1/27: Have you ever had a moment in your life feel like it was pointing toward your destiny, either at the time or when you looked at it in retrospect?
Well, I kind of already wrote about this on Wednesday when it was Katie's birthday and I wrote about how fate brought us together as friends. And I mean, obviously, meeting my husband was the meeting that changed my destiny the most. That was actually a really weird meeting, the kind where you feel that fate must have been involved because it almost didn't happen. So, it was Halloween 1999 and we were at Ashley's birthday/Halloween party. I was dressed as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, and Bill was dressed as Obi-Wan Kenobi. Ashley had this really awesome double-chocolate birthday cake from Costco, which I'm not just mentioning because I like to eat cake. I'm mentioning it because the delicious cake made me very thirsty, and, this being a college party, the most easily-available source of beverages was a keg, though because it was one of Ashley's parties it was actually a keg of some quality kind of beer instead of the typical Nati-Ice (that would be like Old Style for you Chicago folks). Anyway, I got drunk on the good-quality beer. And then I started talking to Bill, although as he remembers it I randomly just left mid-conversation to go to the bathroom. So, charming as I was, he couldn't wait to go out with me later that week when our mutual friend fixed us up on a date (which I had asked her to do). Anyway, we went out ... yadda, yadda, yadda ... we got married and moved to suburban Chicago and had a kid. So my fate was sealed at that college party in 1999, which, I forgot to note, I almost went to with this really lame girl who I would have had to hang out with all night and I probably wouldn't have been drinking that much around her, and anyway, thanks, Commuter Student Debbie for bailing on me because you had to study.1/26: What are five good reasons to break off a wedding?
1. The bride wants to
2. The groom wants to
3. The wedding dress is destroyed in a fire
4. The cake has that awful synthetic chemical frosting
5. You find out that several of the wedding guests are from your fiance's Dungeons & Dragons club
1/25: What's something you do really well that other people are amazed by?
Well, since I wrote a whole post yesterday about how I hate braggers, I think it would be kind of hypocritical for me to answer this. Instead I'm going to say something that is sort of tangentially related to this prompt, which I meant to say yesterday. It's a shout-out to my friend Sarah. I was gonna say that nobody is better at paying compliments than Sarah. Sarah has told me before that I should own my own bakery, and that I should audition for The Second City. These compliments were based, respectively, on the fact that I made a pie from an America's Test Kitchen cookbook, and on the fact that I wrote a script for a community theater production starring children. So, getting back to the prompt What's something you do really well that other people are amazed by?, I would say that at least one person is amazed by my pie-baking and my comedy.
1/24: What are you shy about? Or, what situations do you find make you shy?
Okay, I know this is what most people would say, but I am shy about meeting new people. It is absolutely, physically impossible for me to introduce myself to people. I can talk to strangers, but I feel like as soon as I say, "Hi, I'm Shannon," that I'm being presumptuous to assume that anybody wants to know me so well as to actually know my name. Of course, this results in awkward situations where you talk to some other mom at the library, and then you run into her at the park, and you get into a conversation wherein you find out all these details of her life, and yet you still don't actually know her name. And then you're secretly whispering to other people to inquire about her name, scanning the library Facebook fan page to see if her picture is on there (and not, for the love of God, like every other person on the library Facebook page who uses a picture of her children as her profile pic), or asking for her e-mail address and hoping it somehow incorporates her name. So, my point is, getting over my shyness over introducing myself would probably solve a lot of problems down the road.
1/21: What are three things you can do to be a better friend to the people in your life?
(1) I don't think I'm a good listener. Sometimes I interrupt people while they're talking. Or my mind wanders when I'm supposed to be listening. (2) I could be more like Sarah and give out compliments more freely, instead of always getting caught up in my stupid jealousy and comparison. (3) I'm not very good at returning phone calls/e-mails sometimes.
1 comment:
Hehe … I think you’re among the minority thinking that was “quality” beer. We always got Michelob Honey Brew, which was maybe one step up from Natty Ice. People always used to complain to us that it was too girly and tasted like pee. Whatever, jerks, you’re welcome for the free beer and awesome party :P Anyway, does seem like fate that we continued to purchase girly beer amidst the pressure to get something better, hence facilitating your drinking and subsequent conversation with Bill!
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