100 things about me

1. I was born in the East Bay
2. I am a second generation Californian
3. Both sets of grandparents came from Mexico
4. Unlike some of my cousins, I have medium dark skin, brown eyes and black hair
5. In my younger years, I used to play air guitar to my aunt's Ricky Nelson and Everly Brothers 45s
6. I am prone to depression, very heavy in the seven year cycle
7. In fourth grade, I told my teacher I had to go to the bathroom to pee. She didn't believe me.
8. In fourth grade, I peed my pants in the hallway. No one said a word about it the next day.
9. I have never had a broken bone.
10. Years after I had them removed, my tonsils have grown back.
11. As kids we lived a sparse life, but I appreciate what my parents did for us.
12. From the fourth grade through the sixth grade, my brother and I had to walk 2.5 miles to school round trip.
13. Robert F. Kennedy's assassination had a profound effect on me. For the first time in my life, I didn't feel safe to walk to school.
14. I had typical crushes in the sixth grade. Somehow I was picked to the campaign manager for the girl who was running for student council, and she was the one I was really crazy about. But I was extremely shy and quiet, so I never made my move. I must have figured being close to her was good enough. Boy was I stupid.
15. I was a Webelos scout. In between a cub scout and boy scout. I once carried the national flag for our troop in a gathering of scout troops
16. In the sixth grade, my entire class with other sixth grade classes in the city went on a nature campout in Mendicino County for a whole week
17. It was my first trip away from home ever (non-relative trip)
18. For some reason, I was always the first one to wake up in the morning. This really annoyed one of my cabin mates.
19. I also learned a lot of new words at this camp. A lot of new words for certain body parts.
20. I lived a very sheltered life in my youth
21. My darkest secret is...in the 70's I liked the Osmonds. I like harmonizing voices
22. I was in the school choir in the fifth and sixth grades
23. High school didn't become interesting until my junior year when I realized what the teacher wanted from me.
24. I ALWAYS wanted to be like Willie Mays because I wanted to be a ballplayer when I grew up
25. I tried out for the freshman basketball team. I didn't make the cut. I was devastated, and missed the last three months of my freshman year, beginning the seven year cycle of my depressions.
26. However, I still managed to graduate with honors
27. College was a rude awakening for me. I earned two Ds my first quarter. Those were the last two Ds I ever earned
28. In the 70s, though there was plenty around, I never smoked or took any drugs, and no one gave me a hard time about it
29. I was on the tennis team in my senior year of high school. I was okay at it. I was a better player in college, but I never tried for the team.
30. In college I hung out with the literary forensics team, and learned a lot about language and words
31. In the summer between my freshman and sophomore years, to help alleviate my depression, I read a lot of books. One book was the biography of The Beatles. I was so enthralled by the book that I decided I needed to play guitar
32. I borrowed one from my mom's cousin even though the fret board was cracked and the neck was slightly warped
33. I play rhythm guitar, bass guitar, some piano, and little ukulele.
34. I used to belong to a garage band called the Lumpy Trousers
35. Okay, maybe in my stories I did. I actually overdubbed vocals and guitar parts with my tape recorder. Very primitive stuff.
36. Because my involvement with the forensics team I got sucked into writing poetry class. I wasn't any good until I transferred to a four year college where I blossomed.
37. In 1989, I accepted a job offer to work at a library for $4.94 an hour.
Until then I had never had a real job, just temporary jobs
38. It was there that I met my future wife, though I didn't know it at the time, but she did
39. When I turned thirty, I decided to shake off my sheltered life and live life a little
40. My friend took me to Big Basin in Santa Cruz for a short 2-3 mile hike for my birthday
41. Ten miles later, after taking a shortcut, we arrived back to his car, along the
way I sang songs from Beatles albums to keep a good rhythm in my walking
42. I cried when John Lennon was killed. I had just bought his latest album two days before.
43. I had never taken a vacation until my girlfriend (aka the future wife), convinced me to go to Disneyland. I was never the adventurous type. I actually had fun once I calmed down
44. We kept our relationship a secret from the library staff for two years before someone found out. Our supervisor told us that he didn't want our relationship to effect our work. Ha...He didn't know it had been going on under his nose
45. My future wife bought me my first word processor. She was tired of having no weekend time when I had papers due.
46. You see, I used a manual typewriter for my papers. It took two whole days to type, and retype my papers. The word processor saved me a lot of time.
