25 Things

Here's my 25 in response to Christy's post. I'm going to try and come up with 25 things that most of you may not know about me.

1. I am adopted. I met my birth mother a couple years ago, and it was...awkward. My sister is adopted too, but we weren't biologically related. My mom has endometriosis and it prevented her from getting pregnant. It makes me wonder if they had been trying in this day and age if modern medicine might be able to help them. Would I have been adopted? It also gives me a unique perspective on abortion. My birth mother was only 14 when she found out she was pregnant. Her parents pushed her to have an abortion--she chose to put me up for adoption instead. She had to move out of her parents house as a result. I very easily could not be here today, so clearly I think abortion is a bad idea. At the same time I'm fiercely protective of my inalienable right to choose what happens to me and my body. It's not an easy space in which to live.

2. I grew up on a working alfalfa farm. Yep, that came with all the goodies: acres and acres to roam, the farmer tan, and all the exercise that comes with the hard work of farming. Hey, tossing hay bales is a good workout. It's probably the reason that I've gained weight these days, I don't have the same metabolic demands. I was driving tractors by the 4th grade.

3. I have 3 tattoos, two on my back and one on my right shoulder/arm. My first tattoo is the best work, mostly because it was planned. The other two were spur of the moment, and the art sucks. Unfortunately they're the bigger two. Someday I will have them reworked into something else. I'm not convinced I'm done with tattoos, I've got at least two more ideas.

4. I'm O+.

5. I used to think I came from really healthy stock. I was rarely sick as a kid. I have better than perfect eyesight, my hearing is perfect (despite what my wife may say.) But after meeting my birth mom I found out she's a 5th generation breast cancer survivor. And my biological maternal grandfather died of heart disease at a relatively early age. That's got me feeling my mortality at the ripe old age of 33.

6. I had a mole on my shoulder than concerned me. I went in to a doctor's office for a physical and to specifically ask about it. It was the first time I'd been to the doctor in 15 years. She wasn't concerned about my mole, didn't give it but a cursory glance. She was however, extremely concerned about my stuffy nose and was rather disgruntled when I wouldn't let her write me a prescription for a decongestant. 3 months later the mole was still concerning me, so I went to a dermatologist on my own dime. One glance and she said, oh that's going to have to come off, and immediately performed a 9mm punch biopsy. Of course the biopsy came back positive for melanoma, so I was quickly back into the office for a larger biopsy. The second biopsy had no atypical cells in it, so they got it all the first time. And that's the story of how an 8mm mole turns into a 2 inch scar.

7. I have never lost consciousness, even after having been completely thrown off my feet by a blow to the head by a falling log. The closest I ever came to passing out was when they numbed me up for the punch biopsy. Apparently lido w/ epi and I don't get along very well. The nurses all thought it was the biopsy that did it, but it was the lido that made me lightheaded. They had a good time teasing me about being a pansy anyway.

8. My thumbs are two different sizes. My right thumb is proportionate to the rest of my fingers. My left thumb is shorter and fatter. When I was in grade school I severely cut my left thumb to the bone on a farm implement, severing the nerve. I still have a numb patch.

9. I have large hands and feet. I wear a 13 in most shoes, although a size 14 New Balance shoe actually fit me well when I was looking for shoes for nursing school. I wear a 9 1/2 in sterile gloves. I wear a size 13 wedding ring. I know there's bigger guys out there, but I'm only 6'1" on my best day. I think the proportion of my limbs makes people think I'm not as big as I really am. And sometimes having large hands works against me. Kind of like how they say to marry a woman with small hands so certain things will look bigger--and the diamond ring is only one of them...

10. I was a musician in high school and for the first part of my undergrad. I made allstate choir all four years of high school. I was often in several choirs at once--4 at a time in high school, and about the same in college. I also used to compose music and had few pieces performed in public performances by our high school choir.

11. I will never eat coleslaw again as long as I live. When I was growing up the women of our church would put on an annual enchilada dinner to raise money. Well one year ticket sales at the door did not even approach estimated demand. As a result my mom brought home what had to be a 55 gallon drum of coleslaw so it wouldn't go to waste. We ate coleslaw for WEEKS. Even after it started to spoil and go sour...

