in 1992 (i think)
I met my husband when he escorted me down the aisle at a friends wedding.
My only full sibling died at 2 mos old of SIDS. I was three.
I've attended five colleges and still only have an associates b/c I kept changing my major.
Steph~
Geez, do I be serious or engage in tomfoolery?
I have published a thriller novel entitled "Mentor" and currently interview musicians and do CD and DVD reviews for multiple music magazines, mostly in the heavier genres, though I have a wide variety of tastes. I do concert photography as well. I have also interviewed some horror film directors and actress Betsy Palmer.
I used to be a hockey analyst, I was a beat writer for a small town newspaper, I've won a fiction contest where I won the painting I wrote a story off of, I used to write serial superhero online that was collected into trade paperback format. I used to do open mike poetry and was featured three times.
All this and I still have to work a day job!
Currently I'm in the middle of a nonfiction project on heavy metal, and have two other books started but on hiatus and I'm writing a couple of short stories to pitch to a t.v. series.
Okay, now I feel like a bragging asshole, so most of all I'd love to see you all at my blog or being directed to your blogs and keeping open communication...
Peace, Mom and everyone else...
My claim to fame is that I only have one kidney, as my right one was taken out when I was 15 due to a birth defect. It was the size of a small football when they removed it.
My other claim to fame is that I have the most ridiculous naturally curly hair you have ever seen. If I had a dime for every time someone told me how much they have to pay for hair like mine for sure I would be sitting on my own island, paying someone else to type this for me. Why do it?? Why subject yourself to a life of living with a head of hair that is not a breeze to take care of, no! it is actually just a pain-in-the-ass, but in disguise.
Some more - I wonder if the above two will be my only claims to fame - the "thing" about me, i.e. "Oh yeah, remember Laura, didn't she have one kidney? And that ridiculous curly hair?" as opposed to "I went to high school with that chick who just won the Academy Award." Not to say I'm unhappy in life. Sometimes I just wonder if everything will just stay the same. But surely it can't.
Lo, you will HAVE to get Jess' Riley's novel, Riding with Larry Resnick when it comes out... it's all about a kidney transplant/donor story, and much, much more!!!
If you haven't heard of Jess, check out my sidebar; you can find her blog from there--a definite laugh a minute!
I've been swimming nekkid in the ocean before. A VERY long time ago.
I was working alone on a Saturday at my lawyer's office in Rancho Palos Verdes (swanky part of SoCal) when I saw half of the sheriff's department squeel into the parking lot and stop in front of my office. The phone then rang and when I answered it, it was the one person left at the station. He said the panic alarm had gone off and wanted to know if I was okay and if I was alone. I told him yes. So then he says, "What are you wearing?"
When you're a 20-year-old girl and some guy on the telephone asks you that, it kind of takes you back. Anyway, I finally told him (red sweats and a Mickey Mouse t-shirt - don't remember what color panties)
and he says, "Okay. Hold on a second."
I hear him repeat what I said and then he comes back on and says, "Walk out the door very slowly."
So I open the door and there are policemen down either side of the walkway with their guns drawn and policemen crouched behind the opened doors of the squad cars facing the office with their guns drawn.
Long story not as long as it could be - there was a short in the panic alarm and when I closed the drawer it was in, it sent a signal to the Sheriff's department. The panic alarm was only to be used if we were in life-threatening danger.
When I walked outside and saw all those policemen with guns drawn - I WAS in life-threatening danger of having a coronary.
I have a drumstick from a Motely Crue concert in the 80's I was like 14 and my mom drove us and dropped us off (sucker, sorry mom!)..I was so pumped. I had it on my wall with a poster..
In 1983, I was the Dance Twirl Baton Twirling champion for the the ENTIRE state of Maine...amongst 12-14 year olds, that is.
Just think of it...they gathered all of the new, hormone-laden teen girls in the whole state that could find time to twirl a baton AND dance while flirting with football players and learning to apply blue eyeshadow...and I was #1!!!
OK you made me do it because I need you to write!
I was one of the first females to get my surf lifesaving qualifications at my home beach. I was 15 years old!
Now come on guys.....let's get to 100 comments.
