Friday Randomness

Even though it's Friday, I don't have the usual sense of relief. The end of the semester is approaching and there's less and less time to do less and less. I have an eight page position paper on how the African concept of ubuntu figures into western concepts of rhetoric that's due after Thanksgiving and then two 15 page papers, one on Richard Dutcher as an auteur and one on identity and Mormon film, are due in about three weeks. They'll get done; they always do. But man, it makes me look forward to Christmas break quite a bit.

Four Random Facts About Me:

1. One of my childhood preoccupations was cleaning out the caps to Elmer's Glue bottles. In grade school when there would be a dozen bottles of white paste clogged with dried glue, I was the go-to kid. I got a lot of satisfaction out of prying the sheets of dry gunk off and pushing out the gummy plugs that were stopping the free and unobstructed flow of glue for kids everywhere. My tools were a straightened paper clip, a pencil, and sometimes a pair of scissors. Writing it down now, it sounds immensely nerdy and weird but, frankly, even now when I use PVA glue for a book project, I spend the first five minutes cleaning the lid of the jug off before I do anything else. I'm a freak. Sue me.


2. I dressed up as the Scarecrow and teamed with three other Ricks College students who were dressed as Dorothy, Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Man to be part of the Grand Opening festivities when Wal-Mart came to Rexburg. I saw several people I knew (including my smirking father) as I flopped around on the hard tile floors for three hours and sang "We're off to see the wizard" with Loreen "Dorothy" Muhlstein. For all that, I got paid fifty bucks. It was awful. I don't know what's worse -- dressing up as a scarecrow for money or the fact that I had some small part in welcoming Wal-Mart to my town.







3. I once got to hold and wear an Olympic gold medal when I interviewed pole vault champion Stacey Dragila for NPR in Boise. It was heavy and, though she was tiny, Stacey Dragila could have easily killed me just by flexing her calf muscles and crushing me against a nearby wall with them.

4. As a waiter at the dearly-departed Pocatello Big Jud's, I sold 24 Big Jud burgers in one night. Missy Cummins says she won the who-can-sell-more contest that night but I know that I did.