Meaningless rambles...blame the weather!

For the first time in more than a month, I am alone today.
Pensive (read 'lazy'!) and very hot. Today was the hottest day in Portland ever. A record breaking 107 degrees Fahrenheit. Must have melted my brain, because I can't hold a thought in my head without it going away and being replaced by another inconsequential one. Here's saving some of their ephemeral truths...

- I went to try out for Jeopardy. Got about 10 questions out of 50 (maybe more, but then those would have been sheer luck!), didn't make it past that hurdle, got 'randomly' picked out as a winner of a Jeopardy DVD, got a pen, a 'thanks for trying' and came back home happy with the chance to have missed work!

- Many thanks to those who tried to help me with the 5 interesting things...turns out I never got to use them. But here are the final five, for posterity.
1. My only court appearance occurred when I was only a few weeks old, to correct a clerical error on my birth certificate - the nurse had mistakenly entered me as 'male'!
2. Telling people about my job usually leaves them confused and calls for some 'I-O'pening remarks (I am an Industrial-Organizational or 'I-O' psychologist).
3. I have the worst, and best, luck on international flights - delays have led me to stay in France, Germany, Bahrain and Sri Lanka, completely unplanned and completely free.
4. I once had dinner with a Miss Universe.
5. A cop once let me off with a warning for driving in a 'no vehicles' zone; little did he know that I hadn't yet gotten my driver's license and was breaking a law more severe than not reading a sign!

- I am listening/watching to a DVD of Bruce Hornsby in concern. I miss going to concerts. I was going to attend his, but unfortunately, travel plans interceded - I am going to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon during the time his band's coming here. I recall the first time I heard this guy, I really thought it was Bob Dylan in some new avatar. The song was "Gonna be some changes made". Check it out. Nice jazzy/folky/rocky feel - the band gives a new meaning to the words 'in concert' because they are reallllly connected and 'in concert' every single second.

- Last Friday, at work, we were celebrating a colleague getting married, and as part of the theme, we had to bring in pictures of our own weddings/weddings we'd been in/people we'd like to marry. I picked a couple of pictures. One was from my brother's wedding last year. The other one was from a friend's wedding more than seven (!!) years ago. Boy, did that one bring back memories!! I missed another friend's wedding in Bombay last week. Thinking of most of the old 'gang' back together without me, having a wonderful time, dancing (sigh!!), eating, drinking, making dumb jokes and enquiring after each others' families, was making me wistful and almost depressed. Until I got a text message from one of them, telling me that I am still one of them better than words ever have!

- Okay, my mind's finally ground to a halt. Too hot to think/type. Will be back when I have something to say!

In Jeopardy! Need help...quick!

Hah! Got your attention?!
Well, it's true...sort of. Here's why:
I'm going to try out for a quiz show called Jeopardy on Monday. Very tough, very popular (okay, amongst trivia buffs), very cheesily presented but intelligently crafted show.
Part of the ritual for trying out includes a form I need to fill out. Part of said form reads "If you become a contestant on "Jeopardy!" we need to know some interesting bits of information about you to be used during our on-camera interview with Alex Trebek. Please list 5 brief bits about yourself below. They only need to be one-liners. Tell us about your job, hobbies, embarrassing moments, claims to fame, (awards, honors, etc.), your wildest ambition or some unusual things you collect."
Now, the last thing I can do amidst the many things I need to do already, is think of five interesting things about me, so I need help. Some of you know me more than ten years, some not at all...in my many avatars, something somewhere must (hopefully!) have struck someone as being interesting. If I can scrounge up even one interesting fact about myself through this forum, I'll not only be able to fill this dratted form, I'll also feel less boring. So please chime in!
And please do not refer to previous post - weird cannot qualify as 'interesting' for Jeopardy!
And I promise, at the end of this craziness that's my life at present, I will deliver at least one sensible post!

Weirdly yours...

It seems like ages since I accessed this space, and the blogosphere in general. I actually made a mistake with my password signing in!

Well, given my current state of busy-ness, I'm glad to have an easy cop-out...my brain is too tired to come up with something original, so I'm going to give in to Aparna's tag.
This one requires coming up with 6 weird things about oneself, and then tagging six others. I'll do the first, not the second...(sorry, Aparna!)

So here goes, six publicly declarable ways in which I get qualified as 'weird':
1. I get really irritated and pissy if I don't get at least 10 minutes of quiet, alone 'me' time every day.
2. I hold on to little, silly mementoes which may seem inconsequential to others, but somehow tie me to a memory or a day. Examples include old ticket stubs, an empty cigarette box, an almost empty packet of Tums, an edge of a sheet containing a scribbled note from my college days, a piece of tinsel from a gift wrapping...
3. I am constantly looking for, and get tickled by funny store names, street names, place names, etc. Consider a gem from my road trip last weekend: An exit called "Hooker Creek" on I-5, enroute to a city called "Weed"! Only in California, land of free love and flower power!








4. I find it very hard to believe/accept compliments about my appearance. Relatedly, I hate being photographed.
5. There are times when I absolutely have to listen to a particular song, or else I get paranoid and superstitious feelings that something's going to go wrong. Like I believe strongly that the reason I topped in Math in my HSC is that I listened to "Sunny came home" just before I left although in the process I almost got late for my exam. If you know me at all, you'll know how ridiculous it is that I did well in something like Math and will believe that it's the song that did it!
6. I have a really weird memory - I can remember some foolish, unimportant trivia for years, but can't for the life of me remember whether someone I spent the last five days with wears glasses or not! I can't play card games because I forget what happened two moves back, but I can whomp your ass at remembering lines from movies I love, however long back I've seen them!

Phew, done! I'm still a blogger. Thanks for a quick excuse for an entry, Aparna. Anyone else who happens to drift by, feel free to accept the baton for this tag...

Later, gators!