5 Things Meme

OK, I was inspired by Ele’s post to reveal five things about me that you may not have known. I guess it’s hard to stay away from embarrassing things, but I’m going to try. 🙂

1. Prison Love Story
The year I graduated from college, I found a job teaching Adult Literacy for a few hours a week at the local jail. One of the inmates in my class was a bank robber. His name was Drew. He was the only intelligent, articulate person in my class, and he was my “trustee,” an inmate who got to help run the class. He wasn’t bad looking, either. We would spend 15 minutes talking on the phone together every Saturday, until he got shipped off to the State Penitentiary. One day, I kissed him! It was a very brief, very Jr. High-thing but it was so crazy stupid to do. I still keep a picture of him to this day, just in case anything fishy every happens. Hmm, he had a five year sentence so he should have been out now for about 5 years unless he shived someone at the State Penn….

2. Lack of Indoor Plumbing
I, too, lacked indoor plumbing for a period of time when I was a kid. My dad and brother and I moved out to a house on the top of a mountain outside of Independence, Virginia. The house was just a shell, and it took a while to make it livable. Until then, we took a little shovel and a roll of toilet paper off into the woods with us. During the day we’d fill up a raft with water to let it heat in the sun for baths, or we’d boil water and fill up our enormous shop vac – I was young so I fit in it nicely. I know I’ve got some photos around here somewhere…

3. Lasting Effects
When I was 18, I had the briefest of affairs with my boyfriend’s 30-year-old brother. I found out a few years ago that my boyfriend’s family has still never forgiven the brother for seducing me. Yeah, I really do call it seduction. Try imagining how smart you were at 18 versus 30 – I was stupid at 18. (Let that be a lesson for all you 18-year-olds.)

4. Turned On or Terrified?
John Denver said it turned him on to think of growing old. Not me. I’m terrified. I always have been.

5. Emotional
Some of you know this, I guess, and others may suspect it, but I am really emotional. Here are some of the things that make me cry:

• Lonely little old men
• Lonely little old men buying potted meat in the supermarket
• Veterans
• Veterans’ Day Parades
• American Express commercials
• The trailer for Pursuit of Happyness
• Someone playing music for me, like these street musicians in Colombia or when Chris played Space Oddity on acoustic guitar for my birthday when I was 17
• Most movies, especially sappy, sentimental ones

OK, that wasn’t too bad, I guess. Your turn next.