You Think You Know Me

Since I’m still getting over the new year’s ick, I think it’s time for a meme. Kate tagged me to come up with five things you don’t already know about me. I’ve done this once before, and I can’t even remember what I wrote, so I guess this time I’d better dig deep to think up some juicy tidbits to make it worth reading.

Five Things You Didn’t Know About Me (pre-mommy days):

1. I’ve been “kidnapped” once in my life, and nearly kidnapped a second time. The first time wasn’t technically a kidnapping, since it was by my father, while my parents were still married, but just after mom asked for a divorce. I was a year old, so of course I don’t remember any of it, and the entire ordeal lasted a day or two. The second time was when I was eight, I think, and it was a stranger trying to kidnap me as I walked to my babysitter’s house from the community pool. It was a very scary experience, and changed the way I thought about people. I can tell the story one of these days, if you’d like.

2. I am an uber klutz. In fifth grade, I broke my arm because I was late for my patrol stop. Fifth graders were allowed to serve as crossing guards for the other kids, and that morning I was running a little late, so I took off running for my assigned intersection, carrying my pole with the little crosswalk flag on the end. Back then, the poles were long poles – I’m one of the reasons the State of Ohio shortened the poles. As I was running, somehow the pole got caught up in my legs, and I crashed down onto the sidewalk face-first, with my very heavy bookbag falling forward onto my head and left arm. My mom didn’t think I was hurt, but took me to the hospital just to be sure. Turns out, my arm was broken, and I had to go back to class that day and tell the entire class how I broke my arm. It was humiliating.

3. I was clipped by a British billy-club once. I spent a summer in England going to school, and it happened to be the same summer for the Euro ’96 soccer tournament. Arguably, the most famous game of that summer was England vs. Scotland. It was the first time they had played each other in many, many years, and my friends and I watched the game at the local pub in London. After Scotland lost, there were reports that the Scots fans were gathering in Trafalgar Square and rioting, so of course I grabbed my camera and decided to go be a part of the action, just for fun. (Note: my friends thought me crazy, and did not tag along. They were the smart ones.)

When I got to the square, it was a sea of people in kilts and tartans, many drunk, a few belligerent, but most in a cheerful mood as they climbed onto Nelson’s monument, held up the Scottish flag and sang songs (I have great pics of this, but they’re not scanned yet). Then the police arrived in riot gear, and things turned ugly. By that point, the police had surrounded the square, and no one was allowed in or out, so I was trapped with them. A few of the belligerent ones started throwing beer bottles at the cops, and in return the police would occasionally rush the crowd in a line, hitting everyone they could. I didn’t run fast enough one of the times, and was barely hit in the back by one of their clubs. Not hard enough to do damage, but it did sting.

4. The song Summer Nights from Grease caused me to get into a car accident once. Aaron and I were dating at the time, and we really enjoyed singing duets from musicals while in the car for long drives. When this song came on, we both really got into singing the parts, and so right at the best part of the song (when all the background singers are singing along as well), neither of us noticed the car in front of us suddenly stop to turn left until it was too late. I hit the brakes as hard as I could, which prevented major damage, but we still hit the car with a solid thump. Thankfully, there was no visible damage, and insurance did not need to be notified.

5. The very first time I ever got drunk was not by choice. I was 16, and a friend was throwing a New Year’s Eve party, with her parents gone for the night. I had gone to the bathroom while she and my other friends were mixing up the punch, and so I didn’t see them pour all of the alcohol into the punch. Now, you should know at this point that I really like punch. So as I took a drink from the first glass of the night, I thought it tasted funny and asked them what was in it. They, of course, realized just then that I had never had alcohol before. “Have you ever had pineapple juice,” they asked. “No, not really,” I replied. They convinced me it was the pineapple and other tropical juices I was tasting, and I believed them.

Many, many glasses later, I was drunk, and seriously flirting with a guy over 4 years older than me. And I barely remember that night, save for the pictures everyone took. Nothing scandalous happened – my clothing remained on, and I only got one kiss from the guy, but it certainly took me out of my shy-girl shell. It’s one of only two times in my life when I’ve ever had so much alcohol I didn’t remember everything – the other time is a story for another day.

So, was that interesting enough to keep your attention?