n i c k y n a x . c o m

This is week thirty in my personal “If… Project” in which I answer questions from the book “If… (Questions for the Game of Life)”

There are 125 pages of this book, each with four questions. I plan to take one page each week and answer the questions as thoroughly and honestly as I am able. In addition, I invite you to answer the questions along with me, whether it be in the comments section, your own personal blog, or just within your own thoughts.

Perhaps in doing so, we will get to know each other better, but even more importantly, get to know ourselves better.

This week’s questions:

If you could change one of your personality traits, what would it be?

I would like to worry less. I would want to be able to take things more in stride than I currently do. Growing up I always said my mother was a big worrier, and if she woke up one day and had nothing to worry about, it would worry her. Apparently it’s genetic, because I find that as I’ve gotten older, I worry and stress out about things more than before.

If you could adopt one personality trait from someone you know, what would you take, and from whom?

I’d like to adopt several of my friends (no one person in particular) ability to be more spontaneous when it comes to life. I like to think I am spontaneous, but I know it’s a lie and that I’m far from it. I wish I was though.

If you could have a romance with any fictional character, who would it be?

Well, the Disney princes can get in line. They’re all pretty dreamy.

If you could have one person you know be your slave for one month, who would you choose?

I don’t think I’d want anyone to be my slave, per se, but perhaps a personal assistant of sorts. I’d pick Erin. She’s extremely organized, I don’t get to see her near enough as is, and she’d be sure I had some incredible meals at my disposal for the entire month.

Those are my answers to this week’s questions. What are yours?

I know it’s been about six weeks since Kevin and I went to Disney World, but good things come to those who wait, right?

And, even though it’s been so long, only our first day of the trip is done being edited into an episode. I figured I would go ahead and share that much with you all now and unveil the following days in installments as those ones finish being edited.

Not only will this extend the fun over a much longer span of time, but trying to watch all seven days of footage in one sitting would be like trying to watch the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy in one sitting. Just way too much of a commitment.

So, let this installment of Field Trips whet your whistle, and keep an eye out for the rest of the Disney World footage coming shortly.

This is week twenty-nine in my personal “If… Project” in which I answer questions from the book “If… (Questions for the Game of Life)”

There are 125 pages of this book, each with four questions. I plan to take one page each week and answer the questions as thoroughly and honestly as I am able. In addition, I invite you to answer the questions along with me, whether it be in the comments section, your own personal blog, or just within your own thoughts.

Perhaps in doing so, we will get to know each other better, but even more importantly, get to know ourselves better.

This week’s questions:

If you could destroy a single tape or CD that your mate plays, what would it be?

He doesn’t really play anything that I can’t stand. And when he does, it’s normally not out loud, just headphones. So, for those reasons, I actually don’t have an answer to this question. If fact, I’ve discovered some of the music I ended up really liking by snooping through his music library.

If you could read the private diary of someone you know personally, whose diary would you read?

I think I would like to read Garrett’s if I had to choose someone. It would be fascinating to get a glimpse into how he sees and interprets life as a deaf man. And how we might have completely different views on the same thing because of that one thing. And he has a knack for vocabulary and words, so I also think it would be beautifully written.

If you could read the diary of one person you don’t know personally, whose would it be?

Paris Hilton. I think there are some feelings and insights in there that we might not be expecting. I think somewhere deep inside her are some profound feelings that may never make themselves public beyond that diary. And even if not, it’d be an entertaining read.

If you were on trial and someone you know (who is not a lawyer) had to act as your legal representative, who would you want to defend you?

I would have to pick my mother. She’s very clear headed, logical and has the ability to make people see things clearly. I think she’d have a pretty good shot of making a judge or jury focus on the facts and use their logic to realize that I was not guilty. Because I wouldn’t be guilty. I’m a good boy.

Those are my answers to this week’s questions. What are yours?

Today is Michael’s 30th birthday! Yay!

