At work the other day, we all went around the virtual table to introduce ourselves to a new co-worker. The first few speakers added "fun facts" about themselves, so I knew to be prepared to offer a fun fact about myself, but when it came to my turn, I froze.
"Well, I'm a parent of a college-aged kid, so most of my fun was before that," I said. The joke fell flat, and then I offered this: I binged watched five seasons of Homeland last Winter. "Binge watching TV," our host said. "That's always fun!"
The rest of the meeting went well, but I stewed about the lack of fun facts I could offer. My co-workers offered awesome-sounding fun facts: world traveling, high school athletic accomplishments, career changes, gaming. I had fun facts about myself too, I just couldn't be sure what they were.
Part of the problem was getting stuck on the word "fun". My ideas of fun have changed. I think I could have gotten past the word 'fun' by replacing it with 'interesting', but then they may as well be random facts. Fun is enjoyment and amusement. That helped crystallize the list: these were all things I enjoyed.
So, here are some fun facts about me:
- I attended a kids' soccer camp with Carlos Alberto as a featured guest (he was a player on Brazil's 1970 World Cup team) (circa 1980s).
- I have done a cross-country road trip across America with my family (1983).
- I did a tandem skydive (1989). It's not something I would do today!
- I met and shook hands with an astronaut during an internship (1989). (Joke: we were on Earth.)
- I met my wife through a personal ad in the Boston Phoenix newspaper (1991).
- I played ice hockey with a local recreational league (1993-1996), fulfilling a childhood ambition.
- I worked at a company that had an IPO (Open Market) (1996).
- I produced a cooking show (two episodes) for local community access TV (2001).
- I wrote a version of Tetris in C++ (for MS Windows) (2011). Remarkably, it still runs!
- I have read Ulysses (2012).
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| Tandem Skydive (credit: Joe Jennings) |
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