06.11.05 - 100 Things about RCS

Well others have done it and so shall I. There’s some gritty stuff here that some of you may not know – so go carefully. Here’s my 100 things about me list…

1.) I was very sickly for the first two years of my life.
2.) I got drunk for the first time at 2yrs old. My father set his beer down to go to the restroom and told me not to touch it. I drank the whole thing. I’m told I was drunk for quite a while and hung over for a couple of days.
3.) My grandfather, hereafter referred to as Forest, didn’t believe my parents should take me to the doctor.
4.) My dad quit smoking cold turkey because, at one time, my favorite toy was a corncob pipe.
5.) My mother detests violence and, as such, would never allow me to own any toy gun other than a squirt gun and those were only allowed outside!
6.) I’m told I once beat up a boy named David for a seat on the bus in kindergarten – I have no recollection of this event. I’m sorry David.
7.) I started learning to play piano when I was 5 and played until I was 8 when I discovered the guitar and I’ve been playing that exclusively ever since.
8.) I played violin from the ages of 7 to 9 and I was never, in my estimation, very good - though I was second chair for much of that time.
9.) I like almost all kinds of music.
10.) I drove Quarter Midgets and later Half Midgets from the age of 9 to the age of 18.
11.)I drove because it made my grandpa Lew happy – I was the boy he always wanted.
12.) When I was little, I adored my grandma Diane.
13.) When I grew up, I became resentful of her and ultimately broke contact with her.
14.) I spent much of my childhood with my grandparents – it was a happy time.
15.) My first “girlfriend” at age 5 taught me how to ride her bicycle.
16.) My second “girlfriend” used to hunt me down and alternately kick me with her purple pointed cowboy boots and/or kiss me. – We still talk every few years today.
17.) My favorite cartoons as a teenager were HeMan, Thundercats, and Voltron.
18.) My favorite songs were “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics and 99 Red Balloons by Gold Finger.
19.) I lost my virginity at age 13. She was twelve. I remember being disappointed.
20.) I was elected President of my church youth group.
21.) I ran because a girl I didn’t realize I had a crush on was running.
22.) I was surprised years later, when I heard that she got married, to find that I was devastated by the news. My sister says everybody knew I had a crush on her. I wish someone had clued me in.
23.) I had a “mullet” hair cut.
24.) I fell in love, for the first time, at fifteen.
25.) I snuck out of my window and walked or rode my skateboard ten miles round trip every night for most of a year to see her.
26.) The night she lost her virginity, we fell asleep in each others arms and were awakened at 4:30am by her mother who was coming in to wake her up for Mormon seminary. Her stepfather came into the room as I was pulling my shirt over my head. That was the first time I looked into a man’s eyes and knew he wanted me dead.
27.) Her stepfather later molested me and equated the way it made me feel to the way I had made her feel. He forbade our relationship and she was turned out and vilified in front of her church and family.
28.) This plunged me into a two year depression. I later discovered that some of my teachers were so concerned that they met weekly to discuss me. It never occurred to me to hurt myself or anyone else.
29.) I fell in love with my high school sweetheart at age 17. We dated for two and a half years. We too still talk occasionally.
30.) I got drunk for the first time as an adult. It was incredible.
31.) At 19 I got involved in the Society for Creative Anachronism – a medieval recreation group whose moniker SCA could more accurately be translated as The Society for Consenting Adults.
32.) They taught me how to fence (with a sword), drink lots, and charm women.
33.) I’ve explored just about every sexual possibility you can think of. (well ok, maybe not every possibility ;-))
34.) I consider myself to be Bisexual though I strongly prefer women.
35.) I believe that 10% of the world is really straight and 10% is really gay and that the rest of us fall somewhere in the middle.
36.) I seduced my first wife with charm and a feather.
37.) I shallowly married her because we seemed to get along, she was pregnant, and I was pretty sure she would remain thin after having kids. Thankfully, I’ve grown up a bit.
38.) I quit drinking, smoking, and drugs 02/03/1995.
39.) Aside from 1 clove cigarette in 2000 (which made me sick) I’ve been clean and sober ever since.
40.) I worked in and/or managed Pizza Huts for approximately seventeen years.
41.) I hated it for at least fifteen of those years.
42.) I’ve worked as a Machinist, a Carpenter, a Painter, a Computer Programmer, a Computer Consultant, a Nutricutical Service Associate, a Call Center Team Leader, a Busboy, a Cook, a Waiter, a Delivery Driver, a Shift Manager, an Assistant Manager, and a General Manager.
43.) I’m the biological father of 3 wonderful kids and I am hoping to adopt my fiancé’s 3 as well.
44.) I cannot have sex without falling in love.
45.) I have a hard time being kind to ignorant people.
46.) I believe there are some things that are unforgivable.
47.) I believe that to forget things that you have forgiven can be dangerous.
48.) I believe friendship is rare and should be cherished.
49.) I don’t tolerate relationships that bring chaos and/or violence into my world.