I don’t think he’d mind me revealing his age considering he’s been pimping out the number 30 on his blog for the past two weeks in honor of today’s big milestone, but he may be a little upset about this picture I’m about to post.

This is just around the corner, Michael. Trust and believe.

Today

Tomorrow

Happy Birthday, Michael!

This entry marks my 100th blog entry since starting this current incarnation of my blog. If you take into consideration all of the entries I wrote since August of 1998 (when I first started), who knows how many several hundred I’d have at this point, but since I let those chapters sink to the bottom of the Internet Ocean, I only have this current batch to count now.

A very cliche thing to do to celebrate a 100th blog is the “100 Things About Me” list. It’s almost a blogger’s rite of passage. And who am I to break with tradition?

I knew this list was going to take some time to compose, so I started working on it in advance. Little did I know it would end up taking me fifteen days to finish. I could have finished it a lot sooner, but I gave myself three ground rules.

First of all, I wanted to avoid the freebies; the items that are basic information that don’t really reveal anything out of the ordinary. That meant I couldn’t include things like my astrological sign or birthplace or favorite food. If I was going to actually do this, I wanted to fully commit.

Secondly, I didn’t want to stretch items out further than they should go. In doing my list I read several others that I found online in order to get some inspiration. I noticed that a lot of people would take one piece of information and stretch it out to fill up three or four spots on their list. In the end, their list of one hundred things only ended up being about sixty or seventy. I didn’t want to cheat like this.

And third, there was no third. It’s just good literary structure to have things in threes.

