"The Moth" and the 6th Grade Election

Fun doesn't always find me, and sometimes I need to be proactive about entertaining myself. And I've felt a little short in the fun department the past few days, and figured I'd create some fun on my own with a little exploration with a Tuesday night field trip. This will sound pretentious and dorky, but I heard a program on NPR recently called "The Moth", which loyal NPR fans will probably be familiar with. I'm not an NPR die-hard, although I do enjoy things like Car Talk, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and This American Life when I catch them, and it was completely coincidental that I heard the Moth and an advertisement for their first ever Chicago event at Martyr's.

Anyhow, the Moth is essentially an organization that promotes live story telling at live events called Story Slams. There aren't many rules to the stories, mainly that it can't be scripted, it has to relate to the evening's topic, and it has to be a STORY, not a stand-up routine or one-man (or woman) show, and must be less than 5 minutes. At the start of the night, aspiring storytellers put their name in a hat, and the host draws the names of a few bold souls to step up to the microphone. Stories are judged, a winner is determined, and its kinda like Toastmasters but less corporatey and probably more fun (although I've never attended a Toastmasters meeting).

So tonight's topic at The Moth was "School", and I walked away with a few thoughts. For one, it takes a lot of cojones (guts) to get up in front of a room of strangers and reveal intimate details about one's life. I know I do it on the blog, but I can think about what I'm writing (or at least that's supposed to happen) and I know most of the folks who read this. Second, there's something enjoyable about listening to stories. I watch my nieces and nephew when they hear stories from their parents, grandparents, or myself, and they hang on every word with excitement as to what comes next, or how it ends up. The strange thing is, adults do it as well when they listen to stories. And there's something creepy/compelling/interesting when its a non-fiction story from a total stranger. And the final thing I thought as I walked out of there is that laughter (especially when shared with the audience) is good for the soul.

I'd like to say I heard stories about people's school experiences that blew me away, but none of them bear repeating. For the most part, the storytellers did an excellent job under the circumstances, and most had me laughing at some point. Of course, there were a few lemons in the bunch, but even those folks I admired for their courage, honesty, and willingness to challenge themselves. I kept thinking to myself, "nothing from my school years was interesting enough to tell these people about," but about midway through the evening I thought about the story I would tell if I somehow had the courage, willingness, and/or interest in getting up before an audience of complete strangers. That story is the 6th Grade Election.

I'll try to keep my story brief, but figured I'd share it here. And I know this is written, so feel free to interject a number of "ahhs", "ummms", and "likes" if you want to get a sense for what I'd sound like on stage. Its a bad habit of mine, especially when I'm nervous.

In the 6th grade, there were elections for a few officer positions. Looking back on it, I have no idea what these elected officials actually did, why there needed to be elections for said positions, or why I felt the need to run for one of the positions. But somehow I decided it was a good idea to run for class secretary--one of the few elected positions I thought I had a chance to win. In the weeks leading up to the election, candidates running for more senior positions (President, Vice President, Treasurer) took the time to create fliers/posters and get the word out that they wanted other 12 year olds to give them their votes. Some even had catchy slogans or buttons for their classmates to remember when they stepped in to the ballot box.

As my mom likes to beat in to my head, I'm the kind of kid that never really applied himself in school, and the same was true for that 6th grade election. I didn't do a lot of work to campaign for votes, and recruited two close friends (Charlie Sierra and Juliet Mike) to manage my campaign. Our campaign strategy consisted of the two of them coming to my house, making a poster, hanging it up in school, and taking our chances when the election came. My opponent in this election was a woman we'll call Lima Golf, who we knew from a few classes, but I think our collective 'strategy' was that I could beat her with my charm, handsome looks, and the fact that most of the 6th grade probably didn't give a shit who the class secretary was.

The story gets interesting when a girl we'll call Mike Golf enters the picture. Mike was the most popular girl in the 6th grade, and although she and I became friends in high school we did not see eye to eye at age 12. In fact, there was deep animosity we shared for each other. I don't know what the root cause was of our hatred for each other, but things got hostile at some party when she touched a nerve and I went Incredible Hulk on her.

Tangent: most who know me as an adult have never seen this side of me, but at one point I had a switch that could flip from calm to rage in mere seconds. I don't know where that came from, but I have a temper, and its tough to shut it down once its go time.

So Mike and I were at some social event, throwing verbal jabs at each other and eventually it came to blows. I probably shouldn't admit this publicly, but yes, I did fight a girl in 6th grade. In the aftermath to follow, Mike made a point of turning most of the 6th grade girls against me (I won them back in 7th grade once I began to shave), but the timing could not have been worse. Our little fight had come in the weeks prior to the election, and as any good politician knows, you don't hit girls in the week leading up to an election.

