Saturday, January 14, 2006

Four Things I've Not Been Tagged To Write About

Or maybe I have been and just missed it? I think a lot of the tagging for this meme happened while I was away from blogging in the transition into this blog. At any rate, I want to do this meme, and so I'm doing it. I've got to get all of the whinging about evaluations off the top of the blog. It's just too depressing. And so.....

Four Jobs You've Had

1. Frozen Yogurt Slinger at the Mall. Remember when frozen yogurt places were all the rage? Back in the good old early 90s when we all believed that by eliminating fat in food we would eliminate fat on our bodies? Wow. Those were the days.
2. Telephone operator at a Very Large Building named after a Non-U.S. Oil Company situated on a Great Lake. This was a fantastic job. I worked there for approximately two months, getting the job through a temp agency after arguing with my stepdad and quitting working for the family business (see #3). Why was this job fantastic? 1) The ONLY thing we had to do was answer the phone. It was just five of us locked in a little room. We were encouraged to do whatever we wanted when the phone wasn't ringing, which meant that I a) polished my nails; b) read almost all of Margaret Drabble's novels for the first time; c) did LOADS of research about graduate school. 2) The building is located across from the main branch of the big public library. Guess where I spent most lunch hours?
3. Vegetable Salesperson at Cleveland's West Side Market. The market? Awesome. Not so awesome? Being told how much "fun" it must be to a) lift heavy crates of vegetables; b) sort through the vegetables throwing out the rotten ones; c) being allergic to eggplant stems, which poke at you, and getting a horrible lesion on your "selling arm" from repeated eggplant attacks on you; d) customers who try to cheat you. But it was alright while it lasted, and I'll never forget the experience of having done it for two summers.
4. Transcription Typist of Psychological Evaluations on Juvenile Delinquents and People who've had their children taken away by the state and who are seeking to go on disability. This is another one of those jobs that I got via temping. Might I just say that I think temping is an experience that everybody should have? Some of my most interesting jobs were from temping.... These two that made the list are just the most unusual of them.

Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over

1. Any John Hughes/Molly Ringwald collaboration. This only gets one number, for obvious reasons, I think. But yes, I could and have watched these movies over and over and over....
2. Bull Durham. I kind of hate Kevin Costner, and I really - in spite of efforts to change my attitude - hate Tim Robbins, but baseball + a community college teacher who quotes Walt Whitman = a good time.
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In part because I teach it, and so I've got to watch it at least once a year. But I really like the movie. And I felt like I needed something a little less.... low-brow than my first two selections and what I'm sure will be a final low-brow selection. I'm not much of an afficionado when it comes to movies.
4. Mona Lisa Smile. I can't articulate why this movie captivates me, but nevertheless any time I see the opportunity to watch it on cable, I watch the thing. It's kind of fucked up, actually.

Four Places You've Lived

1. City on a Lake with the distinction of being home to a totally non-politically-correct Chief Wahoo.
2. City on a Lake with the distinction of being home to two baseball teams.
3. City on an ocean with the distinction of being home to the Boston Fucking Red Socks. (Die, Johnny Damon, Die)
4. City on a river with the distinction of being home to The Big Red Machine.

Four TV Shows You Love to Watch

1. America's Next Top Model
2. House
3. Buffy (in syndication)
4. Ummm..... Well, I find myself watching Austin City Limits a lot on PBS (It's on like 15 times a week here)

Four Places You've Been on Vacation

Ok, this one doesn't work for me. I've only been on like one vacation since I turned 18 (i.e., a trip that did not involve a) visiting family or friends or b) giving a conference paper). How pathetic is that? Want to feel even sorrier for me? That "vacation" when I was 18 was to Hilton Head, and I was with like 8 other people, and it consisted of getting shit-faced every night and laying out every day. And by the end of it we all hated each other. I talk to no one that went on that vacation. Vacations are for losers.

Four Blogs I Read All the Time
1. Bitch PhD
2. Confessions of a Community College Dean
3. Playing School, Irreverently
4. New Kid on the Hallway.

I am far too lazy to do the links to everybody. Go to the blogroll, why don't you, people!

