# Ten Things I've Done That You Probably Haven't...



## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

I've seen a few entries listing "ten things I've done that you might not have", and "ten things I've done that you probably have done", so let me fling myself into the anthills of conformity and scuttle about with the rest of the herd. 

TEN THINGS I'VE DONE THAT YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE 

1. Hitchhiked across Canada, in both directions, (but not simultaneously). 

2. Ridden a camel and an elephant. 

3. Fired a machine gun, a submachine gun, a pistol, and chucked hand grenades. 

4. Jumped from a second floor ladies residence, (breaking a very good pair of glasses in the process). 

5. Stood nose to nose with a skunk, a porcupine, a black bear, a herd of mule deer, several buffalo and et' them afterwards, and stood close enough to a male grizzly to estimate the lenght of his whang-dang-doodle. 

6. Dragged a dead black bear from the woods, (you don't know what dead weight really means until you've tried this stunt). 

7. Worked as a nude life model for ten years. 

8. Made a living as a fortune teller. 

9. Picked in a forest of fiddleheads for a three day harvest - during which I chopped firewood for my breakfast - following which I rode home in the back end of a truck singing work songs with a family of migrant Nigerian field hands - they sang Nigerian work songs. Everytime they would run out of song one of them would lean over towards me and say "Sing", and I would roll into a Willy Nelson tune.. 

10. Hopped a freight. 

We've reached the bottom of the list and I'm running out of adlib recollections - so let's pull the pin shall we? 

yours in storytelling, 

Steve Vernon


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## cmg.sweet (Jul 6, 2010)

I've ridden a camel and an elephant, but at a circus...so not as cool as in the wild.  Sounds like you've had a fun/interesting life!


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

I've ridden an elephant in rural Sri Lanka (sitting directly on the elephant, not on a platform) but I have not yet ridden a camel.


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## Jeff Tompkins (Sep 17, 2010)

Isn't this a spin-off of "TEN PEOPLE I'VE DONE THAT YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE"?


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## BMathison (Feb 4, 2011)

1.  Worked a temp job as a grocery store sample girl, giving away samples of iced coffee.  

2.  Tapped beer at an amphitheater concession stand. Bruce Hornsby played a tune on the piano for us as we were training.

3.  Filmed a French pastry chef while I was in film school.

4.  Spent 9 days backpacking in the forests of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

5.  Hitchhiked out of said forest after we got lost.

6.  Drove through a migrant camp as we were looking for a cenote (natural inland pool for snorkeling) in the Riviera Maya in Mexico.

7.  Survived river rafting during a thunderstorm.

8.  Gave birth to a beautiful baby after 36 hours of labor. (I'm sure there's plenty of other women out there with this one.  Kudos to you all!)

9.  Got to see thousands of motorcycles riding in for Harley's 100th Anniversary Celebration.

10.  Got to ride on the back of one of those motorcycles.


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

1. Sang at the Disneyland Christmas Candelight Procession twice.
2. Did not meet, but was within arm's length of James Earl Jones as he read the story of Jesus' birth at one of those ^.
3. Toured the studio of the Okinawa island Master Potter, met, and received a gift from him.
4. Taught Conversational English at a Japanese school.
5. Made quilts for my 3 kids
6. Made soap from scratch and had a business selling it for 5 years.


well.. I made 6... guess I lead a pretty normal life.. I cannot come up with 4 more.


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

cmg.sweet said:


> I've ridden a camel and an elephant, but at a circus...so not as cool as in the wild. Sounds like you've had a fun/interesting life!


Both camel and elephant were indoors for me, as well. The elephant was at a circus and the camel was at local fair.

The elephant had an amazing side to side roll, while the camel rocked you forward and back.


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## Dawn McCullough White (Feb 24, 2010)

1.  Swam with sea lions

2.  Been backstage at 4 Matchbox 20 shows

3.  Lived next to a murderer

4.  Saw a movie with Kenny Rodgers

5.  Wrote several novels

6.  Met Scott Hamilton

7.  Kept rats as pets

8.  Fought in armor

9.  Washed up a dead body in preparation for the funeral home

10.  Stood atop one building while the building beside it was imploded.


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## maryannaevans (Apr 10, 2010)

Hmmmm....let me see....
1.  I worked on an offshore natural gas production platform in the Gulf of Mexico in 1981.
2.  I gave birth to a child who was 15 weeks premature and who weighed 1 lb, 10 ozs.  Sad to say, this is not unique, but precious few of those children are now beautiful 24-year-old mothers who earned gold medals from Le Cordon Bleu for patisserie.  I am very blessed that things turned out so well for her.
3.  I spent most of 1995 on bedrest, in hopes that we could prevent Child #3 from arriving as early as Child #2 did.  She went to term and weighed more than 8 pounds, so it worked.  
4.  I spent part of the summer of 1980 stopping people as they entered their bank and asking them if they would like me to train them to use this newfangled thing called an ATM.  Most of them were in a hurry and were not amused.
5.  I was a teen beauty queen.  (Lamar County (MS) Junior Miss, 1979)  Since the rest of the school knew me as the girl who sat in the corner, said nothing, and made good grades, my winning this pageant came as quite a surprise to my classmates.  LOL.  Starting engineering school later that year put an abrupt end to my pageant career.  There was no time for evening gowns and talent competitions...
6.  I was the first American woman to earn an advanced degree in chemical engineering from the University of Mississippi.
7.  I've seen a total eclipse of the sun.
8.  I've been to Rio, the Galapagos, Istanbul, and Odessa.  
9.  I own a piano that's worth more than my car.
10.  I've sung with a NYT bestselling author (Val McDermid) and I've shared a stage with another (Jeffery Deaver.)


