Probably having a second child. I'm very glad we did, of course.

I wish I could say something more adventurous like living overseas or sailing around the world, but that's all I've got.

Enlisting in the US Marine Corps. I was an out-of-shape college drop-out pot- and acid-head looking for something completely beyond and opposite my experience. Surprisingly, as an organization, they value innovation. They have their deep-rooted traditions, of course, but in the field, they give you the freedom to try techniques that make a task easier, faster or more likely to succeed. You've had your training, you get your orders which are goal-oriented rather than micro-managed, then it's up to you carry them out.

Moving halfway across the world to marry a man I met on MetaChat.

Moving halfway across the world to Washington to marry date a man I met on MetaChat in a chat room. And then marry him a year later.

There are so many evil, foreign men preying on young innocent American girls!

Moved to San Francisco when I was 19 without a clue or a plan or enough money to live for more than a few weeks. It was awesome while it lasted.

I wish I could say something more adventurous like living overseas or sailing around the world...

Seems to me that having a child is plenty adventurous, LoriFLA, especially since you can always come back from living overseas or sailing around the world.

My own craziest thing? Depends how you define crazy.

If it's a question of the nuttiest impulse I've ever followed through suddenly, that's probably the day I shaved half my head. It was the 1980s, I was living in a dorm at a WASP-y prep school, and I was sick of my dorm-mates trying to prep me up despite my post-punk, New Wave aesthetic. A quick haircut later, they stopped trying.

The most radical, life-altering decision? Almost a decade ago, I quit my comfortable, secure job of 8 years, gave up my metaphorical widow's weeds, moved to a new town (with a newish boyfriend --- not a genius move, that), fixed up a Victorian house, and started college.

I put away everything that was safe and easy and stepped out into thin air. It's the foundation of the life I have now, and I still find myself amazed that I did it... and that I'm so well suited to it!

Mostly it seems I keep running off to strange places with men, and then marrying them.

I once drank a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20 Orange Jubilee, jumped on a freight train and rode it to Selma. Does that count?

You bet it does, BOP! I think I might have been that boxcar with you.

Besides joining MetaChat?

Had pictures of me taken topless in the middle of Manhattan for a book that you can buy right now!

I moved my family 800 miles to attend college. These are things I did not have when we left:

* housing
* job
* college acceptance

Guess what? It all worked out.

trinity8-director you have brass balls. Good for you!

Taken a jeep out into some Danish marshland to test shoot tracer bullets with my old Winchester rifle. Bullets belong to the Danish version of the National Guard (my friend driving the jeep had them at his house). Turns out, the swamp we lit up like it was daytime belonged to the Danish Military. Aaah, good times as we raced out of there with our lights off narrowly avoiding getting caught.

Leaving my first husband, with two small boys in tow. I'd never lived on my own before, but it had to be better than where we were at the time. It wasn't easy (the boys were 4 1/2 and 1 ), but it was the best thing for us.

Depends what you mean by crazy.

I once climbed onto the bumper of big tractor trailer, intending to ride from one house party to another. The driver hit green lights all through town, dropping from gear to gear as we sped past my destination. The crazy part is that I convinced myself I could start running in midair, land on my feet, and just run the momentum out; instead, my body slapped, skidded and rolled down the street. But Jack Daniel's cushioned me from harm that night, so I can't really call it crazy, though some might.

I gave Al Gore the feely handshake. That was pure craziness; it was '92 and he was stumping in Indy and I don't know what came over me, but when I finally made my way through the crowd, I just tickled the palm of his hand with my middle finger. He looked right in my eyes and then it was over and security whisked him away in his motorcade. But that feely handshake wasn't something I thought of before I was doing it, so I guess it's not really premeditated craziness.

I don't know if I've really thought of doing many of the things I've done before I did them; most of my craziness is spur-of the moment, often under different influences. Simple misadventure.

Moving to NH from Seattle, WA for a girl I met on Metachat. Before we'd actually met in person. First date was when I disembarked at Manchester NH Airport. Seems normal now, of course.

wow, LT! I would have never guessed that.

TrishaLynn, I thought that you were going to link to your topless picture when I first read that--I'm such a bad boy!

My answer should be obvious.

There are so many evil, foreign men preying on young innocent American girls!

I knew I made a mistake in not being foreign.

Decided to change careers and follow a passion I'd developed for coastal and maritime history, based on nothing other than a strong inclination and a dislike of where I was and what I was doing. Left a decent teaching job in Philadelphia to accept a 10-week internship at a New England museum in a town where I really knew nobody and a field about which I knew not much. Had no money. Housing lasted only until August. No prospect of a job. Fortunately by the end of the summer I'd managed to get hired by that museum, turned 30, realized I was wicked happy, and the rest was, quite literally, history.