Ice Breakers
By the last night of last weekend’s college reunion, I was longing for a little more engagement with people than “Hi, where are you now, and what do you do?” (My response, which I honed for pithiness over the weekend: Minneapolis, stay at home mom and writer of YA novels, one of which I hope to send out soon for publication.) So I thought of two questions for people, the first of which was told to me by a friend at a wedding last year.
1. If you were going to have same-sex sex with a celebrity (this is for heteros–the opposite for gay friends), who would it be? I found men were terrible at answering this, and women barely hesitated. One guy did, though, acknowledge that some of my suggestions (Clive, Ewan, Owen Wilson) were good ones. At first I offered my own example of Angelina Jolie, though I thought that a bit cliche. I soon remembered how hot Frances McDormand was in Laurel Canyon, though, so I changed my answer. Angelina got more than a few votes, as did Shane from The L Word.
2. What was something that happened in the last year that made you really happy? Note that I didn’t ask for a superlative, just one happy thing. In spite of this, people struggled to answer, and seemed to feel guilty if they couldn’t come up with a happiest. One friend said it was how her infant daughter did the hand motions to Itsy Bitsy Spider, a few chose good vacations, and one guy said he knew he should say his wedding, but really it was the Red Sox winning the pennant.
I had never yet attended a college reunion, though I’d attended my 5 and 10 year high school ones. What I found aggravating at those was the level of inane chit-chat, and suspicious level of achievement. At this 15 year reunion, though, my bullshit detector didn’t detect much artifice. Yes, there were quick chats, but people, including myself, really did seem interested in where other people lived and what they were doing. Given that the music was loud and the crowd was big, I think we did pretty well.
June 15th, 2005 at 12:48 pm
Did you seriously ask these questions of people that you don’t know terribly well? Yeesh!
My answer to #1 has always been Tim Curry. He’s not nearly as much to look at now, but in Rocky Horror, what fun! There is always Iggy Pop. The current Hollywood hunks are too easy.
Number 2 is harder, though the Artist’s Way encourages one to do some of this thinking, so it comes up in the house from time to time. Our child has been making us pretty happy over the course of the year. Having friends over for dinner is always a happy occasion, both for the communion and for the cooking beforehand.
I’ve only attended reunions with my spouse - my high school is too small and my state college far too big.