Several Surveys in One

I have to thank Clarity25 for providing me with something to post in my diary. I am desperate to post something, and she always seems to find the most interesting "quizzes." I know she was probably dismayed by a certain deeply held opinion I shared recently, but she's a pretty classy person and probably won't remain dismayed for too long.

1) What's your middle name? Jay 2)

School bully you can't forget: There were quite a few obnoxious kids in the schools I attended (between kindergarten and 12th grade), but none that I thought of as bullies. Since I was really never part of the popular crowd (except maybe as a senior), that’s quite a positive endorsement of my home county in South Dakota. The only real bully I ever encountered was an adult who had never grown up (ironically, in my home county). I was an adult at the time, too.

3) Were you prom queen or king? No, but I was chosen as “King of Grub Day” (Halloween) in 8th grade. I tied for that honor with one of my best friends. :-)

4) Pancakes or waffles? No preference. I like both. What’s the difference between them? My absolute favorite is French toast.

5) First celebrity crush? Jane Seymour

6) Make up: Joan Collins or Christie Brinkley? I probably shouldn’t be taking this quiz. Right?

7) Do you now or have you ever owned a pair of Jordache jeans? Do they make those for men?

8) Ever won an athletic competition? A real one? No.

9) New York or San Francisco? Neither.

10) Plaid or paisley? I don’t know what paisley is, but if it is in the same sentence with plaid then, “Yuck!” to both.

11) Can you cook? What's your specialty? Yes, I can cook. A bit of bragging here: For a few months, I was a cook in a café (attached to my dad’s bar) and got compliments from ranchers on how well I cooked their steaks and hamburgers. Cattle ranchers are notorious for wanting their steaks “just so.” Little did they know, I had never cooked much of anything in my life before that time, certainly no steaks, and very few hamburgers either. In fact, I hated steaks at the time and am still not overly fond of them.

My specialty is a certain type of French fries in which the potato is first boiled and then fried to a perfect golden brown. If taken out a minute too early or too late, I consider the batch a failure.

12) Do you shave above the knee? The person who wrote this survey should really try to keep in mind that there are a few men who write at DiaryLand. That being said, I only shave below the knees... ;-)

13) Michael Jackson: disturbed predator or grossly misunderstood? Probably both, but certainly an unbelievably stupid fool who opens himself up to opportunistic con artists.

14) Prominent movie from your childhood? “Gandhi” and one or three others that I cannot think of at the moment.

15) In an ideal world, I would look like... to be able to tolerate a mindless, 9-to-5, boring, unimaginative career.

16) Thank God I do NOT look like... “Reality TV.”

17) My secret passion is... I’ve always worn my passions on my sleeve.

18) My archenemy is... I don’t know if “archenemy” is the right term, but there are two people who come close: The unqualified, incompetent, unintelligent and corrupt superintendent and business manager at the school where I used to work. They have, without the slightest bit of conscience, played with and ruined people’s lives and careers for their own personal pleasure and advancement. In a bigger pond, these two losers would not be tiny fish; they would be plankton.

19) If I had to lose one of my senses it would be... Taste. Nothing tastes that great to me anymore anyway, and I would certainly eat a lot less junk food.

20) This quiz? Is not too easy to flunk.

This survey was snagged from Clarity25.

LAST PERSON WHO...

Slept in your bed: Me :-(

Saw you cry: Probably one of my parents when I was a kid. I am irrationally stubborn about hiding that side of myself.

Made you cry: My Iranian soul mate.

Spent the night at your house: I cannot remember (which probably speaks volumes, doesn’ it?). As for the few girlfriends I’ve had, I mostly spent the nights at their houses.

You went to the mall with: Fellow educators/friends during a technology conference in Omaha, Nebraska.

Yelled at you: My aunt, two and a half months ago, during a scene in which she pretended to kick me out of her house.

