Michael's Random Things

From Michael:

In the due course of time, the unthinkable has happened. Compelled by love and in direct opposition to statements made both internally to self and verbally to others, I will now compose a blog post of his own to satisfy a promise he made to his bride nearly two weeks ago now. The goal was fun and though time has eroded most of that, if the Lord wills it...Here goes.

Six random things about me:

1. I take it as a great point of pride to have won first place in the written Latin test category at the Oklahoma Junior Classical League competition in high school. I still have the trophy. Don't ask me to speak Latin because I can't. It is the closest I have ever come to some sort of sports victory.

2. In another life, I might have been a flamenco guitarist in Spain. I like playing, but have never gotten past basic chords. I still keep 2 guitars, though I doubt I'll ever have time to get really good at it. Plus, it doesn't help that flamenco is arguably the hardest style. It's the passion that moves me: the singing, the playing, the dancing, the clapping!!! I am fond of Sevillanas! Google it. It will move you! I will make it to Andalusia one day!

3. When I turned 16, my parents blessed me with a car, a Honda Prelude (standard transmission). Though a series of unfortunate events, I could not drive a stick shift when my birthday rolled around. Thus, when I turned 16, every day for a week or two, I would come home from school and practice driving around the neighborhood in my car, killing the car every time I came to a stop sign until finally I figured out how to operate the clutch. It was so embarrassing.

4. One time when I was living in Chicago for a summer, someone convinced me it would be great idea to try my hand at rollerblading. I had brought these really expensive roller blades from Tulsa where I had bought them to impress a girl I dated for a total of 2-4 weeks, depending on your reckoning. I had never learned but a friend convinced me it was easy. He took me to a rink to practice for a couple hours. I almost killed a few children by crashing into the "kiddie area," but that's another story. The next day, he decided the next logical step for such an accomplished skater was to traverse downtown Chicago on roller blades. This was the most terrifying experience of my life up to that point. I can't count how many times I fell or how many cuts and bruises I had on my body after that. I ran into several taxis and almost fell into Lake Michigan with clunky roller blades on (not safe). On the way, I ran into a Warner Brothers security guy telling me I couldn't ride across a bridge because they were filming "Batman Begins."

5. I am a roller coaster fanatic. I had posters on my wall as a kid of theme parks around the country I wanted to visit. I have a dream of making it to Cedar Point, OH. This is the mother load for roller coasters, if you didn't know. Due to my parents' choices in vacations over the years, I have a difficult time imagining a "big" vacation as anything other than a trip to an amusement park and a major league baseball game with a trip to the motel pool, of course. The motel was always half the fun, at least. I still get giddy when I walk into a hotel, even on business. It always feels like vacation.

6. Amongst all the costumes I had for Halloween over the years, one of the ones that sticks out in my mind most was when I was maybe 6 or 7 my mom made me a robot costume. It was made out of a cardboard box and aluminum foil with some flair made out of extra cardboard and a plastic lightning bolt that attached to my head that I'm sure she picked up out of the bargain bin somewhere because we didn't have much and I remember being confused even then why it went with my robot theme. But, she constructed an argument only a 6 year old would think reasonable and I had a great time.

Ok, that was indeed more fun than I expected. Love you, Karen. Spray on freshness lovers, spray on (private joke).