It was one of those wonderful Facebook moments where you suddenly find people with whom you long ago lost contact.
Though "virtual," the reunions were wonderful. I really enjoyed reading what my friends had been up to since 1986.
Of course I was expected to provide the same information. What aspects of a person’s life do others want to hear about? Personal? Professional? Marriage and children (or lack thereof)? Mutual friends and acquaintances? Perhaps I was over thinking it, but I decided to challenge myself as a writer and convey the most important things that have happened to me in as succinct a way as possible. With a sense of satisfaction, I summed up my career, family, and health in two medium sized paragraphs.
Then I got discouraged. You mean I can say everything important about my career, family, and health in just two medium sized paragraphs? I must be the most boring person in the world.
I’m sure my friends realized that what I told them was merely an outline. Many more interesting things have happened to me than that.
So I’d like to share with you a sampling of what I did NOT include in the two paragraph nutshell about my past quarter century. Since 1986, I:
- Replaced all of my LPs with CDs
- Cohabitated briefly with an artist
- Wrecked two cars (neither was my fault)
- Lived in four different regions of the country
- Wrote for a couple of local weeklies (all defunct now, of course)
- Sold my car and did public transit for a few years
- Remodeled my kitchen
- Lived with a total of four cats
- Pledged to my local public radio station, boycotted said station, then pledged again
- Complained about the new airport
- Developed an allergy to bananas
- Remodeled my bathroom
- Got laid off from three jobs
- Joined and dropped out of a queer square dancing club
- Replaced the VCR with a DVR
- Put all of my CDs on an iPod
- Remodeled everything but the kitchen and bathroom
- Bought a hybrid car
- Visited Wyoming several times
- Said every summer, without fail, "I really should spend more time in the mountains"
- Got irritated when the local public radio announcers mispronounced "Chez Artiste," one of the local movie theatres
- Thought seriously about moving to California
- Joined a gym
- Got on Facebook
- Made this list