For the past few months (starting January 5), I've been slowly posting the 100 Facts About Me, 10 Facts at a time and with a few lies thrown in for fun. Interestingly, nobody ever correctly guessed which of the made-up facts were lies. The lie from last week was number 10. I have never gone to a psychic.
The following is the complete list of the 100 facts about me. They are all true. The last 10 (#91-100) are new to the blog. In the future, I will expand on the story behind some of these facts.
1. I was born in New Jersey. (I moved to Maryland as a baby.)
2. My father died when I was 1 year old in a skydiving accident (where he drowned).
3. I've run 3 marathons (so far).
4. I can name all 50 States in alphabetical order in less than 30 seconds. See the video
here.
5. I killed a deer with a bow and arrow (mostly the arrow).
6. I was a vegetarian for several years (and I am again since February 1).
7. I successfully performed the Heimlich Maneuver on my dog.
8. I've worked for the Government for more than 24 years in five different jobs.
9. I've been interviewed on live TV as a Government agency spokesperson.
10. Because I'm deathly afraid of public speaking, I took my present Government job to avoid having to do live TV interviews.
11. A mouse ran up the inside of my pants.
12. I have swallowed Clorox bleach.
13. I had to go to the emergency room once after a run-in with a rooster.
14. I've had plastic surgery.
15. As a child, I played with matches and set a forest on fire.
16. I can juggle.
17. Shane moved in with me, moving from Connecticut to the DC area, less than 4 months after our first date.
18. My best friend in high school got amnesia and didn't know me.
19. At one time, I knew all the words to both Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar.
20. I have never smoked marijuana.
21. When I was a supervisor at a previous job, I had one of my employees arrested after I discovered he was exposing himself to little girls.
22. I have been diagnosed with a heart murmur.
23. As a child, I underwent a medical procedure several times that used radium-tipped rods -- the size of knitting needles -- stuck up my nostrils, which were supposed to shrink my adenoids.
24. My neighbor Kirby and I caused my sister's arm to get broken.
25. I am a certified SCUBA diver and have seen sharks in open water while diving.
26. I have shaken the hands of both President Clinton and Vice President Gore
27. I sang tenor in my church choir.
28. I have walked on the Great Wall of China.
29. I've been a member of both a volleyball league and a bowling league.
30. I am a Community College graduate.
31. I've had pet gerbils.
32. I took tap dancing lessons, and danced in front of hundreds of people.
33. I've written a country music song.
34. Shane and I own about 5 acres of land in Maine, where we plan to eventually build a house and retire.
35. I have skied at ski resorts in Maine, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and New Mexico.
36. The first real concert I ever saw was REO Speedwagon, and I had won the tickets from a radio station. Survivor was the opening act.
37. I ran my first marathon in 1998 to raise money for AIDS charities and received just under $4,000 in contributions.
38. I did an internship during my last semester in college with the
Baltimore News American and I wrote two front-page stories. The paper went out of business shortly thereafter.
39. I helped digitize maps used in the first Gulf War.
40. I buried a man in a cemetery while his young son watched.
41. I played the trombone in my elementary school band.
42. I was in my high school senior class play about a train wreck (that was indeed a train wreck).
43. I got a C in Chorus class in high school because, according to my teacher, my voice was changing.
44. On the night of my senior prom, I had a job babysitting.
45. I was very disappointed with the x-ray glasses I sent away for from the back of a comic book.
46. I was not aware of the concept of homosexuality until I was 11 when I saw a TV news story on the subject, which I thought was hilarious.
47. I've taught classes at my church's vacation bible school.
48. I had to go to the emergency room once with what I thought a an appendicitis attack, but it turned out to be kidney stones.
49. I'm a grocery checker school graduate.
50. I lettered in tennis at college.
51. My little finger on my right hand is shorter than my other pinky, and it has hair growing on the palm side (feel free to throw up).
52. I met Shane online.
53. I had the mumps.
54. I've sold seeds door-to-door.
55. I have college credit in Bowling.
56. A former babysitter of mine got a bit of a crush on me when I became of age, but while I was still living at home with my mother. She threw pebbles at my bedroom window so I'd meet her in the backyard late one night. It didn't really work out for her.
57. Shane and I have traveled to the Union of Myanmar (Burma).
58. While in elementary school, I had to go to a speech therapist to help correct my lisp.
59. I've taught a class in candlemaking.
60. I bite my nails.
61. My favorite ice cream flavor is Baskin-Robbins German Chocolate Cake.
62. I once owned a dark green Mazda Miata. Someone crashed into the back of it one day when I was stopped.
63. At one time, I had more than $14,000 in credit card debt. I now pay off my full balance each month.
64. I currently do not own a car. Our Honda CRV is owned by Shane.
65. At work, I have an interior office with no windows. However, I do have a TV.
66. I once stabbed myself in the leg with a hunting arrow.
67. I'm currently 20 years older than the age my father lived to be.
68. I used to have two cats -- one named Lucy and and the other named Ethel.
69. The first major I declared in college was Accounting.
70. I was in the 4-H. My projects included photography and dog obedience.
71. My best friend in school from the 7th through the 9th grade moved away and I have never seen him or had contact with him since.
