25 Random Things

(this post was written by Kyle on January 30, 2009, and it concerns & )

[Caveat for you straight-up Fluid Imagination readers, this is a Facebook thing, but since Facebook copies all my Fluid Imagination posts to the Notes page of my Facebook profile, I figured I'd just recreate it here.]

Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

  1. Because I work from home, I spend most of the week not wearing pants.
  2. There was a point in my life when I used to eat buffalo chicken subs from The Little Pizza King in Brighton, MA — at least every other day — for almost a year and a half straight.
  3. I was a ski bum in Utah when I was nineteen years old, and yet, when I was 27-ish, I lived in Alaska for six months during the winter and didn’t take one turn on the ski slopes.
  4. I haven’t had a haircut in probably a good two and half years.
  5. The only time I miss not having a TV is during playoffs (any of the four major sports).
  6. I’ve never seen Schindler’s List.
  7. Since August of last year, not a day has gone by when I haven’t been in the middle of a chess game with Justin Kinney.
  8. Almost every job I’ve ever had has been the result of my brother Shawn (except for my ski bum job, which was the result of my brother Brendan, and the two months a few summers ago when I worked at a deli up here in Vermont).
  9. I used to be a decent basketball player (never had a jumpshot, but my handle was tasty).
  10. I still blame Adam Champion for ending my childhood: “Wait…we’re shooting at invisible guys?”
  11. As much as I know it’s not going to happen, I’m still waiting for C.A.L.F. to reform as some kind of charter-like school: “We’re getting the band back together!”
  12. I’ve reached the age where I’ve realized there are certain things I will simply never accomplish.
  13. Give or take, I’ve had at least one alcoholic drink (beer, wine, Bloody Mary, vodka-tonic, Irish coffee) almost every day for the past six years. That’s what happens when you settle down in your college town.
  14. I think it’s a damn shame that Jerry Garcia and Trey Anastasio never got to share the same stage.
  15. Since 9/1/2007, I’ve written 205,813 words in my capacity as a Creative Writer, and since 3/5/2008, I’ve put in 497 hours and 18 minutes of solid Creative Writing time.
  16. Not a day goes by when I don’t rejoice for meeting my wife. Not a single day.
  17. One day, maybe five years ago, for whatever reason, I took a dollar bill and ripped it in half. I gave the other half to Ben Graham, and told him that as long as he lived, he had to keep his half and I’d keep mine. Though I’ve moved at least half-a-dozen times since then, I still have my half. I don’t know if he does.
  18. I’ve won awards (well, honorable mentions) for my work as a recruitment-advertising copywriter.
  19. One of the best things anyone has ever said to me was when Eliot Johnston and I were watching an episode of The West Wing where President Bartlett has to give the state of the union, and he gets his Secretary of Agriculture to be the cabinet member who doesn’t attend in case there is a terrorist attack and…you know…every one in the presidential line of succession is killed. So they’re in the Oval Office and Bartlett is giving the guy advice, and with Leo evesdropping in the outer office, Bartlet asks the guy, “You got a best friend?” The man says, “Of course, Mr. President.” “Is he smarter than you?” The man smiles, “Yes, sir.” Then the President says, “That’s your chief-of-staff.” In the other room, Leo almost starts to cry. Anyway, right after that happened, Eliot looked over to me and said, “You’d be my Chief-of-Staff, Mr. Callahan.” Nicest thing anyone ever said to me.
  20. I am the master of the one string.
  21. If you’re not on instant messenger, there’s a damn good chance I haven’t talked to you in years.
  22. The best reading experience I ever had was when I finished James Joyce’s short story, “The Dead” — which is unarguably the best short-story in the English language. The story ends with an amazing passage where the character is looking out the window at the snow falling in Dublin, and as I was reading it (in Eliot’ awesome blue chair in our dorm in Bogue Hall), it was snowing outside. There was more to it, of course — candles burning for an amazing light in the room, for example — but the telling doesn’t quite fit the list format.
  23. There’s few things better than sitting at my parents’ dining room table and killing a couple of six bottles of wine with the family — and yes, I said a couple of six bottles.
  24. I once dedicated an evening to transcribing and memorizing the words to the Phish song, “I Didn’t Know.” This was before there was an Internet, so I couldn’t just look that shit up.
  25. I don’t know if it’s possible for me to live a happier life.