jumping the tweet

i have been tagged in a meme from the very talented and geographically fortunate alex shapiro (who composes and contemplates life from her wonderful fortress of solitude in the pacific northwest. i know i have not been very social this fall (unless you participate on the twitter) so along those lines, i’m going to jump this meme across social networks (is this like jumping the shark) and tag my fellow twitter peeps (i know very bad….)  whose daily conversations and insights i have grown to count on and admire.

Here are the rules of this hepta meme;
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog – some random, some weird
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog (or twitter page)
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. (or twitter account)
5. If you don’t have 7 blog friends, or if someone else already took dibs, then tag some unsuspecting strangers

Strange Fact #1

i taught elementary school music in a bus garage.

my very first teaching job was an internship in towanda, kansas (just outside of wichita)  and since many of the township schools only had one music teacher (k-12) they would pair up a college student to assist with the teaching schedule.  benton elementary school didn’t have enough classrooms for a music class so we had classes in the bus garage. in the fall it wasn’t really such a big deal, it was very clean and had nice high ceilings so the sound was pretty good.  the problem was on the very first cold day we came into class and i noticed a pretty strong smell of diesel fuel (i think they decided to warmup the busses before taking the kids home), which i didn’t really think too much about until when the kids started to complain about being dizzy. needless to say i quickly realized that diesel fumes and children don’t mix and it was amazing how quickly the school found a real “classroom” for us the next day.

Strange Fact #2

when i was a kid worked about every job imaginable (i think in chronological order);

swept up hair at a barber shop, had an afternoon paper route ( 5 points if you remember the afternoon paper?) , mcdonald’s burger flipper, yogurt shop manager (at 16), office supplies clerk, music store clerk, busboy at mafia restaurant,  waiter at most expensive restaurant in tulsa, ok (the tips were real good during the late 80’s oil boom) , medical records assistant, hotel gift shop clerk and souvenir vendor at angels stadium (i can’t believe that was the last “straight job” i ever had.  wow!)

Strange Fact #3

my freshman year of college james lee burke (great american mystery author) was my honors english teacher.

it was one of the best classes i ever had, we read a “great american novel ” each week, but alas life isn’t that simple.  i had a 20 min overlap with his class and the marching band which put me in quite a pickle. i was a full scholarship student (marching band was paying my room and board) and was being told that i had to cut out of the english class early to get to band practice. it was one of those times where i talked to the band director and english teacher both about my problem, the band director told me what i “had to do” and the mr. burke calmly pointed out my options. i think it was my first “adult” decision where i was always late to band and took the lowered grade.

on a side note i remember that one of the best parts of the class (besides listening to him read faulkner or steinbeck in which i can still hear his voice in my head) was hearing him make fun of the fraternity and sorority students who didn’t do the readings.  he would allow them to describe in detail why their “greek functions” were so important as we tried to not laugh uncontrollably.

Strange Fact #4

i was a member of the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps from 1988-1990.

i owe a lot to the corps and Scott Stewart is probably the main reason i’m a semi-functioning adult. (this is a whole other blog post someday)

Strange Fact #5

i slid into 2nd base at the 1985 world series.

i had been helping out the freshman trumpet player (bruce hunt) that lived behind me. the day of the game He walked up to my front door that afternoon and asked if I wanted to go to the game. needless to say it was game 7,  and the royals took an early big lead in the 2nd or 3rd inning which made the rest of the game a big party.  after the game they started to ring the stands with horses so we wouldn’t jump onto the field (which is what of course we did!) i remember running on the field next to a security guard who was yelling “lets not get anybody hurt here”. once i realized we weren’t going to be arrested i kept running past 1st and did a full pete rose slide into 2nd base. every time i watch the world series i’m always looking to see if the crowd gets on the field and I’m pretty sure they don’t do that anymore.

Strange Fact #6

once i moved to california my wife is the only person i ever dated. (yep that’s us back in 1990)

Strange Fact #7

i used to have a very keen sense of direction and place.

when i was on the road with the madison scouts i used to help out the drivers find there way through some of the most obscure parts of the lower 48.  one thing led to another and eventually this turned into a betting situation where somebody would wake me up in the middle of the night and ask me where we were. the last time it happened (around 2am) i looked around and said… “oh we must be on the george washington bridge and the meadowlands are going to but a few miles down on your right”.  a few minutes later as we rolled past giant’s stadium i know that a more than a few people looked around in disbelief.

anyway, enough about my strange powers.

so here is my list of twitterers (or twit’s with apologies to leo laporte) that i’m tagging with this meme.

1. david toub
2. jeff harrington
3. shamanah
4. canicus (no blog, but who say’s you can’t meme on twitter)
5. robert gable
6. maryanne devine
7. erik hendrickson

and as an added bonus (and strange fact #8)

is that john clare, professional broadcaster and classical music enthusiast and i played in the the kansas high school honor orchestra together and we think we were at the same KU summer band and orchestra camp together as far back as junior high.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 4:16 pm and is filed under blog, spectacle and tagged with alex shapiro, diesel fumes, fortress of solitude, jumping the shark, kansas city royals, mcdonalds, meme, music class, music teacher, pacific northwest, paper route, teaching job, towanda kansas, twitter, world series. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.