Thursday Thirteen - "Interesting" people

Thirteen "Interesting" people Jessica has met 1. Freshman year of college, I had a roommate who was known on campus as one of "The Twins." She and her sister were pretty, blond, wore lots of makeup and quite large breasted. (I was none of those things - but I digress.) The Twins were also drug dealers who sold cocaine to members of the football team. 2. My roommate's boyfriend (then fiance and finally husband) was a drug dealer who dabbled in insurance fraud outside of Boston. He carried a gun. How do I know he carried a gun? Because when I went to see my roommate during spring break, he came home at lunch and took off his sport coat so I would see his gun in the holster thingy he wore on his chest. Needless to say, I didn't eat much lunch. 3. When I lived in New York in the mid '80s, I had several friends who worked at investment banking firms. One memorable summer, a bunch of us rented a house in the Hamptons. I could only afford a share of a few weekends. (Well, actually, I couldn't afford shit. My mom gave me the money because she felt bad for me even though she couldn't really afford shit either). Anyway, in about May of that year, one of the guys - my friend's boyfriend - was indicted for insider trading. He was accused of selling information to a Taiwanese business man. He, of course, lost his job and spent the entire summer at the house in the Hamptons (rough life) dodging the press that couldn't seem to get a picture of him. (Geez, now that I think of it, I could've taken a picture and sold it for enough to buy my own friggin' house in the Hamptons. Man, I was short-sighted.) Anyway, the guy was eventually convicted (or maybe he plead guilty, I can't remember now) and did some jail time. 4. Back in March, I talked about my "roommate" in Connecticut during the summer that I housesat. He was a Christian Rock singer from Oklahoma. It's almost unfair to call him "interesting" in the way I consider my top 3 people "interesting." He was a nice guy. Just really, really different from me. I have nothing against Christian Rock singers from Oklahoma. Seriously. 5. In that same Thursday Thirteen post I talked about most (if not all) of my crazy bosses. So I'll lump them all together for #5 - the severely obese manager of the local Baskin Robbins who didn't like kids, the crazy "creative" guy who nearly threw a Pitney Bowes stamping machine at my head and the other crazy creative guy who didn't like the fact that I left my computer on overnight (among other things). 6. When I lived in New York, I had a boyfriend who was a bike messenger. With an earring and a tattoo. If you knew me in person, this would really surprise you. I mean, come on - I'm a lawyer for a very WASPy company in Chicago, I send my kids to private school and I'm wearing a sweater set at this very moment. People like me don't date bike messengers. Usually. (Not that I have anything against bike messengers. Seriously.) At the time, I was having a mid-twenties crisis or something. But when I found out that he had been a heroin user (and might have still been at the time we were dating) I got out right quick. Plus he had a cat that hated me. And that was a serious deal-breaker. 7. At one point in between stints in NY after college, I worked as a temp in the law office where my Mom was a legal secretary. I was one of several temps working on a project where various franchise documents were converted from one word processing system to another. We sat in a windowless room every day, eight hours a day, proofreading the most boring documents ever written. So we spent most of the time talking to each other and became friends, of sorts. There was one guy who was probably the most socially inept person I've ever come across. He would wear the same shirt every day - even when he got blood stains on it from cutting his chin shaving. He didn't shower very often and was a big fan of Edgar Cayce. (Not that I have anything against Edgar Cayce fans. Seriously.) 8. One of the other guys was a former model and member of some band in London. He was one of the most beautiful people I have ever seen. And he was a really nice guy. And he wasn't gay. Seriously. But he was painfully boring (not that I wouldn't have dated him if he was interested, but he wasn't). We went out to dinner once, just the two of us. I've never been out with someone who turns heads like he did. People would stop in their tracks to look at him. He'd have people literally staring at him and either he was totally oblivious to it or he simply learned to ignore it. I am so sure that people were saying to themselves "What the hell is a gorgeous guy like that doing with that average looking thing?" 9. We had a nanny for our kids that was so pretty, most men would do a head turn thing when they saw her. It really made her uncomfortable. She was interesting because she came from a very wealthy Mexican family - they own a chain of hotels and lots of real estate. She grew up with servants. Literally. At the time, she was here with her boyfriend who was from a working class family. He worked delivering pizza. She wanted to see what it was like to work, she wanted to speak better English and she likes kids so she got a nanny job. We've never had anyone who worked harder than she did. The kids were well taken care of and the house was spotless when we came home. She would work with our oldest daughter to teach her how to clean her room and put her own clothes away (with our blessing, of course) because she said, "I don't want her to learn to be lazy, like I was as a child." 9/11 really freaked her out and she went back to Mexico a few months later. She has since dumped her working class boyfriend (who is still working here for the pizza place) and is apparently going to marry a guy from another really rich family. And she's not working anymore. Go figure. 10. I know this doesn't really count because I didn't actually meet the guy, but when I was working for the TV commercial production company, Tom Petty called to talk to one of the directors (who had been a big music video cinematographer) and I answered the phone. I said "May I help you?" to Tom Petty, people! You so want to be me. 11. And while we're on the subject of famous people I've come into contact with, this guy is one of our neighbors (ok, so he's only sort of famous and only in Chicago. But still.) See, you DO want to be me. 12. Staying with the theme . . . I had lunch (and several Bloody Marys) with this famous blogger. I can honestly say that I knew her before she had a following approaching that of The Dooce. Does that give me extra brownie points? 13. I know I'm cheating you out of a thirteenth but a girl can only know so many "interesting" people in her 41 years. Give me a few years - I'm sure I'll have more! 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