Four of Your Favorite Foods
1. Icecream
2. Chicken Paprikash
3. Any Incarnation of the Potato
4. Malfoof (lebanese stuffed cabbage)

Four Places You'd Rather Be
1. Italy
2. Ireland
3. Lebanon (I've not yet been, but the family is after me to go)
4. Hungary (This summer, baby! Hungary, here I come!)

Four Albums You Can't Live Without
1. Astral Weeks by Van Morrison
2. Rid of Me by PJ Harvey
3. Exile in Guyville by Liz Phair
4. 69 Love Songs by Magnetic Fields (which is kind of cheating, as it's 3 CDs, which is why I put it on here. But if I had to pick a traditional "album" I suppose I would go with... Hell, I don't know. I'm sticking with the cheating choice.)

4 Vehicles You've Owned
1. 1980 Chevette Hatchback that cost $300.
2. 1984 Toyota Corolla.
3. 198? Audi that was bought for under a grand at a police auction that I was given by my step-dad when the 1984 corolla's doors rusted shut and you had to get in and out via the windows. It had something massively wrong with its exhaust system and sounded like a spaceship when you drove it and it smelled funny, too.
4. 1998 Toyota Corolla.

And, since everybody in the free world but me has already done this, I tag no one. Let me pronounce this meme officially dead (unless of course, you'd like to be late to the four things party, too, and then, of course, by all means....)

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

woah, did you grow up in cleveland?!? i'm from akron. i would ask where you went to HS but you'd blow your cover, so whatevs. i just have this bizarre surge of midwestern pride right now.

Susanna said...

Hungary(!) what a nice place and cheap as hell. If you have a cat, be nice and bring him/her some KITEKAT pouches; you will be worshipped for all eternity.

La Lecturess said...

I JUST re-watched Bull Durham, for the first time in a long time. And you know, it really SHOULDN'T be that great of a movie--Kevin Costner's acting is pretty weak, and I also dislike Robbins--but, somehow, it is.

And I'm mad now that I forgot Liz Phair for my own top-4 list. When I had only a 3-CD changer, I'd put in her first three albums and listen to them for days straight.

Charles Montgomery said...

"Vacations are for losers?"

Bitter much? ;-)

You have to pick your vacations. I just got back from three excellent weeks in Seoul and am planning to go back to Seoul and then Rome early this summer.

In fact, as I work on my MA I may turn my second Seoul vacation into a teaching year over there.

My rules for a good vacation

1) Go with friends of longstanding or go by yourself.

2) Drink *less* than you do at home

3) Try every food they offer you (Unless you're some kind of mentally crippled up Vegan). On the last vacation I had "live" octopus tentacles, coagulated pig's blood, and most of the lower intestine of a lamb. So maybe you might disregard this "rule." ;-)

4) Understand you might get sick now and then

5) Don't go for fewer than 10 days

6) Meet a local if you can

7) Drinking establishments are great places to meet people (subject to rule #2)

8) Bring a camera

9) If it's foreign, know at least 10 words of the language unless it's France in which case they will hate you no matter how good your language is.

10) Vacation far away, or it's just a 'trip.'

11) Learn about your vacation site before you go.

As as semi-academic I also try to take pictures and write about every vacation just because it allows me to get perspective on the vacation as it is going on.

Korea is here:
here

Chaser said...

I hope you get to Lebanon. It's lovely.

Tara Kuther said...

Hey - I like Johnny Damon now. ;-)

You're so cool - you had the General Lee (sort of)

Scrivener said...

Oh, I forgot to include my temping jobs when I did my meme! [sound of hand slapping forehead]

I don't know as I have quite as many rules as rwellor up there, but it's true that perhaps it's not so much vacations are for losers as vacations like that one are for losers. You should try it again now as a super-cool adult. I think I could make a pretty good guess that you'd be a blast to travel with.

Seeking Solace said...

I love House. He is such a SOB, but you can't help watching.

I also love those 80's movies. My husband and I often quote lines from the Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles!

Psycgirl said...

I love Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - it actually made me cry, and I'm not a movie-cryer

Psycgirl said...

Hmm... did that comment post twice? I hope not. That would be rude. My bad if it did.

USJogger said...

Dr. C.,

I jumped into the meme, too, just so you wouldn't be the very last one on the planet. You can find my entries here.



USJogger