Ten things meme

[resonant]

I think I first saw this chez stresskitten.

Ten things I've done that you probably haven't.

1. Interviewed the state beekeeper of West Virginia

2. Been bitten by a snake

3. Ridden with Santa Claus in the Christmas parade

4. Spent the night sleeping on a staircase landing. With four other people.

5. Had a job cleaning bathrooms at a kindergarten.

6. Been a personal organizer for bored rich women.

7. Been polygraphed.

8. Seen a bear cub in the wild.

9. Eaten pickled pigs' feet.

10. Held a cat as she died.

Comments

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

I have not been bitten by a snake, but I was bitten by an ostrich.....

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Really?? How on earth?

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's not nearly as exciting as it sounds. I was at a zoo and wasn't paying attention. I had my hands on the brick, but underneath the fencing and the birds were used to being fed. It just came right up and bit my finger. It was a bit scary, but no harm done really. I do still have a teeny scar from it that I used to like to show off though:) I think I was about 8 at the time. These stories are almost always much less exciting when you know the whole truth, eh?

[reginagiraffe]

I've done #10, unfortunately.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It was so sad. Our poor little Alice.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

I've done the last. I was going to say unfortunately, but actually it was good that I held her. It's just the cat dying part I could have skipped.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can't help thinking it makes a difference.

I was pregnant at the time, and all my mucus membranes had swollen up to the point that every time I cried, it made me gag and I threw up. That was a lovely week.

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

What, just the one snake? I was a slow learner as a child, so I was bitten by many snakes and lizards.

I'm so sorry about #10. I've only had that experience from a guinea pig perspective, but it's awful no matter what the species is.

[shoorihoshi.livejournal.com]

I LOVE your icon.

And yes, ginuea pig deaths are very very sad. :(

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I never had a lizard bite me, though more than once I had one shed its tail to get away from me.

[schuyler.livejournal.com]

These are really interesting, but my head is going to be stuck for hours on, "Why does West Virginia have a state beekeeper? Are they the state's bees? The governor's bees? Is it a poet laureate sort of thing where he will compile a special Virginia honey? And how do you get that job?"

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Those are very good questions, but it was so long ago that I don't remember any of the answers. Google suggests that several states have state beekeepers, but otherwise isn't very enlightening.

The state bees got into my hair, which was long and bushy at the time, and kind of freaked me out crawling around trying to find their way out.

[http://users.livejournal.com/solo____/]

I have experience of #10, too. Didn't help that I was the one who asked for the dying part to be induced, either. :-/

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Yeah, same here.

The kidlet was reading over my shoulder as I posted the list, and she said, "You held Alice in the purple blanket while she died, right?" (The purple blanket is the *new* cat's comfort object; I have no idea how the kidlet connected it with the old cat, or why she thinks that a blanket that a cat died in would be brought home and draped over the back of a chair.)

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

8, 9, and, sadly, 10. 10 several times...

[crysothemis.livejournal.com]

I've seen bear cubs in the wild -- black bears and grizzlies. And I've spoken to a deputy state beekeeper of Ohio, does that count? ;-)

Sorry to hear about #10. Haven't had that happen (yet). And from my memories of kindergarten, #5 sounds rather unpleasant.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I guess you have to have a deputy beekeeper because otherwise the state beekeeper could get sick, and then those bees would just do whatever they wanted to.

And, yes, cleaning bathrooms after little boys who are just learning to pee standing up = not such a dream job.

[panisdead.livejournal.com]

I can check off number 8, but you've got me on the rest. I did stay with my rabbit while she was put to sleep, though.

[moonpupy.livejournal.com]

#7 (to work for Coors no less) and #10 (only it was a he-cat).

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Lots of people have done that one, I see.

[meri-oddities.livejournal.com]

I've done 7. I flunked the polygraph because I was nervous, and kept ruining my finger over the little receptor. After that I swore I'd never take another one. How demeaning.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I flunked mine, too. It would have been a very interesting experience if it hadn't been so stressful.