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## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

I don't know if I have ten, but I will say that I lived in Egypt for a year when I was five years old. My father was part of a group of archaeologists who were saving as much as they could before the Aswan Dam was finished and the area was covered with water. I rode a camel when we visited the pyramids. I rode an elephant in the 1990's when I was making a public access TV show, hosting as Ribbons the Clown. A small circus that was in town let me ride the elephant and tape it.

I went to India when I was 18 or so. Again because of my father, who went to a conference in New Delhi. I saw the Taj Mahal and bodies being burnt on the shore of the Ganges river. We (father and one brother and I) also went to Nepal for a couple of days.

I could also say that I have eaten lawyers on an island in Lake Michigan, but I guess I should explain that lawyers are a kind of fish. They're good, too.


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## KindleChickie (Oct 24, 2009)

1.  Questioned a boy about a cut on his hand where he admitted to killing his mother.  2 days later they found his family and arrested him.

2.  Traveled overseas on the Concord.

3.  Sat next to Stephen King from London to NYC.

4.  Spent a weekend on a boat in Turks and Caicos filming whales for a documentary.

5.  Lived in the slums of Oakland.

6.  Carried my drunk brother (with the help of my sister) across the board from Juarez to El Paso.

7.  Competed in an Air Rally in Malta.

8.  Spent a month working in Haiti.

9.  Attended over a dozen major heavy weight boxing title fights.

10. Was verbally ridiculed by Rosie Odonnell.


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## Steven L. Hawk (Jul 10, 2010)

1. Bowled on the White House bowling alley.

2. Broke a toe on a parachute jump.

3. Parachuted two more times after breaking a toe.

4. Hung out the door of a helicopter while in flight.

5. Had five surgeries in as many years.

6. Got braces on my teeth when I was 32.

7. Ripped a hole in


Spoiler



my nut sack


 when I was 17. That d*mn bike had no brakes... who knew? (sorry, is this TMI?)

8. Had a Top Secret - Special Access Security clearance for 14 years.

9. Coached Little League baseball for four years.

10. Was PTA President at my sons' school for a year.


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## drenfrow (Jan 27, 2010)

1. I have done several long bicycle tours but the longest was 5 months, 7000 miles around Canada and the US, and never once stayed in a motel.  (I was much tougher in my younger days).  I have camped in churchyards, baseball dugouts, an abandoned ski lodge, city parks...

2. I climbed to the tip top of St. Peter's in Rome. 

3. I spent a season in the Bering Sea working as a government observer on a factory fishing boat.

4. I live in a solar powered, water catchment, adobe and straw bale house.

5. I witnessed a prison escape in Honduras.  The guy went over the wall 50 feet away from me.

6. My first full time job with my college degree was working in a Subway sandwich shop for a few months.  

7. While backpacking in Mexico, woke up one night to find the tent in a flash flood.  Three of us spent the rest of the night huddled under a rock ledge listening to small landslides happening around us.  Long night.

8. I visited the Sex Museum in Amsterdam.

9. I went to Space Camp (for teachers).  

10. I did a research project in college that involved grinding up crawfish in a blender.


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## caseyf6 (Mar 28, 2010)

These are REALLY cool.

1.  I've attended a military funeral.  These are, sadly, not that unique but it made an impression on me.

2.  I've walked across the AZ border to Nogales, more than once, no passport or ID.   It's not possible now, so there will be a dwindilng number of those able to do it.

3.  I've shaken Weird Al Yankovic's hand and taken his picture.  

4.  I've won a prize for poetry and recited the poem in front of about 150 people.

5.  I earned a 4.0 in 3 years at KState, in the Honors program.  (My other 2 college years were spent at the UofArizona with a cumulative 3.7.)

6.  I've gotten run over by a bicycle.

7.  I've had my head split open by a ceiling fan.  I'm the shortest in the family so this was particularly ironic.

Darn...these seem terribly boring and I can't think of 10.  Sigh.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

1. Hiked the Grand Canyon, rim to rim.
2. Lived in Japan for a year in high school (was foreign exchange student).
3. Branded cattle.
4. Butchered cattle, chickens, deer and pigs (not all on the same day!)
5. Made sausage from scratch.
6. Have eaten bear meat.
7. Traveled to a coffee plantation in Guatamala.
8. Hiked in the Swiss Alps
9. Trapped and adopted feral stray cats.
10. Ikebana (Japanese Flower Arranging)


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## spotsmom (Jan 20, 2011)

1) Had my appendix removed in a hospital in Brussels, Belgium where they didn't speak English.
2) Went for a glider ride over the Alps.
3) Met Peter & Gordon and Tom Jones in 1964
4) Slid down all the fire poles (4) at the fire station in our town
5) Made love in an airplane hangar.


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

yay! I'm not the only one without 10 things on my list!


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## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

1. Lived and went to school in japan for 2.5 years jr/sr high school
2. swam with dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico several times
3. nearly drowned 4 times under daddy's watch as an child (before the age of 4) (the smaller the child, a smaller splash to notice)
4. visited the second largest aquaium in the world in Okinawa Japan
5. drove to Tokyo or Iwakuni 11 weekends in a row for one sport or another.

