Random 8

I’ve recently re-connected (in cyberspace) with Chip Camden, friend and college roommate (1980-1982), and he has “tagged” me on his blog to play “Random 8.” Here are the rules:

• Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
• Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
• Players should tag 8 other people and notify them that they have been tagged.

So here are 8 random facts about yours truly, the Grateful Bear...

1. I’m a bit of a coffee snob, only able to drink the finest gourmet coffees. I’m lucky because there’s a wonderful coffeehouse, Cool Beans on Marietta Square (within walking distance of my office), that sells my favorite coffee by the pound: organic fair-trade Sumatra coffee, fresh-roasted on their own roaster. That’s what I usually buy for morning consumption at home. The baristas at Cool Beans, as well at Malia’s Mug, my other favorite coffeehouse, know me by name, and they know I like a shot or two of espresso in a big cup of their dark-roast coffee of the day.

2. I’m currently reading the Southern Vampire novels by Charlaine Harris, and I’m loving them. Each novel is a page-turning blend of humor and horror, crossing genres between fantasy and mystery. Harris’ vampires (and werepeople and fairies) are much less angst-ridden than Anne Rice’s denizens of the dark.

3. I have noticed that if a driver is really obnoxious in traffic, there’s a 90% chance there will be either a Jesus Fish or a George W. Bush sticker on his or her bumper. Or both.

4. Now playing in my car CD player: Cassadaga by Bright Eyes, and Sky Blue Sky by Wilco. Favorite lines from the Bright Eyes CD: “I had a lengthy discussion about The Power of Myth with a post-modern author who didn’t exist” – and “She went to see a mystic who made medicine from rain.”

5. I have a secret fantasy of running away from all my responsibilities and becoming a full time student again, this time studying something fun but “useless” – like medieval philosophy, or the relationship between existentialism and coffee, or the Coptic language (I’d love to read the Nag Hammadi scrolls in their original language).

6. I’m collecting two TV series on DVD: Frasier and Perry Mason.

7. In June, I’m going to two different continuing-education workshops about Jungian dreamwork.

8. Tomorrow I’m going with a friend of mine, Nancy Daniell (we’re co-facilitating the upcoming Mary Magdalene workshop), to visit Cedar Hill in Gainesville, Georgia. I’m looking forward to walking their outdoor labyrinth and meditating in their Ganesh Garden.

OK, that’s 8. And here are the 8 fellow-bloggers I hereby tag to continue this meme…

Celeste
Carl
Heidi
Jon
Trev
Tommy/Isaiah
NEO
Zach