But enough with the boring introduction. Let’s get to the point of this entry…

100 Things About Me

1. I was an uncle by the age of eight.
2. My earliest childhood memory is of a nightmare I had that involved a gorilla with a bucket of water.
3. I was co-valedictorian of my graduating class. I shared it with three other people.
4. From kindergarten through my graduation day, I only missed two days of school.
5. I used to collect Pez dispensers and had well over three hundred unique ones before I randomly threw them all away (except for my Disney ones) one day.
6. Ever since I was a child I’ve had a gut feeling that my death will be a murder.
7. I love to organize and alphabetize and catagorize things, but can’t seem to keep as tidy of a home as I would like.
8. I’ve never had chicken pox, and I hope to keep it that way.
9. I’ve had a sonogram.
10. I was a cub/boy scout when I was younger. I lasted until the Webelos level. It did nothing for me.
11. I can put both of my feet behind my head at the same time and am scared that I will soon lose that ability as I get older.
12. According to my mother, had I been born a girl, my name was going to be Elizabeth.
13. I am a fast walker, and have to actually try to walk slower when walking with people so as to not leave them completely behind.
14. In sixth grade I was eliminated from a spelling bee on the word “overcompensate” and came in third place.
15. When I was in kindergarten I wanted to known as Nicholas, but I couldn’t spell it. I went by Nick (which I could spell) and it stuck. I never got Nicholas back.
16. I taught myself to juggle, but nothing beyond three balls.
17. My favorite books in grade school were The Boxcar Children series.
18. My first play was a Christmas skit in first grade about Santa going on strike. I played a newsboy and my line was “Extra! Extra! Santa’s on strike! Extra! Extra! Santa’s on strike!”
19. I wish I had taken gymnastics as a kid.
20. I didn’t go to my senior prom and I don’t regret it like everyone said I would.
21. I was once asked to sing the National Anthem in a Wal-Mart. I don’t remember why. But I did it.
22. I remember kids calling me gay as far back as grade school. Sometimes I wonder how they knew so soon with it took me so long to find out.
23. Nobody in my family has had a relationship that hasn’t ended in divorce, and it scares me that I am destined to be the same way.
24. I wish I could play the piano, but my hands are small and I could never master the two hands at the same time thing.
25. When I send a text message, I spell everything out, use proper grammar, and even punctuate. The only abbreviation I will use is LOL
26. I haven’t seen or had any contact with my father since 1991. Last I knew he was living in Georgia.
27. I hate bad grammar, but still find myself ending phrases with prepositions more times than I care to admit.
28. When I was baptized at church, the minister asked if I believed in God and accepted him into my life in front of the entire congregation. I answered that I did, but was sure that everyone there could tell I was lying.
29. I slept through the events of 9/11, and think it’s better that way. Had I been awake while it was all happening mere miles away, I might have gone insane.
30. I don’t drink coffee and don’t understand why people are slaves to it.
31. I am not a fan of running, but for some reason feel this horrible need to run marathons and half marathons in Disney theme parks.
32. My junior year of high school I was named the best mime in the state of Iowa.
33. I’m in a film that won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
34. My first job was a three month stint as a cook at Pizza Hut over the summer during high school. I would sneak into the freezer and eat cold pepperoni every change I could get.
35. When staying in a hotel, I have to sleep on the bed furthest from the door and prefer to always sleep on the side of the bed that is furthest from the door. The only exception is in my own bedroom when I sleep on the side closest to the door.
36. Shopping for clothes in very intimidating to me, and therefore I only do it a couple of times each year.
37. I always expect things to go wrong.
38. I can solve a Rubik’s Cube.
39. I was once mugged at knifepoint by two African American men. I had zero dollars in my wallet, so they got nothing from me.
40. I once decided that I would read the Bible cover to cover. I only made it through Leviticus before I was bored out of my mind and stopped.
41. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.
42. I get very uncomfortable in groups of people where I don’t know everyone well, and have diagnosed myself with social anxiety disorder because of it. It sometimes keeps me from going places and having a good time.
43. It freaks me out when my worlds collide.
44. I get depressed around the holidays.
45. I’ve posed nude for a few artists in the past and enjoyed it for the most part.
46. The only cologne I like to wear is Geir.
47. I would love to be on a reality television show but am scared of it somehow having negative consequences.
48. When I was a kid I thought I was weird for not having an imaginary friend. So, I pretended that I had one even though I didn’t. In doing so, I may have invented the imaginary imaginary friend.
49. Throughout school I played three different saxophones. Alto, tenor and baritone. I like to refer to myself as tri-saxual.
50. I think American Sign Language is one of the most beautiful languages I’ve ever encountered and wish I was better at it.
51. When I was a kid I wanted to be Macaulay Culkin. I didn’t want to be like him. I wanted to actually be him.
52. I wish my mother would start dating, but I’m worried that if she did, the man would have a problem with her having a gay son. In turn she’d feel obligated to choose between us, and I know she’d choose me. I’d feel guilty.
53. I believe in ghosts. I think I’d like to personally see one someday, but am also scared to death to see one someday.
54. I don’t think that coincidences are coincidences.
55. As much as I miss my family it is very hard for me to visit them, so I don’t see them very often. It’s just too hard to say goodbye again each time.
56. One of my biggest dreams as a child was to be a voice in a Disney animated feature. It still secretly is.
57. The thought of having financial debt freaks me out, so I pay off my credit card bill in full every month, even if that leaves me with very little money leftover.
58. I’ve never broken a bone and hope like hell that it stays that way.