Five for now. I'm only 21. I'm still working on the list of amazing experiences

Edit: caught a large salmon with my then twelve year old hands. It was the salmon festival in shimoda city in aomori japan


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## Syria Says... AKA Celia Can Read (Apr 16, 2010)

Hmmm... I don't think I have 10, but I can try!

1. Forecast a blizzard with 3 days advance notice on my first shift ever as an operational weather forecaster.
2. Forecast 3 actual tornadoes - each with over a half hour of lead time.
3. Served the Blue Angels beer when they were at an airshow.
4. Told an Air Force Chief Master Sgt - after he condescendingly requested a specific weather situation for his flight - that he "would have to talk to the Chaplain for that sort of request and that that tactic probably only worked for General Patton because he was, in fact, a GENERAL and not JUST a Chief". (I said it with a smile, so it was with all due respect, right?)
5. Gotten a cloud puzzle tattoo on my shoulder. 
6. Driven through the beautiful Painted Desert and snapped a zillion pictures...in black and white. *fail*

And dang... My memory juice has run out...


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

Hmm, let's see...

1. Worked as a salamander anesthesiologist
2. Gone skydiving for fun
3. Had 2 hip surgeries before age 14
4. Been headbutted by a ginormous ling cod
5. Gave my EYE a papercut (yes, it hurt)
6. Tested positive for a genetic mutation
7. Fell down a waterfall
8. Moved 2000 miles away to live with a guy I met online (honestly, not as creepy as it sounds)
9. Caught hundreds of garter snakes for research
10. Rode in the back of a stranger's van with a dozen of my friends while 2 other friends screamed up front (ok, that is as creepy as it sounds - don't accept rides from strangers! )


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## Dawn McCullough White (Feb 24, 2010)

Jessica Billings said:


> 1. Worked as a salamander anesthesiologist


Okay, what the heck is a salamander anesthesiologist?

Dawn


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## Syria Says... AKA Celia Can Read (Apr 16, 2010)

Jessica Billings said:


> Hmm, let's see...
> 
> 5. Gave my EYE a papercut (yes, it hurt)


Oh muh gawd! MEEEEEEEEE tooo! And they DO hurt tremendously! I hoped that I was the only one...  (<-- Coincidentally, that's what I looked like for a few days after I did it.)


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

Dawn McCullough White said:


> Okay, what the heck is a salamander anesthesiologist?
> 
> Dawn


They were going under surgery to remove a gland (for research), so I had to stick them in a vat of ether or something (can't remember exactly what the chemical was now) until they were unconscious. Then I'd take them out, stick them on paper towels and deliver them to the surgeons. You had to be careful though, because if you didn't put them in long enough, they'd thrash around in the middle of surgery and if you put them in too long, their heart would slow down and they would die after awhile.

The hardest part was getting them out of the vat once they were all limp. Salamanders are SO slippery, especially when you're trying to pick them up with tongs. You also had to be careful not to uh, breathe the chemicals too much or you'd anesthetize YOURSELF.

Syria, I am so glad I'm not the only one who has done that!! Not that I want others to be hurt, but it makes me feel less like a klutz.


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## kindlequeen (Sep 3, 2010)

1. read this thread instead of working on my taxes  

(that's all I have for now, gosh ya'll have such cool adventures!)


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## Bob Mayer (Feb 20, 2011)

Not told people the things I've done.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

drenfrow said:


> 8. I visited the Sex Museum in Amsterdam.


Wheeee!!!!!! Finally one that I've done too .... and it was a much better museum than I thought it would be ...


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

Let's see ... 10 things ....


1.  Been escorted at gunpoint out of the Palace grounds in Stockholm.  (yeah, there's more to that story)

2.  Attended a traditional Muslim wedding in a small village in Malaysia.

3.  Worked the door of a club.

4.  Worn Easter Bunny ears to work.

5.  Fallen through the ice on Lake Michigan.

6.  Skinny dipped in Greece.

7.  Been refused entry into Mexico.

8.  Rode on the Orient Express.

9.  Sat on the board of a charity.

10.  Flown around the world - twice.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

1. Was a featured trumpet soloist in a college marching band half time show (Miami U, "Legend of the One-Eyed Sailor")
2. Got Darryl Dawkins's autograph on the back of a small bag when he came into the record/music store where I was working (He was playing for the 76ers at the time)
3. Went through the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel 3 times when it should have only been once, due to the person driving the car missing an exit, making an illegal u-turn, then finding out there was no exit before the tunnel in that direction.
4. Won a US savings bond in a regional math contest when I was in junior high.
5. Played the Star Trek computer game in the late '70s on a teletype printer terminal (no CRT screen, just reams of printer paper)
6. Had an original joke I came up with read on the Chicago area "Bozo the Clown" show when I was around 6 years old.
7. Had an email I sent to "Mike and Mike in the Morning" (ESPN) read on air.
8. For a couple of years, I was able to reliably play an F an octave above the staff on my trumpet (and not quite so reliably the G above that)
9. Worked for 9 years on the Enhanced Naval Warfare Gaming System used by the US Navy
10. Got an A- from my 2nd year Music Theory teacher for my piano piece "Elegy for Arnhem" (written in the style of Grieg)


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

Jessica and Syria, should we start a club?  I have also gotten a paper cut on my eye. I did this while I was wearing glasses. That certainly surprised my optometrist! The tiny flap healed leaving a small bump. He told me that it should disappear over time but that if it didn't then the bump would need to be sanded down which would hurt worse than the cut. Fortunately it went away on its own.  Lesson that I learned ... Eyes can heal very quickly so it is important to have them treated immediately so they do not heal incorrectly.


