Making a list, checking it twice

I do have a ‘real job’, and I work every other weekend with two amazing women. When the workload becomes banal, we stretch our mental tether and ask each other sometimes rhetorical and sometimes revealing questions.

Sometimes the questions are of the ‘if/then’ or ‘what if’ variety.

Angel is the master.

• If you had to lick a public toilet seat or shave your head and eyebrows off, what would you pick?

• If you could only survive on one food for a week, what would you eat?

• If you could be anywhere in the world, where would you be?

• If you could have any do-over in your life, what would it be?

• If you could be any other race, what would it be and why?

We all contribute questions, but Angel’s are always the best. This past weekend, I asked my work pals this junior high-level question: What age-appropriate celebrities or public figures would you ‘do’?

The origin of the question sprung from a conversation my friend Miriam and I had as we were lounging on my back porch on a hot summer day a few years ago. It’s obvious that we’re both complete geeks, simply by the nature of the question. We were discussing something we’d heard on NPR, and the conversation eventually evolved into which NPR host we’d go out with.

Dorky, huh?

My answer was a no-brainer. Scott Simon, purely on the tenor and quality of his laugh. And of course he’s whip-smart and funny.

Miriam chose Ira Glass. She thinks he’s dreamy.

So having had an interesting ‘who would you do’ conversation with Miriam, I was curious to hear who my work friends would choose.

Lois came up with that guy from Grey’s Anatomy who was fired for his anger issues. In the eyes of Lois, he’s angry, but he’s hot.

Angel called me last night and added Ty Pennington to her list.

She’d previously mentioned Guy Fieri, which was a shocker. Guy seems so rough-hewn, and Angel exudes a stunning yet accessible style, warmth and class. I could never see Guy and Angel together.

As for me, my answer to the who would you ‘do’ question is Jon Stewart, Nathan Fillion and Bill Murray. Bon Jovi’s not bad, either.

Do you not concur? I think most women in my demo may also think these men are super-cool and dreamy.

These gentlemen share a triad of attractive characteristics that have nothing to do with what’s on the outside. They all have a sense of humor, they seem passionate, and they’re smart.

And my point?

Lists are good. For people like me, a to-do list is a portal to productivity, and with the right audience, lists can be fun.

I understand that Lois, Angel and I will never tick any names off our celebrity hottie list.

These questions we ask, these lists we make at work are benign and entertaining. Most lists are dry and functional. And most of our lists look like this:

• Grocery store.
• Go to work for many hours.
• Laundry.
• Appointment-making.
• Blah-blah-blah-bligations.

In short, it’s good to make lists, on so many levels.

And some lists are much more interesting than others.