47. Then my hiking friend bought me a 386 computer. And made me swap out the bad video card! I had never opened up a computer before. I was a virgin.
48. And now I am computer support technician, all self taught.
49. The network administration is a different story
50. One Labor Day weekend my future wife and I went whitewater rafting with a group of city employees at Cache Creek. It was a two day trip. I fell in the water once. It was scary and fun
51. It was the same weekend Princess Diana died. We didn't know until we got home and saw the newspaper
52. I published a number of my poems in a variety of magazines, including one magazine that went out of business before my poem was published. That sucked
53. I am still kind of shy and quiet, maybe taciturn is a better word
54. I didn't start driving until my first child was born nearly three years ago
55. I always rode the bus and/or BART
56. I nearly cried when I saw Paul McCartney strolled onto the stage in Berkeley in 1991. It was a dream come true. And I will never forget the generosity of my friend Claire who invited me to attend with her when she found out I couldn't get tickets. I tried for hours
57. Damn I seem to cry a lot. Okay, so I am emotional
58. I cried when the Giants made into the 2002 World Series
59. I didn't cry when they lost in seven games. Fucking Angels
60. I got married in 2000 and went to DisneyWorld for our honeymoon. Awesome
61. Became a daddy for the first time in 2002. A boy named James
62. Became a daddy for the second time in 2004. A girl named Grace. The first girl in my family
63. I have four nephews age ranging from 27 to 8
64. My first airplane trip was in 2000 to Seattle for computer training
65. Since then, I have flown to Chicago, Orlando, Dallas, and Las Vegas twice
66. I can't get enough of Las Vegas, and I love the shows, though very expensive
67. Next year my wife and I are going on a cruise to Mexico
68. I still don't smoke
69. I still don't take recreational drugs
70. I can't sleep in the nude, even though my wife keeps telling me it is a great
feeling especially with flannel sheets. I have to have underwear on when I'm in bed
71. I'm not very good with small talk, which brings the illusion that I'm shy and quiet
72. I guess it depends on the subject at hand
73. I love going to the theater in San Francisco. The last play we saw was The Lion King
74. I used to play chess. I could move as least ten moves blindfolded
75. Nowadays I am happy that I can get out of bed and get dressed
76. Becoming a father has drained a lot of energy out of me, hence the subtitle of my blog
77. I used to do a lot of creative things in my life: writing, playing guitar, etc
78. Now I am lucky if I get one hour to myself
79. I have yet to hit lotto
80. I like to go to live sports events
81. I don't like opera, but my wife does
82. I wear progressive glasses, and have a beard, which is getting very white, and am about forty pounds overweight
83. On good days I look like Jerry Garcia; on bad, like Santa Claus
84. I took a friend and my wife to see Paul McCartney at the Shark Tank in San Jose. They loved it.
85. I've gone to few concerts in my life: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (3 times), the Kinks, Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan, Mary Chapin Carpenter (4), Paul McCartney (2). Holly Near (3), Simon and Garfunkel with the Everly Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, John Gorka, Richard Marx, Little Joe (TexMex), and Patti Larkin
86. I love sending my wife flowers, just because I love her, not because I am in trouble. Though I get my brother in law in trouble because he never sends flowers to my sister
87. I miss Calvin and Hobbes, though my son James does remind me of him and James isn't three yet.
88. I loved the movie Love Actually which I think is a good movie for Christmas
89. I am not a neat freak like Felix Unger, but I do like clean
90. I like different speaking accents. My ear can pick up the rhythm and soon I am using the same accent when I talk
91. I thought Kathryn Janeway was a hottest captain in Star Trek, though Seven of Nine was hot too
92. I do have a temper. As much as I try to control it, it does spill out, especially when I have to repeat myself
93. I have no tattoos
94. My best man at my wedding was a woman. I didn't trust any of my men friends
95. My wife's and my fathers passed away five months apart. So they never saw us get married and have our kids, save in spirit
96. I had one brother who was stillborn. I wrote a poem about him nearly forty years later
97. The scary movie I ever saw was Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte with Bette Davis. I was seven or eight. I slept with the lights on for over a week.
98. I used to want to be Kenny Stabler, quarterback my beloved Oakland Raiders, but he was left handed, so I learned to throw a football left handed
99. I need to shower every day. I just do
100. I am a procrastinator, especially when I have to make serious decisions
101. My wife taught me how to crunch leaves