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## Ian Weaver (Oct 9, 2010)

Hi

Collected a few of other peoples that I HAVE done and added a few of my own.

1. Fired a machine gun, a submachine gun, a pistol, and chucked hand grenades.

2 Hung out of the door of a helicopter in flight.

3. Visited the sex museum in Amsterdam.

Now some of my own.

1. Crashed in an Air Force fast jet. Technical fault

2. Crashed in another Airforce fast jet and ejected. Pilot Error (I was the navigator)

3. Broke my neck at the 'Hangman's break' point. (That'll be the ejection!!)

4. Dived from a 10M diving board.

5. Got stuck down the barrel of a very large canon in Gibraltar, overlooking Spain.

6. Landed on an iceberg in a helicopter.

7. Fell in a bath with two 10-12 pound pike when about 3 yrs old.

8. Jumped off the flightdeck of a through deck cruiser (small aircraft carrier) - 62 feet

9. Watched 6 Harry Potter films in a day

10. Retired at 49 

Ian


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Ooh! I forgot one:

1.a: I had to go to the hospital due to a gun wound that punched an extra hole in my nose. Note, however, that this was an actual gun wound, not a bullet wound. For some reason I and a couple friends were tossing a cap gun back and forth over a badminton net (I have no recollection as to why) when I got distracted and didn't see it coming my way in time.


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## kaotickitten (Jan 9, 2011)

1. Swam in the Sea of Galilee

2. Walked on The Wall arround Jerusalem

3. Swam in the ocean when someone got bit by a shark within a mile of where I was

4.  Bungee Jumped In New Zealand ( The Place where it started)

5. Waitressed at Pro basketball games for ten years ( Detroit Pistons)

6. Had a tree fall through my roof

7. Spent New Years Eve at an Amusment Park

8. Dived the Great Barrier Reef

9. Walked over Lava Tubes

10. Got an A for the symester just for cring one time


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Things I've done that others have reported:

1)  ridden a camel but not an elephant

2)  Held a top secret clearance

3)  Fired rifles, machine guns, anti-tank rockets, and chucked a live hand grenade.  Plus a 106mm recoil-less rifle, and a tank main gun one time. The Army is a good place to vent your destructive urges.  I was range officer on rifle and machine gun ranges a few times, an experience I don't recommend for those with high blood pressure

4)  stood nose-to-nose with black bear, a skunk, and numerous bison and elk.  Never ate any of 'em, though.

5) walked over and in "extinct" lava tubes (kaotickitten, if you walked over a flowing lava tube, you're a better "man" than I am!)


My own list of ten:

1)  Detected antimatter with instruments (what was going through my head was "Wow, I'm in Star Trek!").

2)  Worked with the FBI and law enforcement to investigate a man who claimed he had an atomic bomb (he didn't).

3)  Had a "visiting fireman" tour of a radioactive waste disposal facility in a salt mine 2150 feet underground

4)  Been brushed by a manta ray (these are BIG, not your itty-bitty stingray) who didn't attend the briefing where we were told that contact between the humans and the manta rays was prohibited.

5)  Rubbed a manatee under its chin.

6)  Watched elks copulate, including getting a good view of the male "appurtenances".

7)  Watched a male spider unsuccessfully court a female spider

8 )  Been interviewed by the New York Times (twice, and I didn't make it by name into the paper either time.  This made me happy, and my bosses ecstatic)

9)  Looked down the barrels of two shotguns with suspicious and scared policemen pointing them at me

10) Been given my own stock of tear gas grenades, and ordered to ride around and tear gas people at random (these were Army soldiers in the field).  I later ran a tear gas chamber and tortured (that's what it amounted to) ROTC cadets there as part of their training.  Believe it or not, this was supposed to encourage them to make their military career in nuclear and chemical defense!


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## Jeremy C. Shipp (Feb 23, 2011)

1. Was edited out of a Jenny Craig commercial.

2. Was attacked by a laughing parrot.

3. Fell off an exercises machine, and broke my tail bone.

4. Fell on an exercise machine, which put a new hole in my nose.

5. Walked around town barefoot with my cat.

6. Saw an old doll rise out of a mound of ash in my attic. (Yeah, the experience was as creepy as it sounds.)

7. Dreamed about Tommy Wiseau more than once.

8. Had a pet turkey.

9. Married the only person I ever kissed.

10. Received a blurb from Piers Anthony.


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## Christopher Bunn (Oct 26, 2010)

1. Got stuck in Addis Ababa due to Alitalia ceasing operations due to Saddam Hussein invading Kuwait (Alitalia got the majority of their fuel from Kuwait - something like that).
2. Worked in a UN refugee camp in Thailand (refugees from Vietnam War, Khmer Rouge, etc).
3. Worked in Israel during the first intifada.
4. Shot a BBC documentary down in Fiji.
5. Baked over 50 pies in one day (apple, strawberry-rhubarb, ollalieberry).
6. Was head cook at a school in Lausanne, Switzerland (cooked for about 100 people each meal).
7. Contracted cerebral malaria down in southern Kenya (that was fun).
8. Built a 1600 square foot house down in the Amazon with all indigenous timber that my brother and I felled and milled ourselves (ironwood, mahoganies, etc - gorgeous wood).
9. Burned down the garden behind my house in Thailand in order to get rid of the cobras.
10. Threw up in the Khan Khalil bazaar in Cairo.