I don't know if this is unique or interesting, but I was car-jacked, at gun-point. I was getting out of my car after picking up my bridesmaid dress for my best friends wedding. We'd had a great day of shopping. I had left my dress at her house (luckily), got home, and this guy came up from behind me with a gun. I tried to run. Left my keys in the car. He could have it. But he forced me back into the car -- I had a little 2-door Saturn -- his pregnant girlfriend was in the front seat, he was in the back seat -- holding on to me with the gun shoved into my side. Made me go to the bank and withdrawl all the money in my checking account (which again, thankfully wasn't much, as i hadn't deposited my pay check that week and it was before i had direct deposit), and then drove me to the middle of nowhere, ditched his girlfriend, got into the front seat with me .. made me lift up my shirt, but then let me get out of the car .. made me sit in the mdidle of the street pointed the gun at me, nad took off in my car. I found a house with a porch light on, and a very kind woman let me in and call the police, and then I couldn't get a hold of my parents (obviously i couldn't go to my house, as I had no keys), and so after the trip to the police station, my friend came and got me. Wow. I hadn't typed that much about the experience since it happened. It was pretty life changing, thinking back on it.
Hi--followed you over from Allison's blog...how fun to read all these stories! And a great traffic-builder, as I'm linking your blog to mine when I finish so I can remember where to come back to. :-)
This will sound like blatant self-promotion, but it's honestly the most interesting thing I can think of just now:
I've wanted to be a writer--a novelist in particular--forever, it seems. I finished my first novel in '02 but failed to find an agent. Got close, though, and decided to take some writing courses (grad school) to help up my odds.
I wrote some short stories that were contest finalists, but couldn't get them published, which made me crazy--good enough to be finalists but not good enough to publish?
I wrote a second novel that got me a terrific agent *and* was a national contest semi-finalist, but the novel didn't sell. Familiar story by this point, so I wasn't as crushed as I might have been otherwise!
I wrote a third novel--and it sold! Which is not the most interesting part (though a very good thing, obviously...).
The most interesting part is that the very first thing I will have published, ever, is a novel that sold not only in the US but to seven foreign publishers too.
What's less interesting, but unusual, is that I had a kidney stone surgically removed at 17.
I once thought my husband David was cheating on me because all kinds of women kept calling our apartment and asking for him by name. Then, I realized that we had David Lee Roth's old phone number.
Ok, I feel like I can share now...
I was scuba diving in Australia - the great barrier reef (several years ago). I had gone scuba diving before but this was the first "scary" experience I had. I was with my scuba partner, you try to stay together, but you are mesmerized by the beauty of everything. I swam around part of the reef, I felt like I was Ariel in the Little Mermaid - I could here the song in my head that she sings, the collections song - do you know it? And there, right in front of me was a great white! Yes, GREAT WHITE SHARK! I froze, it was though he was looking right at me. He was only about 10-15 feet away from me, all he had to do was take one swish and gobble me up. It's wierd, but it felt like we had a connection or something, we were just checking each other out. I was so numb, I couldn't even turn my head to see where my partner was. After what seemed like 5 minutes, he just swam away. Isn't nature strange. Do you think he was as afraid of me as I was of him? And yes, I have been scuba diving since! Please check out my blog as I am a "virgin" blogger and would love the cocmpany!
When I was 14 and Bon Jovi was just starting out I waited in line at a record store to get their autograph. They were a lot of fun and I got a kiss from Jon Bon Jovi! Yes, I kissed Jon before he was famous. You might think it creepy that he kissed a 14 year old girl but in his defense I wore a lot of make-up and dressed like a tramp so I looked much older.
Half-way there people!
Slackermommy--did you tongue him?
Okay.. I have a BFF who is also a BFF of Manic Mom... but Manic doesn't know me(maybe stories... maybe)! Love your blog... so I will give you a multiple choice. One or all are true!
A) I had sex in the backseat of my parents mini-van at the age of 17... while the family was in the car!
B) Had knee surgery right before a Winter dance and while walking to my dates car... I slid under his car... blowing stitches and my dance experience.
C) Had a baby two months premature... because, well we both were dying... and hubby left us at the hospital while he ran errands.
So pick and choose... Fun times!
CRAZED!!! You are CRAZY and have me stumped and dumbified (ooh, is that a real word or did I just make it up--DUMBIFIED. I like it.)
