Hurrah and hoopla

So the fun news is that I got the Australia gig, Tomato story and all. I'll be spending the next month or so dreaming up how to make this the most mind-blowing trip for the kids. During my spare time, I'm trying channel Captain my Captain (I'll even settle for Sister Act).

This got me wondering just what exactly made certain events in my childhood and schooling stand out. What was so special about the memories that have actually stuck with me through the years? Some were really happy memories, some were really painful. Was it simply the level of shock that it induced in me? Does that mean that, as we get increasinly desensitized to the events in our lives, we end up remembering less because it all just gets lost in the noise?

Some of my memories are so random...

• buying a giant bag of Whoppers (malt balls, not burgers) at school
• eating nachos at school
• making mom cry when i asked why we didn't drive a newer car
• playing catch with dad in the backyard
• mom bringing me back a book on bugs from her college bookstore
• jerry pretending to run away because i was a mean babysitter
• danny refusing to hike anymore and pouted
• the barber got mad that my hair was stiff and hard to cut
• the morning when we learned matt snow died
• reading my RAs welcome letter
• feeling embarrassed over reading 2000 more pages than everyone else during our readathon
• hearing that i was going to hell if i didn't go to church
• discovering the greatness that is einstein anderson
• having my heart implode
• debating affirmative action in my hallway
• standing ovation in polysci
• realizing my gf was a disney character

Hmm. So I don't know what to make of this list. I guess emotionally bruising or scarring incidents certainly make their mark. I guess i'm just going to need to either really scare the high schoolers or buy them books on bugs.

go figure.