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## LauraB (Nov 23, 2008)

1) Rode a white water raft out of the back of a cargo plane from 15,000 feet (also had on a parachute, for the rest of the gravitational activity)
2) Ran in a 132 mile relay race in the mountains of Alaska, my leg was 3 am and the "northern lights" came out for me to watch
3) dated both a rocket scientist and an astrophysicists (two separate guys, same year   )
4) Climbed the Chilkoot trail, that is the one the gold rushers did in the late 1800's in Alaska
5) Spent 3 nights camped out with 11 men (and me) in the mountains of Alaska
6) Have gotten sea sick and thrown up over the side of a big $$ yacht, a tiny row boat, and a destroyer, as well as my sisters water bed.
7) lived in my car for 2 months as a teenager
8 ) Shocked some one with 360 j of electricity 36 times in 12 hours (awful...)
9) Did a shift of volunteer work at a medical clinic with Steven Tyler, lead singer of Aerosmith
10) Bought an unlimited ride pass of the tubes in London and went spent the day randomly getting on and off trains without a map, and exploring the neighborhoods of wherever I ended up getting off the train. Then get on a different on, I just picked every third train and got off every other stop.


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## KindleChickie (Oct 24, 2009)

Christopher Bunn said:


> 10. _*Threw up*_ in the Khan Khalil bazaar in Cairo.


I was going to put "threw up in a Rolls Royce" for one of mine and thought better of it. Glad you put it though. LOL



LauraB said:


> 6) Have gotten sea sick and thrown up over the side of a big $$ yacht, a tiny row boat, and a destroyer, as well as my sisters water bed.


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## rho (Feb 12, 2009)

There are a bunch of these I want to know more of the story


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## Indy (Jun 7, 2010)

I'm just a wee bit jealous of y'all with the good adventures!  The things that make me unique would either take too long to explain or are just plain traumatic and depressing.  So I'll only list a few.

1. I've fed someone their last request, which was a coca-cola.  As depressing as that sounds, it was actually very sweet and uplifting.
2. I don't know anyone else who, upon saying their first curseword, was knocked unconscious by a jar of applesauce (wielded by a human, not falling).  
3. I survived a week in foster care.  
4. I drove a cab for half a day with no underwear of any kind on my person.  (I drove for longer than that, more like a couple of years, but only once did I go commando and it was not pleasant.)


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

KindleChickie said:


> 10. Was verbally ridiculed by Rosie Odonnell.


I'm jealous.


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## BrassMan (Dec 8, 2008)

What a great list. NogDog, you prompt my #1!

1. Played the piccolo part to The Stars and Stripes Forever on a piccolo trumpet (during a band concert)

2. Amost shot myself in the rear with a .22 pistol (it fired, but I missed)

3. Killed a rabid dog with a machete (I was 14, and stupid)

4. Almost slid out of a skydiving plane with no seats while taking aerial pictures

5. Own a real harpsichord

6. Wrote a novel (OK, five) using an actual new idea

7. Despite being a pacifist, have a loaded gun by every door of the house

8. Shot and killed a javalina that turned out to be a neighbor's pet

9. Shot and killed a wild pig that turned out to be a neighbor's pet

10. Built my own house out of cement & tile, etc. (wife & father in law helped)


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

Let's see....

1. Hiked on an alpine glacier

2. Swam with a dolphin, and petted stingrays (little harmless ones!)

3. Spent my birthday (noon until next morning) on a very slow train, with standing room only the entire way, and nobody whom I knew when the trip started... but some of the passengers from that trip are still corresponding now, 23 years later... shared misery and all that

4. Threw up in the main staircase of the QE II (what can I say, I was a seasick kid)

5. Threw up in the passenger seat of a Cessna 150 (... and an airsick teenager...... and the window was stuck!)

6. Had a snake (non-venomous) as a pet

7. Had a large bucket of water emptied over my head from two floors up (yes, it was intentional)

8. Won a (serious grown-up) spelling bee

9. Went to high school with a national-news-making serial killer who started his "career" _during high school_

10. Got a personal tour of a nuclear power plant


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## Valmore Daniels (Jul 12, 2010)

I've been in a building that was struck by lightning.

I was chased by a wolf.

I stood less than 400 miles from the North Pole.

I was trapped in a cabin while a polar bear camped outside the door.

I swam in three oceans - Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic.

I was chased by an angry iguana and an angry chicken on the same day (I just wanted to take their picture!).

I've flown (as a passenger) in seven kinds of aircraft: Glider, Cessna, Hercules C130, Boeing 727, 737, 747, Sea King Helicopter.

I won second place in a singing contest for "Tip-toe through the tulips." (I kid you not).

I was in a beer commercial that never aired.

Caught a trout with an oar while paddling a canoe (it was by accident).


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## Philip Chen (Aug 8, 2010)

1. Pressurized inside a hyperbaric test chamber.
2. Participated in the first test dives of humans to 1,500 feet of seawater depth (as an operator, not a diver).
3. Met real men in black (just as scary).
4. Had an office on the 106th floor of Two World Trade Center in NYC, overlooking New York harbor, Governor's island, the Verazano Narrows Bridge, etc.
5. Flew on the Concorde
6. Lived on the Lawn, in the original housing designed by Thomas Jefferson at the University of Virginia.
7. Patented an underwater mooring system.
8. Worked on the design of a free-swimming submersible capable of diving to 20,000 feet of ocean depth.
9. Stared down hostile white South Africans who did not want me to hire blacks.
10. Fought off a baboon who tried to attack my wife and daughter at Cape Point, South Africa.