Ever since then I've wanted to do biofeedback, which I think would be similar. But it seems to be out of fashion, and I've never gotten the chance.

[brynwulf]

#9 and #10 here. #9 because I'm from Louisiana.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

My best friend and I tried them when we were hired to serve food at a fancy dinner party. It was also the first and only time I ever tried caviar.

Given the choice, I wouldn't bother with caviar, but I'd be all over some pickled pigs' feet.

[kat-denton.livejournal.com]

Let's see,

I've scored (or endured, depending on your POV)
2
3
5 (ish, college students make even more of a mess LOL)
7
8
9
10 (does a dog count - if so done twice)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Eek -- yes, college students would be bad. On the one hand, they've had more practice than the five-year-olds, but on the other hand, they've had more beer, too.

[kat-denton.livejournal.com]

LOL - though the toilet frequented by the gay boyz was the worst. This was circa 1976 and I was just barely 21. I was totally fascinated and appalled by the gay subculture. I think that's where my slash appreciation started. I knocked on the door, "janitor, anybody in there?" No answer, opened the door - oppps!!!! too busy to answer.

I don't think I stopped blushing for a week. LOL

Pretty boyz. Kat (grinning at the memory)

[claire.livejournal.com]

I have not cleaned bathrooms at a kindergarten. I did, however, used to clean bathrooms at an exclusively male gay bar.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

That must have been an adventure. (I'm now trying to figure out whether the law would require them to have a women's bathroom or not.)

[timian.livejournal.com]

I have done... none of those things. You win!

I have however read your really, really wonderful TS story "Thirteen Christmas Traditions". In fact, I just read it. I loved it! Wonderful banter, interesting trivia¹, heart-warming Blair/Jim vibes. You just made my morning. Thanks!


_{¹ You do that a lot actually. I often learn something new, which is doubly fun.}

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Aww. thanks! I can't remember, now, which came first, the story idea or the trivia, because I was spending a lot of time at that Candlegrove website that winter.

my list

[raveninthewind.livejournal.com]

1. Completed a 17-mile road march wearing a 30-pound rucksack and a helmet and carrying an M-16...without passing out.

2. Rappelled off a 75-foot tower even though I have acrophobia.

3. Been investigated by the FBI.

4. Found out when I was 18 that I had a much older half-brother.

5. Been bitten by a spider.

6. Have had sex in an emergency stairwell...while not inebriated.

7. Won the prize for reading the most books in a library summer reading program as a child...twice.

8. Had a pet chicken (named Durbelle--I was a strange little girl) that fell of a truck headed to a processing plant.

9. Had a pet alligator as a child...briefly.

10. Gotten in trouble for cutting PE...as a third grader.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Wow. I've done ... none of those. (Though I could probably have made a good showing in a summer reading program, if our library had had them at the time.)

[decarnin.livejournal.com]

I *want* you for #6. Not that rich but man do I need help...

I've eaten lots of pickled pigs' feet! They were one of my Mom's favorite things. I don't know where you can get good ones any more, the ones you can get at the store now are crummy, all fat and gristle. Just like you can't buy scrapple or fresh side pork any more. *whimper*

#10, not a cat, but a foal. Rejected by his mother and the owners weren't able to save him.

And... they have a STATE beekeeper? The things you can learn on LJ...

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should go back into the personal-organizer biz. It was easy money. Seven dollars an hour, man, and this was in 1984 when that was better money than you could make as a temp -- and these women paid in cash. Plus sometimes they fed me.

On the other hand, the job required doing things like taking a pile of clipped-out comic strips and making a separate file folder for each (because that was the way she wanted it) and indexing a "personal library" that consisted primarily of airplane-bookstore thrillers and books like "The Happy Hooker."

Mostly it was a matter of being sympathetic. The spouse used to say, "They're trying to hire their mother back again."

And, aww, poor foal.