I Was Kinda Tagged...
Retrophisch had a blog "tag" but did it very politely by mentioning that his readers didn't have to do it and he wouldn't tag them...but I'm pretty sure he'd want me to follow his meme of a few days ago. So, without further adieu:
Eight things you probably didn’t know about me...
The rules:
Link to your tagger and post these rules.
List EIGHT random facts about yourself.
Tag EIGHT people at the end of your post and list their names.
Let them know they’ve been tagged (I won't be tagging anyone in Retrophisch's example, but feel free to have at it, patrons).
1. I have never smoked anything. Ever. Really. Not a pipe. Not a cigar. Not a cigarette. Not pot. Nothing. My dad smoked and I got it in my head at an early age somehow that this was a nasty habit and didn't bother. I've been tempted at bachelor parties and on several occasions when former students wanted me to smoke a celebratory cigar after their graduations...but the situations never worked out.
2. I was voted "Most Unpredictable" in the high school yearbook and "Most Changed" at my high school's 20-year reunion. Actually, the two guys that were actually voted "Most Unpredictable" ahead of me wound up either getting suspended and/or changed high schools by the time they took the yearbook photos and I finished third. But my photo is there. At the 20-year reunion, most of my classmates hadn't seen me 70 pounds heavier than my last day of high school or the goatee or ponytail. A far different look than my senior class president days with the W.A. Berry High School Buccaneers.
3. I can juggle surprisingly well. Sure, most of my students have seen it at one point or another, but very few people who know me know that I can go behind the back, over the shoulder, off knees, "hackysack" type and all sorts of changes in speed and rhythm.
4. I haven't had a traffic ticket since the week after I got my license at age 16. No kidding. I got one showing off in front of friends early on and realized the stupidity of that little misdemeanor/money waste. I've been pulled over a handful of times for "slow rolling" stop signs and once for 47 in a 40...and I got a warning for pulling off the interstate and onto the service road via the grass between the two during a traffic jam and my kids had to go to the restroom. But no tickets. I'm a pretty defensive driver.
5. I've seen 4 professional wrestling championship bouts. Ric Flair vs. Nikita Koloff for the championship of the NWA. Hulk Hogan vs. Bad News Brown for the WWF championship. Tag teams Road Warriors vs. The Midnight Express (with manager Jim Cornett) in a scaffold match. And finally Lex Luger vs. Sting for a later NWA championship. Each and every night I had a blast. Of course, all of them were 20 or so years ago...I have no idea how that would play out now.
6. I once spent about 45 minutes with Motley Crue. The Crue had just released their "Shout at the Devil" album and was playing Birmingham. They were doing a record signing at the Turtle's Records & Tapes next door to the movie theatre I worked for. I was working that day and a huge crowd gathered early in front of the store and they called police and all that jazz to help keep order. Anyway, the record store manager asked if we could let them in our back theatre and walk them down the hallway our businesses shared to get the band into the store safely. Our manager agreed and put me on it--which didn't take any arm-twisting on his part. I let them into the theatre back door from their limo and got them seated about an hour before the signing. I got them popcorn and cokes and such and sat with them while they watched a part of "Bachelor Party" with Tom Hanks in it. Literally, I sat there with them (they actually watched the movie like they'd paid to see it. They certainly didn't appear to be hard-driving partying rock stars. they just ate popcorn and watched the comedy like everybody else) and when they walkie talkied me to bring them to the record store I walked with them and let them in. Later, they had the manager give me their two records as thanks (unsigned, which I thought was odd)...but what made me happiest was about two weeks later when the store manager showed me a photo of them signing Tina Donze's chest--and seeing one of your classmates chest/bra--even in a photo--was pretty great as a high school junior.
7. My mom let me and three friends go to Auburn when I was 15 and I drove her Chevy Citation! I'd been driving my mom's car to the store (about a mile, if that) for errands for about a year...so by the time I got my permit I'd driven a bunch on my own, and nearly 8 months after I got my learner's permit I'd been driving a TON in my neighborhood. Due to our family dynamics with my dad gone I'd been driving to school a lot on my own to school and around my little suburb by myself, too. Often I'd get to use my grandmother's Caprice (Hal better remember the snow day we drove home down Columbiana!) Classic on weekends. Anyway, I'd gotten four tickets on the 50 yard line to Auburn's first night game ever and all my rides fell through. My mom felt sorry for me and told me that I could drive to Auburn (about two hours of interstate time) as long as Frankie rode with us (he was 16). So, at age 15, me and Baker and Hal and Frankie headed off to AU, watched the game and drove back...even if we took the long way back by simply going with the flow of traffic--an entirely different route than we took to get there.
8. I was about to take a job as a mortgage banker about 12 hours before I got started in youth ministry. See, I'd graduated college in three years, planning on going to Dallas Seminary. Well, I'd dropped out (very long story, involving a combination of the stock market crash in 87 and my bad attitude towards the dress code among other things) of seminary and was unemployed for nearly 4 months. I lived at home, engaged and was getting married soon. Well, I was getting ready to start work in April for a mortgage banker and was going in to fill out the final paperwork to start work in a week, when they called and said they'd lost all my paperwork and not to come in until they found it. They called a couple of times to let me know they were still working on it. In the meantime, my former youth minister called and said one of his staffers had resigned and the job was mine if I wanted it. Oddly, I still told Tracy I should hold out for the bank to get the paperwork in order. She knew me well enough to know that I'd not only make a lousy mortgage banker, but also that I'd be miserable. She had to talk me into doing the very job I had been going to seminary to train for.
So, what 8 things do we need to know about you?