Sent you an e-mail: A woman friend who wants my advice on which type of Macintosh laptop to buy for her daughter. This daughter (very beautiful, I might add) will be transferring from the University of Nebraska to Boston University this fall. In between, she will be spending time in London, England.

HAVE YOU EVER...

Said "I love you" and meant it? Absolutely.

Gotten in a fight w/your dog/cat/bird/fish,etc.? Very strange way of phrasing it. That implies they fought back. But the point is moot. I’ve spoiled my cats so badly that they cannot even comprehend the concept of punishment. I was a bit more strict with previous pets.

Been to New York? Yes, but I don’t remember it. I was only four months old and on my way from Heidelberg, Germany, where I was born, to my mom’s old home in Missouri (and eventually back to my dad’s old home in South Dakota).

California? Yes, three times. Twice to the Los Angeles area to visit relatives and once to San Diego (Coronado) to interview a World War II veteran who had been a prisoner of the Japanese.

Hawaii? No

Mexico? No

China? No

Canada? No, but I’ve lived in Montana, which borders Canada.

Danced naked? I may have. If I did, it didn’t stick in my memory.

Dreamed something really crazy and then it happened the next day? I have had vague impressions of such dreams once or twice. In fifth grade, though, I was standing on the sidewalk beside the school building waiting for the bus to arrive to take me home. I thought to myself, “If I jump over that long, narrow puddle of water that borders the sidewalk, I bet that kid standing there will grab my arm and cause me to turn sideways in midair and fall face down in that puddle, getting me wet from head to toe. The odds of it happening exactly like that were practically zero; so I jumped, and it happened exactly like that.

Wish you were the opposite sex? Just long enough to see if what they say about a woman’s “level of pleasure” is true. :-)

Had an imaginary friend? No

RANDOM...

Red or blue? Both, actually.

Spring or fall? Fall, but by a slim margin.

Are you bored? Yes, and for so many years that I am now totally numb to it.

Last noise you heard? Me laughing at my answer to the “opposite sex” question above.

Last time you went out of the state/province: Two and a half months ago.

What book are you reading now? "Love and Sleep” by John Crowley. Regrettably, it doesn’t rise to the level of a literary masterpiece, the way his novel “Little, Big” does (see my profile page). The latter novel has had more influence on my writing style (fiction writing) and view of reality than any has any other novel.

Worst feeling in the world: Being trapped in a life you hate by circumstances beyond your control

What is the first thing you think when you wake in the morning? "Oh, God! Not this consciousness thing again!”

How many rings before you answer the phone? Without caller ID, no more than one ring (I hate ringing phones). With caller ID, no more than two (just long enough for the caller ID to register a name).

Future daughter's name: Christina, Josie, Katie (names of three of my great-great aunts), plus a certain name I discovered since joining DiaryLand. I also like “Rhiannon” (the title of a Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac song), but that might be a bit too strange to give to a kid in this day and age. There was also a beautiful girl in my school with the name “Sateera.” I’ve always loved that name

Future son's name: I don’t know.

Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? No. I doubt I even did this as a child.

If you could have any job you wanted, what would it be? There are several. Historical researcher, private detective (not the fictional kind on TV), photographer/videographer, writer, Macintosh salesman, etc.

Are you a lefty, righty or ambidextrous? Lefty and semi-ambidextrous. I broke my left arm in 6th grade and again in 8th grade. I broke my left thumb in college. I, therefore, had to learn how to write with my right hand on three different occasions.

Do you type with your fingers on the right keys? Yes. When I’m at the top of my game, I can type 40 words per minute.

What's under your bed? Nothing anymore. Just three or four days ago, I traded my bed with the one in the spare bedroom. Prior to that time, there were two or three empty boxes and two others filled with “heirlooms” that somehow were not put back in the closet after a cleaning binge

Location: Western Nebraska.

College plans: Only as a potential employee, never again as a student.

