My 101 Things

This is borrowed from a few other blogs, but these are 101 things about me and my people. Good, bad, indifferent. It's THINGS. *Despite the day I've had, I decided "screw it" I'm doing this anyway.

1. Although I tell people that my father never really supported me, he did. He was the manager of my soccer team when I was 6. When I was involved in youth groups in my teens, he was always a part of them too. Driving, support, advising, whatever.
2. My father was 38 years old when I was born. Most of my high school friends thought he was my grandfather when they saw him at Grad. He was 56 and most other parents were in their late 30s and early 40s. He'll be 70 in July 2005.
3. I've actually found a famous person in my family tree. I'm related to Thomas Edison, the "American" inventor of the telephone.
4. My mother, father and grandfather have all worked for telephone companies. I worked in telecommunications for a few years.
5. A somewhat favorite job was at a tourist attraction where we'd fire black powder muskets. We were pretty good and could fire them twice a minute.
6. I hated my co-worker there too. He used to say, "Greetings and halogens" all the time and I hated it. Out of everyone I worked with there, he's the only one left.
7. I worked for Little Caesar's Pizza just after high school. Every once in a while I can wrangle a free pizza out of them still.
8. I only occasionally talk to one of my high school friends and we both worked at Little Caesar's.
9. I quit that job after a year because I'd been passed up for promotion twice. They seriously picked fights with me on my "review" days and each time it cost me a promotion.
10. I've never been fired from a job until today.
11. And I'm not actually upset about it.
12. I've been laid off twice.
13. One of my biggest fears is that I'm going to get fired from my job for something really stupid.
14. It's really a big fear now because I'm enjoying my new department.
15. Out of the entire building here at work, there's one other guy who has the same first name as me. He's 3 cubicles away from me. People use our last names to talk to us because otherwise we start answering the question asked of the other person.
16. Our son's were born 5 days apart.
17. My wife's 2 brothers are married and so is my sister. Despite so many couples, my sister's family is the only other one to have children.
18. My nephew had a heart defect when he was born. A valve had an opening in it and he wasn't developing as he got older.
19. At six months, he went in for open heart surgery. My entire family was devastated, but I told them that everything would be fine and he'd pull through with out any problems.
20. He did pull through and he's a great little kid. I love him to pieces and so does my daughter.
21. It was the 5th time I'd ever seen my father cry.
22. The 4th time was when my mother got mad at him for helping out a girl in trouble. She had moved out of her mom's place when she was 18 and needed money. My father hired her to help with yard work and cleaning around the house.
23. The 3rd time was when his father died.
24. The 2nd time was when my other grandfather died.
25. The 1st time was after our house fire and we'd received a care package from his friends.
26. The house fire was early on in my college education and it took me years to get out of the slump. Not one prof gave me an extension to finish term papers, despite having lost all my work and the computer.
27. The next academic year, my registration date to pick classes was the first day of the school year.
28. It was the following summer that I made my first big jump in my GPA. I took 2 summer courses and got an A and an A+.
29. Because of those classes, I decided to take a college tour to England the following summer. I took 4 courses while in England.
30. I met my wife in England on that tour.
31. We did so much walking that summer that I lost over 30 pounds.
32. My sister was in Australia at the same time and met a man and they got engaged.
33. My parents were concerned that we were both in "long distance" relationships. Mine turned out for the best, though, as she turned out to live only 20 minutes away. Sweet.
34. Nobody in the family ever met the man from Australia. They broke up the following summer. He was abusive.
    I got engaged about a week beforehand.
35. We planned on a summer wedding a year later.
36. Apparently, I had mono that summer and lost the same 30 pounds again in the month of August.
37. Mono, I was told, strikes 3 times in the year, but I've never had it again. That was 9 years ago.
38. I became a father 9 years faster than my father. I was 27.
39. My wife is 6 years older than me. Smart as anything too. She skipped 2 grades in school and was starting high school when I was in kindergarten.
40. She graduated in 1984 and I did in 1991.
41. My first pet was a runt of a cat born in mid-February of 1980 and not expected to live through winter. She died in 1997.
42. I've owned 2 other cats. They're now 10 years old. One likes crapping 'wherever' in the basement and the other beats him up all the time. They're brothers.
43. I go to church regularly. Well, at least 2 time a month. I've been burnt out over the past year because of all the "commitments" they expect of me.
44. When I was a teenager, I was involved in a group called DeMolay. It's loosely affiliated with the Masonic Lodge, but is strictly for young men between the ages of 13 and 21. I unofficially joined when I was 12 and left just a few months before my 21st birthday.
45. Relating it to the Flintstones' Loyal Order of Water Buffalo, I was elected "Grand Poobah"4 times, but only sat in office 3 times. I quit before the fourth term. Most guys get elected once around the age of 18-21 and finish off their time (whatever age their at) in the position.
46. I was 15 the first time I took office.
47. My 3rd girlfriend (also referred to as My First Love) was involved in the girls' version: Job's Daughters. She still is.
