That ten-things meme ...

[apocalypsos]

Ten things I've done that you might not have:

1. Gotten a phone call from Italy from Roberto Benigni's assistant.
2. Bent my ankle sideways at a 95-degree angle and sprained it to the point where the ER doctor said I'd have been better off breaking it, then didn't walk right for four months.
3. Tied a cherry stem in a knot with my tongue on my first try in less than a minute.
4. Never broken a bone.
5. Had an uncle who interviewed Paul McCartney, Ellen Degeneres, Chris Rock, Elton John, and lots of other famous people. (He was a music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle.)
6. Ran away from home for five days after I flunked out of college.
7. Had a llama sneeze on me.
8. Convinced a stranger hitting on me in a movie theater that I was a new mother of triplets on my first night out by myself in months when I was eighteen. (Then ran into the same guy three years later in Borders and still managed to keep my cover story straight.)
9. Had my mother go to a PGA Tour game and seriously consider taking a banana peel Tiger Woods threw into a garbage can and selling it on Ebay.
10. Had a physically painful nightmare about a pair of tall buildings exploding a month or so before September 11th.

Comments

[psubrat.livejournal.com]

10. Had a physically painful nightmare about a pair of tall buildings exploding a month or so before September 11th.

I just had to comment when I saw this. I had dreams for a month about planes crashing into buildings and into the ground. They were so bad that I'd wake up gasping for breath and wondering what the hell games my mind was playing (I've always had a phobia of flying, but I wasn't flying anywhere so there was no need for my subconscious to be working over time). Also, the night before 9/11, I was up til 4 am because I just couldn't take having the same dream again and again.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Most of what I remember in retrospect about that dream was that in it, I was on the highway driving towards a city with two towers featured prominently, and the next thing I knew, they were exploding and everything went white and incredibly hot. I practically shot out of bed and stripped down to my underwear because I felt like I was on fire -- the only reason I didn't take a cold shower is because I was staying with my aunt and cousin at the time and the bedroom I was staying in exited into my aunt's bedroom. I had to pace around for a good fifteen minutes just to cool myself down.

[the-lizard-rat.livejournal.com]

Closest I can remotely come is I bent my foot frontwards at a near 90-degree angle when I took a mis-step on the stairs and almost snapped a lot of bones in my foot in half like a twig.

Lizard Rat out.
Bonebreaker in New Haven CT

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

The way I did it was so incredibly stupid. I tried to jump over a dried-up creek bed and ended up falling in instead. My mother spent the rest of the night saying I didn't need to go to the ER until she saw my ankle was four times the size it was supposed to be.

[the-lizard-rat.livejournal.com]

Ditto. Didn't feel like I needed to go, but my friends talked me into it, saying I "might have been in shock" --- hurt like hell and was hugely swollen, so being in shock wasn't out of the question. Even now, 3 months later, it looks mostly dislocated, despite the fact I can put full weight on it.

*gets bored, sees you have Tarot listed as an interest* Send me an IM; I can give you a reading before the end of the week if you want one.

Lizard Rat out.
Ankle-licious in New Haven CT

[abbylee]

I hurt my ankle (jumping down two steps) a few years ago in June. I can't remember how long it took to recover, but I know that it was past September before I could easily shave in the shower. (Mostly because I hurt it while I was away at camp and I remember still struggling once I returned home.)

I didn't think it was that bad either, but I was dragged to the nurses station where they decided I was in shock because I was calm and pale. Which is funny because, well, my mother complains every time she sees me that I'm too calm and pale. I don't tan (and happily keep my skin healthy that way) and don't get excited over much (because what good would that do?).

Anyway, it will likely take a while longer to start feeling normal again. I hope it recovers nicely for you :D

[welfy.livejournal.com]

I've never broken a bone. But those other things on your list are very remarkable!

[loesaurus.livejournal.com]

In the months preceding 9/11 I had a dream I got to a town I was unfamiliar with, only to find that it's two tallest buildings were on fire. I've just never mentioned it until now. Incredible. Anyway - you have a very well-rounded life!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Leave it to me to pounce on the least remarkable thing on the list (that dream, damn), but--

3. Tied a cherry stem in a knot with my tongue on my first try in less than a minute.

The supersekrit story I'm working on right now just happens to involve a cocktail waitress who can tie cherry stems with her tongue. Got any inside tips? I hear it involves nibbling the stem pliant. And is it possible to tie a stem into a bow?

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

I've done 3 and 4. And dude, 8? You kick ass.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I usually catch the smaller knobby end between my teeth because it's easier to take the bigger one and twist it around into a knot that way. I don't know if it helps that I can roll my tongue, but it sure seems to. Oh, and getting the stem pliant like that helps immensely.

As for tying it into a bow ... huh. I wonder. I've never done it before, but now I'm tempted to pick up cherries this weekend specifically to try.

[silent-sybil.livejournal.com]

2. Bent my ankle sideways at a 95-degree angle and sprained it to the point where the ER doctor said I'd have been better off breaking it, then didn't walk right for four months.

