8 things to know about me

Okay, so my good "buddy" Jeff has seen fit to "tag" me, which means if I want to play along with this particular game, I need to tell you 8 things about myself. Like Jeff, I'm unimpressed with this particular tag, because it's so open ended and as such involves a lot of thought. I've seen others that I found more entertaining, but such is life. Jeff has been warned that I will start ignoring these things if they become a trend (and he's apparently taking the same stance with the guy who tagged him). I'm uncertain whether I will tag anyone else. I'll decide after this post, or maybe even tomorrow or the next day.

So, here they are, 8 things you just HAVE to know about me.

1. I took a break from writing a a fairly comprehensive personal financial plan I want to implement for myself by and during the new year to write this post. (Okay, a fairly boring start, but it was easy and I needed something to warm up with)

2. I scored the first in-game goal in the history of organized soccer in my hometown when I was in elementary school. At least I'm pretty sure it was. I was involved in the first youth soccer program we had. I was at/in the first game that happened and we got shutout. The second game night, there was an older team and a younger team both playing, as I recall. I was on the younger team and scored our only goal of that match, and I believe the older team was shutout again. Oddly enough, that was also the ONLY goal I ever scored in a live game at any level.

3. Probably as a result to the lack of athletic prowess my previous item hints at, I was a crazy serious Bible quizzer in junior high, high school, and even my first two years of college (after that I was too old). My church won 2 denominational championships while I quizzed, and I was the top scorer at the denominational finals each of my last 3 years. The BIC isn't exactly a large denomination, so it isn't THAT impressive, but it was something that defined a good portion of my teen years.

4. I have only fractured one bone in my body (well, at least that I know about, there may have been a finger or toe that I didn't go to the doctor for and thus don't really know about), and that was my nose, and it occurred at... high school marching band practice. My first one ever, to be precise, the summer before my sophomore year. A couple of us were goofing around during the break. I made a joke about one of the guys, another guy thought I was talking about him and put me in a sleeper hold. Those things actually work in real life, and not just on pro wrestling! Unfortunately he didn't REALIZE his sleeper hold had been successful, and he let go, allowing me to fall face first onto the floor. The first thing I remember was pushing myself off the floor, seeing blood drip out of my nose, and hearing someone else say "Hey kid, you're bleeding!" Thanks, fella. But, diehard that I was, I got the bleeding stopped during the break and finished the practice, allowing my mom to freak out when she came to pick me up. My oblivious band director didn't even really know what had happened until my Dad called him the next day.

5. I was a two time National Geographic "Geography Bee" champion at my school, once of the elementary school in 5th grade, and once of the junior high in 8th. You're probably getting the picture now: I was, and probably still am, a total geek. (I too, like Jeff, was on the math team)

6. I have a wide variety of sports memorabilia from my various favorite pro and college sports teams, but my most prized piece of memorabilia is the bracket I filled in for the D-III men's soccer tournament in 2000, the first year Messiah won it all, which I was able to get signed by the entire team. 4 (and hopefully 5 after this weekend) more titles later, there's still nothing that tops that first one.

7. If I had to subsist for the rest of my life with only one kind of junk food available to me, it would the blueberry cake donut from Dunkin Donuts.

8. I have holiday candles sitting in the middle of my dining room table. Why is this noteworthy you ask? Because I haven't done any holiday decorating yet, and they are still sitting there from last year.

Okay, I'm done, and I still haven't decided whether I'm going to tag anyone or not. You can't just make such decisions rashly, you must mull them over, sleep on them, and such.

In the meantime, if anyone is really dying to be tagged, you can let me know.