WHO ARE YOU? Who is one of my BFFs you speak of? At first I thought you were Alle of Swishy, but Swishy is my BBFF, not my BFF... so, spill it because it is DRIVING ME CRAZY!
OK, I think the sex in the minivan one sounds really crazy and WOW, but I am guessing it might have to be the knee surgery?
You have totally totally stumped me!
Okay... I stand corrected! You guessed right on your BBFF... but I am not Allee! How is that?! I promise to not take any more comment spots.
Ugh! Crazed, no worries on taking up the comments--they're not exactly flying in! LOL.
And here I was just thinking you were a friend of my friend in PA, and that C was now the correct answer, but now I see you're a Blogger friend. Still stumped, but a friend of Swish's?
I never dreamed about becoming a mommy and was scared s***less when peanut arrived two and a half months early. But now I'm loving being mama even if I'm happy occasionally to go to work and escape the trauma.
I almost died when I was three after eating an entire bottle of my mother's sleeping pills.
The story goes that my sister saw me do it and told my mom who came downstairs to a kid on the counter with a mouth full of red spit (from the pill coating) and some of the chewed up pills still in my mouth.
Mom hollered to dad who snapped me up and drove me to the hospital while mom called ahead. Dad said he was slapping me to try to keep me awake but I went out -- they were ready at the ER door when he got to the hospital and were shoving a tube down my throat to pump my stomach while rolling me down the hall to a room.
I was in the hospital for days.
Holy drama, and I don't remember any of it.
I'm glad I didn't die.
oooh, I've thought of a few more things.
My uncle was the opening act for the Jackson's Victory Tour -- you know, back when Michael Jackson was cool.
My Father and my Step-father were roommates in college and my step-father is also my godfather.
the car that was involved in the car-jacking from my previous post was cursed. they did recover it, and one year to the date of the car-jacking, I woke up to a HUGE tree on top of the car.
Okay, everybody here is way more interesting than me. But I'll try.
I have met two multi-billionaires, both of whom made their fortunes as high tech pioneers. One had an overwhelming presence and words couldn't come out of my mouth. The had an underwhelming presence, but very earnest, and I had an actual conversation with him.
I steered the Goodyear blimp for five minutes over the SF Bay.
Ted Knight (Judge Smails in Caddyshack) was my grandmother's third cousin.
I never took a "real" math course in college (I took Math for the Elem School Teacher which was an upper division course & counted, but all we did was learn to count to 10, do groups and sets) AND I graduated on the Dean's List!
Hey Manic, I'm going to share all three: a unique story, thing and trait.
Unique story: you mentioned skydiving in your post, so I'm gonna 'borrow' from that. About 5 years ago I went on a touristy road trip and went bungy jumping! It was so much fun. I always thought I'd be one of those annoying girly girls who went '3, 2, 1..... oh wait wait, i'm not ready, count again' '3, 2, 1.... wait, i'm not ready, this time I'll go I promise'.... BUT I jumped, first time, on 3 or 1, whichever way they counted, I can't remember. I was with 2 boys, so I guess I didn't wanna be all girly for them or something lol.
Unique thing: so there's 4 million or so of us around, but it's still pretty unique, I live in New Zealand :)
Trait: I'm an overcommitment queen!! While I've been studying for the past three years, I've had anywhere between 1 and 4 jobs on the side, and often part time study elsewhere on top of full time study at my main college. I've graduated, but this year I will be working full time, and studying two Honours papers part time, and I also signed up for a short financial management course and will be doing a 5 week confident speaking course in May. I guess I'm not happy unless I'm a little stressed out and have 6000 things to do! Good luck with your contest :)
I used to speak Malaysian, I was born in London and had an English accent for the first five years of my life.
Anon, you have to give yourself a *name* so the judges will know who you are, like say, Malaysian-Speaker or something like that!
I once figured out that Manic Mom needed a break and invented a contest as an excuse. She didn't realize that she was so darned popular that it only bought her a few days.
Peace out.
One of the coolest things I got to be involved with as a chef was helping to produce a "mainland" luau for the Food Network's show "Unwrapped".
