Friday, August 14, 2009

Guess You're Stuck With Me

by Joyce

I guess none of the other Working Stiffs wanted to take me up on the offer to fill the empty spot today, so you're stuck with me.

Heh.

Hmm. What to write about.

Okay. How about this.

Nah. That won't work.

Maybe ... that won't work, either.

Sigh.

Okay. How about if everyone tells three things that people might not know about them--kind of a shortened version of that thing that was going around awhile back. I'll start.
  1. My maiden name is Oliphant.
  2. My parents only knew each other for two weeks when they got married.
  3. When I was in high school I wanted to be a doctor.
Your turn!

13 comments:

Walt said...

For what it's worth:

1. I grew up in a pair of mobile homes (okay, the first one, a 34 foot Spartan, was a trailer -- but we took the wheels off the second one, a 55 foot Concord) over most of the South east of the Mississippi and south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

2. Jan, my wife, was the second girl I dated.

3. I didn't know Pittsburgh had mountains until I saw Squirrel Hill (looking at the map of Pittsburgh as I drove up to meet Jan's family -- me: "Now why would anyone put a tunnel under a hill?" Then I saw it! Jan: "Oh, that's Squirrel Hill." me: "Dear, I love you, but that's no hill. That's a bloody mountain!").

Yes, shameful secrets.

Joyce Tremel said...

Walt, I hope you've gotten used to our hills by now.

And anyone from elsewhere reading this--Pittsburgh does not really have mountains. Just little slopes. So what if some of them go straight up? Or have steps instead of sidewalks? Or for that matter, steps instead of streets?

Oh, never mind.

Wilfred Bereswill said...

1. I once was given a one-way ticket to Hong Kong, told I had a room at the Hyatt Regency and to pack for 2 weeks. I couldn't trade stocks in any American or Chinese beer company until whatever deal I would be working on was over and that I would find out what the project was when I got there. I came home three weeks later.

2. One weekend I (by myself) flew from Phoenix to Vegas without any luggage and never got a hotel. Arrived Friday afternoon and returned Sunday morning. Never slept and won enough at an instructional Craps Table to make the trip reasonable. Stood at that craps table for 6 hours. It's amazing how cool a Vegas magic show is after being awake for 30 hours.

3. I once blew up a natural gas compressor station. Well, I had help, but it was my project. It was only the compressed air system, but at the end of it all, there were holes in the building from shrapnel, a 200 pound valve landed 300 yards away, across the highway and the station was shut down for days. Nobody was hurt and nobody got fired. But I had a lot of explaining to do to the boss.

Dana King said...

1. I spent 1980-1983 playing in an Army band in Atlanta. During my enlistment, not a single Soviet military musical unit got even as far as Savannah. I'm damn proud of that.

2. My first gig in my high school marching band was to play the Star Spangled Banner at the first game played at Three Rivers Stadium. What I remember most was marching across the articificial surface, thinking, "They play football on this??"

3. The aforementioned Army band played for the opening of CNN, and taped the SSb for sgn-off. Ted Turner was there and told us, "CNN's not going off the air until the end of the world, so I want you all to know you'll be the last thing anyone ever sees on television."

Joyce Tremel said...

Geez, I'm boring.

I can't top ANY of those.

PatRemick said...

1) I just learned my great-great grandfather murdered my great-great grandmother on Christmas Day 1886. (news travels slowly sometimes)

2) I once got lost in Oklahoma with a Space Shuttle astronaut I was driving to a conference.

3) Ted Turner and then wife Jane Fonda used to come into the CNN Washington newsroom when I was employed there during the first Gulf War and just watch us work. Mesmerized no doubt, or thinking about Dana's musical performance perhaps.

Anonymous said...

I'm with you, Joyce. Let's start making up stuff.

Two of the following three statements are true. Which one is the lie?

1. I once served David Cassidy breakfast in the restaurant where I worked.

2. I once hung up on Liza Minnelli.

3. I once rode in the back seat of the Bentley once owned by the Bee Gees.

Paula Matter

SZ said...

Well heck, I can join the Jane Fondas and hang ups !

I once hung up on Lilly Tomlin {accidentally}

I used to calculate Jane Fondas royalties for her exercise videos.

First time I drove a stick shift I backed into a fence.

Paula, I am going to say number 3

Karen in Ohio said...

1. My second husband and I got married in Las Vegas. (It was way more fun than my big, first wedding).

2. I used to be a kitchen designer, and designed our kitchen addition, AND was the general contractor. (It's wonderful.)

3. I spent 14 years lecturing about the topics of my books, traveling all around the US.

Patg said...

1. I won a car in 1993, and still have it. It just hit 36,000 miles.
2. All I wanted to do after graduation was leave town. Friends thought I was nuts, yet they all went off after high school and left me. When they all came home, I left and never looked back.
3. I think the king of Greece sent me a dozen roses in 1964. I didn't know a sole, was just touring by myself, verified with the hotel they hadn't been delived to the wrong room. But they were signed by Constantine.
Patg

Joyce Tremel said...

Paula, that's a tough one! They all sound true.

Speaking of David Cassidy--and we are, aren't we?--when I was in 7th grade we had to write our autobiography and extend it to the year 2000. (This was in 1970, so we had to write our little fingers off!)I was madly in love with David Cassidy at the time, so in my story I went on to co-star on the Partridge Family and marry David Cassidy.

Joyce Tremel said...

SZ, Did Lily call back and say "One ringy dingy..."

SZ said...

Funny Joyce ! I was so embarrassed and apologized ten times.

I have lost count how many rock stars I have married in day dream land ! What a good imaginative writting project.