7 Things

So Teach tagged me, and I guess I'm supposed to share 7 things about me. Apparently with no theme or agenda, just 7 things. Which is kind of a strange tag to get in the blogosphere, since...y'know...all we do here is talk about ourselves. But, I feel like a cool kid whenever I get tagged, so here you go.

1. Sesame Street is hilarious. I watch it once or twice a week with Dakota when I'm having breakfast. She's oblivious, and I'm laughing out loud. Also, it's cool that something that was there when I was a kid is there when she's a kid. So I can say to her how Cookie Monster and Ernie were my favorites. How come Kermit's never on Sesame Street?

2. I like scary movies and scary books. Not gory, or startling - the kind of horror movie that just has the slasher crash through the window and make you jump out of your seat - those are stupid. But genuinely frightening stories. I think it takes a profound imagination to scare other people. The list is short of entertainment that really frightened me. Salem's Lot by Stephen King was frightening. Blair Witch Project. The Ring was when it first came out - before every other movie ripped off its techniques and made them silly.

3. I'm a musician. You maybe didn't know that.

4. I'd written a really long piece about this last fall, but it was the kind of thing that the more I said, the less I was able to say. So I'll just tell you simply and let you ponder the mysteries: My daughter was born on October 18th - the same day that my Grandfather was buried. But also the day that my Dad was born in 1950 - Dakota and her Grandpa Don share the same birthday. If you've been here for any of the long story, you understand the impact my Dad's life and death had on me. My daughter was born 3 weeks and 2 days early - nowhere on the proverbial radar was an October 18th birthday considered. Yet, it was. If you think about that for a second, how totally random and impossibly unlikely something like that is - it hurts your head.

5. That's not the only example. My Dad died on my mother's birthday. My birthday is April 14. My younger sister was born 4 years later, on April 12th. We have all kinds of "born a day before her aunt died" stories in my family. It's a bit surreal, and
makes me feel part of some vast mystery, that the two families from which I'm sourced seem so metaphysically connected.

6. I have a twin brother. No, we don't look a like (well, actually as we grow older we seem to...), and no, we're hardly anything alike. At least, not with the superficial stuff - he's not athletic; I'm not as charismatic. Probably, though, you'd be pretty aware that we were brothers if you spent time with us in the same room.

7. Probably I'd like to write a novel someday. But I A: have no idea what I'd write about. All my ideas seem stupid. 2: It may have to wait until I'm 60 and retired. I just can't imagine having time for it. There are apparently 50 million things "I'd like to do", and since I'm generally in process to some degree of doing them, I'll have to wait. And D, when I read something like what my friend is writing, it humbles me into realizing that some people are really born to do this, and do it well, and that I'd probably just hack my way through the rules and techniques, but without the required soul to make it authentic. Alas. Doesn't mean I won't try someday. :)

So speaking of which, Erin, you're it. Pharmie, you're it. Brazo, you're it. Steve, you would be it, but is there really anything about you we don't know?

That's all from me until I'm back from Vegas baby. See you next week!