As a team, we were filmed for two days as we created, prepped and served a Hawaiian luau for about 100 people. I even got to create and execute my own take on Hawaiian dessert...making a beautiful guava mousse coconut cake.
I had so much fun even if the only thing that survived of me from cutting room was where I was blanching vegetables. The shots of my cake were gorgeous, though.
If you'd like to see it, it lives on through the magic of Food TV:
Episode CW1H10
Aloha Edibles
March 08, 2007 7:30 PM ET/PT
:)
Okay--it's taken me DAYS to think of something interesting about myself.
Now that I've thought of something it's not nearly as exciting as crazed!
Anyway, here goes--two stories.
When I was about three or four, I went camping near a lake in the midwest with some friends of my family (no one else in my family was there). I was terrified of the crawdads and when some of the very big boys (probably 13-15 years old) caught some and put them on the ground next to the little kids (where I was), I knew that if I turned my back on the crawdads, they would attack me. I walked very slowly backward, in barefeet, and stepped right on the fire. I don't remember the pain, just being very cold when my foot was placed in the bucket of ice water for a very long time.
Okay, after typing that story, I totally forgot my other interesting story. I'll remember it tonight and then have to tell all my co-workers tomorrow!
Allee, tell us the other interesting story now too!
When I was three or four (probably four because I remember this), my parents had a birthday party for my sis and I... we're in the same month, and not even a year apart.
Somehow they rented a pony and I was barefoot and the fucker stepped on my bare foot and made me cry and ruined my whole day!
There was also a princess bride dressed up who in later years I found out it was my grandmother, who was walking a duck on a leash.
No lie.
I come from a strange family. Yep.
MM - I've missed you :)
okay ill share a funny story about my life... I (almost) got kicked out of Catholic school when I was in 2nd grade because my mom kept showing up in church braless in see through sundresses (it was the 70's afterall) with her boyfriend who was barely 21... they were not impressed, and if not for that sizable donation my grandmother made I would have missed out on an entire year of Catholic school education...
as a side note it was the first and last time I ever went to Catholic school.
I also went to High School with Cuba Gooding Jr, and my sisters went to school with Thora Birch.
talk soon
g.
My only claim to fame, per say, is being the survivor child of a paranoid schizophrenic mother.
She tried to kill me twice that I "know" of. She believed that I was her sexual rival at the ripe old age of 11. She married the guy whom she believed I was having the affair with. She also thought that he and I were plotting her death for the insurance money (there's insurance money?). My childhood reads like a screenplay to some sick movie.
She kicked me out at 12 and at 17. I stayed out at 17.
She had most people in the community fooled. People like her are master manipulators. I tried to kill myself at 15, and she stood there and watched. Then was disappointed that I couldn't even do that right.
I could tell you stories that would stand your hair on end.
So, what is so unique you ask? The fact that I survived and intend to show my kids a whole different way of life.
BTW. No one but my husband knows this.
I had a gun pulled on me by a cowboy during my very brief stint cohosting a radio show.
When I was 16, my summer job included helping the guys change costumes (in 20 seconds or less) between songs at a stage show in a theme park. I didn't tell my mom.
Do I get bonus points for all those prepositions I used in that sentence? :-)Cmommy
I am a third less humorous than the average person. Seriously. Okay, it's actually because I had a third of my humerus bone removed and replaced with metal (tumor, long story).
And I met Vanilla Ice. Once. Before he was famous.
Let me see, I have tons of funny stories about myself, but what is truly unique?
a) I can fold my tongue in half (front to back) and I can hold it like that without the help of my lip or the roof of my mouth. It is a fun party trick because as soon as I do it everyone usually tries to, but they can't. It sure is funny watching everyone try.
b) I have previously won a manicmom contest
~mw
Oh...I have another small one: I was bit by a Black Widow spider when I was 2...and lived! :-) They are fatal for small children and elderly!!
Hi... Kelli sent me and when I get finished here, I'm going to blog about you. I love your idea to get more comments. Good job.
And, after reading all your comments, I'm thinking... hmmm, I never realized I was so boring!
Interesting things?
When I was young, my dad was stationed in Morocco, so I've been to four continents: NA, SA (I lived in Brazi), Europe (I spent a few weeks in Ireland researching a book) and Africa.
