100 Things

Amy did this on her blog, after her sister wrote this somewhere, maybe on a blog also, I don't know, but I'm following suit. I guess I've just been thinking about what 100 things I would put since she mentioned it, and I haven't been blogging so much lately, so here goes:

1. I was born in Mission Viejo, CA. Lived in Orange County my entire life up until I left for college. Most of that time was spent in Irvine.
2. I am the younger of 2 kids. My brother is 8 years older than I am.
3. I am the first person in my family born in the United States. On both sides of my family actually. I only just not realized that. That includes extended family going both directions.
4. I played soccer growing up, and would play it everyday of my life if I could. I don't know if there is anything else in this whole world that gives me as much joy.
5. I am halfway through my graduate program in applied social psychology.
6. I had a cat all growing up, but I think I'm more of a dog person.
7. I like collecting things. I collected a lot of baseball cards as a kid, and a couple years ago my mom sold my best baseball cards in a garage sale. The guy paid maybe $10 for probably a couple thousand dollars worth of cards. Fortunately, I still have all my comic books. There are lots of those too.
8. I want a beach house when I'm older.
   
9. I joined the church of the Mormons when I was 17.
10. I served a mission in Santiago, Chile.
11. My favorite toys as a child were my GI Joe. I had a whole army of them.
12. My best friend as a kid was Justin McFerran. Now my best friend is Dave. We've been friends for the last 17 years. Wow.
13. I received my bachelor's degree in psychology from BYU in 2005. Except for about a month soon after coming back from my mission, I never deviated from that path.
14. I was painfully shy as a kid.
15. My favorite sports teams are the Angels, Lakers, and Raiders. I'm a home town fan, but my favorite to follow has always been the Raiders, but it's been the most difficult seeing that they've been the worst team in the NFL over the last 7 years. At least no one can say I'm a bandwagon fan.
16. I was arrested on 5 counts of strong-armed robbery when I was 13.
    
17. I have run 2 marathons.
18. My first crush was when I was kindergarden (well, as much as you can have one as a 5-year old) on Jenny Dale. She had these big coke bottle glasses, and no one else had glasses as a kid, and I loved her for it.
19. I played the saxophone for one year as a kid, and for several years also played the organ.
20. I learned how to ski when I was 5.
    
21. I am a yellow belt in karate, so watch out. Combine my technical fighting skills and my previous history as a felon, and I am suddenly a very dangerous man.
    
22. I definitely prefer chocolate over any other kind of sweets.
    
23. I am much more verbal than I am visual. Just ask me to describe a picture for you and then have me draw one, if you want proof.
24. My first car was a Chevy Blazer.
    
25. I got my first ticket my first night driving in Provo down center street, and Dave and I had all of our stuff in the back of that Blazer, and a cop cited me from going 30 mph down Center street.
26. My favorite book is Treason, by Orson Scott Card. He is also my favorite author.
27. On September 11, 2001, my friend Chris Cornwell called and woke me up in the morning to tell me that two planes had hit the WTC towers. I was taking a nap after my early morning shift as a janitor in the JKHB.
28. My first job was helping out at the tent sale at Chick's Sporting Goods.
29. When I was too young to be alone, my mom used to take me with her to work, and then I would go watch movies alone at the theater in her shopping center.
30. My favorite TV show is Scrubs - Scrubs saw me through my worst breakup.
    