59. I would love to get laser eye surgery to correct my vision, but the thought of having to watch as my eye is operated on has to be one of the freakiest things I’ve ever heard of.
60. When people from my high school days request my friendship on Facebook, I always feel like they have ulterior motives, because none of them seemed to like me back then.
61. Growing up I always wanted a pet monkey. I never got a pet monkey.
62. One of the happiest days of a year when I was a kid was the day the JC Penney Christmas catalog came in the mail. I had hundreds of pages of toys to browse through and put on my wishlist. One of the saddest days was when none of them appealed to me anymore and I realized I was growing up.
63. I perform concerts in my living room to sold out crowds. And they love it.
64. It makes me nervous to poop in any toilet other than my own.
65. Witnessing gratuitous public displays of affection make me feel uncomfortable, and I wish people would realize there is an appropriate time and place.
66. I was an avid reader growing up until I realized that the “Book It” program was bribing kids to read with the promise of pizza. I felt I was above bribery and stopped reading. Now I wish I hadn’t given it up, because I never do it anymore and actually wish I did.
67. I once appeared in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as a clown. I traveled throughout the parade route in a human-sized hamster wheel.
68. As a young child I would get very sad when it came time to replace things like toothbrushes and what not. I thought they had souls and would think I didn’t want them anymore.
69. I think one of the most remarkable television shows of all time was My So-Called Life.
70. When I first moved to Manhattan, I bought a fake ID that said I went to Rutgers University in Philadelphia. That doesn’t even exist. When servers would ask me if it was real, I would say “No, I just wanted a fake ID” and then get a soda.
71. I was a bridesmaid at my friend’s wedding. She told me I was free to wear a dress if I wanted to, but I opted for a suit, because I felt the focus should be on her and not on the dude wearing a dress. I painted my nails black to match the rest of the bridesmaids though.
72. I spent the first nineteen years of my life calling it “pop” and when I moved I had to learn to call it “soda.” The word “pop” now sounds so bizarre to me.
73. I am an ordained minister. Peace be with you. Or something.
74. I own two Animaniacs CDs and am not ashamed to admit it.
75. I have a full fake identity that I am ready to whip out with a moment’s notice should I ever encounter someone to whom I don’t feel like telling my real name. I’ve only needed to use it once thus far.
76. I like to name my electronics and gadgets, but never actually refer to them by name.
77. I have a systematic way of eating a meal. I will eat all of one item before moving on to the next. Then all of that one before moving on to the next. Each item, one by one.
78. I have always loved the smell of gasoline and used to love going to the gas station.
79. The moment I realized that Santa wasn’t real was on Christmas Eve when I was about seven. While I was falling asleep, I suddenly had the epiphany that it just couldn’t be real. I felt like a fraud from not that moment on for pretending to still believe.
80. My favorite family vacation as a kid was when we went to a dude ranch in Colorado for a week. I originally thought it was going to be stupid and boring, but when the time came to come back home, I bawled.
81. One of my biggest fears as a child was the idea that one day I would have to propse marriage to a woman and she might say no.
82. I joined the golf team during my freshman year of high school and after getting scores that were over three times as much as my teammates, I decided that golf wasn’t for me.
83. I was once asked to be present while a couple had sex so that I could film it for them.
84. I studies Spanish throughout high school and got exceptional grades, but it makes me said that I’ve all but forgotten everything. Que triste!
85. I find a man in his underwear to be far sexier than a man who is naked.
86. My bowel movements are generally so regular that you could set your watch by them.
87. I always wanted to play one of the female roles in most of the musicals I’ve done, because I always thought (and for the most part still do) that the female roles always get the better songs.
88. I am really anal about on time for things, so I usually end up being at least ten to fifteen minutes early for everything.
89. I was obsessed with Where’s Waldo when those books became popular and prided myself on the fact that I knew where everything was on every page of every book.
90. Magic Eye pictures blew my mind back in day.
91. I feel incredibly awkward and uncomfortable with small talk, so unless forced to do it, I don’t. I feel like this sometimes causes people to think I’m rude and standoffish.
92. I was obsessed with board games growing up and had so many that they had to be stored in piles in the basement. The irony is that nobody would play them with me, so I rarely ever got to play them at all.
93. I am afraid of success.
94. When I was very young I remember spending long stretches of time in front of the hallway mirror certain that if I was tricky enough and fast enough I could make the mirror mess up. I never succeeded.
95. I was very into arts and crafts growing up. I went through phases where I was really into making beaded necklaces, origami, cross stitch, etc.
96. During my senior year of high school, my windshield was smashed in because I was gay. It was the first time I realized that I was potentially in physical danger. I had to carry pepper spray with me for the remainder of the year.
97. I almost always get shopper’s remorse after making large purchases even if it’s for things that I’ve wanted for a long time and spent a long time saving up for.
98. Whenever I am summoned for jury duty, the minute I find out what the case is about I become the worst possible juror for it so I can get released. I have no problems being a racist/sexist/etc for the day if it gets me out of jury duty.
99. I know it sounds a bit haughty, but in high school I didn’t find it much of an honor to be inducted into the National Honor Society when I saw some of the other people who were also members.
100. I remember that, as a child, while watching sitcoms I was always very curious what the fourth wall (that one the camera is “looking through”) of the their room looked like. And on the very rare occasions when we would get a glimpse of it, it was always a very boring wall.
101. I am an over-acheiver.

