All about Andy...

I am feeling a little lonely, needy and narcissistic today so I thought i'd share more about me and that a number of my friends consider 'great stories'- sadly, these arent made up *sigh* the truth hurts!

I often have a lot to say, but I am an intensely private person.. these are ones I always felt self conscious about until I told and people laughed in a good way about it...

I was born on the Fourth of July. A 'Firecracker baby' the truest, red-white-and-bluest of ALL the yankee-doodle-dandies that ever were! 'Yankee-Doodle-Andy', my friends called me. And up until I was six years old, I honestly (thanks to mom and dad), believed 100% that all of the Barbeques, parades, flags, hats, picnics, parties and fireworks were all in honour of ME! i must've been one REALLY speacial kid- no one else I knew had a whole nation celebrate their birthday!

Well... thanks to my childhood pal, Cedrib, on the 200th Anniversary of the United States- JUly 4 1976- My heart was broken.. Cedric informed me of the truth about things- and i believed him as he lived in an upscale community, had all the toys and seemed to possess the 'knowledge' that precious mystery all children desire more than gold. As I asked around to cousins, aunts, uncles, neighbours and finally mom and dad- boy did the truth hurt! And I did cry- but thats okay- because i also came to realise the flip-side: I was still lucky enough that I was one of the chosen to share a truly momentous day (my birthday) with the truly awesome birth of a nation.
God Bless America- God bless Andy.

Here's an embrarrassing factoid; i confess! i am a 'dumpster-driver'! Nowadays I guess they call us 'recyclers' or 'Freegans' (loosely??) Growing up I brought home craploads of junk. Best Score ever: A brand new Mr Coffee 10 cup coffeemaker. I had that thing from age 10 til my 30s. What a fantastic piece of equipment. Too crazy to be true- but it happened. Weirdest Score: Luckt Supermarkets was remodelling the store. I swiped ALL of the old lane lights and a couple of the old NCR registers. I took them home, rewired them all and basically set up a disco in my bedroom with all the old equpiment; beeping, flashing and ringing... MY ,om and dad thought i had gone completely over the edge! Could be... because... Grossest Score: Lunchmeat-I found one day abox with a bunch of Pull-date Oscar-Meyer Ham, bologne and Salami, and took it home and ate it (this was in 1980-81-ish) I never saw anyone raise a fuss more than my mom did that day. We still laugh about it. And no- I did not get sick- but i never did it again (eat from a dumpster).

So there you go.. Insight into the wonder that is..
Andy