31. My favorite superhero as a kid was Captain America.
    
32. I am maybe the best pen pal you could ever have. When my brother went to boot camp for the Marines when I was 12, I wrote to him multiple times a week. When my friend Chris moved to South Carolina was I was 15, I wrote him monthly for the next three years until we met back up as freshman at BYU. I write missionaries very regularly. My missionary children will never suffer from want of correspondence from me. I just miss people a lot, I guess.
33. My favorite vacation as a kid was going to Cancun. I think that was our last one as a family too. I got offered alcohol at a restaurant bar and I went scuba diving. I loved it.
34. I failed my driver's license test two or three times. I was just too nervous.
35. I love going to concerts. My favorite have always been punk shows.
36. I want to go to Jerusalem more than anywhere in the world, but I think I want the BYU Jerusalem Center study abroad experience, so I don't know if I'll go anytime soon. I'll take anywhere in Europe or Brazil for now.
37. Because I served my mission in Chile, I'm fluent in Spanish, but I'm always surprised when I hear the language or start speaking it that I still understand it.
38. I don't have any allergies.
39. A car ran over my leg was I was about 4 years old.
40. I have had three bikes stolen from me, and it was always a devastating experience. Really, having anything stolen from you is a very violating kind of experience.
41. My greatest fear these days is of not measuring up.
42. I want to learn to play the piano, and then the guitar.
43. I want to take a hip hop dance class.
44. I hated vegetables as a kid, up until I came back from my mission. Now I eat just about anything.
45. I really like art in all its varieties. I love poetry, but I love painting and sculpture and photography and just about anything else you can name.
46. Just about everything about who I am now can be traced back to my brother until I was about 14, and then my friends.
47. Blue used to be my favorite color. Now I don't really have one, I just like anything that can be described as vivid or brilliant.
48. I have very strong tooth enamel. Whenever I go to the dentist, the dentist always comments on it.
49. To my knowledge, I have never spent a night in a hospital. The only bone I've ever broken was a small one in my wrist while playing soccer.
50. I was handball champion at my grade school the last two years I was there.
51. I received the first ever "Principal's Award" at my grade school that they continue giving to this day (I think) for doing a good deed. I got it for making sure that all this athletic equipment that had been left outside after hours got returned to the school.
52. 4th of July is basically summer Christmas to me and my friends. It's my favorite holiday, apart from actual Christmas.
53. Since it's not really a holiday, Halloween is my favorite non-holiday day. I absolutely love the entire month of October. I love the scary stuff and candy and everything associated with it. Incidentally...
54. I love costumes and dressing up. I feel like I've been acquiring this love the last several years, because I haven't always been this way. But my favorite thing about dressing up is finding some way to involve makeup. I just love it.
    
55. I was a ninja for six years in a row as a kid for Halloween.
56. I am very conservative in my Politics. You can pretty much go down the list of every political topic and assume that I'm right of center on everything. And I feel like I'm pretty informed about everything too, so I pretty much assume that I'm always right about stuff.
    
57. I can sleep in just about any environment. I have fallen asleep at a concert before.
58. I love airports. I have always had good experiences traveling, so airports are only associated with vacations and going somewhere fun for me.
59. My mom used to make her own variety of German chocolate cake when I was kid, and I always wanted that as my birthday cake. Nothing I loved more.
60. I am very good at remembering details about people.
61. I wish I could watch every comedic movie with Dave, Greg, and Mike. There is no one in the whole world that I laugh with more.
62. My favorite bands are Strung Out and Unwritten Law.
63. I LOVED ghost stories as a kid. For about three years, I made my mom either buy me every book of ghost stories that I could find, or take me to the library so I could check out more. I would read them alone in a darkened room by myself.
64. If I could meet any deceased not-associated with any religion person, it would have to be Ronald Reagan.
65. If I could live during any time period, it would probably be during the Renaissance. I wouldn't have to experience the ravages of time and aging, but I could fight with swords. I loved chivalry as a kid. I was a little bit of a weird kid.
66. I have a bit of an addictive personality. I get very involved with the things that I enjoy.
67. My favorite baseball player as a kid was David Justice. My first autographs were from Bob Boone and Dick Schofield, both Angels. I got those at my first baseball card show.
68. I really, really, really want to go to Comic Con, but that desire also started way before it was cool to go, and only geeks went. I still could spend hours in a comic book store.
    
69. My favorite painting ever might be Starry Night Over the Rhone by Van Gogh. The way he does texture is perfect for painting water, but whenever I see lights shining over water, I always think of that painting. It reminds of walking any pier by the beach at night.
    
70. I am a strong believer in everyone having to go through some kind of major breakup before getting married. Dating experience gives a lot of depth to a person, I believe.
71. If there are three things I could teach my children, it would be to love the Lord and his gospel, to love reading, and to just be active.
    