72. I get 208 hours of vacation time each year -- about 5 weeks and 1 day -- and I get every other Friday off (because I work 9 hour days).
73. When I talk to someone I don't know on the phone, they often assume I'm a woman.
74. I have been complimented on my blue eyes.
75. I once stood in line to get the autograph of Grandpa Jones, star of TV's Hee Haw.
76. Our rowhouse in DC is more than 100 years old. It was built in 1905.
77. The first show I ever saw on Broadway was
The Magic Show, which featured the magic of Doug Henning and was written by Stephen Schwartz, who later wrote
Wicked, which I also saw
.78. The last show I saw on Broadway, as of this date, was a play called
August: Osage County.
79. My minimum retirement age is 56, which means I can retire from my job and draw a pension starting August 3, 2017 -- in less than 8 years and 6 months.
80. I have dated someone from Africa.
81. I received many severe sunburns as a child.
82. As a child, my brother had to take me inside the house when we were camping in our backyard because I was upset that the moon was falling.
83. I sold rocks door to door.
84. I once gave my mother the following hint about a gift all her children, including me, had gone together to buy her: "You cook toast in it."
85. I have gone white water rafting on class 5 rapids in West Virginia.
86. I did not fly on a commercial airline until after I graduated from college and had to go on a business trip while working for the Government.
87. As of this date, I have been to 30 States, though Shane doesn't think I should count Texas since I was only at the airport. I think if you went to the bathroom in a State, it should count.
88. Shane's and my first date was at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
89. My best time on BrainTuner is 13.0069 seconds. It is a game on the iPhone that the object is to indicate whether 20 math equations are true or false. My goal in life now is to get a time under 13 seconds.
90. I've worked in construction, building houses and putting shingles on roofs. I helped build the house my brother lives in.
91. I have triplet nieces. Shane and I took them (and their mother who is my sister) to London, Paris, and Amsterdam for the triplets' high school graduation present. They are currently attending their first year of college.
92. I am quite pee shy. I have to do math problems in my head to urinate in a public restroom when others are around.
93. I love Shane, even though he does not read my blog.
94. Since the day I met Shane, I have been monogomous.
95. I took piano lessons for several years as a teenager. We now own a player piano.
96. I was closeted until I was 34 years old. I came out to my mother by handing her a letter and watching her read it. She said she was surprised, but wanted me to be happy.
97. I have been to a nude beach.
98. On July 20, 1969, I got into trouble just prior to the televised broadcast of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. I was sent to my room and didn't get to watch it.
99. I have secrets that I'm not telling here.
100. Though there was a time I never thought it was going to be possible, I'm happy with my life.
"And when the fish realizes it isn't an actual worm,
Before Sean Penn won an Academy Award portraying Harvey Milk in the film Milk, the 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk won an Academy Award for Best Documentary. I'm a little behind on my Netflix queue, but today Shane and I finally got around to watching that documentary, which had been sitting around the house for a couple weeks. Since the new film, Milk, was just released this past week, my plan was to first watch the documentary and then send it back and get the Sean Penn version on Blu-Ray. We haven't seen the new film yet, but we are very anxious to see it after watching the documentary. It was quite well done.
As you might recall from a previous post, I recently bought myself a brand new iPod Shuffle. It is a pretty, blue one. Naturally, within days, Apple launched a brand new Shuffle that has four times the memory (up to 1,000 songs) and is half the size. Oh, yes, and of course this Shuffle talks. It announces the names of the songs and the playlist. And another thing, you can have multiple playlists. I'm not buying the new Shuffle until I lose my new, blue Shuffle or accidentally wash it in the washer. They are going to have to wait a few more days to get more of my money. Apple can bite it.
Unless that is a very small key, I don't think this Shuffle is half the size of the old style Shuffle. How do they get a key to stand up like that anyway?
Shane and I went to my Mom's this past weekend and had a nice visit. We noticed a new addition to her guest bedroom, which used to be my bedroom. She bought this lamp at a yardsale at her brother's house. She was astonished to discover my Uncle Jack was selling this lamp that was made from the first deer he killed. I love my Mom dearly, but this is gross.
Unless you're selling chalk, we don't need any.
This week's Washington Post Style Invitational is based on Craig Damrauer's Web site http://morenewmath.com/, which is a compilation of thoughts expressed in the form of a mathematical equation, as in the ones by Craig in Bob Staake's cartoon. 
From the Washington Blade:
Photo: Jim Wilson/The New York Times -- taken outside of the Prop 8 hearing held on Thursday.
