The Tag

Mags at You Forgot Poland! has been harping on me for what feels like eternity to do this 'tag' - this questionnaire that has probably traveled around the world more than syphillus. So here are my answers!

1. What were three of the stupidest things you have done in your life?

• According to Suze Orman, one of the more recent stupidest things I've done was close three credit card accounts. I had paid the balance off, and couldn't stand the thought of empty credit cards burning a hole in my wallet. I'm such a sucker for temptation. And by temptation I mean 'buying crap.' But those balance-free credit cards would have improved my credit score, according to Orman, who would consider me part of the 'Young, Fabulous and Broke' (YFB) crowd. On the upside, I have always wanted to be an acronym.
  
• In a moment of heated rage, I once called my mother "Nothing more than a lunch lady." It was the only time I can remember ever making my mother cry. It also made her mad as hell, and to this day, she won't let me forget it. But that's good for her...I was an asshole.
  
• I purchased a new car in 2002 in New York state, and when I moved back to Pennsylvania, I "forgot" (a.k.a. was lazy and didn't find the time for this) to transfer the license plate, get the car a PA inspection, or send the title to my financial institution. I just placed the license plate to my old car on my new car, and went driving around for 18 months like it was nothing. It was all working out just fine, till a cold December night when four police cars hunted me down on the streets. Apparently they had scanned my license plate, and when it showed up as a 1992 Oldsmobile instead of a 2002 Saturn, it set off some red flags. I thought four cops was a little excessive, though! As was the $350 fine leveled at me. Argh!

2. At the current moment, who has the most influence in your life?
My dog, Frida! Also my parents, in particular my dad, who has been a full-time caretaker for my mom for more than two years now. I don't know how he does it. Showers, getting pills ready, making dinner, arranging doctor's visits...thinking about it gives me an ulcer, yet he's as positive as ever, and just quit drinking beer (except during NASCAR events, of course!).

3. If you were given a time machine that functioned, and you were allowed to only pick up to five people to dine with, who would you pick?
John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Jim Henson (for personal reasons, and because my hands are the same size as his!), Sen. Paul Wellstone, and Carole King (circa 1972).

4. If you had three wishes that were not supernatural, what would they be?
The first would be a saucy, same-sex love affair scandal rocking the Bush White House, leaving them without any power at all, so that the Republicans lose miserably in the 2006 midterm elections.

The second wish would be for Starbucks to brew nothing but fair trade coffee, so I wouldn't have to feel guilty.

And the third would be that the world stops turning a blind eye to the marginalized in Africa and the global south. I mean, Live 8 is cool and all, but if the music doesn't come with much needed HIV/AIDS medicines, mosquito nets to protect children from malaria, or especially radical economic policy changes in the First World to stop crushing the poor around the globe, it's just going to be more of the same once Bono steps off the stage.

5. Someone is visiting your hometown/place where you live at the moment. Name two things you regret your city not having, and two things people should avoid.
Is culture too broad of a thing to mention? Hehe...I also regret us not having good public transportation.

Two things to avoid would be Hector's Restaurant, which is like the oldest Italian restaurant in the city, but the food tastes like ass; and upper Peach Street, which is the most commercialized section of town. It used to be nothing but trees, but now looks like seven Wal-Marts threw up.

6. Name one event that has changed your life.
My mother having her stroke has changed my life and my attitude the most, I'd say, especially over these past four years. I thank God each day that she's still alive, but she's a different mother than the one who made me Cream of Wheat each morning before school, or the one who helped me with social studies projects, or the one who stayed up late with me on Saturday nights as a kid so that I could watch professional wrestling until 2 in the morning. It's also been a wake-up call that the more you age in life, the more you have to let go of in this world. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, I suppose, but it does hurt sometimes.

7. Tag 5 people.
I'll have to break this tag, unfortunately, because I don't have five people I can tag. Very few of my friends have blogs! I'm so lame...I feel like the kid who sits at the cafeteria table all alone, with nothing to accompany him but his red hair and freckles. *sigh* I should be more plugged in...