72. I have some regrets about things in my past, but I think that's okay. I think it just means that I've made mistakes, and I know better now. It doesn't mean my life is dictated by those wrongs, you know?
73. I love Home Depot. I hope that someday I can do a major overhaul of some part of my own home. Maybe not the whole thing, but at least a few rooms. I'd love to do a kitchen, if only because it's so much more complicated than any other part of the house. Bedrooms are easy, but doing appliances and plumbing and cabinetry, etc. is quite a feat.
74. My favorite job was as a residential appraiser working with all of my friends. Not only was it so much fun, but it was cool to see different houses, travel all over southern California, and actually enjoy what I was doing. Doing home refinishing stuff with Greg was also really fun too.
75. I have never attended a funeral before.
76. I would wear a t-shirt, with shorts and sandals every day of my life if I could.
77. If I were to redirect my professional career, I would either go to law school so I could work with Dave, or I would be a physical therapist. I think I could realistically do either of those. Not so realistically, I would love love love to be a writer. I don't think I'll ever make a sustainable living with writing, but I am almost certain I will write a book some day. And I think that will happen in the next several years.
    
78. As it turns out, I really like singing. I love karaoke type games.
79. I think I take after my mom more than my dad.
80. My favorite sports moments - Bo Jackson killing the Bengals in the AFC Divisional Playoff in the early 90s, Robert Horry hitting the 3-pointer to beat the Kings, and the Angels scoring 8 runs in one inning in the series clinching game, then Adam Kennedy hitting three home runs in one game against the Twins, and then being at Pizza Factory when Scott Spiezio hit the three-run home run that changed Game 6, and realizing we had to rush home to see their fortunes completely swing back for the Angels.
81. Dave and I would play Spanish Hit Man in junior high and talk about girls.
82. Rachel Collins was my first kiss, and first girlfriend.
83. My first time golfing was when I was about 24 at my friend's bachelor party. I used to hate it. Now I love it.
    
84. I wanted to play football in high school, but my mom and brother wouldn't let me because they thought it would detract from soccer.
85. I want 4-6 kids. Preferably on the higher end of that.
86. I really want to learn how to cook and to sew. I'm getting pretty good at grilling. I think I was meant to be a stay-at-home dad.
87. I really, really hope that I live next door to Dave and his family someday. We'll knock down the wall between our backyards and make a soccer field, and we'll coach our kids teams together.
88. I have never been fired from a job, but I really want to quit a job in a really dramatic and abrupt fashion one day.
89. I think the first CD I ever bought was Pennywise's self-titled album. The first tape I ever bought might have been a Paula Abdul album. Quite the contrast.
90. The best days of my life are all church associated - the day I received my endowment, my first night in my second area of the mission and committing a woman to baptism, and the last day of my mission. There's nothing like the sudden influx of enormous amounts of the spirit. I've had great days since, but those were so grandiose in one way or another. Now everything is much more subtle. I'm sure there will be more though.
91. I love shopping. I love clothes and I can be dangerous with a credit card.
92. I love soda. Like, really love it. Vanilla Coke is favorite.
93. I much prefer the satisfaction that comes from eating when I've been starving over getting sleep when I've been extremely sleep deprived. I don't feel like I ever really get good sleep or like I get caught up at all after finally getting to sleep again, but the first meal within the first bite eating when I've been really hungry is instantaneously satisfying.
94. I watch just about every sport. I watched the majority of the World Cup games, and I'll watch everything that I can when it comes to the Olympics. I am way more in favor of the Summer Olympics v. the Winter ones. Amy is the opposite, and I think she's crazy for it.
95. I would love to do MMA training as my form of working out, but I don't have the money to afford that.
96. I used to be deathly afraid of public speaking, but now I feel like it's actually a strength of mine. I have no fear or nervousness anymore when it comes to public speaking.
97. I like taking long showers. It's where I get my best thinking done.
98. I want to have a monkey as a pet someday. I would dress him up in a sailor suit, or get him a train conductor's outfit. Or a suit of armor.
99. I don't think I want my formal education to end after BYU.
100. I have seen many R-rated movies in my day, but only two in the last year - Zombieland and Shutter Island. I really enjoyed both. I won't ban them for the rest of my life, but I'll keep them extremely limited. I feel like that's good enough for me.