Kelli's story reminded me that my mom was always stressing not to get in the car with a stranger (my dad had left and I was always going up to strange men, wanting to be "their little girl"... understandably she was worried). My grandfather was the fire chief and always picked me up after kindergarten in the fire dept car. Well, one day he couldn't make it, so he sent one of the other firemen to pick me up. I flat refused to get in the car. My teacher told me it was okay, the fireman promised me a kitten if I would just get in... nothing worked. Finally, the school had to call my grandmother on the phone so SHE could tell me it was okay. The fireman told my grandmother, when he got me home, that he felt so sorry for me... I sat as close as I could to the passenger's door and didn't say a word the whole way home! Guess the lesson really took, huh?
Oh... I forgot... I'm probably the only person in the world who cried watching "Toy Story." True story... and my children still laugh at me about it!
You've read my blog, I've sent you the cliff note version of my archive, there isn't much more to tell, except that I had a wonderful week in Florida and went to more Starbucks than I thought possible, and never ordered the same thing twice.
There is one in Florida that still has the Pumpkin pie flavor and I thought of you when I saw it!
I really need MM to post something else, but there is no way I will win her interesting person contest.
I had to think for days, but here are a couple other claims to fame.
I am related to William Blake, the poet.
My grandpa worked for Land-o-Lakes dairy for 30 years so I only buy LOL butter.
No matter how many times I have written or typed the following words, I have trouble spelling them: vacuum, restaraunt and reciept. (see?)
Do you remember those "Books in Brief" (reviews of approx. 100 wds) that used to be featured in the New York Times Sunday Book Review? I've written 2 of them.
Kelli sent me over, too. I thought of two semi-interesting things to reveal to the blogger world:
1. I got engaged to a man whom I had known for just over a month when I was nineteen. He was twenty-six. We have now been married almost three years, are expecting our second child, and are one of the happiest couples I know!
2. On honeymoon with said man, I threw all my raised-Baptist caution to the wind and we went to the nude beach almost every day. And... We had sex on the beach, in broad daylight. Pretty exciting for a straight-laced girl from the Midwest!
I had my picture in the newspaper for the Grand Opening of a pet's comfort station at a rest stop.
When I was growing up my mom bred Shetland Sheepdogs and had them in Dog Shows. She had me in Junior Handling and we had our own club...kinda like 4H for dog handlers.
Anyway our club held fundraisers and used the money that we earned to put in a "comfort station" for pets at the rest stop. It was a retired fire hydrant in a sand box.
So for the grand opening we went there and dedicated it. The "press" wanted a picture of one of the dogs cristening the fire hydrant. My dog was a female and instead of peeing, she decided to dig in the sand.
The caption said something along the lines of "Mandy just couldn't wait to dig in to the new comfort station!"
I was blessed by Pope John Paul II when I was 4 years old. My grandmother scored 4 tickets to stand along somewhere near the parade route when he visited Philadelphia in 1979. She took my uncle, my mom and myself. Once in Philly we got a little lost and security directed us to the wrong place. Instead of being near the parade route we were standing on the curb 2 blocks away from the cathedral where he had said mass. Pope John Paul II walked over to the side of the road, make the Sign of the Cross on my forehead then continued on his way. Since then I have survived 2 major car accidents: 1 killed my father and the other tore a hole in my stomache and I spent 30 hours with stomache acid filling my abdomen before being repaired by a trauma surgeon.
I was on a game show called Crosswits in 1978. In the end, my inability to come up with a word that was "a geometrical" shape (four letters, 3rd letter 'b') resulted in a trip to Vegas instead of Spain. My celebrity "helper" was Marcia Wallace from The Bob Newhart Show.
This is awesome! (And thanks for the plug earlier!)
In high school I once baked some crushed-up laxatives into a batch of chocolate chip cookies to find out who was stealing my lunch every day. The perp had to go home sick in 5th hour from explosive diarrhea. Vindication! ;)
I have a huge phobia of mirrors at night or in dark rooms. I actually cover the one in the bathroom before I go to sleep. If I do have to pass a mirror at night or in the dark I run. If I can't avoid it, I literally feel like I will pass out or lose my mind. Although this probably sounds like I already lost it.