Do you do drugs? No way, although one DiaryLander’s recent experience with a certain “fungi” was somewhat intriguing.

Do you drink? Yes way.

Who is your best friend? No one anymore, and, outside of being single, that is about the most unpleasant part of life for me. As I was growing up, best friends were what life was all about (along with girls). What has happened since then? One of my best friends turned into a college basketball star, and suddenly I wasn’t good enough for him anymore (we had been almost inseparable up to that time). Another best friend married a less-than-stellar woman who doesn’t like me (I think because I always feigned ignorance when her present husband -- my old best friend -- tried to set us up together -- he always did this as a joke). Prior to their marriage, I never knew that he liked her; therefore, I never hesitated to let him know that I did not like her. He never forgot this. In addition, he is scared to death to anger her, so he has basically forgotten me. My last best friend abandoned me just as he had abandoned all of his previous best friends -- without rhyme or reason. I always told him he would probably do it to me too some day, although I didn’t really believe it, and he also denied it (he has a heck of an inferiority complex). The loss of so many best friends can cause a person to think there is something wrong with him. This has made me very hesitant to let anyone else fit the roll of best friend (that female coworker I mentioned in a previous entry would have been an exception). A number of my new friends since then have been really annoyed at me (even offended) because I seldom ever made first contact with them (which is certainly unlike the old me)

Other great friends? Eh?

What kind of shampoo and conditioner do you use? Aussie.

What are you most scared of? Being on the outside, looking in (for the rest of my life), and getting old.

What clothes do you sleep in? Either my underwear, or nothing.

Who is the last person who called you? My cousin “Jill” just a few hours ago.

Who do you really hate? Hate requires too much work and is far too negative, but I have a great animosity toward the superintendent and business manager I mentioned earlier. I refuse to say, even in the most generic terms, who else comes close to being hated, but, suffice it to say, he is solely responsible for the intolerable burden that I endured for the past two and a half years (which finally ended just one month ago).

Favorite number: 13 (just cuz :-).

Are you timely or always late? Always early or else precisely on time (and I don’t even have to try; I just have a heck of an internal clock, as well as a strong “time” ethic; neither of which has helped me in this life, though). Do you have a job? No, but I’m working on it.

Do you like being around people? It depends on who they are. If they are the right people, then they will have a hard time getting rid of me :-). But I hate being in crowds of anonymous people or generic acquaintances.

Best feeling in the world: It’s been so long...

Are you for world peace? Well, duh.

STUFF... Have you ever loved someone you had no chance with? About every other week.

Have you ever cried over something someone of the opposite sex did? Only twice, and the Iranian was the culprit both times; once when she showed a particularly mean-spirited side of herself that I did not know existed and then again a few weeks later, when she left me at the request of her family.

Do you have a "type" of person you always go after? Appearance-wise: I was once told by a Scandinavian blonde coworker (in a somewhat frustrated tone) that I seemed only to be attracted to dark-haired women. Until she said that, I had never thought about it before. And she was right (probably thanks to the Iranian). It is no longer true that I am attracted only to dark-haired women, at least not entirely. Personality-wise: I am attracted to warm-hearted women who have a sincere smile. Pretty generic.

Ever liked a close guy/girlfriend? By this I presume you mean, “Have I ever had feelings for a close girlfriend?” Why, yes I have. She is mentioned in my last entry.

Are you lonely right now? Yep. Perpetually. In fact, I’m even lonely when I am among casual friends, because I want more than casual friendship...

Ever afraid you'll never get married? Yes, with every waking moment.

Do you want to get married? As the friend who married the less-than-stellar woman once said, putting words in my mouth because I couldn’t find them: “You would at least like to have the opportunity to say, ‘No’ to marriage. Right?” To which I replied, “Right!”

Do you want kids? More so in the past than I do now, but the genealogist in me always thinks about it.

FAVORITE...

Room in house: None. I am very tired of this house.