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

Awesome stuff.

Who says that life isn't made up out of stories?

Thanks to everyone for sharing.


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

1. Parachuted from an airplane forty times

2. Scuba dived with feeding sharks

3. Had photography published in National Geographic

4. Designed a major freeway interchange nicknamed "Spaghetti Junction"

5. Crossed the equator three times

6. Been interviewed on TV

7. Been to Moscow during the height of the Cold War in 1975

8. Been to Beijing

9. Walked on the Great Wall of China

10. Been on an African photo safari


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## julieannfelicity (Jun 28, 2010)

1. Had heart surgery at the age of 21, after being shocked back to life three times (you know when they do the *CLEAR!* thing and you see the body jolt up - yeah ... that happened to me and, yes, it's VERY painful!).
2. Grew up in and out of foster care until the age of 13, when I was finally adopted (this is a rare thing since most teenagers aren't adopted unless they have a younger sibling)
3. I have only been drunk once in my life, and will never do that again. I was a blubbering mess and sick the next day.
4. Had a book submitted to Scholastic rejected by the age of 14.
5. Took tap dance lessons for five years and danced in the 'Pennies from Heaven' and '42nd Street' productions.
6. Auditioned for over 50 local play productions and didn't get into any of them (not even as a background person).
7. I have met, shook hands and had lunch with Barney Frank (when I was 16).
8. I've been purposely lost and returned by the police hours later (my biological mother purposely left me at a store, at the age of 4 or 5 and never returned).
9. My husband and I were supposed to go to a Great White concert at a place down in RI, but I wasn't feeling well so we didn't go. We woke up the next morning to hear over 100 people died at that concert.  
10. I have dreamt the winning lottery numbers, the same night the lottery played (didn't have a chance to buy tickets); I have dreamt events such as friends having babies, people coming over, people dying, and they have come true.


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

julieannfelicity said:


> 9. My husband and I were supposed to go to a Great White concert at a place down in RI, but I wasn't feeling well so we didn't go. We woke up the next morning to hear over 100 people died at that concert.


Holy cow, how did they die?


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## julieannfelicity (Jun 28, 2010)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Station_nightclub_fire


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## 4Katie (Jun 27, 2009)

This is the best thread I've ever read!

I have just two things worth noting (that I can think of, anyway):
- I've been declared dead
- I saw both Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra perform live



> 2. Been backstage at 4 Matchbox 20 shows


I've been to a lot of mbt concerts in at least eight states, and hung around after many, and somehow never managed to meet anyone from the band. 



> 10. Was verbally ridiculed by Rosie Odonnell.


Do tell!



> 1. Bowled on the White House bowling alley.
> 2. Broke a toe on a parachute jump.
> 3. Parachuted two more times after breaking a toe.
> 4. Hung out the door of a helicopter while in flight.
> 5. Had five surgeries in as many years.


I sense cause and effect here. 



> 5. I witnessed a prison escape in Honduras. The guy went over the wall 50 feet away from me.


What were you in for?



> 1. Been escorted at gunpoint out of the Palace grounds in Stockholm. (yeah, there's more to that story)


I'd love to hear it!



> 6. Lived on the Lawn, in the original housing designed by Thomas Jefferson at the University of Virginia.


My son went to UVA, but we never knew anyone who lived on the lawn. That's awesome!


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## DanDillard (Mar 10, 2011)

Hmmm...

1. Seen me naked.
2. Ridden a tug boat under the Golden Gate Bridge.
3. Ridden a bus on one lane of the highway while watching a man ride an elephant in the opposite lane.
4. Eaten a dog biscuit.
5. Gone to 12 different schools.
6. Walked from Waikiki to the top of Diamond Head.
7. Played guitar and sang lead for a rock band.
8. Built a house in India.
9. Hand raised a baby Parrot (now 15 years old.)
10. Had a pet crocodile, shark and octopus.


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## patrisha w. (Oct 28, 2008)

1. Had two children who were sons born 21 years apart.  

2. In my sixties, I ran away from home to live with a man I met on the Internet  

3. I am an official {over five years} survivor of two totally different cancers  

4. Taught seventh grade English for 30 years in a rural school in the South. Have I mentioned I am English and have the accent to prove it?  

5. Broke a bone in my ankle falling down a step that was one-and-a-half inches high... 


Hmmm, I am officially dull and boring with only five  entries...


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## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

OK. So I hope no one who knows me reads this list and holds it against me... are you listening, Gabriel? St. Peter?

1.


Spoiler



Lost my virginity on top of a grave


 in a cemetary.
2. Stole glass insulators from abandoned electric poles in a state I will not name (not Texas!!)
3. Excavated 17th Century artifacts in the Old Savannah Dump.
4. Got locked inside a dayroom with 35 disgruntled convicts.
5. Stepped on a timber rattler's head and lived to tell about it.
6. Fell in an outhouse and lived to smell about it.
7. Been electrocuted, pronounced dead and lived to tell about it.
8. Lost hearing in my left ear for three days from a lightning strike.
9. Almost drowned three times at three different beaches.
10. Stood inside the end of a rainbow and forgot to look for the pot of gold.


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

T.L. Haddix said:


> JimC, daggone it! Spaghetti junction in Louisville? I know who to blame now, lol.


Not my fault, I helped design the Spaghetti Junction in Atlanta!