But I was still optimistic, as were my trusty campaign managers and when election day came I cast my ballot with confidence that I'd be the 6th grade secretary. Well, as you can probably guess by my tone, I lost that election. And I've never returned to any elected position since then, and probably never will. Although if I do, I'll make sure to keep my hands off women in the weeks prior to the election.

So that's my story, albiet a dorky and horrific one for those who only know me as an adult. Probably not one I would have loved to tell in front of 200 random strangers, but hope you enjoyed it. As for the Moth, I'll probably check it out the next event on October 27 when the topic is "Firsts", and in the meantime I'll be thinking about an interesting story to share with you all in the days prior to or after the event. And if you're curious about the Moth but don't live in Chicago or feel like attending in person, there's a podcast on itunes you can subscribe to and listen to tonight or highlights from previous Story Slams...here's a link from their site.

Changing of the Season

It's feeling like fall around the midwest, with cool evenings, shorter days (technically less sun, days are still 24 hours), leaves on the ground, and geese flocking through town on their way south from Canada. There's some great stuff about the Fall (or Autumn, but does anyone really call it Autumn?) so since I don't have a ton to update you on, I figured I'd give you a list of my favorite fall memories. Some happen every year, others are events that happened in my life between September and Thanksgiving. None of these will surprise you.

• Football. I know, you're probably thinking what a predictable, meatheady male thing for me to say, much less begin a list with. Well ya know what? Football is good. Hanging out with my friends watching it, talking about it, and even making lame attempts to play catch are all good things. But even if an alien came here from another planet and you brought them to a college campus or stadium on a sunny fall afternoon, they'd think it was pretty cool. The tailgating. The marching bands (college). The lunatics dressed in jerseys of players who have either long-since retired. I've lived in several parts of the country; Tampa, Miami, Seattle, and of course Chicago and I can say without a doubt that passionate football fans are one of the few things every major city has in common. I don't think it improves or saves lives, and it certainly can be argued that its the most barbaric, stupid, classless and ridiculous of the 4 major sports, but I like it and its my blog.
  
• Baseball Games with Relevance. Once again, those of you who read my stuff and hate sports are probably annoyed with back to back sports references. But the baseball season begins back in March/April and is a marathon. Months have gone by with games that blur together, and its nearly impossible to stay on top of it all...but come October it doesn't make a difference if you've watched a game in months; you stop what you're doing and pay homage to the MLB playoffs. This year will not include my team (the Cubs) but many a fond fall memory involves the Cubs either doing great or extremely shitty things to my sports psyche. And even when the Cubs weren't involved, I remember watching Kirk Gibson crank his home run against the A's with my dad in our living room, watching the Marlins beat the Indians with my grandfather in his hospital bed, and watching the Indians and Braves in Madison with the high school gang during our first Fall apart from each other as college freshmen.
• Halloween. For starters, I believe Halloween should be moved to the last Friday in October, kinda like what we do for Labor Day and Memorial Day. Parents can take the afternoon off without remorse to go trick or treat with their kids, and adults can act like idiots and have a full weekend to recover. There's really nothing good about Halloween falling on a Tuesday or Wednesday, and frankly, I don't know who would be opposed to this legislation other than people who truly celebrate All Hallow's Eve. Another great thing about Halloween is that it makes for great conversation with little kids in the month leading up to the big day. I don't care if you've ever met a kid, the "what are you dressing up as?" question is an instant ice breaker for anyone under age 10. It has been the topic of conversation of late at my sister's house, and there are some finalists but no final decisions just yet on what everyone will wear.
• Cool nights. This is mainly for sleeping purposes. I like to sleep with it pretty cold, and there's a great feeling that comes with actually needing blankets to stay warm. The only problem with the cold nights and warm blankets is that you have to leave them behind to get up, something that kinda sucks about Fall.
• Marathon/Columbus Day Weekend in Chicago. One of my most proud physical achievements was completing the Chicago marathon in 2004. Columbus Day weekend will always remind of that accomplishment, which isn't really all that unique given that 40,000 people accomplish the same thing every year that weekend. But as a guy who had a lot of health problems, 2004's marathon marked one of the high points in health for me. I'm always inspired when I hear cowbells, people screaming for their friends, and hordes of people running for 26 miles. I guess what inspires me is that all of them have a cool story, and all of them have worked their ass off to get to that point, and its like one big celebration of hard work, dedication, and commitment to achieving a goal. And there's some gruesome shit to look at as well, which can be mildly entertaining.
  
• Elections. Although we're not in a big election year, there's something cool about elections. I love to vote, and I hope you do too. And if you don't, then you are not allowed to bitch and/or moan about anything related to politics.
  