Type(s) of music: Everything but (c)Rap/Hip Hop, country, and pretentious, stereotypical alternative rock.

Song: Far too many, several of which I’ve named in a previous entry, but I am really taken with one I heard on “Grey’s Anotomy” two weeks ago: “David” by Nellie McKay (2003). That show simply has excellent soundtracks. Two reviews of Nellie McKay follow this survey.

Memory: There are so many different kinds of favorite memories, and I have a few scattered here and there, but none stand out above the others at this particular moment. I’ll think about it and get back to you. You are welcome to remind me if I forget.

Day of the week: None in particular.

Color: Blue. I was once told by an 8th-grade girl (in the school where I worked) that I wore too many blue shirts. I had only recently realized that fact myself and was dismayed and embarrassed when she confirmed that it wasn’t the only one who noticed. I wore far less blue after that.

Perfume or cologne: A very, very distinctive and hypnotic perfume, the name of which I do not remember. I’ve only smelled it on two different women in my life, the Iranian and some woman who had just left a room shortly before I entered it (which gave me a start, like you cannot imagine, since I thought I was going to run into the Iranian after having lost her a year or so earlier).

Month: Probably July, because it is the farthest away from school on either side (I took note of this when I was a student and also when I was a school employee, probably more so when I was a school employee).

Season: Summer and Fall

Holiday: None, in particular.

IN THE LAST 48 HOURS, HAVE YOU...

Cried: No

Bought something: No

Gotten sick: No

Sang: No

Said I love you: In absentia.

Wanted to tell someone you loved them: Yes

Met someone new: No

Moved on: I am in perpetual motion.

Had sex with someone: :-(

Had a serious talk: Yes

Missed someone: Yes

Hugged someone: No

Kissed someone: No

Fought with your parents: I had a “spirited disagreement” with my mom.

Dreamed about someone you can't be with: I don’ know. Maybe.

Had a lot of sleep: Yes

-----

The following rave reviews of Nellie McKay are just two among many at Amazon.com:

April 22, 2004 - Reviewer: A music fan “This kid is utterly amazing. She'd have been a success as a songwriter, a singer, a pianist, a lyricist, or an arranger. As it stands, she's all of that combined. Her piano lounge pieces have been polished and re-arranged for this album. But why on earth is there a clean version? No one interested in her energy, wit, sarcasm, humor, and irony would want to get this. Get the regular (‘explicit!’) version instead.”

April 14, 2004 - Reviewer: Kitchen Guy "BB" (Prior Lake, MN, USA) “Nellie McKay is brilliant. No 19 year old should have this much polish and verve. Her music--all original--is extremely strong and diverse (show tunes to rap), and she sells everything with a brassy gusto that is amazing to behold. I recommend this set to all my friends, and if Nellie sells worldwide the way she's selling in Minnesota, she'll have a long and rewarding career. What a talent!”

Finish-the-Thought Survey

I don't know what is becoming of me lately. I've been snooping through all of your diaries on a regular basis, but I haven't given you anything new to snoop through for almost a month. I do apologize. I simply cannot seem to drum up the energy to update lately. Part of this may have had to do with the fact that the burden I've mentioned in the past was beginning to seem permanent. Now, much to my total amazement and profound relief, it has finally come to an end -- after two and a half years. Since then, I have been so relieved and content that I haven't had the driving need to write. Even so, I am trying to figure out how I might describe it in a future entry. I may not find the right words, so don't get your hopes up (as if your hopes were ever up -- ha...).

If I hadn't been intrigued by the most recent survey on Clarity's site, I might still have been wondering what to post. It seems more creative than most surveys, so I couldn't resist giving it a try. If you start to get bored with my answers before finishing it, I ask you at least to skip down to the "Song I love, but don't have" part (because you can actually click on a link and listen to this one).

Please note that I defer to Clarity's responses twice in this survey. It turns out that her comments were almost identical to what I would have written, and I didn't want anyone to think I was plagiarizing her.

