There are a few things I can’t resist. Ser. i. ous. ly.
Running water, as in a stream or river. The beach? Fine. A lake. That’s nice. But a flowing stream? Nuh-uh, can’t help myself. Unless some responsible person stations themselves between it and me, I’m going in, pretty much no matter what I’m wearing or how prepared I am to get wet. That’s just the way it is.
Having multiple knitting projects going at the same time. Some knitters consider starting something new while you’ve still got a project on the needles (that’s knitter talk) to be a bad thing, leading to cascading UFOs [unfinished objects]. I consider it a way to keep from getting bored with knitting.
Finishing a book once I start it. I read The Godfather in two sessions, back when I was in high school. I haven’t gotten any better about it with age: I just read Todd Maternowski‘s third book, Exmortus III: Tombs in Chorus. The evening I started it, I forced myself to go to bed at 2:45am. (Having a book’s author on Twitter is handy. I was able to tell him directly that he owed me four hours of sleep.)
Fried pickles. Lovely little deep-fried nuggets of Vitamin G (grease) and sodium! I spent my middle childhood (ages 7 to 10 or so) consuming dill pickle after dill pickle after dill pickle. My best friend, Tina, and I couldn’t get enough of them. And sliced, battered & deep fried is just the adult version, right? (Oooh! Especially if you add some kind of nice, creamy dipping sauce.) Yeah, I do realize that the food pyramid would probably reject them outright.
To be honest, fried pickles came to mind because we just had some the other day. Red, Hot & Blue had this great special that included our choice of three appetizers. I asked our server to just bring us whichever one was best, and he brought the fried pickles. See? It’s not just me who thinks they’re tough to resist!
Anyway, while we’re on the subject of food I can’t leave alone, there’s also Rice Krispies Treats (I once tweeted that I didn’t know how to store RKTs overnight because they had never lasted that long at our house), cashews, Flipz White Fudge Covered Pretzels (you can keep the chocolate ones), bing cherries, thin cucumber slices (with salt), and liver. Yes, I said liver. Both chicken and beef, though calves’ liver is my favorite. Luby’s French Grilled Calves’ Liver…mmm…!
A dare. Yes, I’m one of those people. All it really takes to get me to do something stupid is to dare me. [sigh]
Solving a puzzle. Some of the actual, real puzzle kind, like on Sporcle, or GeoGuessr, but also the kind that just happen. Like, for example, when we’re watching TV and I think that Georgia Flood reminds me of some other actress and I can’t quite remember who. (I’m still working on that one. I haven’t given up. And it’ll come to me, eventually.) (If you know who it is, please tell me!) Or when my sister asks me the name of the optometrist we went to in the ’80s. (I freakin’ found the answer to that one within about half an hour!) Research R Us.
Finding out about people. If we ever meet, you might feel like you’re being interviewed, or possibly interrogated. I like knowing about people, and I get very bored talking about myself. So let’s talk about you instead…!
Geography. I like to know where places are. Sporcle (see above) is very helpful towards that end. I can fill in a blank map of…well, just about anywhere. U.S. states? Of course. Canadian provinces & territories? (Yes, they have both.) Sure! I can also sing “O Canada,” but that’s because there are seven Canadian NHL teams and I’ve been to a lot of hockey games! All the countries on all the continents in all the whole world? Why, yes, as a matter of fact.
In fact, I just like knowing stuff, period. I’m working on U.S. Presidents. And state capitals, since I knew them in fifth grade and that seems like something I should be able to hang on to. And I keep meaning to get back to Spanish, and I have another ASL class coming up this weekend.
Board games. Ask me to play Ticket to Ride (my current favorite). Or Telestrations. Or Cranium. Or Scattergories (aka, in an earlier time, Facts in Five). Or Balderdash (at which my board-game-hating husband will demolish you). Also Charades. Love them all! Come on, please ask me to play!
Things I can resist: secrets (it’s okay if you’ve got one and I don’t know it), gossip (destructive and divisive), bad books, poker and anything involving beets.
Anyone else?