Retrophisch had a blog "tag" but did it very politely by mentioning that his readers didn't have to do it and he wouldn't tag them...but I'm pretty sure he'd want me to follow his meme of a few days ago. So, without further adieu:
Eight things you probably didn’t know about me...
The rules:
Link to your tagger and post these rules.
List EIGHT random facts about yourself.
Tag EIGHT people at the end of your post and list their names.
Let them know they’ve been tagged (I won't be tagging anyone in Retrophisch's example, but feel free to have at it, patrons).
1. I have never smoked anything. Ever. Really. Not a pipe. Not a cigar. Not a cigarette. Not pot. Nothing. My dad smoked and I got it in my head at an early age somehow that this was a nasty habit and didn't bother. I've been tempted at bachelor parties and on several occasions when former students wanted me to smoke a celebratory cigar after their graduations...but the situations never worked out.
2. I was voted "Most Unpredictable" in the high school yearbook and "Most Changed" at my high school's 20-year reunion. Actually, the two guys that were actually voted "Most Unpredictable" ahead of me wound up either getting suspended and/or changed high schools by the time they took the yearbook photos and I finished third. But my photo is there. At the 20-year reunion, most of my classmates hadn't seen me 70 pounds heavier than my last day of high school or the goatee or ponytail. A far different look than my senior class president days with the W.A. Berry High School Buccaneers.
3. I can juggle surprisingly well. Sure, most of my students have seen it at one point or another, but very few people who know me know that I can go behind the back, over the shoulder, off knees, "hackysack" type and all sorts of changes in speed and rhythm.
4. I haven't had a traffic ticket since the week after I got my license at age 16. No kidding. I got one showing off in front of friends early on and realized the stupidity of that little misdemeanor/money waste. I've been pulled over a handful of times for "slow rolling" stop signs and once for 47 in a 40...and I got a warning for pulling off the interstate and onto the service road via the grass between the two during a traffic jam and my kids had to go to the restroom. But no tickets. I'm a pretty defensive driver.
5. I've seen 4 professional wrestling championship bouts. Ric Flair vs. Nikita Koloff for the championship of the NWA. Hulk Hogan vs. Bad News Brown for the WWF championship. Tag teams Road Warriors vs. The Midnight Express (with manager Jim Cornett) in a scaffold match. And finally Lex Luger vs. Sting for a later NWA championship. Each and every night I had a blast. Of course, all of them were 20 or so years ago...I have no idea how that would play out now.
6. I once spent about 45 minutes with Motley Crue. The Crue had just released their "Shout at the Devil" album and was playing Birmingham. They were doing a record signing at the Turtle's Records & Tapes next door to the movie theatre I worked for. I was working that day and a huge crowd gathered early in front of the store and they called police and all that jazz to help keep order. Anyway, the record store manager asked if we could let them in our back theatre and walk them down the hallway our businesses shared to get the band into the store safely. Our manager agreed and put me on it--which didn't take any arm-twisting on his part. I let them into the theatre back door from their limo and got them seated about an hour before the signing. I got them popcorn and cokes and such and sat with them while they watched a part of "Bachelor Party" with Tom Hanks in it. Literally, I sat there with them (they actually watched the movie like they'd paid to see it. They certainly didn't appear to be hard-driving partying rock stars. they just ate popcorn and watched the comedy like everybody else) and when they walkie talkied me to bring them to the record store I walked with them and let them in. Later, they had the manager give me their two records as thanks (unsigned, which I thought was odd)...but what made me happiest was about two weeks later when the store manager showed me a photo of them signing Tina Donze's chest--and seeing one of your classmates chest/bra--even in a photo--was pretty great as a high school junior.
7. My mom let me and three friends go to Auburn when I was 15 and I drove her Chevy Citation! I'd been driving my mom's car to the store (about a mile, if that) for errands for about a year...so by the time I got my permit I'd driven a bunch on my own, and nearly 8 months after I got my learner's permit I'd been driving a TON in my neighborhood. Due to our family dynamics with my dad gone I'd been driving to school a lot on my own to school and around my little suburb by myself, too. Often I'd get to use my grandmother's Caprice (Hal better remember the snow day we drove home down Columbiana!) Classic on weekends. Anyway, I'd gotten four tickets on the 50 yard line to Auburn's first night game ever and all my rides fell through. My mom felt sorry for me and told me that I could drive to Auburn (about two hours of interstate time) as long as Frankie rode with us (he was 16). So, at age 15, me and Baker and Hal and Frankie headed off to AU, watched the game and drove back...even if we took the long way back by simply going with the flow of traffic--an entirely different route than we took to get there.
8. I was about to take a job as a mortgage banker about 12 hours before I got started in youth ministry. See, I'd graduated college in three years, planning on going to Dallas Seminary. Well, I'd dropped out (very long story, involving a combination of the stock market crash in 87 and my bad attitude towards the dress code among other things) of seminary and was unemployed for nearly 4 months. I lived at home, engaged and was getting married soon. Well, I was getting ready to start work in April for a mortgage banker and was going in to fill out the final paperwork to start work in a week, when they called and said they'd lost all my paperwork and not to come in until they found it. They called a couple of times to let me know they were still working on it. In the meantime, my former youth minister called and said one of his staffers had resigned and the job was mine if I wanted it. Oddly, I still told Tracy I should hold out for the bank to get the paperwork in order. She knew me well enough to know that I'd not only make a lousy mortgage banker, but also that I'd be miserable. She had to talk me into doing the very job I had been going to seminary to train for.
So, what 8 things do we need to know about you?
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