50.) Once I love, I love for life - though I do fall out of like.
51.) I try to love without attachment.
52.) I am direct and speak with very little “editing”.
53.) I will answer any direct question honestly.
54.) I rarely have the need to apologize - I generally mean what I say.
55.) The older I get, the less and less I care what other people think.
56.) The older I get, the less willing I am to spend my time doing things I don’t want to do.
57.) I believe in service. If I can help without endangering those for whom I’m responsible, I will.
58.) I never loan money unless I can afford to give it away as a gift. That way, if it comes back, I can be surprised and happy rather than be resentful that someone owes me money.
59.) I love good food.
60.) One of my favorite life tools is to remember that, in most every interaction with other people, they are more important than me.
61.) My favorite life principle is that if you want something, you have to give it to someone else.
62.) Today I depend upon my intuition. It is the root of my faith.
63.) I don’t find any personal validity in organized religion though I think it’s fine for other people if it is working for them.
64.) I do believe that there is a higher power (God) in the universe and that it has no specific gender and that it has a plan. Life is too ordered, an order within chaos, to exist without such a being. Perhaps it looks more like a combined life super-consciousness.
65.) I believe that there are many levels of life and that some may be sufficiently advanced, as compared to us, as to seem godlike.
66.) I believe in reincarnation as I think it unlikely that we could rise to a state of enlightenment or, in the Christian sense, to live a Christ-like life in one lifetime. I believe the lessons to be learned can only be learned at the right time, and in the right place, and only if the person is ready and willing to learn them.
67.) I believe that life, here and now, is exactly as it should be.
68.) I do not believe in time as a linear concept. Rather, I suspect that if we had perspective to view it, we would see that every event that has ever happened or will ever happen is laid out on a table in every possible permutation of free will.
69.) I think this explains our imagination’s capacity to create. I think that at some level beyond our consciousness, we are aware of these other realities and that we draw on them for inspiration in our own lives.
70.) I know that as a species there is far, far more that we don’t comprehend than there is that we do.
71.) I studied Aikido, Shao-lin Kung Fu, and Tai Chi over the period of several years until I discovered that I am not a violent man and I don’t want to hurt people.
72.) I will not get into a physical fight unless I have to – the price is too high.
73.) I spend money like water – very impulsive.
74.) I love to ride motorcycles.
75.) It took me years to get honest with myself about wanting to be a healer. It terrifies me because of the immense responsibility and because of the deep personal connections required to be really helpful.
76.) By default, I’m an isolationist. My intuition tells me, quite loudly, that I need to get out into the world and look for ways to be helpful. I’m still learning to listen to this suggestion.
77.) I think that the human race must learn to adapt or it will die off. We must, as a race, look to and plan for the future.
78.) I don’t believe we are the only sentient life in the universe.
79.) I do believe in extra terrestrials, ghosts, poltergeists, angels, and demons.
80.) I believe that 90% of good health is mental.
81.) I believe that everyone who dies, dies at the time that they have learned what they came to this place and time to learn from the aborted fetus to murder victim, to the old woman who dies at the age of 99 in the care of her loving family.
82.) I believe in spirit guides.
83.) I believe in the power of love and prayer.
84.) I love art, music, theatre, and film.
85.) I believe that families have a unique wisdom that should be nurtured and cherished.
86.) I am a genealogist.
87.) I want to be cremated and to have my ashes separated so that each of my friends and relatives who is willing can take a bit of my remains and sprinkle them over something or some place I might enjoy.
88.) I want to have a party at my death – a celebration of my life.
89.) I’m working to make it possible for those whom I love to live in some comfort and security in the uncertain times ahead.
90.) I do not want to be kept around on life support past the possibility of reasonable recovery.
91.) I plan to die sober.
92.) I want LOTS of grandchildren to have over for Holidays and to spoil rotten.
93.) I’ve only been out of the USA twice and both times were to Canada on fishing trips.
94.) I want to see the world.
95.) Integrity matters most to me in my dealings with people
96.) I’ve come close to drowning three times. The third time, I was lifeguard certified and jumped into a river after my hat. I tried every stroke I knew and ultimately had to dog paddle to shore.
97.) I suspect I will outlive many of my friends and family and that, as such, I will have the opportunity to be of service to them and their families through the process.
98.) Lord of the Rings – Return of the King is my favorite movie.
99.) My colors, those that I most like together, are silver, black, and forest green.
100.) I work every day to be a better person and to be more available to the world around me. I try to live in gratitude every day and to remember to be thankful for my blessings.

RCS