5 Things

Thanks, UTRider, for spreading the infection, and stupidbike for kicking it off because you were bored. My first impulse was to blow this off, but to slow my inevitable slide to grouch-hood, I'll play along.

1. I was born in the OC - Anaheim to be exact. We moved to Utah when I was 6, but my grandparents still lived there and us kids (my brother and sister and I) would go back and spend a month with them during the summer. It was great fun. We spent a LOT of time in the pool and playing pool (they had a billiard table), and catching snails. They lived a block away from Disneyland and owned a hotel. Many hotel guests would leave their unused tickets so my grandma would fill her purse with these leftover ticket books and we'd spend a day at the happiest place on earth (do I have to include a trademark to say that?). I think we drove her crazy asking for yet another E ticket, but what good memories I have of Disneyland. There used to be rolling, grassy hills and orange groves and strawberry fields in Anaheim. All gone now thanks to urban sprawl. But on a recent business trip to southern Cal, I was pleased to see some untouched hills and farmland - I guess some of the old SoCal still remains, that makes me happy.

2. When I was 16 I went to Maui to pick pineapple for 6 months. I've never worked AND played so hard in all my life. We went to the beach at least twice a week. I made a skimboard out of an old sheet of plywood and got pretty good at it. I got the darkest tan of my life. At the end we toured three other islands (Hawaii, Oahu, Kauai). I came home with a few hundred dollars, but the experience was worth the hard work.

3. I have a scar on the bridge of my nose, and every scar has a good story (I hope this one is good). I was about 8 when my friend got a boomerang for his birthday. We went down to the park to try it out. We took turns throwing it, but the stupid thing wouldn't come back. We got tired of running after it, so we got a good ways apart and threw it toward each other to save time/steps. This worked fine, but we still couldn't get it to return. I suggested to my friend that perhaps we needed to throw it harder. I think you can see this coming, just as I saw the boomerang coming right for my head at high speed. I had one of those cool, slow-motion moments where the boomerang slowed down, but for some reason I couldn't move fast enough to get out of the way. The thing nailed me right between the eyes and knocked me down. When I got up I could feel something wet on my face (blood). My friend ran over and looked terrified. I think he was sure he'd killed me. He helped me get home and my Mom drove me to the hospital where they stitched up the gash. This was a frightening and surreal experience. First, they had to inject some local anesthetic so from my point of view (my eyes) I see this shot needle coming right toward me (I don't like needles, at all!) as he pokes me a few times in a fresh, still smarting, cut. Then they come in with the needle (shaped like a J, like a fish hook) and thread and come down, poke through my skin on both sides of the cut then pull the thread through then pull it tight. I couldn't feel any pain, but I could feel the tug of the needle and thread. Still gives me the willies to think about it. It was all so cinematic, shot in the first-person perspective - and the memories are still quite vivid.

4. I had a few good friends in High School (in Spanish Fork). We did a lot of hiking, riding snowmobiles and motorcycles, playing basketball and general horsing around. One day we were down by the river lighting off fireworks. A bottle rocket was tossed up in the air, but the timing was wrong and the thing shot down to the hood of the old station wagon lighting the bag of fireworks and we all hit the dirt as bottle rockets shot everywhere. We scrubbed and scrubbed, but couldn't completely remove the stain on the hood. I think my friends, who's parents owned said station wagon, got in trouble for that, but the extent is lost in my decaying memory.

5. I was in Student Government at UVSC. The campaign was many long days of work. The other party we were up against ran a good campaign and I really had no idea who would win. It was quite a thrill to win. We got put to work right away and had the best advisors imaginable. We went on a few retreats that were incredibly fun: Rafting down the Snake River, snowmobiling in Yellowstone and visiting Washington D.C. We tried our best to be a good advocate for the students and provide some fun activities. Looking back now it seems so contrived and not really that important, but I learned a lot about working with people and that has been invaluable.

Well, that took a while, but it went easier than I thought it would. Sorry I went a bit long on each one - once I opened the memory valve it just kept coming. Now you all know me a little bit better (for better or worse).