By now, if you have an account on Facebook, you’ve noticed everyone and their mother is writing their “25 Random Things” list and posting it. Well, it took me almost a week to put this shit together so I’m getting some more millage out of it and puting it here as well.
25 Things About Vincent
1. I am a total slob. My idea of sorting laundry is “Clean clothes in the basket, dirty clothes on the floor.”
2. Even though my first crush was on a male teacher when I was 10 (I think. I don’t remember exactly.) I didn’t accept that I was gay until I was 22. I went on my first date (ever) when I was 23.
3. Although it seems to be in glaring contradiction with #2, I saw the Rocky Horror Picture Show almost 300 times in high school.
4. Most of my stories are told in relation to three periods of my life: “Before Katrina,” “After Katrina” and “When I Worked in Radio”. If you have a problem hearing the word Katrina said occasionally, you shouldn’t hang out with people from the Gulf South.
5. I’ve had a website in one form or another since ~1996. One of my first “personal pages” was on my friend Duckie’s domain, flamingpoo.com.
6. I’ve had a blog since 2000: noleftturns.com, nolageek.com and now queerandloathing.com
7. I ran a computer BBS from 1993 until January 2000. It went by three names: TARDIS, Peaceful Death and finally Fear and Loathing. It was hacked one night while I was working – I came home to find my entire hard drive had been deleted. The hackers later posted a log file to another BBS showing them systematically wiping my drive one directory at a time.
8. My favorite song ever is “Sympathy for the Devil” by the Rolling Stones.
9. I’ve broken my left shoulder twice; both times from flipping over my handlebars while riding my bike and avoiding being hit by cars.
10. Since Katrina (see #4) I am terrified of buying furniture.
11. Despite being a native New Orleanian, I didn’t touch alcohol until I was 24. (I think it has something to do with #2)
12. The level of my self-conscienceness when dating someone is directly proportional to the degree of which I like them. If you wonder why I’m not calling, it’s probably because I really want to.
13. Whenever I use white antiperspirant my armpits break out in a really bad rash.
14. I am a dog person but I own cats because I perceive them to be less needy. Someone let Plato in on this.
15. During my first semester at UNO I would wake up at 7am and drive to school just to listen to Howard Stern in the parking lot for two hours. I’d then spend four hours in the computer lab on the internet and then drive home to get on the computer. My GPA was .7
16. During the second semester I had a panic attack in Political Science before I had to give a presentation on the Brady Bill in front of the class. I lied and said I left my handouts in the library when really I just went home. I never went back to that class.
17. I’m chronically either a half an hour early or fifteen minutes late for any given scheduled event — including work. If I happen to be 10 minutes early I’ll stop off for coffee or something to “kill time” – and inevitably it will take me 20 minutes. It’s a curse.
18. I hold a special place in my heart for nerdy guys in glasses and/or shirt and ties. By “heart” I mean “pants”.
19. It’s been months since the last time I’ve done it but I sometimes take pictures of random guys on the street or metro if I think they’re cute (without them knowing, of course.)
20. Prior to moving to DC I rode my bike at least 8 miles a day. Since living in DC I’ve ridden it twice — both times to the grocery three blocks away.
21. My friend Don is the only person I’ve known personally who has died from AIDS. I met him through Marshall and we only hung out a few times on our own, but we had started becoming friends just before he moved back to Florida to be with his family. I’d see him online every now and again and we’d chat a bit about life, about dating, about being gay. After a while he just stopped logging on. I didn’t know for sure he had passed until later, when Marshall told me he had heard from Don’s mom. I still haven’t removed him from my AIM buddy list.
22. After my father died when I was six, my mom brought me to see a psychiatrist. One of the things the doctor and my mother talked about was how upset I would get when Wile E. Coyote would keep coming back to life after dying on the Road Runner cartoon — I wanted to know why my dad didn’t come back. Another thing they talked about in front of me was how the fact that I still slept with stuffed animals at the time ‘didn’t mean I was a homosexual.’ Yeah, I know. Bitch, right? I didn’t know what it meant at the time, but I knew that it was supposed to be bad.
23. I’m 34 years old and I still like to mix flavors at self-serve soda fountains. My current favorite combination is Diet coke with a splash of Orange and Root Beer.
24. My favorite color combination is dark brown and light blue. No, dark brown and mint green. Fuck.
25. It took me over a week to finish this list.