July 22, 2007

10 Weird Experiences

Tagged once again! This time by JulieAnn, whom I like enough to play along. Or, better yet, I have nothing else to write right now, so I'll play. I like everyone who tags me.

OK...

1. I've noticed that it seems that people who tag me do so on the "weird things" tags. What are they trying to say, exactly? Hmmmmm?

2. Before I knew Benadryl did this to me, I took two pills once in high school when I had a cold, and I fell asleep during class. I was so tired, I could have fallen asleep standing. I never took it again.

3. Before I was 16, a boy from a different town I met during a scout training week (my parents were avid Boy Scouters) mailed me a pair of cross earrings tucked inside a love letter. I knew I'd never be able to wear them, because I was Mormon and Mormons don't worship or acknowledge the cross as a sacred symbol. I also knew because he wasn't Mormon that it'd never work out. I hid the earrings and looked at them often before throwing them away.

4. I jumped the wall of a cemetery in Vienna once with some BYU Study Abroad students. It was beautiful, because there were candles burning on all the graves (which were raised box-style graves made of stone or cement - what are those called?). I'd like to go and do that again. I wonder if that chair is still hidden in the shrubs outside the wall?

5. One time I was at my grandma's house in Layton, Utah, and we were teasing my much older cousin who tried to get me while I ran by him. I yelled at him, "Missed me! Missed me! Now you gotta kiss me!" He chased me until he caught me, and I was genuinely horrified when he DID kiss me, full on the lips. Just thinking of it makes me shiver again. I steered very clear of him from then on.

6. Same cousin. One time we were visiting at Grandma's house and he was outside, working on his car, when all of a sudden he ran in the house, screaming. The radiator cap had come off, spraying him with boiling hot water. I peeked in the bathroom as he was sitting in the bathtub of cool water, covered all over in big blisters.

7. One night, my cousin Jill and I were lying in our sleeping bags out on her trampoline in Salt Lake City, telling secrets and watching falling stars. All of a sudden, something huge flew over us silently, making all the stars disappear to blackness as it crossed directly above us. We never knew what it was, but we were freaked out. I wonder now if it was an owl flying low.

8. When I was a majorette in high school, I marched in a weekend parade. My friend dropped me off at home afterward, and I was locked out. I knocked and knocked and rang the doorbell for hours, knowing my sister Val was sleeping in there, but she never heard me. I was so damn mad. And hungry! The garage door was open so I sat out there and ate Tang powder straight from the can while I waited over two hours for someone to come home. I still have no idea what she was on to be able to sleep through me banging on the door, ringing the doorbell, and throwing rocks on her bedroom window. I never wanted to kill someone so bad as I did that day. I've also never had to go to the bathroom that bad before or since.

9. I wouldn't wear shorts in public when I was a teen because I thought they were too revealing and that my legs were ugly. But is this actually "weird" when you grow up being taught by your father that tank tops and mini-skirts are what sluts and whores wear?

10. I was voted "Most Likely to Have Eight Kids" in my high school yearbook. WTF? I had six younger brothers and sisters and felt like I had already done years of mothering by the time I graduated high school. Oy.

11 comments:

Cele said...

I lived in Germany for two years, I loved when they put candles on the grave stones during All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day.

Interesting list...now I need to go do mine.

m said...

I have an idea! You could one more weird experience. Here's how: Ask Mr. Dartman to come with you to Paris for a weekend in November. Or tell him you need a break and come alone.
You always wanted to see Paris, right? Now you have a perfect excuse!

JulieAnn said...

Fabulous...and I felt your pain in the garage. Nothing worse than being locked out. And having to pee.

Sideon said...

Voted most likely to have 8 kids? What dolts!

Locked out story made me cringe - I think I've blotted out any time that's happened to me. My brother and I perfected the art of locking each other out and finding ways to get back inside. I still hate garages - they all smell the same.

Great list, SML :)

Under.Construction said...

I love you tag comments. Always good for a laugh, or a reflectful thought. I too can realate to being locked out and needing a bathroom NOW! Not a pleasant feeling.

Becky said...

What a great list of odd things...the cousin one totally creeped me out.

Oh and I'm the same way with Benadryl. Take that stuff and I'm out like a light. :)

Anonymous said...

"...something huge flew over us silently, making all the stars disappear to blackness as it crossed directly above us..."

It was the devil (me). That was the night that I started your deconversion. ;)

Robert said...

Three lockout experiences, all related to siblings:

When I was very small, I was locked out in the snow in just my underwear by my brother and/or sister, and I've always attributed this as the reason I'm hot-natured (one of my nicknames is The Human Heater because I literally emit heat).

When I was in college I had borrowed my Mom's Mountaineer to do something and when I returned home late in the evening, I was locked out by my sister (whom I'd asked several times not to lock me out), so I flipped the middle seats down and went to sleep in the back. I was awakened by someone trying to open the door of the car and setting off the panic feature somehow.

Third, I went to meet my sister's family at the beach. I told her I'd be back late from bar hopping with some grad school classmates who came to a town fifteen minutes away on my advice. When I got back, the door was locked, so I first tried sleeping in my truck, then my truck bed, then on the ground outside the door to their condo. Finally, on a whim I checked and founf the window to the room I was sleeping in was unlocked, so I crawled in and went to bed. The next morning I think I scared them all half to death when I walked out of my room because none of them seemed to know I was there!

Side note: I was up in your neck of the woods this past week and took a quick trip into Yellowstone from the western entrance. Beautiful place. I definitely envy those privileged enough to live near mountains all the itme.

Sister Mary Lisa said...

Cele, aren't the cemeteries cool? Not creepy at all!

Montchan, OH! I'd LOVE to be in Paris with you and the girls!!

JA, glad you like the list.

Sideon, glad you like the list too. Yeah, most likely to SHOOT HERSELF IF SHE EVER HAS EIGHT KIDS! Wow. I mean, WOW.

UC, the lock-out story has really struck a chord with people. Why oh why have we all suffered so needlessly??

Becky, cousin who burned himself is same cousin who creeped me out. Ugh. Wonder where he is now....

EHL, WHAT? Why didn't you stop and say hi as you flew over? Sheesh. Now I'm miffed.

Robert, nice lockout stories as well. Wow. You really need to blog, my friend. And....next time you come up to my neck of the woods FROM ACROSS THE WORLD, email me! Sheesh! Glad you enjoyed it. I've been having some serious Yellowstone withdrawals lately. Must...get.....back......there!

Robert said...

Yellowstone was kind of a whim thing. I had never been to Montana or Wyoming, so we decided to go just to say I'd been there, and we weren't sure what day or anything like that... add that to not having any internet access that worked worth beans with my laptop (not sure why, really) and not knowing your email... so it goes. Anyway, I can definitely see why you'd have withdrawal. I love the views out there.

Another lockout story from grad school: I was pulling into a Subway on my way to a class and a guy literally came within inches of creaming my truck. I was so rattled that when I jumped out of my truck I failed to realize I hadn't turned it off when I locked it by reflex, so I ate my Subway sitting on the bed door waiting for a locksmith to let me back in. I missed the class to boot.

I'm sure I have some other ones that aren't coming to me just now, but those are just the ones that I thought of because you talked about being locked out.

Sister Mary Lisa said...

Well, Robert. My email is in my profile on this blog, and you may let me know next time you're nearby if you'd like to.

Anyway, sounds to me like you've been locked out one too many times in your life. Wonder if it has any special meaning? heh heh.