4. Never broken a bone.

Ooh, maybe your bones are just extra bendy. ^_^

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

4 was a stretch. I probably should have added "officially," since it's possible I broke a finger and a toe and just never bothered to go to the ER and get them fixed. The toe, I dropped a heavy clay bin lid on. I hurt the finger playing volleyball with a balloon at my best friend's house one Halloween.

The guy whose hand I jammed it into was her cousin, this tall muscular guy I kept running into and hurting myself against. I think that was the same grade where I ran into him one gym period playing Ultimate Frisbee, went flying backwards through the air, and slammed my head so hard against the hardwood gym floor, the school nurse was sure I'd gotten a concussion or would need a CAT scan or something. Well, until I got up and practically stalked off to the nurse's office to get examined and get her off my back. Hee. I have a hard head. :)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Heh. All in the name of art, my friend.

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

D'know, I've never even tried this cherry-stem thing. Are you supposed to chew on it before you put it in your mouth? Hmm.

Also.

4. Never broken a bone.
Me neither! I drink my milk!

I did something similar to #8 - I had a friend who "adopted" me during college as his little sister, and we convinced people all over campus that we were really related - we got so good we could talk about each other's childhoods. Heh.

#10 - is just crazy. Wow. Do you have any Scottish ancestors?

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

D'know, I've never even tried this cherry-stem thing. Are you supposed to chew on it before you put it in your mouth? Hmm.

The cherry stem thing, I did for the first time on the spur of the moment at a family Christmas party. At least I have the kind of family who's vastly amused by that. :)

And yeah, you just give it a few nibbles to make it bendy before tying it.

#10 - is just crazy. Wow. Do you have any Scottish ancestors?

Hmm ... I'm not sure. I'm over a quarter German, but as for the rest, I know English, Irish, Russian, Polish, and a little Cherokee. I have little bouts of deja vu all the time (hell, I had a little one tonight watching Judging Amy -- I recognized a scene I'd never seen before that wasn't in the commercials word-for-word in a new episode) but nothing like that dream. It was the worst nightmare I ever had.

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

It sounds like it was awful. It totally reminds me of the Scottish "second sight" (have you ever read the Emily of New Moon series?) but maybe it's your Cherokee or something coming out.

Also (and off topic) - Next month (approximately) I am going to organize a meet-up of some DC area LJers - not a huge thing, just people on my f-list and anyone on their f-lists who are from DC. I think I've got about 4 people or so already. Are you interested?

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

OMG I love your icon.

That is all.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Hee, thanks. You can steal it if you like, just credit me :)

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

I hurt the finger playing volleyball with a balloon at my best friend's house one Halloween.

I've done that! Balloons are the coolest toys ever, I swear. Especially when they're blown up just a little too much so the knotted end kind of sticks out and it doesn't bounce right. (Babysitting has taught me much about such things...)

[secretbutterfly.livejournal.com]

1. Gotten a phone call from Italy from Roberto Benigni's assistant.
Ok. Did Roberto want you to review Pinnocchio or something? I must know. *nods*
5. Had an uncle who interviewed Paul McCartney, Ellen Degeneres, Chris Rock, Elton John, and lots of other famous people. (He was a music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle.)
Ooooh, I bet I've read his articles then! Does he still write for the Chronicle?

[hellziggy.livejournal.com]

4. Never broken a bone.
Me either, although I did have a doctor saw off a piece of one, move it over a little, and screw it back down.

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Awesome! Or I might just steal the part where Orli is kissing Viggo. HOTT.

[mon-of-the-dead.livejournal.com]

Here via friendsfriends.

We live on the west coast, and on the morning of September 11th, my mother got up at around 5 or so in the morning to take some aspirin. She went back to lay down, and as she closed her eyes and turned her head east she said she "had a sudden vision of what I thought were cliffs made of glass. They were on fire, and people were falling from them."

A few mintues later, my father gets up and turns on the news, only to see the Twin Towers burning. To this day, my mother is certain she "saw" the attack as it was happening. Creepy.

[gamiila.livejournal.com]

2. Bent my ankle sideways at a 95-degree angle and sprained it to the point where the ER doctor said I'd have been better off breaking it, then didn't walk right for four months.

OMG - that's exactly what I have done last October, and I'm still limping along now in February...But it did heal in the end, didn't it?

[robling-t.livejournal.com]

10. Had a physically painful nightmare about a pair of tall buildings exploding a month or so before September 11th.

I dreamed of the ash, snowing down like fallout outside the big windows of a corporate-sized lobby that had been set up with Red Cross cots. The strangest part, considered in retrospect, was how I knew, in this dream, that it wasn't fallout, I remember even hearing the point made out loud that this Event hadn't been nuclear. This was about two or three weeks Before, and it was a weird enough dream that it stuck in my mind vividly, although I didn't make the 'connection' (assuming one believes in such) until I saw the one video of the ash-cloud boiling past the windows of the little coffeeshop that the camerawoman had just made it into in time. Terribly, terribly creepy.

