Sounded fun, looked fun

Describe an ongoing plumbing problem at your house, no matter how small.

But I’ve just moved in! I haven’t come across any plumbing issues, yet.

 

Think of a party you went to in high school or college that you haven’t thought about in ages. What was it like?

The first one to come to mind was our ‘junior skip day’ in High School. Everybody has heard of ‘senior skip day’, right? Well, my graduating class decided to have a junior skip day! 

Let me preface this all by explaining something quickly: In the weeks before winter formal, every year that my high school has been open (107 years to date) every class makes a ‘class banner’. The banners are kept secret until they’re finished and they are then displayed in the gymnasium. School spirit activities are then arranged and set up as a competition between classes (which class can raise the most money for a charity? Which class will have the most participants wearing school colors on a given day? etc). Anyway, at the end of that week the entire school gets together for the crowning of the Snow King and Snow Queen in the auditorium. Whichever class showed the most spirit over the course of spirit week wins. At that time the winning class’ banner is put up in the gym amongst all of the other winning banners for the last 107 years. The losing banners are tossed out.

In a giant upset against the class a year older than us, our class won spirit week during my sophomore year of high school. That year the class older than us stole our banner from the gymnasium wall before it was placed in the rafters with the other winning banners and, legend has it, burned our banner in a bonfire at a party. Our banner was gone and a lot of us were really pissed.

The next year, my junior year, the class a year older than us won spirit week.

A bunch of us planned a junior skip day on the day before senior skip day that year in the spring. An elaborate plan was then hatched to somehow, some way (I still don’t know how they did it) climb up into the raftors of the gymnasium where the senior’s winning banner had been placed that winter after winning Spirit Week so that we could burn it in a bonfire on our junior skip day.

Somebody did manage to get the banner. And somehow much of our junior class managed to skip class. And somehow we managed to find a place out in the middle of nowhere and have a giant, huge, enormous bonfire and lots to drink without getting busted by the cops, killing anybody, or starting a forest fire.

Recently a classmate uploaded this picture to facebook:

I actually took this picture. This was obviously taken prior to the burning. You can see the massive pile of wood behind some of my classmates- that’s where the bonfire was later kept. Many, many more of my 120 total classmates did show up as they day progressed.

Many pictures were also taken of the banner burning by many of my classmates. The next day somebody left a picture of the burning banner in the gym taped to a wall. Our principal threw a fit and claimed over the loudspeakers that police had found a footprint on a wall (it looked as though somebody may have somehow climbed the basketball hoops to get up there?) and were investigating the matter.

Nobody was ever caught for the ‘crime’. 🙂

 

Have you ever had a groupie moment? Tell me about it.

Eh, kind of. I was sixteen and at Warped Tour. My friend and I were invited to an after party by Allister. I desparately wanted to go, but the friend that I was with was so wrapped up in the idea of going to her boyfriends house that I couldn’t talk her into coming with me. And we were in a town that neither of us were really familiar with.

That same day the lead singer of the band Flogging Molly came up to me while I was walking by myself and invited me to another after party. After talking for a few he then asked if I knew anybody that could provide ‘adult entertainment’.

Cue awkwardness. At the time I was flattered, I think, but looking back I’m disgusted. I was sixteen. I was wearing jeans, a plain light blue racerback tanktop, had my hair in a sloppy ponytail, and was wearing tennis shoes. Was he going around asking all of the girls that? Was he asking me if I would? Ugh. Weirdo.

 

Quick! Write down lyrics from memory! No Googling.

Eli the barrow boy of the old town
sells coal and marigolds and he cries out
all down the dayyyy

below the tamerack he is crying
corncobs and candle wax for the buying
all down the dayyy

would I could afford to buy my love a fine robe
made of gold and silk Arabian threaaaad
but she is dead and gone and lying in a pine grove
and I must push my barrow all the day….
and I must push my barrow all the day….

–The Decemberists

 

Have you ever met someone famous? What were the circumstances?

See the above question about ‘groupie moments’.

 

Have you ever cried during a play or concert? What were the circumstances?

Yep. Bright eyes, 2004. It’s funny to say this now because he’s gotten huge and famous and has been on MTV and everybody knows him, but I had been a HUGE fan since 1999. I randomly found some of his stuff on Napster that year- totally randomly- and had fallen in love with his Letting Off the Happiness album. All through high school he was my #1 favorite musician and lyricist- I had and had memorized all of his stuff- even the really obscure underground stuff that he hadn’t technically released.  Seeing him for the first time in 2004 was just too much! And then… AND THEN he played, "The Difference in the Shades" which was the first song of his that I’d ever heard and the song of his that first began my obsession with him. Apparently it was a song that he hadn’t played live or even sung in years (he said that he had to look the lyrics up again to refresh his memory),but had decided to play it because it was one of the audio guys’ birthday and he had requested it.

I bawled.

 

If, when you die, it turns out there is a heaven and it really is the most perfect place you can fathom, what will it be like?

It will be the home that I grew up in. My family will all be there, my friends wi

ll be close by. We’ll go for bike rides, walks to pick flowers in the woods across the road from my house, and we’ll fish in the river behind my house. My dog will be there and he won’t run away when he’s off of his leash. My cat will be there and will be young and healthy again. It’ll be 75 degrees with a slight cool breeze and sunny with puffy little clouds in the sky.

 

What’s the last thing you laughed about?

Last night I came home kind of buzzed from the two (very dark, very strong) beers that I’d had at the bar with Dave after I’d gotten off of work. I mixed myself another drink, logged onto my computer, and updated my facebook: Riely loves her Dave. Then I sent Dave a text saying, "check my facebook status and prepare to be embarrassed! Muahaha!"

He responded first on my facebook with a ‘Dave likes this’ and then with a, "Love ya too, you cornball!"

I giggled. Lots.

Tell me what there is to do in your town. If I visited, what would I not want to miss?

A nice summer afternoon people watching while laying on a blanket in the grass by Lake Calhoun or Lake of the Isles (a wee little bit of marijuana suggested but by no means necessary) followed by a bike ride to Lake Harriet to see a show (often the city orchestra) in the outdoor (overlooking the lake) Band Shell.

A walk around the sculpure garden at the Walker Art Center

Saturday night dinner on the rooftop at Stella’s

Lunch at Matt’s Bar for an original Jucy Lucy (it’s spelled wrong on purpose).

Late night bike ride to hidden beach to swim in Cedar lake and to watch the stars from the lifegaurd seat

 

What song do you want played at your funeral?

I actually have considered this! 

"When Water Comes to Life" -Cloud Cult
followed by
"Love You All" -Cloud Cult

 

Tell me the events leading up to a visit to the emergency room.

I’ve only been there once. I was in 4th grade and it was gym time. I hadn’t been feeling well. We were playing cops and robbers. Just as gym was about to be over I ran as hard as I could one last time across the gym and somehow lost my ability to breathe and had a horrible, sudden stabbing pain in abdomen. I don’t have asthma, but I believe that  I had a random asthma attack or something. I’m not sure what was up with the pain. It was all scary as hell. I instantly started freaking out and crying and trying to breathe and I collapsed and my teacher rushed me to the school nurse where they eventually calmed me down. I didn’t suffocate (clearly) but the pain wouldn’t go away. My mom picked me up shortly thereafter and brought me to the emergency room. They did some tests but nothing came back conclusive. The pain went away and I never had another attack like that again.