"5 by 5"

(Though I started writing this one back in January, I am applying today's date because I am finishing it up today. But the first few paragraphs-- read as if it were January. Because they were written at that time. It was this topic that started it all, even if a bunch of posts came before it.)

Happy New Year everyone! Well, after several months of not blogging (see below) I am back with us again. But for a specific reason.

The unbelievably smart, talented, and handsome Tom, author of the well-known blog Upword, has honored me by "tagging" me, as it were, to reveal five fun facts about me. The reason I called this post "5 by 5" is because this "tagging" business is essentially like a chain letter: I am supposed to come up with five things about myself, then tag five more people. I don't think I know five people with a blog, so I had better start meeting bloggers, I suppose. (Of course, Buffy fans will recall that "5 by 5" was an expression frequently used by fellow slayer Faith to indicate that everything is OK, e.g. "It's 5 by 5!")

Thanks to Tom this blog is restarting with my five fun facts. I need to try to write in it at least once a week, that will be my goal. Though I have several posts saved as drafts, I never published them because I reached an acceptable level of satisfaction once I had finished writing them-- I didn't feel the need to post them. I think I may publish them after all; in reading through the posts I made back in October, I had fun reading them. So why not post more?

At any rate, the five fun facts about me, in no particular order:

1. I played alto saxophone for ten years. I started in the fourth grade and took lessons for the majority of my time before college. I was always in the school band, and I think the best part of my time playing alto saxophone was performing, whether it be at a school assembly, on a bandstand in the summer (for which I first received money for playing!), or, as you'll see in #2, a foreign country! The performance I reflect most fondly upon was in 8th grade with the school band. We performed the Kool & The Gang song "Celebration" along with several instrumentally-talented faculty members. It was a great song, a great performance, and a great sound, especially given that the large majority of the band was fairly inexperienced. Pep band was also fun: in high school, I had a chance to be a guest of the pep band of a major university for a hockey game; in college, I played at several football and basketball games. Pep band felt best toward the end of my saxophone career because I never felt a particular pressure to get every note right. I felt that as long as the band produced a song that sounded something like the intended song, we were doing pretty well. I also recall a time where several women in the band refused to play the song "Wipeout" when the basketball team was ahead by one point with a few seconds left in the game. Probably a prudent decision. (My musical talents also included piano and singing a capella.)

2. I spent the night in a French hospital. At the ripe age of fourteen, I was able to take advantage of a terrific opportunity to go on a trip with a jazz band to a tiny town in France. This was essentially a band exchange program. It was a terrific trip which culminated in a concert for the entire town of about 800. Following the concert we were hanging around the dorms, packing, talking, etc. for our trip home the next day. Unfortunately, a big wind was blowing, and the door actually ended up slamming on my finger, tearing my fingernail out most of the way. I actually passed out in a small medical office, and was transported to a local hospital shortly thereafter, where the fingernail was removed and given to me in a plastic container, and my finger was essentially wrapped up in a big ball. Fortunately we were still able to make our flight (we called ahead to ask the plane to wait a bit, as we had timed it pretty close). Upon return, first stop: the emergency room, where the doctor took one look and told us that I'd need some quick surgery to repair the nail bed if I wanted to improve my chances of having it grow back. She did so, and sure enough, six months later (finally!) I had my right index fingernail back. Yay! (The joke about this story is that during the car ride to the airport, I was so groggy that I forgot to take my fingernail container with me. I believe it was left in the rental car. Imagine the surprise of the next renter of that vehicle....)

3. I have a light body of work as a baseball play-by-play announcer as well as color commentator. Radio broadcasting was always a field I wanted to check out and see if I could cut it; it always seemed fun. I took several classes at a small community college, including a course in radio announcing (which culminated in several DJ programs) as well as a course in sports broadcasting. That course, which I took in the spring, largely involved working with a partner to broadcast weekly local college baseball games. Though it was hard work to collect all the statistics and come up with a system to recall the players' names (as opposed to mentioning them only by number, clearly a no-no), it was quite enjoyable. I still have some of the mp3s, though I'm typically too shy to play them for anyone. My broadcasting partner's name was Erik, affectionately called (by someone other than myself) "The Big 'E'" in another broadcast, so the joke was that our team was called "Davey and The Big 'E'". Additionally, we had grown up in the same city; naturally we found ways to work that into the broadcast. Ultimately, however, I decided that radio broadcasting wasn't for me; I found that it was driven by sales much more than the content delivered over the airwaves.

4. I contributed to a management consulting book. Many moons ago, I was an intern with a management consulting group. I was the webmaster for the group's intranet site. However, I was fortunate enough to get the chance to get in on some of the consulting work. I contributed to some of the group's work with a law firm, complete with participation in a client visit. In addition, I was responsible for some of the group's research for an upcoming book. I pored over corporate financial statements, traversing various databases, and the like. In the end, I was gratified to find some of my graphs (summarizing my research) in the book! Of course, I was not mentioned by name in the acknowledgements for the book; by the time the book was published, I'd left the group. Oh well. I'll always know.

5. I had only two wisdom teeth. And I feel fortunate for that, as it made the surgery much easier. I was able to have it in the oral surgeon's office, as opposed to my friend, who with four had to have hers pulled in the hospital. I don't know how exactly it works, e.g. how you end up with two, or four (or, in the case of a friend of mine, who just told me he had five!). The best part of the surgery....is that I had it many years ago when I was a young pup. (Ha!) No, I actually don't remember it being particularly bad. They did give me sleepy gas, but I woke up most of the way through (and could tell they were poking around in my mouth) but quickly dozed back to sleep. I remember my mom took me, and actually, I think she was able to get out of jury duty because the surgery had been scheduled pretty far in advance and she was taking me for it. I don't think, even if I'd had my driver's license, which I didn't, that I'd have been able to drive home after that experience.

So there you have it! Enjoy!