RANDY---
WHAT WORD IS A GEOMETRICAL SHAPE, FOUR LETTERS, THIRD LETTER B???
I'm stumped!
This should be my next contest question! LOL!
We're getting there folks! Almost time for a winner!
Cube. It's a cube.
And wow, some people that I didn't even know were reading my blog came over here. :) So there you go. More traffic for ya.
So many people have shared much more interesting things. So we can get to 100, here's mine...
I have broken my collar bone 3x.
Every other year from the age of 2 - 12 I had some major accident occur (collar bone 3 times, went through a glass door, stepped on a nail (doesn't seem like much until they have to give you a shit load of shots for the rust), cut my finger and had stiches). I was a major tomb boy as a child, not just a klutz. lol
Oh and MY child - NO accidents of ANY kind going on 9. Knock on wood. Thank god he didn't take after me!!
Oh, I just can't stand the pressure ... I want to see you get to 100.
So here are a few things;
1) I have almost no body hair - it would actually take me less time to pluck the hair on my legs than to shave it ...
2) I have almost died at least 6 times (3 by water) and yet I am still here .. God has a plan.
3) I have had 7 (or 8?) names, but I have only been married twice (divorced once) and I do not have any sort of criminal record (at all, I am really, really, really boring for someone with soo many AKA’s on her credit report)
4)I actually worry about the chain mail karma thing. What if I don’t send it and something bad happens … I know it’s crazy, but true. I am getting better about not forwarding them, but now I wonder why I got so sick ... hmmm ...
5)I have an incredible memory for useless information. It is sad the things that I can remember about pop-culture, past indiscretions of loved ones, or the likes. But ask me about history or geography and I got nothin’.
6)I laugh when I am really nervous, scared or sad. I hardly ever laugh when something is funny – even if I think it is really funny.
there you go. TMI as usual.
Wow MM, you're so popular! 90th comment as of this one. I don't think I've even broken 50 with any of mine.
I want to help out but I don't think I have anything interesting compared to all these people.
Maybe this is too much info but Hubby and I had sex in one of the offices at the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago.
I am not that exciting.
For those of you who keep saying you're not exciting or you're boring, you are SOOO NOT! I have found this exercise so cool and I really have enjoyed hearing from some of you who don't comment. I'm not expecting anyone to continue to comment if you've not commented before; just want to let you know how much I appreciate you all opening up to me!
It's very cool!
okay here's another one to get your closer to 100...
Just after high school when I had my first real job (as a secretary at 18), I was so poor that I would steal Cup o'noodles from the backroom and eat them secretly in the broom closet... serisouly. I worked for a ramen making company, not the top ramen one but another... sad but true.
g.
Unique story: I once designed a really interesting tattoo to get, but when I went to the bathroom, the tattoo artist accidentally put it on the wrong person.
Unique TRUE story: Whenever something really bad is about to happen, I usually see it in my mind about three seconds before it actually happens. I've avoided more than one car accident this way, and even missed hitting a deer. The only time I did not pay attention, I got hurt in a household accident.
I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada until I was 14 when my dad closed a computer business he and moved as all to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I lived there for 2 years and went to an international school and got to meet people from all over the world. After the 2 years, we moved to Fremont, California for a year and then finally, when I was about to start 12th grade, we moved back to Toronto. So I ended up spending all my high school years in three different countries. That was all about 10 years ago but an amazing experience now that I can look back at it. Funny thing is we've always moved around a lot. After counting it all out, I've been in about 10 different schools from elementary through to the end of high school!
This is such a cool idea for a blog entry - would you mind terribly if I put the same up on my blog? Thanks :)
Wow, I've loved reading these. I'm pretty boring.
I swam a 5K in the ocean.
I coached an olympic swimmer.
I eat nachos for breakfast--I hate cereal, never eat eggs, and can't stand waffles or pancakes.
I once wrecked a girl's car by backing into a pole. I didn't tell her about it, and we all got in the car a couple hours later with a different driver, and he backed into the same pole. No one ever knew that I had done it first. The second driver got all the blame.
I went through a bout of menopause at the age of 22.
No lie. Of course it was drug induced, but still. It gave me great respect for my mother who was also going through menopause.