Oh, and another cute detail: while us common peons, including both Clinton and Gore (Gore was catatonic on a cot because he didn't know where Tipper and the kids were, Clinton was pestering me for, um, let's say a distraction from the situation :) ), were out in the lobby with the cots and the wounded, there was a fancy bomb shelter we'd been locked out of in another part of the lobby, with enough space to take us all in but only Karen Hughes, Karl Rove, and Dick Cheney rattling around in it like loose beans... and no Bush. :)

[divabat.livejournal.com]

ditto! :D

Bones

[kimberlyfdr.livejournal.com]

4. Never broken a bone.

Me either, but the rest of them...coooooool.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Ok. Did Roberto want you to review Pinnocchio or something? I must know. *nods*

Well, I went to see Life is Beautiful and it hit me really hard. I mean, I left that theater and literally sobbed heavily for the entire 40-minute car ride home. Then I went home and wrote a six-page fan letter to him telling him how much the movie meant to me. Then I mailed it and promptly forgot about it, until the Thursday after that year's Oscars when his assistant called me from Rome and told me that he really appreciated my letter. That's why you can knock on him all you want, but I'll never make fun of the guy. :)

Ooooh, I bet I've read his articles then! Does he still write for the Chronicle?

Actually, last year, he moved to the Boston area because he got a book deal to write a book about Levi's jeans (yeah, I don't know, either) and he wanted to be closer to the rest of us. The book deal included a $250,000 advance. My jealousy is still pretty rampant about that. ;)

His name's James Sullivan, though, if you want to look up his stuff. My grandpa likes to brag that once when he was visiting, Jim interviewed Ellen Degeneres while she was in the area doing a stand-up show and gave her a positive review. The next day, she called my uncle at home to thank him for the good review. Again, another celebrity I can't bring myself to knock. (He's also got a story about how Chris Rock was a real jerk during his interview.)

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. But then again, every once in a while, I sprain the same ankle all over again. I can't decide if that's because it's weak or because I'm just a great klutzy doofus.

[wal-lace.livejournal.com]

The only one of those I've done is number four. And that's a surprise, considering how foully I mistreat my body most of the time. Some of us just have strong bones, I guess.

[foxxydancr.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I am most entranced by #7. cause dude, it's a llama.

I actually have a question for you, as someone whose taste in movies seems to be somewhat sound. I assume from your icon you've probably seen Sideways? Did you like it? If so, WHY? and what on earth about it is so good? I just don't get it...

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I loved it, but I loved it as a nice little movie with some interesting characters, a decent script and good acting, not as OMG TEH BEST MOVIE EVAH. Zoning out the hype helped immensely in my enjoyment of it. (It's the same reason I still like My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Lost in Translation even though the majorly annoying hype seemed to kill them for everyone else.)

A part of me is still rooting for it for Best Picture, although I think a big part of that is because I want more comedies to win. Honestly, this is one of the first years in a long time when I truly enjoyed every single Best Picture nominee and won't be pissed off no matter who wins. (Don't get me started on the year Chicago beat The Pianist. How the hell does a movie have the best screenplay of the year, the best director, and the best actor and STILL lose Best Picture? Sheesh.)

[foxxydancr.livejournal.com]

I guess my problem with it was that I found the two main characters so annoying and so morally misaligned that they just really got under my skin and irked me. While I admit that there were funny moments ( a few) and i was completely convinced that these characters were really that obnoxious, I just...I don't know. I really couldn't see why people liked it, and I hadn't heard any of the hype. (oh, and i went with wine snobs, too. That was almost the funniest part!)

[idadebeautreux.livejournal.com]

I've tried the cherry stem trick and I can't ever get it - usually because people are staring at me because we're all out at Friendly's or something. But I've never broken a bone or had a serious sprain!

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Sure, I'm game. What'd you have in mind? :)

[wal-lace.livejournal.com]

Speaking of movies... are you ever going to do those Q&A reviews of Hellboy and the X-Men films?

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Well, I haven't planned and plotted much yet - I will be doing it after my law school "spring break" (i.e. a few days of relief from HELL) which would mean sometime after the 12th of March.

Probably some kind of coffeehouse or maybe an ice cream place...my friend sometimes plays guitar in coffeehouses around town and stuff.

Suggestions are welcome. I will probably try to see what is preferable for everyone.

[fyrdrakken]

Same here. Chipped a tooth but not the same thing.

[secretbutterfly.livejournal.com]

*hangs head in shame* I still have yet to see Life is Beautiful. That's so awesome that his assistant called you! Totally rules. *nods* And I wasn't knocking him. *shrug* I thought he was the most adorable thing when he won the Oscar and climbed over the seats...
I don't think I could ever bring myself to knock Ellen, either.
*makes mental note to look up your yuncles articles*
I get the feeling writing runs in your family. ;-)