I began filling this out late Saturday night and then worked on it again Sunday night and this evening (Monday). It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be to complete these thoughts.

With regard to the first survey "sentence" below, let me introduce it by stating the obvious: Some TV shows and movies are absolutely hilarious. In spite of that, it is a safe bet that, if we read the actual scripts, the most humorous lines wouldn't seem funny at all. It is only in the presentation that they take on their inherent hilarity. My first entry in this survey is like a script that needs to be acted (by the right person) to be funny; nonetheless, I wrote it anyway.

Survey begins:

My uncle once fell asleep in his living-room chair (during my visit two months ago). At one point, the phone rang, and his wife (she being my aunt, of course) answered it. My uncle continued to sleep. After speaking briefly to the person on the phone, she said to my uncle, "Albert!" He jumped awake the way you do when you don't want anyone thinking you don't have your wits about you. He must have heard the phone in his sleep because he didn't wait for my aunt to explain what she wanted. He quickly grabbed the TV's remote control from the arm rest and put it to his face. "Hello?" he said. After a brief moment, he said in an ever-so-slightly embarrassed, yet all-too-dignified, air, "Oh! This isn't right." He then put the remote down and picked up the real telephone. Although we had been watching him, my two aunts and I had not noticed that he had answered the remote until he made that comment (it almost resembles a phone). We then laughed our heads off at his face-saving comment while he tried to talk to the caller. I continued to laugh for a week or two afterward every time I replayed his comment in my mind. It was just one of those moments that had to be seen to be appreciated.

Never in my life have I... How on earth can I pick just one of the million sentences that could begin with those four words? But I'll try anyway: Never in my life have I been so confused as to how I will spend the rest of my life. The confusion is almost paralyzing.

High school was filled with all the usual agonies and ecstasies that rack the teenage heart and mind. My freshman and senior years in South Dakota were close to excellent. My sophomore and junior years in Nebraska were terrible. Why? Because kids here treated (still treat??) new kids like dirt.

I will never forget a certain married female coworker in the school where I used to work. She was the first person since I was a teenager who fit -- to perfection -- my very strict definition of "best friend" (she was also the first woman who ever fit that category). It was very unpleasant knowing that I could never tell her so. This leads me to add: In some cases, the line between best friendship and love is so thin that it can only be seen with an electron microscope. Since I didn't have access to one of those expensive gadgets, I just simplified things by considering her to be the only best friend I ever loved.

I once met Governor George Mickelson of South Dakota in a very popular and very small "dive" bar in Pierre, SD, celebrating for the evening with his staff. I had been sitting at the bar with my back to him. He was sitting at the table directly behind me. I had not seen him yet. Soon he got up to pass by me. I turned to smile a polite hello to him and immediately had to struggle to prevent my eyes from widening when I recognized him. I just nodded my head in a nonchalant greeting, and he did much the same to me. Still, he seemed to convey a kindness that I had not expected. About three weeks later he was killed in a plane crash. Since I was working at the State Historical Society at the time, I attended his funeral in the state capitol building. Very sad. I hadn't realized how well liked he was by so many people.

There is this girl I know who... Can you believe that my mind has gone totally blank on this one? Maybe the next "answer" can suffice for this one too.

Once at a bar in Montana (where I worked) one of the most gorgeous girl's I had ever met asked me to show her an abandoned room in the back of my father's bar. It had once been the "cooler" for a funeral home or morgue in earlier decades. She hadn't believed me when I told her there was such a room back there. We had to walk through a pitch dark back room (no light bulb), with me holding her hand so she wouldn't trip over piles of junk (there was a single hanging light bulb at the far end of our trip). I will wonder in agony for the rest of my life if I was completely stupid for remaining a perfect gentleman during that walk in the dark (she had never shown an interest in me prior to that night). A few days later I moved away without ever seeing her again.

