U is for Under Duress

Yes, under external pressure, not matter how couched it may be, I will now complete the Seven Random Things meme. (I won't even get into the discussion of whether these things really should be called memes or not...) In any case, here are seven things you may or may not know about me:

1. I greatly prefer that different foods on my plate do not touch. In an ideal world, the plates are sufficiently large that a little "no man's land" exists between each food on the plate. I also do NOT put different things on my fork. I did not inherit my parent's penchant for putting a little beef on the fork, spearing a bit of potato with it, and then popping some peas on top of it all before taking a bite. No. No. No.

2. I've worked many, many jobs. People are often amused/surprised by the picture of me working in a lumbermill, operating a ferris wheel, or being a product demonstrator in a grocery store. Although I was quite good at all of the above, I didn't much care for any of them. I have a rather extensive list of jobs, but I won't bore you with them all.

3. It took me years to eat a Nanaimo bar. Years. All around me, people were eating them and singing their praises, but I couldn't bring myself to try one. That middle layer -- the yellow one -- disturbed me. Finally I ate one. I liked it. Surprise.

4. I have a problem with bad puppeteering. Maybe it comes from being brought up with the Muppets, whose puppeteers are so good that they convince you you're seeing a wide range of facial expressions even from the puppets whose faces don't really change much. I once was flipping channels and came across Tots TV, a show from the UK featuring three puppet characters. Well, I found it so unsettling, I could not watch it. Two days later, it bugged me that they'd creeped me out so much, so I tried to force myself to watch an episode, simply to address how much I hated the puppet characters. I couldn't do it. The puppets were hideous and performed with that awful, "I'm an adult doing a cutesy baby voice" voice that made me want to puke. I never watched it again. Hideous.

5. I think Edward Gorey was both hilarious and brilliant. If I make someone I know read one of his books and he or she says, "I don't get it," I feel bad that I've made them read it.

6. I didn't like Forrest Gump. I didn't hate it or anything, but after I saw it, I didn't particularly have any inclination to ever watch it again. Perhaps it was a case of too much hype before I saw it, so I was let down after the build-up. You should see the looks I sometimes get from people when I tell them I didn't much care for it.

7. After I moved away from Kingston as a kid, my friends Keltie and John used to send me cassettes instead of letters once in a while. (I was a little bit jealous that two of my best friends had become best friends with one another while I was miles and miles away.) Sometimes they made them separately ("Do you like hotdogs?") and sometimes they made them as a pair (which generally involved about 80 minutes of them fighting back and forth and about ten minutes of opening and closing ("We're almost out of time! Bye, Jerome!"). They were insanely fun to get and listen to, lying on my living room floor in front of the stereo, usually with headphones on. In return, I would reply in a similar fashion, sometimes with the assistance of my friend, Heather, though much less fighting was generally involved ("Okay, Heather? Okay, Heather? Okay, Heather?" "Okay, Jerome!"). We were, all four of us, little weirdoes, but what enjoyable weirdoes we were! Somewhere, among years of memories and boxes, I still have those cassettes and a bundle of letters from Kingston. One day I'll hold a little gathering at my house, inviting two particular friends who will alternate between mortification and amusement, and we'll laugh until the sun comes up.

Seven random things. Done.