Hot flashes and mood swings are nothing to play with!
I am a hermit. a real one.
I've really been having fun reading all these comments. I guess I should share something.
Let's see.... I love mullets! I take pictures whenever I see one and am hoping to put them together in a book....a nice coffee table book, LOL! I've recently started taking pictures of El Camino's because I think they're the mullet of cars. Business in the front, party in the back.
I love Boone's Farm "wine", and my husband is too embarassed to buy it.
My friends call me Feminem. I'll leave it at that.
LOL!
I've never been blogger 100 before! I can write with my toes!
I was married on Friday, April 1st in a ruby red wedding dress. And yes, it was for real. The night before, my now husband busted his forehead open, requiring a trip to the ER and stitches and still made it to the rehearsal before me. We went to Italy on our honeymoon with 50 other people and sang at a memorial Mass for Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's...
When I was in high school, I lived in the Soviet Union for 2 years. Well, for 1.5 and then .5 in a brand-new country (Kazakstan). I saw the US flag raised over the embassy there for the very first time. And then stuffed my face with caviar because I have my priorities in this life...
We moved 20 times in the first 9 months of my life...
Yep, it was CUBE. Duh. (Hey, I was under a lot of pressure...and there were bright lights...and cameras...)
Weird first? Grim first? Hm... grim first.
Grim: I saw a man being murdered when I was 11 years old. There was this really odd household across the street from my house. Over a dozen men of a minority persuasion lived together. Every so often I would see a woman emerge from the house with a baby carriage, so I assume there were whole households in there. Yes, I watched the house. Just because it was so bizarre. And I was 11. And we didn't have a TV. Anyway, one night I was sitting on my front porch past sunset when it happened. A man came flying out of the front door of the house and landed hard on the front stoop. Cursing, he picked himself and walked back inside the house. Two seconds later--outside again, flat on his face. He shook his fist at someone in the doorway and made one last attempt. It was the last thing that he ever did. All of the men in the house poured onto the sidewalk. And proceeded to beat the man to death. I stood frozen, watching, and the sound that his skull made when it was smashed against the sidewalk is one that rings in my ears to this day.
Weird: I cannot remember names. At all. I have forgotten the names of best friends of mine when I am asked for them suddenly. I have a distinct, disturbing memory from 2nd grade; we had a substitute teacher who went up and down the rows, asking everyone for their names. I repeated my name--my own name!--over and over in my head, terrified that I would forget it.
And I don't have a blog. I'm not sure if that is yet another weird fact for this crowd. :)
I don't need a prize. And I'm not sure there's anything too interesting about me.
I'm double-jointed in all my fingers and can bend them at insane angles.
I'm blessed enough to get paid for my hobby (writing) as a full-time job.
And I know all the words to all the songs from the movie Grease by heart. And yes, my wife thinks that makes me a huge dork.
I have 3 children. 2 with my ex husband and 1 with my current boyfriend. Number 3 was NOT planned and happened 6 months after my husband left me 5 months pregnant for an 18 year old stripper. Since then, I have hated, loathed, yelled, screamed and divorced that bastard.... Since then, he and his stripper girlfriend broke up, he has become the man I loved again and we had an affair for 6 months which has ended. He has a girlfriend and I have a boyfriend. We are in Buffalo NY and live nicely NOT in a trailer park...lol. Very Jerry Springer, I know. I would not trade my kids or my situation for the world. It has made me who I am. I am thankful for my divorce and all the misery I felt for years. Oh and did I mention I am only 30 years old? I have been away from my ex husband for 4 years. eek.
Oh and I have friends that I have had for 15 years who love me more than my family. My mother passed away 1.5 years ago and my father now lives in Florida, alone. After his girlfriend died suddenly of a brain aneurism. that girlfriend is who he left my mother for. She had cancer when he left. When she died my mother would have preferred to be with my ex husbands girlfriend, than me. I blame the drugs for clouding her judgement. I miss her everyday. I hate the ex stripper girlfriend more everyday.
hmmm, sorta depressing... but interesting nonetheless...lol!
I memorized the entire Muslim Holy Book the Qur'an word for word, and found it not to be as intolerant as FOX news would like to have me believe...
Hmmm nice blog...put on my favorite 4 sure...
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