25 Things...

I don't have the FaceBook that is so popular among the kids today, but I don't think it's against the rules to use an idea from there somewhere else. Thus, allow me to present 25 Random Facts about me...

1. In the 6th grade I won an award for most books read in one year. I read 100 books during the school year. Not surprisingly, I was not good at sports in the 6th grade. I thought I was going to get a sweet prize when instead I got a piece of paper explaining that "Thomas" means twin. Suddenly I didn't feel so bad about skimming some sections of those 100 books.

2. Whenever I visit a different city, one of the things I want to do is visit the aquarium. I love going to aquariums. Not as much of a fan of zoos, though (don't ask me why, I don't have a solid reason. Could be you don't have to smell so much animal crap at the aquarium). Best aquarium was in Seattle, which had a glass tunnel into a section of the harbor. Worst? D.C. It was in the basement of a federal building; they had two crocodiles that may have been stuffed, a nurse shark that was acting as if it was drowning and goldfish. That this was in our nation's capital saddened me.

3. My father basically forced me to start using the Internet, telling me that it would change the world. I thought it was nuts. Now, as I write this I have four tabs open, email alerts set up and if I don't check my email and ESPN.com every 20 minutes I break into hives.

4. I own 55 Celtic jerseys/shooting shirts. Frankly, I'm surprised the total isn't higher. Conversely I only own 26 dress shirts. I'm surprised that total isn't lower.

5. I should dress up more, though, cause I do look great when I wear a suit. And that's not even my ego - I've been repeatedly told that. Not that it hasn't helped inflate my ego. So much so that whenever I put on a suit I think that ZZ Top's "Sharp Dressed Man" should be blaring from windows as I walk down the street.

6. Speaking of theme music, if I were ever to make it as a professional baseball player, I would want The Who's "Baba O'Reilley" to be the music that's played as I approached home plate. This decision came after many, many bar room discussions.

7. I've spent the last 3 summers of my life fixing a beach house with my father. This is despite the fact that I don't enjoy going to the beach at all.

8. My first job was working at the Norwood Library, putting the returned books back on the shelves. As someone who likes to put things in their proper place and order it was the perfect job for me. The workforce was me and 5 ladies in their 50's and I was the only one who did any work.

9. My favorite job was working for ESPN's SportsTicker, scoring baseball games. It was the opposite of the library, as it was 8 guys in their early 20's. We worked above a fish pier (during a pretty hot summer) from 9 PM - 5 AM and had blast doing it. We would go to the nearby Seaport Bar while we waited for the west coast games to end. Also we made friends with the guy behind the counter at 7-11 because that was the only place that was open in that area after 2 AM.

10. If you put a gun to my head right now, I would not be able to tell you my favorite musical act. I could narrow it down to the Top 5, but that's the best I could do you for.

11. But you know who wouldn't be in that Top 5? The Charlie Daniel's Band. Yet, for reasons I can't explain, my iPod features both "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" and the far less popular "The Devil Went Back Down to Georgia."

12. I've never tried any drugs in my life, not even pot. It's not that I'm holier-than-thou or have a giant problem with pot, I simply was never even offered it until I was 27 and that's a little old to be starting that habit. I guess I give off too much of a straight-edge vibe. Or maybe drug dealers think I'm a narc. This is especially ironic because...

13. I'm a magnet for cops; to them I give off a drug-dealer vibe. I've been just standing around when cops have rolled up on me and demanded to know where my drugs are hidden. I've also been pulled over for reasons like having a rejection sticker on my car, so that they could look in my back windows for any reason to give me a ticket (that little bitch was dying to catch me for something - too bad for her I even remembered to wear my seatbelt).

14. I'm awful when it comes to matching colors with other colors. (Do brown and purple go together? Beats the hell out of me.) Therefore, I think that different shades of the same color are just fine. Thank God I was living with a girl when I repainted my bedroom or else my walls, carpet and all my furniture would be some shade of green. My room would look like the Riddler's lair.

15. Stupid projects are essential to my existence. I need to be working on something that anyone else would find inconsequential or else I go crazy - the more the better. Currently it's updating my iTunes so that all my music has it's correct album information and getting all my VHS movies on DVD.

16. If, when I go to buy DVDs, there is a special edition of the same movie, I have to get the special edition. Doesn't matter if there is really no difference in the two, I have to get the special edition copy.

17. When I'm looking at used DVDs it bugs the hell out of me if people haven't completely removed all the plastic stickers from around the edges of the DVD. People who simply cut down the middle of the label to open the DVD and leave the rest hanging suck at life.

18. Fuck is my favorite word. Not my favorite swear word, just my favorite word. I use it like some people use the word 'um'. It also gives way to my favorite way to tell someone off: fuck you and the horse you rode in on. Since the invention of the car it doesn't work in society anymore, but I use it anyway.

19. I once broke the pinkie finger on my right hand the night before I was supposed to take the SAT 2's (I guess now they're known as SAT Subject Tests). Unfortunately I was taking the literature one, which featured a large essay writing section. My already distinctive handwriting was even worse than normal. I would have been better off drawing pictures. I still did ok, though.

20. I always did well with tests like that. For the SSAT (the test to get into private high schools) I was in the 99th percentile when it came to the English half. I was perfect in the analogies section - they were my specialty. I was to analogies what Babe Ruth was to:

A. hitting home runs.
B. eating hot dogs.
C. drinking.
D. all of the above.

(please make sure you fill in the bubble on your Scantron completely and see below for answer)

21. Despite my success on the SSAT's, they couldn't have gotten me to go to Xaverian even if they paid me. After 9 years of Catholic school I had had quite enough of no girls and uniforms.

22. I once appeared on the Rick Pitino Show when they were talking to fans about the most memorable games in Celtic's history. I still have the tape floating around here somewhere. I contend my appearance on his show was the high point of his tenure as head coach.

23. Leveling things is not my specialty. I'm always convinced that something looks level, but when I walk by it an hour later I'm amazed at just how far off I really turned out to be. Same thing goes for drawing what I think is a straight line.

24. I've never seen an episode of American Idol. I think I would give it a shot if more of the winners went on great success. Then I would feel like I'm finding a great star. So far, there have only been two with sustained careers. Thus in my eyes, it's nothing more than a giant, televised karaoke contest.

25. I hate everything I write. Hate it. It's the perfectionist in me. Within twenty minutes of finishing something, I will think of a better way to phrase it. As a result I'm rarely ever truly done with something. I have been known to re-write the emails that get sent back when someone replies to me. That's correct, I'll re-write something that someone already read and probably will never read again. I could only imagine what would go through my head if I listened to old radio shows. If you check this post again in two weeks it's entirely possible that 11-14 could be totally different answers.

Answer to #20 = D.