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## Marguerite (Jan 18, 2009)

1. Lived in the Heathrow airport for three days during the air traffic control strike in the USA.
2. Worked in the circus.
3. got off of a train in Spain to go to a feria with girls that I just met.
4. Have been serenaded.
5. Traveled to Yugoslavia and danced in a campground with the entire camp one night even though I didn't understand a word that they said.
6. Lied and said that I knew Spanish to go and live with a family in Mexico that didn't speak English.  I cam back fluent in six weeks.
7.  Was number one in sales for the whole damned company and still laid off due to geographical restructuring.
8. Jay Leno gave my husband and me a personal tour of his collection of cars.
9.  Stood in line behind Kareem Abdul Jabar and noticed that his belt buckle was only at eye level.
10.  Pulled two people out of a burning car.


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

•	Worked in a salmon cannery on the Bering Sea
•	Worked at the Solar Observatory in Teheran, Iran
•	Worked as a geologist in an underground gold mine
•	Soloed an airplane at age 14
•	Sailed on the tall ship "STAR OF INDIA"
•	Drank wine in the Great Hall of Persepolis
•	Shook hands with four U.S. Presidents
•	Been to the highest and lowest points in the lower U.S.
o	Mt. Whitney ( + 14,505') 
o	BadWater, Death Valley ( - 282')
•	Hiked out of the Grand Canyon on a full moon night
•	"Water-Streaked" Hoover Dam


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## caseyf6 (Mar 28, 2010)

I really do love this thread...  The "on the beach" from Dreamweaver had me choking. lol


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

DreamWeaver said:


> "...Hand-raised a hummingbird..."


DreamWeaver !! Don't miss this...


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

That's an awesome little video, Napcat. Had to go post that on my Facebook page. Very very cool, indeed.


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## drenfrow (Jan 27, 2010)

This is one of the most interesting threads I've ever read. Keep them coming.



drenfrow said:


> 5. I witnessed a prison escape in Honduras. The guy went over the wall 50 feet away from me.





4Katie said:


> What were you in for?


LOL! I was in the street (only about 20' wide) about to go into the house I was staying in (across from the prison). I heard a shout and saw the guy drop over the wall not 10' from a guard tower. The very young guard in the tower fumbled around with his gun (payed off, I assume) and then two guards came running around the corner as the guy took off down the street and into the jungle. I kept expecting to hear shots but never did, thank goodness.


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## Ephany (Mar 9, 2009)

1. Rode Greyhound from Maine to Washington (state), pretty much didn't sleep for 3 days on that experience
2. Been by myself in Grand Central Station after midnight as a teenager
3. Crawled around more Navy reactors than I care to remember
4. Have been in a sandstorm while in the middle of the Persian Gulf
5. Helped perform surgery on a wolf
6. Swam with dolphins in Bahrain
7. Was stranded in Croatia for 3 days, that was awesome
8. Sailed through the Suez Canal while being shot at by people on shore
9. Married the first guy I kissed
10. Fell on top of a corpse once that was being slid into the storage locker


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## A. Rosaria (Sep 12, 2010)

1 Almost shot a guy's eye out using a sharp twig and a rubber band, he was lucky.
2 With a bunch of cousins we played war, throwing fire works at each other (some heavy) suffered only minor injuries.
3 As a child robbed fruit from a farmers garden and got shot at with a rifle.
4 Once ran after my mother in law to get her attention waving like crazy, looking like a lunatic, instead I could just have called her. My wife still tease me with that.
5 Walked in dark alleys in a city where no sane person would dare walk.
6 Got robbed once, threatened with a tazer, and I argued with the guy what he could rob or not. Didn't want to have to defend myself for a few bucks and a watch but would if he wanted anything else.
7 Jumped from a bridge. (not suicide)
8 Dived head first in shallow water, scraped my chest on the bottom, did hurt a lot, I don't jump from things anymore.
9 At a New Year reception, drank beer, wine, and many other things on an empty stomach, was the wingman of a coworkers artist buddy who crashed the party, smoked cigars (I don't smoke), went with said artist and two co workers to a bar after said party. Drank some ice tea. Felt ill. Puked in the piss bin, asked the cleaning lady if I should clean up for her, she said no, said to my co-workers I was going home, they urged me to drink some champaign, miraculously I said no. I took the metro without paying, got caught, told the man I would pay, for him to hold the thing steady so I could pass my card trough it, told him I was drunk. Walked over a bridge. Took the metro again. Got home. I think I puked once more, passed out on the couch. Woke up. Told my wife I drunk a little too much.
10 On a date with my now wife I wanted to go for a walk in park. Didn't know what kind of park it was at that time. Saw tow North African men having sex with each other. Decided to get out of the park and instead go to my brother. After my visit walking back home, saw both guys again walking the opposite direction, we passed each other staring.

Sometimes I wonder how it's possible I'm still live.


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## Marguerite (Jan 18, 2009)

Wow A. Rosaria  I did number three though.  I stole some pomegranates and the owner came after us with a shot gun and we hid for hours.  We got in trouble for being late when we got home.

Ephany, I just read the book Greyhound.  You might like it.


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## Bob Mayer (Feb 20, 2011)

1.  Not told you what I've done.  Or else
2.  I'd have to cut your head off and put it in a safe.
You don't want to know 3.


