50 Random Things

I think that everyone who is on Facebook has been tagged with this challenge in the past couple of weeks. Buzz and I both sat down to make our list of 25 random things about ourselves a couple of days ago. My list is mediocre, but I love the list that Buzz made. Reminds me of why I love him so much! Here you go!

Me:

1. I'm responding to more of these sorts of things than I'd like to admit. It's not as if I don't have a million other things to do!

2. I've become a Diet Pepsi addict. I depended on it when I was working nights and now I rarely make it until noon without cracking a can.

3. Four has been a difficult age for me to manage. Sparkle was a great two and three year old, but when she hit four she realized that her opinion wasn't necessarily the same as mine and that she didn't have to put up with me quietly.

4. I don't want to ever have a pet of my own. Growing up we had five dogs, three cats, a serval cat, a prarie dog, a muntjack deer, a few wallabies, and several visiting baby exotic cats. I'm done...

5. My family just might wear me down and talk me into a dog someday. But only when the kids are old enough to take care of it and we're done having babies.

6. I wanted to be done having babies by the time I'm 30. Don't think we'll have four by then. Unless we manage to have twins (please, God, no!).

7. I'm dismayed that Buzz and Sparkle pray for us to have twin boys with some regularity.

8. I started dating Buzz almost 13 years ago, when I was 15. By the time I'm 30, I'll have been with him for half of my life. We've done a lot of growing together. Nothing makes me happier than the knowledge that he knows me this well and loves me anyway. :)

9. I miss having music in my life. The kids don't really appreciate my flute playing. I'm learning piano. We got a keyboard for Christmas that I can put on low volume during nap time.

10. 10+ years after leaving home, I still get some strange kick out of eating as much dessert as I feel like. I should probably learn to be a better boss of myself.

11. Quitting my job feels like the best thing I ever did. I don't miss it much. My stress level is about 50 times lower.

12. I like to knit and crochet. I recently found the pattern book at the library for a baby sweater that I started years ago. I'm going to finish it, really I am.

13. At one point in my life I looked forward to going topless at a beach in France someday.

14. I like to drive in the snow and ice.

15. I was blond as a child. I'm not sure how to break it to Sparkle that she probably won't be a natural blond forever.

16. I wanted to play softball when I was little, but my brother and sister laughed and said that I throw like a girl. I still have a noodle arm.

17. I have a certain cleaning chore for every day of the week. Monday - floors, since we've usually had people and their kids at our house over the weekend. Tuesday - dusting, bill paying, filing, and sheet changes. Wednesday and Thursday - laundry (I miss the time when it only took one day!). Friday - bathrooms, since we are usually expecting some sort of weekend visitors to our house.

18. It still makes me self-conscious that I am taller than Buzz.

19. I don't like talking on the phone.

20. I can't sleep at night unless Buzz is there for me to put my cold feet on. Socks don't work.

21. I hate to exercise. Buzz tells me that it's not normal for your lungs to hurt after five minutes and that I should try an inhaler. I'm not sure that would help me like it any more.

22. I made it past two cuts in the try-outs for junior high basketball, falling just short of making the team. My finest sports achievement.

23. Buzz has been trying to get me to watch Saving Private Ryan for years. I still haven't. I don't like bloody movies.

24. Aliens freak me out. So do ghosts.

25. When buying my current dishes, I couldn't decide on which bowl design to choose. So I chose them all. We own 36 bowls (minus the few that have broken) in three different sizes and shapes.

Buzz:

1. When I go to bed, I fall asleep in less than 2 minutes. This annoys Meo very much, which I feel a little bad about.

2. I have a t-shirt collection which includes inappropriate, smarmy, smart-allecky donkeys, dictators, and old men. This annoys Meo very much, which I feel very good about.

3. I spent all my summers as a kid at a cabin at Donner Lake, California. There was no phone and no TV. I learned to fish, catch crawdads, swim, ride a bike, play tennis, play baseball, play horse shoes, row a boat, paddle a canoe, water ski, jet-ski, hike, camp, pee outside, throw a Frisbee, play volleyball, climb trees, chop down trees, rock climb, use a compass, hike without a trail, play the trumpet, play 13 different kinds of solitaire, build 12-story houses of cards, dumpster-dive, and jump off bridges into water. I broke my arm for the first time, rode on a motorcycle for the first time, and asked Cameo to marry me under the stars there. I am so incredibly grateful.