This is week twenty-eight in my personal “If… Project” in which I answer questions from the book “If… (Questions for the Game of Life)”

There are 125 pages of this book, each with four questions. I plan to take one page each week and answer the questions as thoroughly and honestly as I am able. In addition, I invite you to answer the questions along with me, whether it be in the comments section, your own personal blog, or just within your own thoughts.

Perhaps in doing so, we will get to know each other better, but even more importantly, get to know ourselves better.

This week’s questions:

If you had to choose the title of your autobiography, what would it be?

…I’m in the Wrong Story

If you could only have one piece of furniture in your house, what would you want it to be?

The bed, obviously. Not only for practical reasons, but for comfort as well. It’s been documented that we spend one third of our lives in bed. As much as I like to sleep and nap, I’m sure my personal statistic is closer to ninety percent of my life, so it makes sense that I’m only allowed one piece of furniture, that I choose a bed. Aside from that, you can do more than just sleep in a bed. You can sit on it while you watch television, thus also making it your chair. So, I think I would get the most mileage out of having a bed as my only piece of furniture.

If you could have changed one thing about your first sexual experience, what would it be?

My first time was with someone with whom I wanted to sleep with at that point in my life, so I guess it’s fine leaving him in the equation, but the way he treated me afterwards was hurtful. He was in a relationship at the time, but (at the risk of using cliched sitcom quotes) was ‘on a break.’ I guess he felt guilty about sleeping with me while he was still working on fixing his current relationship, so he dealt with that by denying that it ever took place. Maybe that wasn’t his motivation, but regardless of what caused him to deny it, it still hurt me. I’ve since gotten over it and really don’t care anymore, but at the time, it was a big deal for me, so that’s the thing I would change.

If you had to sleep with two famous people simultaneously, who would you choose?

I’m not sure if they are famous enough to be considered for this question, but the first people who came to mind were the Atherton Twins from Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai.

If they are considered famous enough for you, then I move on to slightly more famous and just as genetically similar models, the Carlson Twins.

I have a thing for twins, it seems.

Those are my answers to this week’s questions. What are yours?

This is week twenty-seven in my personal “If… Project” in which I answer questions from the book “If… (Questions for the Game of Life)”

There are 125 pages of this book, each with four questions. I plan to take one page each week and answer the questions as thoroughly and honestly as I am able. In addition, I invite you to answer the questions along with me, whether it be in the comments section, your own personal blog, or just within your own thoughts.

Perhaps in doing so, we will get to know each other better, but even more importantly, get to know ourselves better.

This week’s questions:

If you were to be executed tomorrow but could decide the method, how would you prefer to go?

I’d rather choose not to be executed at all, to be quite honest. If that’s not an option and I must choose something, I guess the obvious answer would be whichever method is least painful. I guess that would be lethal injection or via drugs of some sort.

If you could play any position on your favorite sports team, what would it be?

I don’t have a favorite sports team. Does that mean I’m exempt from this question? There’s really no team sport that I’m all that interested in playing on at all anyway.

If you could have a year any place in the world, all expenses paid, where would you go?

I think it would have to be someplace tropical so I could enjoy the weather all year. But no place too exotic in case I didn’t like it. I’m thinking Hawaii.

If you could see only one movie ever again, what film would you choose?

Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion

You know you love it.

Those are my answers to this week’s questions. What are yours?