Survey time!

My best high school pal, Kara, over at www.karathon.blog (AKA my inspiration to start blogging) posted this fun "Have You Ever" quiz on her blog so I thought I'd give it a shot. I used to love doing these things back in the days of AOL and Compuserve. I definitely would send them out to my closest friends all the time, even though they obviously already knew most of the answers.

1) Walked out of a movie in the theatre?
I honestly can't say that I have, at least not that I remember. I was in a theater where I saw numerous people walk out and that was when I was living in Wyoming and went to go see Brokeback Mountain. The movie actually premiered in the town a couple of weeks before I went to see it and it definitely made some waves with the local population. I really wanted to ask the folks who walked out, "what exactly did you expect?"

2) Spontaneously bought/watched a movie that was out years ago…but brings up “sentimental” feelings?
Yes! Little Giants was in the $5 bin at Walmart and I definitely picked it up. It reminds me of my brother. He and I LOVED that movie so much. We will still watch it whenever we see it on TV and I even got this movie for him as a nostalgic Christmas present. I think it first came out when I was 10-11 years old and I remember I didn't really get the line, "Timmy, I'm not sure, but I don't think that goes there" (said by Rick Moranis when a child puts a protective cup over his face). I can sit down today and watch it and probably quote half the movie. I still crack up at so many of the lines and Greg and I are silly and will quote it all the time when we're together. One of my favorite lines? A player's response to being issued his jersey: "So the guys at the morgue can identify the bodies..."


3) Had a major celebrity/athlete/singing crush “back in the day”?
I LOVED Johnny Whitworth (aka AJ from Empire Records) back in middle and high school! I had such a crush on him I watched the movie Bye, Bye, Love - in which he has a bit part - about 20 times. I even made a fan website for him. For a long time it was the ONLY Johnny Whitworth fan page out there and was the very first search result on the search engines Yahoo and Excite. Fifteen year old me was very proud of this accomplishment!


(C'mon, you know you loved him!)

I also definitely had a thing for Gavin Rossdale, the lead frontman of Bush, no matter how much I insisted that "I just liked the music."

4) Called in “sick”/made an excuse to work or canceled an appointment/meeting/get-together with friends, co-workers, etc. (but you weren’t actually?!)
I definitely took a "sick" day at the end of last month to go see JC graduate from a grueling 3 week Army course. I don't take many sick days because to me it is like losing an instructional day and the kids get behind. I must confess I felt pretty guilty about it when I was driving down Thursday night, but my 3rd period class was the last thing on my mind when I got to pin his wings on that Friday morning.

I have to confess to canceling on friends and relying on a lame excuse about being sick/having an appointment more than I would care to admit. Lots of times it's just because I'm lazy and sometimes I would much rather lay around the house in my sweatpants (like I'm going to do tonight) than go out. More specifically, I remember bailing on a get-together with my college pals in Boston for New Years 2008. I was still pretty heartbroken from getting dumped that summer (yes, it took me a LONG time to get over him) and the prospect of spending New Years surrounded by 6 friends who were all happy and in love and joined with their significant others while I was very much alone and still miserable just was not appealing to me. Especially when you factor in 6+ hours of driving time to get there. I think I used a family obligation as an excuse not to go. I ended up spending New Years with my family and randomly meeting up with an old high school friend I still jokingly refer to as "the one that got away", which was awesome. Random side note about this guy: He was a polite, intelligent, thoughtful, athletic, quirky boy a year below me on the cross-country team. We were very good friends and he was such an awesome upstanding kid. I think if I had had a bit more confident and been less self-conscious and concerned with what other people thought, I would have asked him out. Silly high school Abigail.

5) Just come home from work – when you should be going to the gym/doing some activity/being productive…and instead plopped on your butt with FOOD and a book/TV, a bath, some music….and just completely VEG OUT and become a LAZY BUTT…but not give 2 damns’??
I'm doing that right now! I'm contemplating ordering Chinese (I haven't had Chinese food in about 2 years) and curling up with my comfy blanket and sweatpants and watching the DVD I picked up at Target last week, Brothers At War. I have a mountain of grading I need to do, clothes that need to go to the dry cleaner, a dishwasher that needs unloaded, laundry that needs to be done, awesome "engaging" lessons that need to be planned for next week considering I am going to be observed by the social studies coordinator for the district at some point. I told myself when I got home I would knock out some grading, but I just do not see that happening at all. I honestly seem to have a lot of these kinds of afternoons. I make excuses for myself on Friday, which is valid, but then I want to make the same excuses on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. It's something I think I really need to work on. I think if I did, it would improve my mood immensely during the school week.

6) Had a HORRIBLE hair-cut that made you want to cry or hide out for, well, a year until it grew out?
I'm pretty boring when it comes to hair cuts and coloring. I cut my hair the shortest it has ever been my sophomore year of college and it took some getting used to, but I ended up loving it. I cringe when I look back on some of the haircuts my mom gave me, but I don't think that counts.

7) Had your heart broken? How did you deal with it?
Yes. My first boyfriend, first real relationship, first love, first everything also sadly ended up being my first (and hopefully only) heartache. I relied on my friends and family a great deal in the aftermath. I basically moved in with my friend and her husband 'cos I couldn't stand being alone for that first week and I needed someone to keep me from calling him. I had wonderful friends to distract me for much of that fall and remind me of how awesome my life was without him, but I still was an emotional wreck for a long time. It sounds cliche, but I dealt with it by just getting through one day at a time. I had student teaching to concentrate on for much of the fall. Then I focused on finding a job, finishing my masters and making the best of the time I had left with my friends there. As the months passed by, I even started actively "dating" for the first time. Before I even realized it I was slowly falling in love with somebody else. (Cheezy, but true!)

8) Wanted to look like or BE another celebrity?
Back in college, my friends and I always used to joke about who our "girl crushes" were. I think to this day the only person I could state having a "girl crush" on would be Reese Witherspoon . I think after we went to see Sweet Home Alabama (such a guilty pleasure movie), we all pretty much wanted to be her. People magazine always used to show her working out or doing something fun and athletic and she seemed to have it so together. Throw in her adorable children, dreamy husband and perfect marriage (this was pre-divorce) and I'd say she had a pretty enviable life. My current celebrity crush is totally Emma Watson from the Harry Potter films. She is so classy. I just love her.