Last night (Friday night) I drank a little gin and grapefruit (grapefruit is definitely not something I usually put in gin, but it wasn't bad) and wrote a somewhat angry response to a fundamentalist, evangelical conservative nut on another web site (which I found by accident a few months ago). He is a young married man in his 20s, but he reminds me of an 8th grader in his conceited dismissal of people with whom he doesn't agree. Gin brings out the "intellectual" debater in me, and so I was on a roll. I'm sure it was a complete waste of time, though. People like him, when confronted with concrete facts, just close their eyes and pretend they aren't there.

If only I had a large number of my old friends living nearby.

Next time I go to church... Ain't gonna happen.

Terri Schiavo, if she was thinking at all, was probably thinking, "Gee, I'm glad so many people are convinced that I want to spend another twenty or forty years counting the same ceiling tiles over and over and over, without being able to scratch my itches or speak or read or anything. I wonder how they would feel if, for instance, they had to spend the rest of their lives buried in concrete up to their noses, so that they can do nothing but breathe and stare in frustration at a tiny portion of the world around them until they die of old age."

When I turn my head to the left I see the wall.

When I turn my head to the right, I see (sleeping on the desk's pullout leaf) the cat that multiplied shortly after I rescued her from the cold, cruel world two years ago. She is almost my constant shadow wherever I go, always looking at me with total affection, and seemingly afraid that her rescue will turn out to have been a dream from which she might awaken at any moment if she lets me out of her sight.

You know I'm lying only when I confess that I am lying. :-) Actually, I am not really the lying type -- the bad kind of lies, that is. Good lies? The kind that spare someone's feelings? or save them (as well as me) from harm? Sure. I tell those when the situation calls for it. For most of my life, though, I've always told the truth, even when it got me in trouble. Even my parents thought I was too honest for my own good. Lately, though, I have become really good at omitting things from public discourse instead of being honest about them. It took me much of my life to learn how to do that.

That being said, I must admit that, when it comes to lying merely for fun (for practical jokes), I can fool even the most skeptical person.

What I miss most about the eighties are the thousands of chances I had "to get it right," but didn't. Instead, I stumbled blindly along, continually thinking that my "real life" had not yet begun.

If I was a character written by Shakespeare I would sew my mouth shut to save people from having to listen to me babble on and on, seemingly incoherantly, for ten or twenty stanzas in a row. I am the only English major I know who cannot stand Shakespeare. Clarity says it perfectly. She writes, "Even though [Shakespeare] is considered one of the greatest historical writers, I think there is a lot of hype surrounding his work." Yaaaaayyyyyy!!! How refreshing it is FINALLY to "hear" someone else say that besides myself!

By this time next year, I am hopeful that my confusion will have come to pass.

A better name for me would be Festus Hagen.

If I ever go back to school it will be a sign that I have run out of less creative and less painful ways to torture myself. When I was in college, I wanted to stay there forever. Now that I am out, I cannot stand the thought of ever going back again. I absolutely love being able to choose what I want to learn, when I want to learn it, and how "hard" I want to learn it. It is great not having to learn what someone else wants me to learn.

You know I like you if ... Once again, I cannot top what Clarity wrote.

If I won an award, the first person I would thank is.... Hhhhmmm... I guess it all depends on what sort of award I won.

Darwin, Mozart, Slim Pickens, and Geraldine Ferraro are totally unrelated to one in another in every conceivable way.

Take my advice and NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER allow your name to be put on a will, unless you stand to earn billions. If you do, the greedy, self-serving lawyers will make your life a living hell for a year or two (at the very least), and then they will charge you a fortune for the very strenuous chore of doing almost nothing for you. Wills are nothing more than legal scams. If you allow your name to be put on anything at all, make sure it is a trust and not a will.

My ideal breakfast is any one of a number of things, such as cereal, oatmeal, doughnuts or rolls, and, most wonderful of all, Hardee's Breakfast Friscos. Just writing about a Breakfast Frisco makes me want one.

