Lie Detector

I was recently tagged by Pandave over at Odi Et Amo. The rules are as follows:

• Post the rules before beginning
• List eight random facts/habits about yourself and post to your blog
• At the end of the post, choose eight people to tag and list their names
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and to read your blog

Now, because I am sooooo good at following rules, I’ve decided to throw in a little twist to make this a little more interactive. One of the things I list is going to be false. Your job is to detect the lie. These are more stories / experiences rather than facts / habits. Oh, well. Feel free to ask me any questions about any of the stories. Good luck.

1. I once convinced a few Arab men to put on some traditional Lebanese music, pull out some scarves, and show me how the women in their country danced. At first they were a little apprehensive, but eventually they all got really into it and I think actually enjoyed themselves. I, of course, was highly entertained.
2. Once while taking a shortcut along train tracks, a train came by. I moved to the side and waved at the conductors and then pretended to hitchhike. Much to my surprise, the train stopped and the drivers asked me where I was going. I hopped aboard and was taken to my destination. The traffic waiting on either side of the tracks was somewhat stunned when the train stopped (not a stop) and I climbed out. (As a side note, there are very few passenger trains in Canada and not a lot of stops)
3. A number of years ago at a conference down in Vancouver, I was facilitating a workshop called “Survival Activities to Add to Your Bag of Tricks.” When I arrived at where I was to present, I noticed that there was a typo in the workshop title. It now read: “Cervical Activities to Add to Your Bag of Tricks.” Of course it provided for a great opener. The room was packed and I had to question why there were so many men in the audience. I figure that either they thought they were at a medical conference or they simply stopped in to see the demo.
4. When I lived in Quebec City, I used to take a short cut beside a convent to get to the university. One day, right in front of the convent, I was flashed (I always found that juxtaposition quite ironic). I laughed at the guy and continued on.
5. I used to travel a fair amount for work. One day I was on one of those aqua velvet flights to Toronto. You know, those first flights out in the morning filled with men in suits and the permeating smell of after shave. Well, a nice suit sat down beside me and he smelled goooooood. I was thinking that the fellow I was with at the time could use a new cologne. So I turned to this guy and innocently asked him what he was wearing. He gave me a cheeky smile and said, “Actually, I’m going commando.” Me, never having seen that Seinfeld episode quipped back, “That’s great, cause I sure would like to get me some of that.” I’ll leave it to you to imagine the expression on his face. (And he thought he was shocking me!)
6. In Banff, there is a great restaurant that does a wicked fondue. While there, there was a couple at the table next to us, obviously foreigners. The person who I was with and I were having a friendly debate trying to guess what language this other couple was speaking. I said Swedish, my friend thought perhaps some Slavic language. Eventually we asked them (it was Swedish) and after a bit of discussion back and forth, we invited them to join us for a drink. After a fabulous dinner and much merry making, we asked for the bill only to be told that another customer had asked to pick up our tab and had paid our entire bill. This person was no longer there so I couldn’t even thank him and to this day I have no idea who it was.
7. While traveling in the mid-west, I was either chasing a tornado or it was chasing me. The air became very calm and all bird chirping etc, eerily ceased. Then there was a huge siren. I had just hopped into my rental car and put the key in the ignition seconds before the alarm. Having never been exposed to such things, I initially thought that I must have triggered an alarm on the car. After pressing all the buttons and searching high and low to no avail, I pulled the key out but the alarm continued. So I hopped out of my car and walked around it wondering why the alarm was much louder outside the car. Eventually it dawned on me that “oh, this is a tornado warning.” The siren stopped soon thereafter and I started on my merry way. By this time evening was starting to fall. The rains started, cars were pulling under overpasses and stopping. I continued on, but decided it would be prudent to turn on radio. I was heading straight for the tornado. I eventually got turned around and went back until I found a decent hotel…almost at my starting point. That was enough of an adrenaline fix for me for quite awhile.
8. My biggest vice is dark chocolate. Not the cheap stuff…good quality, usually Swiss, German or Belgium. But I recently discovered another company that does an amazing bar with dark organic chocolate and dried cherries. Mmmm….

Now, if the following would be so kind to play along, consider yourself tagged:
The Fool over at Relationalisms
Fede over at Strayed, Uncorrelated Thoughts
Jillie at Nurse Scratched
Dawn over at Colours of Dawn
Sirdar over at Sirdar Inc
Chani at Thailand Gal
Tracy at Mom the Minx
JBelle at Notes from the 'Kan Ewa

If you've already done this meme, that's fine. Anyone else who wants to play along, let me know, the more the merrier.