48. We met at a dance when she and her best friend started taking my clothes off. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I was 14 at the time --I think.
49. And no I wasn't a virgin. Lost that when I was 12.
50. I do have a theme for my blog posts for 2004. 'Dreama' was close to figuring it out, but she guessed 1 step too soon.
51. My wife actually forgot one time where we went for our honeymoon. So much for a memorable trip.
52. The flight to England nearly crashed going into Calgary (it was a stopover, not the destination) when we hit an air pocket descending to the airport. We dropped big time.
53. The last time I experienced a drop like that was the time I was in an elevator that fell. 4 floors.
54. I've personally known 4 outed gay men in my life --and one still in the closet. One died of AIDS in 2000.
55. He was in our wedding party and made my wife's dress, all the bridesmaids' dresses, and the vests for the men. He wore a white suit as the "Bride's Escort"
56. He was an ex-boyfriend of my wife's. Apparently, she's gone out with 3 or 4 gay men in her life. No wonder I keep trying to make our marriage work ;-)
57. If I had to say I had a favorite movie, it would have to be 'Delicatessen.'
58. My taste in music changes so much that I can't say for sure what my favorite song is.
59. I've witnessed over 100 accidents in my life and been involved in 4. 2 of which I was the driver and neither time was I at fault.
60. I was in the backseat of a friend's Mustang when we were in an accident. I didn't have my seatbelt on and only got a small scratch above my right eye. I was thrown across the car, though.
61. My grade 3 teacher had us read comic books to teach us basic story techniques like plot, themes, protagonists, antagonists, foreshadowing and irony. I've collected comics ever since.
62. In 1999 I spent close to $1000 a month on comics.
63. In 2004 I spend about $20 a month if I'm lucky.
64. The last movie I saw in the theatre was 'Hero.'
65. The last movie I saw at home was 'Fahrenheit 9/11.'
66. I don't like to miss an episode of 'Daily Show with Jon Stewart.'
67. Although 'Scrubs' is my favorite primetime show.
68. I failed Math 11 in grade 11 and got 51% the next year. One girl in my class failed with 20% but the teacher passed her on a promise that she'd never set foot in the school again or use math in her life after high school. We all respected him for that.
69. I was told I had 're-speck!' when someone asked me what the 'ES' in my car's model name stood for and I said "Extra Sexy."
70. I once had a conversation with the General Manager of the Atlanta Hawks (NBA) without knowing who he was.
71. I can honestly say I have one friend I can "most likely" hang out with on a weekend.
72. He lives 45 minutes away.
73. There's a man walking by my office. He's wearing green pants. I've seen him wear those pants for 2 weeks now.
74. I went to 5 different elementary schools in 4 different cities.
75. My best friend in grade 4 and 5 is now a professional curler.
76. My best friend in grades 6-10 is almost completely bald. I hadn't seen him in nearly 10 years when he suddenly recognized me at a gas station late on a Sunday night. I thought he was some drunk looking for a fight.
77. I've had a slice of pizza to eat today. Nothing else.
78. I just talked to the guy I consider my only true friend at work today. He's been sitting at his desk in shock for 3 hours. Don't blame him.
79. Knowing I have nothing else to lose, I told Sex Caffeine how I feel about her.
80. I'm never going to see her again anyway.
81. I have 5 autographed posters in my computer room and every one is personalized to me.
82. And every single one of the signers thought I was really weird.
83. I never planned on selling them on eBay, I guess.
84. I have plenty of time to sell everything else now though!
85. I have absolutely no reason to be happy right now.
86. And there's no logic as to why I'm not crying my eyes out.
87. When I was young and got extremely sick, my kidneys would bleed.
88. I was referred to a urologist by 3 different doctors. He said I had Lupus.
89. I was actually dehydrated --I was throwing up something fierce and too young/too stupid to rehydrate myself.
90. One of those doctors isn't allowed to practice in Canada anymore.
91. One of the others doesn't have a practice anymore.
92. I've taken language classes in French, Japanese, Mandarin,and Russian.
93. I speak poorly in all of them.
94. If I could date one celebrity, it would be Jennifer Garner. I'd just tell Ben Affleck there was another crappy movie being made around the corner. And they asked for him. By name.
95. I once was an extra in a movie. "We're no Angels" with Sean Penn and Robert DeNiro.
96. I was an altar boy or something. In the parade scene, I'm the sleeve on the right.
97. My coolest celebrity encounter was meeting Vincent Price in 1986. I was 13 at the time and talked to him about 'House of Wax' which at the time was the only movie of his I'd seen.
98. I think he was impressed by this kid talking about a movie like that.
99. I once had an art scholarship to the University of Southern California. It wouldn't've paid for a semester's tuition so I never went.
100. I'm going to start drawing again.
101. I was at a church group meeting tonight and the warm-up question was: "What was the last thing you did for the very first time?" I answered that I don't have a last thing, but tomorrow is the first time I'm going into life completely on faith.