• Leaves. This one sounds superduper corny, but there is something cool about a bright yellow or red leafed (leaved?) tree. I also kinda like the sound of dry leaves underneath my feet on the sidewalk. And its also funny to watch Annie stick her nose in piles of leaves looking for some kind of treasure. I may sing a different tune if I end up having to rake
  
• The start of basketball season. Its easy to lose sight of basketball with football and the baseball playoffs going on in early October, but in the Whiskey house this was one of the more celebratory occasions. Bravo Whiskey (my dad) has held Bulls season tickets for 29 consecutive seasons, and it was always fun to find out which games there was a chance I'd get to attend with him. And as a guy who played basketball as a kid the Fall was the time to show how much (or more often how little) I had worked on my game since the previous season.
• Jackets. By January I'll be whining about how much I hate wearing a coat everywhere I go (although that would violate one of my agreements with you--that I'd never bitch about the weather). But breaking out the jacket/coat collection is always fun. Each year, I'm moderately surprised to find jackets I either forgot I owned or hadn't seen in a long time. New jackets entering the rotation is always exciting/fun as well, although that won't be high on my list of things to run out and buy. I also enjoy wearing sweatshirts, in case you care.

Welcome (back) to the Machine

I posted it as an update on Facebook, but it was so ironic and funny to hear "Welcome to the Machine" by Pink Floyd three times during my second day at work. The trifecta may have been a case of strange coincidence, or it may have been because I spent a freakin' eternity in my car this week driving to a bunch of locations for work. In Seattle, I could walk to work from my home in less than 5 minutes; so its suffice to say transportation to and from work is a little different here in Chicago.

I did a little poking around on Youtube and found the video in case you don't know the song I'm talking about, but more interesting than the video are the comments below videos on Youtube. Especially funny are the ones from the Pink Floyd die-hards who seem very convinced they know the meaning behind the song. Pink Floyd was a band I never got to see in concert, and totally laid an egg when they toured in 1995; as it was most likely the last chance I had to see them live. I think everyone goes through a Pink Floyd phase at some point (which for me came after the Steve Miller Band, Led Zeppelin, Who phases), and I confess my interest in the band peaked when I heard about the Wizard of Oz/Dark Side of the Moon synchronization trick. It would be hilarious to have a video of my high school friends and I watching that together in Alpha Whiskey's bedroom, trying to decipher meaning behind the events that lined up with the song. I'm also convinced you could find interesting "coincidences" if you synced any album and movie and have enough time on your hands. One of these days I'm going to try that trick with Metallica's "....And Justice For All"; which the band wrote based on the movie with the same title. If you haven't seen that movie, its worth a rental although its 30+ years old.

Anyhow, I really don't know what Floyd was thinking about when they wrote "Welcome to the Machine" but I've always thought it had something to do with the "cog in the machine" image that comes with spending time in a structured life without much of an individual identity. Whether its school, work, military, whatever, the machine conjures up thoughts of being just one of the masses; and I felt that way a bit this week as I rejoined the rest of America sitting in meetings, driving around in my car, and doing all of the stuff that goes in to working.

In addition to bitching about weather (which no one cares about), I've also decided no one wants to hear about traffic and how much time is or isn't spent in traffic. Its really only important to the person who sits in the car, but let's just say traffic will play a role in my new job. With hospitals located all over the Chicago area, my commutes were close to two hours during rush hour--and those are one way trips. But in this economy, beggars can't be choosers, so a little traffic isn't going to make or break my life. And you have my word, this post will be the one and only time I bring it up.

I'm going to need some time to formulate an educated opinion about the work; but my first impressions were good. There are certainly some differences to the way things were out west (beyond just the commute) and I'll post some work-related things up here from time to time if you want to know what's going on during my days. But I continue to be impressed with my former employer for everything they did, now that I've been able to see how others operate.

Outside of work, it was nice to have a long weekend--played some golf, hung with some friends (some old, some new, some male, some female), welcomed back college football, and had some time to catch up on some reading. One of the things I decided during the past week was that I'm going to follow through on writing the book I've probably described to many of you. Reading other authors is a useful way for me to learn ways to engage an audience, and I'm reading Kurt Vonnegut's Hocus Pocus; which is a fun "first person" story. I'll describe my book idea in more detail in a future post, and although writing a book doesn't appear on my 2009 personal plan, it's something I've always wanted to do. And even if the only people who ultimately read it are the 15 people who check the blog, it'll be nice to put my time and effort in to something more than rambling posts on a blog.

Hope all of you enjoyed the extra day this weekend, and like this guy said; "keep on livin; L-I-V-I-N..." (some great one liners in there)