4. The last few times I have gone to the Donner cabin, I have walked in to see my multiple nephews and nieces crowded around a transplanted TV. When I unplug the TV and hide it in the closet under old sleeping bags, they take out their hand-held video games or cell phones, roll their eyes at their jerk of an uncle, and continue not to learn any useful life skills or appreciate the stunning beauty surrounding them. It makes part of my heart break.

5. I love road trips, especially at night through big empty western states. There is no better place to reflect, no other place in this world where thoughts are uninterrupted for such a long period of time. Ever since I was a young boy I have planned on retiring a few years early to drive a big rig and just road trip for a few years and get paid for it.

6. I have never been nervous for an interview in my entire life. From pizza delivery to medical residency, not a single second of nerves. I have no idea how this happens, I guess I really like interviews.

7. I don’t know why I like the Chicago Bears as much as I do, but it doesn’t bother me.

8. I have a tattoo of fire on my right lower leg. This represents the Holy Spirit living inside of me, trying to light the dark parts of the world I find myself in.

9. My favorite thing about growing up in a family of 12 people: the people skills. After living with so many siblings who were so different from each other, and from me, I feel like I can get along with just about anybody I meet.

10. If I run for more than an hour, my gums get all tingly, and it feels good.

11. My wife Meo is taller than me, but it has never bothered me. It’s a good thing too, cause there is nothing I can do about it. I do feel bad for her sometimes.

12. I have a mother, 7 sisters, a wife and 2 daughters. I am entering a field of medicine where 2 out of 3 of my colleagues are women, where nearly all of the help staff are female and where nearly all of my patients will be cared for by their mothers. Was I supposed to be a woman?

13. I was born with a serious knot in my umbilical cord tied around my neck. I was born without a heartbeat, with a purple head, and I couldn’t breathe for a while. My birth picture was mysteriously lost.

14. I really want twin boys. They would be a lot of work, but how much fun would it be to have two little bruisers at the same time??? Please God, please!

15. I married a diamond in the rough. She may have grown up in rough circumstances, but she has the most incredible character and the deepest understanding of love that I have ever witnessed in a human being. I respect Meo more than I knew I could respect another human being. I am ecstatic she is raising our daughters.

16. Speaking of respect, after Meo is my Dad. I won’t tell all his stories, but lets just say I have a hell of a role model for how to get ones self out of a tough spot and value life for all its glories and despite all its pain.

17. I have been to some fancy restaurants, some world class places on 3 different continents, but nothing I have ever eaten tastes better than a pizza and root beer or a brat and an ale.

18. I love eating meals in 2’s- 2 drinks with 2 plates of food for breakfast, or two sandwiches with 2 drinks for lunch. Food is always better when it is paired.

19. Phones that take pictures, send text messages, check the weather, the internet, the box office times, and tell you the temperature really make me mad. I have everything turned off on my phone except the phone part, and somehow I still remember what my friend and family look like, I can look outside to see what the weather is like, and I can call my friend or the movie theatre if I need to talk or find a movie time. I can’t tell if all the crap that comes on phones is totally unnecessary or if I am already old-fashioned and stodgy.

20. I like being in the cold, and in the dark, but I don’t like caves.

21. I have never tried to think about 25 thing about myself at once before, I am really running on fumes here.

22. I can play every sport I have ever heard of, except for cricket and curling, and I am pretty good at a few of them. I have my 2 brothers to thank for that. P***, T**, THANKS!

23. I can’t hold the phone on my right ear.

24. I have broken my arms 4 times, mostly jumping off of stuff as a kid to prove to my brothers that I was tough cause I felt like they had no respect! P***, T**, THANKS (note the sarcasm here).

25. I have nick-names that I use in my head for people but never use out loud. Some of these nick names have been around for more than a decade! Are you wondering what yours is?