Facts

30 Facts about Me.

To  make this a little more challenging I chose to stick to just demonstrable facts. There are no favorites, no likes or dislikes on this list, at least in the initial statement.  The commentary afterwards may contain some opinions.

1. My middle name is Raulins.

2. I weigh 139.6 lbs.  This is the most I've ever weighed in my life.

3. I have one brother and two sisters.  My younger sister, Julie, died as an infant.  She would be 36 years old if she were alive today.
4. I lived on a farm for a number of years as a child.  We did not have any livestock. My dad raised hay in his spare time while working full-time as a chemist.
5. I was born in Portland, Oregon.
6. I have gotten to know some of my cousins through Facebook
7. I have never been drunk. I don't feel like I'm missing anything.
8. I have an 8 week breakfast rotation that determines what I make for breakfast: Oatmeal with boiled eggs and grapefruit, waffles with fruit topping and omelets, croissant sandwiches, fried eggs with fake bacon and toast, cream of wheat & sausage links (fake also), breakfast burritos, cereal and sausage patties (fake again), and scrambled eggs with grits and hash browns.  Orange juice is served with sandwiches, burritos, and scrambled eggs. I will sometimes substitute pancakes for cereal on a weekend, but for the most part these are the only things I ever make for breakfast.
9. I cannot touch my nose with my tongue.

10. I have a four week color rotation with the shirts that I wear to work: There is a red week, a blue week, a green week, and a miscellaneous week (for brown, gray, black, or purplish hues).  This week was blue week. Sabbath is the most stressful day of the week when it comes to getting dressed because I never know what to wear unlike the weekdays when I don't have to think about it.

11. During Martin Luther King Jr holiday weekend, 1994, I was stuck in my grandparents house alone for three days during a huge snowstorm with extremely low temperatures. My car wouldn't start and the garage door was frozen shut.  They didn't have any reception on their TV and their were  no videos to watch.  This was in the days before widespread  internet use so all I had for entertainment was talking on the phone and reading old Readers Digests and whatever other material I could find. I often describe this is as the last time I was truly bored. And I was very bored.
12. When I was a child in Oregon we got our Christmas presents in a pillowcase placed at the foot of our bed during the night.  Much more efficient than having to wait for your parents to be ready to unwrap them from under the tree, if you ask me.
13. I once jumped out of a moving car. Thankfully, I was not hurt.  This is one of the more foolish things I've ever done.
14. I had a vegetable garden once, in 1998. I wouldn't mind having one again.
15. I flew to Japan once for the express purpose of going to a concert.  Granted, I was flying from Saipan, which is only 3.5 hours flight away.  But still. I spent all the money I had while there and if the train station hadn't taken my debit card (most places in Japan didn't) I would not have been able to get back to Narita and would have missed my flight home. I would have then been stranded in Japan.

16.  I was part of ensemble cast for a TV show that was piloted (but never went further). I portrayed a mysterious man of faith.

17. The last time I came to the point of tears was when we were considering expelling one of my students from school.
18. There are things sitting on my living room floor that have been there for almost two months (and I'm not talking about furniture).
19.  I have gone skinny dipping.  Once.
20.  I played flag football for I think one game when I was a freshman in high school.  I did not perform well and the captain, a senior named Jimmy yelled at  me a lot.  I have never been very athletic.
21.  My first car was an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme that used to belong to my grandparents. I think it was an '84 but I'm not sure.  It had great speakers which I'm sure my grandparents never put through their paces.  But I  sure did.  I remember pumping "New Sensation" by INXS in the parking lot of Lake Brantley High School during summer school chemistry and feeling like a pretty cool guy.
22. As a child,  I attempted to illustrate the entire Bible. My brother joined me in this endeavor. I don't know how far he got but I got all the way to Hagar and Ishmael. Unfortunately, I somehow lost all of the pictures I painstakingly drew and colored.
23. I once fell asleep while teaching.
24.While in the Netherlands,  I rode off on the back of the bicycle of a Dutch woman I'd met a few days before. Our evening ended in the early morning hours at a bar, when I decided to go back to the place where I was staying while she continued on to a nightclub with some friends.  I had no idea where I was, but I somehow made it back anyway.
25. I once drove over a thousand miles to see a girl. It did not end well.
26. I taught myself to swim.  I swim very inefficiently. I never put my face in the water unless I'm wearing a mask and snorkel. I used to swim for exercise several times a week in college.
27. I coached a middle school basketball team to a league championship. There were only five players on the team.  The moment when we won the championship was one of the best feelings I've ever had.
28. I have only had a room of my own for five years out of my entire life.  The two years before my brother was born and three years in college.
29.  I ran the San Francisco Marathon in 5 hours 45 minutes.  I had hoped to finish in 4 hours.  It's one of the most difficult things I've ever done. I'd like to try it again, with more consistent training because I believe I can achieve a much better time.
30.  I stole a pineapple from the Dole Pineapple Plantation in Hawaii. I'm not sure but I think that may be the only thing I've stolen.