My idea of a repulsive breakfast is anything that the majority of Americans (and Japanese) normally think of as lunch, supper or hors d'oeuvres material. :-)

A song I love, but don't have is "Cozy in the Rocket" by Psapp (2004)... Happily, the original response here became outdated last night (Sunday) evening, one day after I began this survey. It is the first new song I have liked (really, really liked) in a very long time. It just happens to be the theme song to the new hit series "Grey's Anatomy," which I mention in my previous entry. The show's producers play only about fifteen seconds of it, making it easily the shortest TV theme song of all time, and this definitely leaves you wanting to hear more. This evening, after watching the show, I got on the internet to see what its name is and who sings it. During my search, I accidentally stumbled onto this link, which, unbelievably, contains the entire song (in MP3 format). The other four minutes and thirteen seconds are easily as good as the fifteen seconds that plays on TV. Please give it a listen. I think some of you might like it.

Click here to read a little bit about Psapp, a British/German duo.

If you visit my hometown (or, rather, the town I think of as my hometown), you would probably initially react to it the same way Dr. Joel Fleischman reacts when he first arrives in Cicely, Alaska (on TV's Northern Exposure). Then, just like him, you would slowly start to realize that there is a touch of magic surrounding the place.

[By the way, Northern Exposure is one of my favorite TV shows of all time.]

Tulips, character flaws, microchips, and track stars are the random thoughts of a surveyor who was determined to write something here, in spite of suffering from severe "blank-mind" syndrome.

If you stay overnight in my house be prepared to visit into the wee hours.

I'd stop my wedding for just long enough to ask my bride-to-be if she truly realizes what she is getting herself into. :-)

The world could do without so many things; but I don't want to sound like a contestant in the Miss America pageant. Therefore: It could definitely do without rap and hip-hop music.

I'd rather lick the belly of a cockroach than sit on a jury that has to contemplate imposing the death penalty on someone.

My favorite blond is Veronica Lake.

Paperclips are more useful than your finger when your ear itches (if the sharp point is bent outward, that is).

If I do anything well, it is trying to treat people the way I would like to be treated.

And, by the way, it has been two years and two months now since I last had a cold (knock on wood). It has been equally as long since I suffered any sort of illness. I had to learn the hard way how to avoid catching colds (luckily, I have very seldom gotten sick throughout my life). For about the first two and a half years that I worked at the school, I caught an average of five colds per school year (which is about four more than usual), thanks to about 450 or so little viruses (aka "students") that infest the place. Finally, I had had enough. I began to take seriously the advice of one of my coworkers (the best friend mentioned earlier): DO NOT touch your nose or eyes during the school day, unless you have thoroughly washed your hands first. After I began doing that, I caught maybe only two colds in the next two and a half years, as well as a single case of a light 24-hour flu (normally, I go lots of years without ever having the flu); and those colds and flu probably occurred only because I forgot and touched my nose and/or eyes at some point. Since leaving the school, as I say, it has been two years and two months since I have had a cold or illness.

Of course, there are times when I am in public that I absolutely have to scratch an itchy eye or tickly nose. At those times, when no one is looking, I use the back of my hand or wrist (or, I must confess, my shirt sleeve) since they seldom ever touch any surfaces or other people. It isn't perfect, but it suffices. My friend also got me into the habit of cleaning my hands with hand sanitizer numerous times a day. Even with that, I still avoided touching my face until I arrived home at the end of the work day. At that time, I would immediately wash my hands and proceed to scratch, pick and rub my nose and eyes like a five-year-old hillbilly for the rest of the night. :-) In short, I am here to tell you that not touching your eyes and nose really works (it also helps immensely not to have any habits that weaken your respiratory system).

Whew! That took a long time

Speaking of a long time, I will try my best not to take so long between entry posts. Sincerely yours, YouNameIt