25 Things About Me

I've talked before about how fascinated I am by the 25 Things About Me craze on Facebook. Well, I caved in to it and decided I might as well share it on my blog as well. (Please excuse the mention of the blog here)

25 Things About Me

1. I really, really miss Notre Dame, at least partially because I haven’t found a job yet to transition to the real world.
2. I wrote a mystery story in the 6th grade set in the 1950s and starring an elderly police detective and a parrot. It’s still probably the best thing I ever wrote.
3. I have never ridden a bike. (This one is for you, Lyons and Becsey)
4. I played the alto saxophone in high school but I gave it up shortly before going to college. I only picked that because it was the one Lisa plays on The Simpsons. Now I think I would have been better suited for tenor sax.
5. I was on the track and field team in high school, mainly as a way to get in shape. I am pretty proud that I once ran an 800 in under three minutes, but I shudder to think what I’d run it in now.
6. I also threw the javelin, which was a lot of fun even though I stunk.
7. My father was the cameraman accosted by Randy Johnson shortly after he signed with the Yankees.
8. Kurt Vonnegut is my favorite author. I went a little crazy when he died and checked out maybe six of his books from the library even though finals were coming up (I didn’t read all of them). I’ve now read every novel he wrote and most of the other stuff, and it makes me sad that I’ll never get to read a novel of his for the first time again.
9. The first sporting event I vividly recall is the baseball strike of 1994. I remember thinking that the players would be picketing outside the stadiums.
10. I am a self-doubting hypochondriac. Which means that I’m constantly diagnosing myself with severe conditions only to call myself crazy for doing so.
11. I haven’t vomited since I was a freshman in high school. Part of this is because I go to rather extreme lengths to avoid people who are sick. Last week my brother had a stomach virus and I didn’t get within 20 feet of him until I was assured he was past it.
12. I have an unbelievably nerdy love of word games, i.e. text twist, boggle (Scramble on Facebook), cryptoquotes, and especially crossword puzzles. I miss getting a free NY Times crossword five days a week.
13. I have a blog. The url is outofworkdomer.blogspot.com. Couldn’t pass up the chance to drive up readership.
14. I like to play Texas Hold ‘Em, even though I may be one of the worst poker players ever. I justify playing as often as I do by playing for low stakes and never gambling in any other context.
15. I have almost no knowledge of popular music released in my lifetime. I hated all the music my sisters listened to when we were younger. Whenever I listen to the radio it’s either sports talk or classic rock.
16. Despite being a bookworm, I didn’t really like being an English major. Either I didn’t like the books we were reading, or the other people in the class had the stupidest ideas they just had to discuss.
17. I read a lot of mysteries, including over 50 Agatha Christie novels. I’m kind of a snob about it because I only read the classics (Chandler, Hammett, et al).
18. I like being able to name things in order, U.S. presidents, World Series winners, and Summer Olympic host sites being some examples.
19. I’ll be ashamed of this forever, but I didn’t vote in either of the last two elections, mainly because I forgot to look into absentee balloting until it was too late.
20. I hate parades. I mean, I really hate parades, to the extent that St. Patrick’s Day is one of my least favorite days of the year.
21. I’ve been on one rollercoaster in my life, and that was under duress. I don’t plan on doing it again anytime soon.
22. I love old movies, especially screwball comedies (His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby), POW films (The Great Escape, Stalag 17) and classic westerns (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Magnificent Seven).
23. When I was maybe three or four years old I fell down an escalator at the mall. For years afterward I was very wary of escalators and even today I am cautious when getting on or off.
24. I keep growing a beard only to get frustrated with it and then shave it off only to regret shaving it and grow one back. Objectively, I think I look better with a beard and I also dislike shaving, but sometimes having a beard drives me nuts because I keep playing with it. It’s a vicious cycle.
25. When I first saw these notes popping up I thought to myself, “There’s something I’d never do.”