A Return After Spring Fever

Hello! It's been a while since I've taken to posting, mostly on account of standard spring fever activities. In the next few weeks, I hope to get back into my irregularly scheduled programming, and here I've decided to kick things off with 8 Random Things About Me, a prompt sent to me by my lovely co-worker and daytime confidant, Mr. Chris Pommier. In the next few weeks I may expand on any number of these 8 Random Things, and I also look forward to writing a bit about Sonic Youth.

Til then, here are some things you may or may not have known about me:

Berlin is my favorite city.

Perhaps it's because this is the first city I visited abroad, or perhaps it is because of the rich political, social and cultural histories of the city, but Berlin won my heart within minutes of my arrival, and that same passion remains today. My sister, who hosted my trip in January of 2006, was a master guide, teaching me nuggets of facts about everywhere we went, and even how we were getting there. She was even patient enough to teach me bits of German (a game I dubbed "Sesam Strasse," which continued on into my January 2007 visit to Linz, Austria), and trusting enough to let me out on my own one afternoon. I continue to enjoy reading recent German/Western/Eastern European history, I would love to learn German, and I would love to go back to Berlin for an extended visit.

I am a runner.

This particular fact is one that I continually try to dispute. Running is uncomfortable and I often only have time to train in the mornings (bringing back horrible memories of high school summer training), and I still dread it almost every day. I annually tell myself I'm quitting. Nevertheless, I love how I feel afterward and I am simply competitive at heart. If I don't run - whether I take a day off or a week off - my body lets me know when I need to get back on the road. Now that I'm outside of the parameters of school-based athletics, I'm able to listen to my body more. I can be lazy when I want to and go for longer runs when I feel like it, which is incredibly liberating.

I clean when I'm nervous.

I also clean when I see someone else cleaning. I can't work at a messy desk, and I can't live in a messy room. Of course, I've also come to realize over the years that "clean" is a standard that exists solely in the eye of the beholder. I know that my own version of cleanliness abides by quirks and rituals I often try to pass off as common sense, but those quirks tend to rear their ugly head most frequently when I'm agitated.

Forrest Gump is my favorite movie.

Simply one of the best movies ever made, in my opinion. And I've seen it enough to have a pretty good idea. By most recent calculations, I have seen it upwards of 50 times - definitely more than 60. As the movie is 2:20 long, this means that I have spent roughly 6 full days of my life watching this movie - nearly a solid week of Forrest Gump! I can talk along with the whole movie, start to finish.

I am a completist.

Though I haven't actively listened to Aerosmith, Ani Difranco, Ryan Adams or the Old 97's in months or in some cases years, I still feel compelled to keep my collection of their catalogs up-to-date. Partially, I think it's posteriety; I'm often annoyed at people who lambast an artist's output when they haven't heard any recent output. Even if I haven't either, having the disc on the shelf grants my remarks a certain credibility, no? That, and I just like seeing all the discs lined up in a row, just like at the store. Except complete, and without duplicates (in most cases).

I am an aspiring hobbyist and collector.

I collect vintage guitars (I have one: a 1967 Epiphone Cortez); I collect rare records (I have 6 or 7); I am a shortwave enthusiast (that, or I'm well-read on the subject, have a decent radio, and tune in occasionally). I love the idea of being a collector or a hobbyist, and like my Uncle Bob I have a tendency to invest a lot of time and effort into hobbies and collections that never grow much beyond their conceptions in my head. Nevertheless, I enjoy these periodic bursts of enthusiasm for something new, and I would like to think it increases my social currency at cocktail parties.

I am exceptionally cheap.

I bike to work, air-dry my clothing, rarely eat meat and use clothes until they are worn. I'm so flippin' happy environmentalism is chic these days.

I am a morning person.

Always have been, and hopefully always will. There's a certain peace and privacy about early morning that I just haven't experienced during the day, or even staying up late. If I sleep much past 7:30 I always feel like I've lost a chunk of my day. Should I - god forbid - sleep past 9:00, I may as well sleep through the rest of the day.