12. I love to clean my ears--I'm a Q-tip freak. At least once a day I have to give them a good scrubbing. Luckily I'm a copious ear wax producer--they usually need cleaning. Can't go a day with my ear-gasm. ;)

13. I've worked a ton of different jobs. I've been: food delivery driver, a paid musician, a roofer, a fencer, a church youth director, a forest service fire fighter, an assistant college woman's volleyball coach, a natural gas well remote operations control tech, a waiter, an eyeglasses lab tech, a pharmacy tech, a chiropractor...

14. I can't stand Dora, Diego, or Satan himself--Barney.

15. I didn't drink any alcohol until I was 21. But the first time I ever drank I was completely convinced I was an alcoholic. You see I was an RA in a dorm at the first university I attended. It was a church affiliated school so no alcohol was allowed. At the end of Christmas break a big winter storm rolled in, and my drive from home in northern New Mexico back to school was going to be a rough one. I called my RD and explained the situation, but he insisted I needed to be back because there were going to be residents in the dorm. So I set out. Unfortunately I followed the storm all the way to Texas, and it turned into a major winter weather event with almost a foot of snow dumping as it went, and more in the mountains. A 12 hour trip normally, it took me nearly double that, and my jeep was in 4WD for all 700 miles of it. When I arrived on campus, it was deserted. The school was closed. Even the RD wasn't there. So, I rebelled and drove the grocery store to get some alcohol and get drunk. I came back to my dorm room with a 4 pack of B&J's Fuzzy Navel wine coolers! LOL!! So I popped a top, plunked myself down in front of the TV to get drunk, and one of those commercials comes on: "If you're not sure if you have an alcohol problem, the following behaviors may indicate you're an alcoholic: drinking alone, drinking in response to stress, drinking when you're angry, drinking to get drunk..." So I was completely convinced I was an alcoholic within minutes of my first drink of alcohol, ever!

16. I'd rather be: cold than hot, hungry than overfull, hiking than swimming, at a romantic intimate dinner than a dance club, naked than clothed, dead than a vegetable, alone than in a relationship that isn't working.

17. I apparently look gay. I get hit on all the time by gay guys. I'm flattered, but I really wonder what it is that makes them think I'm gay? I don't think I'm particularly flamboyant, but maybe I'm missing something.

18. I once knocked the cover a off a volleyball in the middle of a match. (I played men's volleyball for two different colleges.) The ref had just made a terrible call and I was extremely angry about it. On the very next rally we ran a trick play out of the middle and I ended up with the set. The blockers bit on the two fakes so I had an empty net. The set was perfect and I uncorked on it with all my strength and anger. The cover on the ball immediately split open, it hit the floor with a thud and the bladder popped out while the cover went sliding across the floor. The gym went completely quiet for a few brief seconds, and then the crowd went nuts. It was a conference match so the ball was brand new out of the package, but it must have had a defect. But even the refs and the other team were impressed. It was exactly like a Powerade commercial.

19. I was almost struck by lightning while mountain biking one time. Your hair really does stand on its end when you're about to get struck. And when the flash and the thunder are simultaneous, it's close. REALLY close. The lightning hit a tree about 20 yards away from our group. Needless to say, we hurried off the mountain.

20. I have really long toes. Some of my toes are longer than some of my wife's fingers.

21. Someday I want to live somewhere in Europe. Scotland, Austria, Switzerland top the list.

22. I am a hopeless romantic. Movies like Love Actually, Serendipity, Return To Me, You've Got Mail make me feel good. I always hope I'll get to feel that cinema perfect love affair feeling someday, even if it's a total pipe dream.

23. Aside from threatening someone I love, the fastest way to piss me off is to make me feel like my thoughts or feelings don't matter. And that's professionally or personally.

24. I used to be extremely judgmental. I'd like to think I've gotten lots better, but I may actually only be moderately judgmental now. :(

25. I'm pretty insecure about my appearance--from my eyebrows that insist on resembling two woolly mammoth caterpillars making out to the crazy hairs that have declared Manifest Destiny and are doing their best to colonize my back down to the size of my dangly wing-wang. It's more than being a little uncomfortable in my skin due to my excess weight. It may stem from my childhood--never being good enough and lacking regular praise for what I'd done right. Who knows. Maybe it's the impossible standards the media has placed on men.

And that my friends is 25 things about me. :) Post up your own version!