B - Band Room

Band Room: place

During my senior year of high school I spent 4 of 7 periods per day in the Band Room. Wind Ensemble (period 1, trumpet, then horn), Concert Band (per 2, horn), Study Hall (per 4, which overlapped the two other band periods), and Jazz Band (per 7).

SEE ALSO: French Horn, Study Hall, Spam,

# - 16

16: number

7+9=16
79-63=16
1+6=7

I have a light blue Woodland Soccer t-shirt. It was a rec league jersey from when I played in Middle School. It is #16. A friend of mine from the debate team played on the girls soccer team in the same league and had the exact same jersey. The first time I saw her wearing it and I thought she had stolen my shirt. I often wore that shirt to do a particular skit at a Summer Camp that I used to be affiliated with.

NHL Hockey star Pat LaFontaine wore #16.

Turning 16 did not mark any special rites of passage for me.

SEE ALSO: debate, hockey, Numbers, 7, 9, driving

S - Socks

Socks: thing, clothing

I prefer black socks to other shades. Unfortunately there are Fashion Rules that prevent me from upgrading to only owning black socks. Also, I am not Neil Gaiman.

I tend to wear white socks when working out. I have a pair of socks that I borrowed from my Grandpa. They were so big, I ended up using them as my special field hockey socks because they fit over my shin guards.

I once spent 9 dollars (!) on a pair of UnderArmor socks, because it was crucial that I had a pair of Red socks and they were the first ones I found.

This is not about baseball.

SEE ALSO: Floor Hockey, Field Hockey, Cage Dancing,

B - Bedsheets

Bedsheets: thing

The very first thing I'm going to buy when I "make it big" (or get my own place to live) is a really nice bed/mattress, but only so I can get super-high thread-count sheets. After that I'm never going to be able to get out of bed.

The second thing I'm going to do is hire someone to change my sheets for me when they need washing, because putting sheets on a bed is my single least favorite chore.

SEE ALSO: Chores, luxury, laundry,

T - Tea

Tea: thing, beverage

I used to make hot cocoa with a Mint tea bag in it. I was also really excited to learn, while I was in Wales, that it's okay to put milk and sugar in tea.

Now I mostly drink Green Tea with lemon and honey, but only when I'm really tired in the morning.

SEE ALSO: Wales, Morning,

R - Reading, Learning to

Reading, Learning to: Event

I learned to read just before I started Kindergarten. The first book I read all the way through on my own was "Monsters Come in Many Colors." It was a small square Sesame Street book with a beige cover. The monsters went to a factory, beige, and got painted by a machine.

I remember being sad about learning to read because I was sure that no one would ever read to me again now that I could do it myself. My parents did the you-read-a-page/I-read-a-page thing for awhile.

R - Ring

Ring: thing

Right around the time I started reading Lord of the Rings, I got a cool "Birthday Present": a silver ring with a large Amethyst (my birth-stone) and a leaf pattern. I mostly kept it in a small leather pouch around my neck.

I have trouble wearing rings, mostly because I tend to fidgit with them and worry about them catching on things.

Now I mostly want a real actual Green Lantern ring (but in my imagination). I do have a complete set of the Blackest Night promotional rings on my desk, and I wear them depending on my mood.


SEE ALSO: Tolkien, presents, comics, rocks.

S - Skiing, Alpine

S - Skiing, Alpine: thing, activity

I used to downhill ski a lot. My mom worked at Spirit Mountain for most of my youth, so I got Season Passes and often had a ride to the hill. In 5th grade, when it became clear that I had no future in Hockey, I followed the lead of my friend Scott and quit hockey to ski.

I remember starting to ski right around the 1988 Olympics in Calgary. I wanted to be Swiss skier Pirmin Zurbriggen (because his name was cool).

I had a pair of purple Blizzards. Then I got a pair of Saloman Force9s.

Once I started doing debate in HS, my winter weekends were taken up and my skiing became less frequent. I don't think I've been downhill skiing in 10 years.

SEE ALSO: Skiing, XC; Skiing, Water; Spirit Mountain, Girls

R - Reuben

Reuben: thing

I didn't think that I liked rye bread, or sauerkraut or Russian dressing until one time I was really hungry in college and the best choice left was a Reuben. Now they're one of my favorite sandwiches (if not my favorite outright).

When I was an intern at the National Museum of American History, one of the Archivists was named Reuben.

SEE ALSO: sandwich, birthday, smithsonian

H - Hair

Hair: Thing

I haven't combed my hair at all since the Summer of 1998.

In high school I had long hair. I still have the ponytail saved from when I got it cut (on the first day of my new job at the Hacienda del Sol).

My standard haircut is #8 on the top, #6 on the sides (though somtimes I get #6/#4).

SEE ALSO: product, Hacienda, Hygiene

B - Bear

Bear: thing, animal

I still have a blue Teddy Bear that I got at Valley Fair when I was 4 years old. It's been with me pretty much since then. It's name is "Valley Fair Bear," which is very concrete and literal. It is sitting on my bed right now.

"Bear" is also currently my favorite sign in American Sign Language.

In 7th or 8th grade I was playing Hide and Seek in Hartley Field just behind my house. I was hiding, and my friends could clearly see me but were not chasing me. It turned out that there was a black bear meandering around just across a very shallow ravine and tiny creek from where I was hiding. Probably less than 50 yards away. The bear did not eat me.

B - Bluandbrowne

Blueandbrown: thing (color)

Bluandbrowne, or the combination of a shade of blue and shade of brown, is one of my favorite colors. It started when my brother found a cool piece of patterned fabric at my grandparents' house.

I have many, possibly too many, sweaters and blankets and other things in those colors.

The spelling indicates that it is one single concept. Also it would be a cool middle name.


also known as: AquaSepia, Cinnamon-Teal (which is also a kind of Duck),

SEE ALSO: Sweaters, Blankets,

O - Otter

Otters: Thing, living

Otters are probably my favorite animal, more specifically, North American River Otters (though sea-otters are decent). I like them because they are really fun to watch at the zoo. I would probably like to be one (or at least how I idealize them) and swim and run around all day.

I have, on my desk right now, a small plastic Otter that I stole from my brother when he was very young, and I was not so young. I'm not giving it back. I also have an awesome blanket with an otter and a really cool painting.

There was an incident last year of a group of Otters attacking a Human swimmer. I didn't like that.

F - Frisbee

Frisbee: thing

I wasn't very good at throwing frisbees when I was younger. The college I went to treated Ultimate Frisbee like religion, so of course I had to be rebellious and be part of the 15% of the student body that didn't play organized Ultimate. I'll play it now though, but not seriously.

I have two glow-in-the-dark frisbees and I like them. one of them used to have a shiny red bomb on it, but some kids temporarily lost it in a lake and the sand wore it down.


SEE ALSO: Razor, Disc Golf, Carleton