Skip to main content

Tri-Fold

I don't quite know what led to this particular outlook on life, but I've been known to say, "my life's an open book if you bother to ask" on more than one occasion. That's not to say that I go around volunteering all sorts of personal information, but I am very candid with others, and I am brutally honest about myself. After all, what better way to keep myself honest (pun intended) is there than remembering that I may have to tell the story about my actions later on?

Well, I repeated my little mantra in front of someone who had never heard it before, and her eyes lit up. You could almost see the twinkle in her eye as she tried to figure out how best to take advantage of this new-found information. The words coming out of her mouth did nothing to dissuade this notion, either (I have some interesting friends, apparently). Still, she immediately started grilling me about the history of Sam Chang.

As the questions kept coming, though, it became pretty obvious that I hardly have a checkered past. Have I ever stolen anything? No. What's the most illegal thing I've done? Probably under-age drinking in college. Have I been in a fist fight? Not since middle school (kickboxing competitions don't count). Have I cheated on a test? Nope. You get the idea; I may be a quirky person, but I'm a law-abiding quirky person for the most part. In something resembling frustration, my friend exclaimed, "no wonder your life's an open book, it's just one of those little pamphlets!" I chuckled a bit at this point, but when she went on in detail to explain that she meant one of those pieces of paper folded in two, I let out a full-on laugh.

What makes this particularly funny is that I am often met with guffaws and disbelieving eyes when I tell people that I'm innocent. For example, I have had all of the following exchanges with people I know:
  • Me: "I don't know what you're trying to imply there. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were trying to besmirch my character."
    Friend: "Oh, no. I would never do that to a saint like you."
    Friend: "Though on that note of sarcasm, I've got to run ..."

    I held out hope for a brief second there, you know?
  • Me: "I don't think my innocent mind could handle that."
    Friend: "Your innocent mind? Pah"

    I like how people have to invent new words to communicate their disbelief.
  • Me: "Yeah, I was a pretty innocent kid in high school."
    Friend: "You were? What the heck happened to you?!"

    Beats me. Must be the company I keep.
Given all of that background, the pamphlet comment was really, really amusing to me. Better yet, as the conversation continued, my friend changed her mind just a tad, "after thinking about it, I'm upgrading you from bi-fold pamphlet to tri-fold pamphlet."

Awesome, my life is an open tri-fold if you bother to ask.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New York City Trip (Day 3)

By the third day of the trip, I was tired enough from the previous day's adventures/subway rides that I felt like sleeping in. And sleep in I did. I think I woke up at something like 11:30 or noon. Of course, that meant that a later start to the day, which started the vicious cycle all over again. By the time we rolled into Manhattan, it was about two in the afternoon. I had tentatively set aside Sunday to see something on Broadway, so we headed over to the tkts booth for discount tickets. There were actually various 3PM options, and after mulling our options, we figured it'd be a good idea to catch one of those. We settled on The Toxic Avenger , which was actually an off-Broadway option. However, we hadn't eaten yet, and the show started about 15 minutes after we got our tickets. Enter the food carts. There happened to be one right outside the theater, and the guy charged a little bit of a premium for the convenience. Still, I was hungry, and I had yet to try...

Moment of Truth

I forget where I first heard it (I think it might have been Descartes), but I have long been a fan of the notion that certain things just have a " ring of truth " to them. If you've never heard the idiom before, the basic idea is that some things are super-true. They are not just true, but they are so obviously true, that as soon as you hear them, you recognize the truthiness inherent in them. I usually get excited when I hear one of these, since it means that I am a tiny bit less ignorant from that moment forward. For the first time in memory, though, I experienced the ring of truth. First, let me paint the scene with a little bit of background. I'd made plans to have dinner with my friend, but we'd agreed to play it by ear. The end result was that we ended up settling on a pretty late dinner in a local spot. That worked out just fine, since we weren't shooting for gourmet, we just wanted to grab some food and catch up in the process. So, we headed out to ...

All Good Things ...

August 8, 2009. Over twelve years ago, I started blogging with this simple post . I didn't really have a great reason for starting the blog, other than I wanted to try it out. I wanted to try writing and putting it where others could read it. I don't know, it just seemed like a new adventure to try. Along the way, there have been all sorts of posts and all sorts of life events, but through it all, I kept writing. It just became a part of what I do at some point. It wasn't a matter of whether I was going to write a blog post, it was a matter of when. The Mild Wife has described it as a "writing practice," and it was one of the reasons why I kept writing. Honestly, it's good practice, and it gives me an opportunity to hone my craft. I'm no professional author, but we all have to write stuff in our everyday lives. Why not give yourself reps to get better at it? However, I think it's time for that practice to change. My weekly anecdotes sure kept me amused...