Ten Things I've Done That You (Possibly) Haven't*

[eurydicebound]

*twinfalcon, this does not apply to you.

1) Been a National Merit Scholar and gotten a free ride to college.
2) Proceeded to blow that free ride in a year and a half.
3) Stood in the jail cell that once held Geronimo.
4) Been told by John Rhys-Davies that you should have more children.
5) Held a yearly New Years Party and LARP for online game players from across the US and abroad (who actually showed up).
6) Drove off a bridge (well, missed the bridge entirely, actually) and lived to tell about it with little more than a scratch.
7) Drove 200 miles to show up at a friend's party as a surprise, just because.
8) Wore a leather biker jacket to a restaurant in downtown Provo and lived to tell about it.
9) Accidentally predicted my husband a year before I met him or had even heard of him, including first name, town of origin, rough size/height, academic strengths, and general appearance (hair/eye color).
10) Attended an Asatru wedding and being ceremonially annointed.

Comments

[anaka.livejournal.com]

Provo/Orem, Utah is a moderate-sized town about an hour out of Salt Lake. It is the home to Robert Redford's Sundance rance (actually in the mountains outside of town), the Osmond Family, Brigham Young University, and one of the largest concentrations of Mormon faith anywhere. I had gone there with a friend to visit her family. Now, I had heard this town tended toward the culturally monotone, but I wanted to test a theory. I took the jacket along as a part of that test.

Basically, the family wanted to take us out to dinner, so we went to a nice restaurant that was apparently very popular. I was dressed in nice, vaguely preppy clothes.. I think pink figured into the shirt, worn with slacks or nice jeans, I don't remember which. I carried the coat in sort of inside out, so it just looked like a regular jacket. On the way in, everyone was smiling and friendly... I could make eye contact with whoever I wanted, and it was all very welcoming. At the end of the meal, though, I put the jacket on and got up to visit the restrooms. Suddenly I couldn't make eye contact with a single person, even though the rest of my outfit and demeanor remained unchanged. The same thing held true on the way back to the table, and then out of the restaurant. More than one parent surreptitiously herded their children away from me as I passed by. No one spoke to me at all, or returned my polite greetings (my hosts excluded, of course).

It was as though I'd ceased to exist in a way. I saw immediately that it would be highly uncomfortable to live there and not "fit in." While the rest of my stay was quite nice, I was ready to go home again. It's a nice enough place to visit, but enough money does not exist to pay me to live there.

[metallian.livejournal.com]

That's slightly terrifying. More evidence that there are some places to which we should really not consider moving...