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## Pushka (Oct 30, 2009)

Well, the first is easy:
1. I was born in Australia 
2. As a former Police Officer I could probably take out the last 9 with things done in that period like - being in multiple high speed car chases, being the first person at a murder scene, firing pistols, arresting people, autopsies, and so on but...
3. I have ridden camels, elephants, donkeys, and horses
4. Watched sunrise on Uluru
5. In Sri Lanka when the airport was blown up by Tamil separatists
6. Watched sunrise over the Himalayas
7. Flew on the same A380 five days before it blew its engine
8. Adopted a child <luv>
9. Travelled to East Germany before the Wall came down
10. Was robbed in Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) by a cyclo driver ripping off my bum bag and thankfully the strap broke before I got dragged down the road.
(Australia is surrounded by multiple oceans so that is an easy one to tick off)


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

Bob Mayer said:


> 1. Not told you what I've done. Or else
> 2. I'd have to cut your head off and put it in a safe.
> You don't want to know 3.


Having a Marine for a DH I totally understand this post..


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

I am loving these lists! You all have led some very interesting lives!


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## AnnetteL (Jul 14, 2010)

Interesting stuff. I'm not as adventurous as some, but here's a few I haven't seen yet:

1) At 16, had jaw surgery & my mouth wired shut
2) Was part of a university cha cha team--and married my partner
3) Got a talking to from a security guard at the Met for standing too close to a Rembrandt painting (I was trying to see the detailed brushwork--I wasn't _touching _it!)
4) Visited the Arctic Circle (not the restaurant--the actual spot on the globe)
5) Visited the Holy Land
6) Had my first migraine the summer after kindergarten
7) Helped found an expo show focused on chocolate
 Have edited two NY Times best-selling authors
9) Played Rapunzel in a community production of _Into the Woods_ (However, I can no longer hit that high b-flat to save my life)
10) Had dinner with Alan Osmond and his wife (I was a kid. This was at home with my parents, but hey--it still counts!)


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## rho (Feb 12, 2009)

Bob Mayer said:


> 1. Not told you what I've done. Or else
> 2. I'd have to cut your head off and put it in a safe.
> You don't want to know 3.


Awww heck you must have done something you wouldnt have to kill us if we heard.

Remind me never to buy a safe from you


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## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

found a number 7.

7. bruised an entire butt cheek. took line drive to my butt. I turned away from a batted softball. apparently no one heard me when I said I can't see (due my allergy attack). When i could see there was a ball coming at me. turned away and smack. It was uncomfortable to sit in class for some time. my roommate walked into our room that night and I was lying face down in my pillow with a bag frozen peas or corn on my butt cheek


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## Steve Silkin (Sep 15, 2010)

1) Met Lech Walesa (peace Nobel) and Kenzaburo Oe (before he won the literature Nobel).
2) Taught English to the director of a French nuclear research site.
3) Consulted the Oracle at Delphi.
4) Rode a camel up a hill to visit a troglodyte community in Tunisia.
5) Worked at a porno theater doing 'aisle checks' to dissuade lewd conduct.
6) Escaped arrest for trespassing in a skyscraper under construction by fleeing from the LAPD on my bicycle.
7) Rode my bicycle from Paris to Barcelona.
8 - Stepped off a bus in Paris as a bomb blew up a trash can across the street, went to see if I could help the two elderly people who were knocked down by the blast - the man was bleeding from his ear - but was waved off by police, who had arrived instantly.
9) Was supposed to meet a reporter I'd worked with for a farewell drink on the Champs Elysees when I was leaving Paris, but he canceled so I didn't go. A bomb went off in the car dealership next door, injuring several people, just as I would've been arriving.
10) Smoked a joint that I had been saving for just this occasion: Spending the day wandering around the hillside site of the abandoned Byzantine city of Mystra (near Sparta) in the Peloponnese.


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

> 5) Worked at a porno theater doing 'aisle checks' to dissuade lewd conduct.


Wow.. isn't that um.. counterproductive?  *snicker* sorry I have never been in one but I thought that was the general idea.


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## *DrDLN* (dr.s.dhillon) (Jan 19, 2011)

I have ridden camel but not elephant yet.

But how many people have done this: I have taken a shower in girls-dorm at a meeting because could not read sign in french.


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## Steve Silkin (Sep 15, 2010)

BTackitt said:


> Wow.. isn't that um.. counterproductive?  *snicker* sorry I have never been in one but I thought that was the general idea.


If I understood and remember correctly: The owners of the Pussycat Theatre chain, after enforcement action by the LAPD Vice Squad and the City Attorney's Office, agreed to better police their facilities themselves as part of some kind of settlement. The theatre placed time clocks at the back doors and it was my job - in my red jacket, white shirt and black bow tie - to walk up and down the aisles with a flashlight every 20 minutes and tell people to cut it out if they were doing something they could get arrested for. (Only saw that happen once, and said: "Cut it out over there" and that was the end of that, I think. I didn't wait around to see what happened.) And punch the clock to prove that I'd done it. (There were also lawsuits from arrestees who sued the chain alleging that they shouldn't have been allowed in ... a friend of mine actually had to testify at one of those trials ... this was the answer for that, too.)

It was the late 70s, and Deep Throat had achieved something like mainstream success, and the chain was marketing the theatres as places you could go on a date to see sexy movies, not a pervert-palace. So there were all sorts of forces in play.


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

Steve Silkin said:


> 1) Met Lech Walesa (peace Nobel) and Kenzaburo Oe (before he won the literature Nobel).
> 2) Taught English to the director of a French nuclear research site.


Ooh that reminds me of two more for myself...

-Held a Nobel peace prize (Linus Pauling's)
-Toured a nuclear reactor research facility.

Both easily done at Oregon State, where I did my undergrad. Such a neat school.


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