5 Things You Didn't Know About Me

Well, Trisha decide to tag me to talk about some things people may not know about me. My list is probably more boring than hers (and others), I'm sure ...

1. I have lived in 6 different states (Michigan, Texas, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virgnia, and North Carolina) - two, on seperate occasions (Texas and West Virginia). My step-father was an insurance salesman, so we moved a lot in my youth.

2. I'm agnostic. Down to the core, my pilosophy, ideology, religion, or whatever you want to label it would probably be partly Aristotilian, partly Taoist, and partly a mixture of probably everything else. Most people are offended with other people's beliefs if they aren't the same as their own, but I always respect what other people choose as their idealogical foundation, whether it be theist, atheist, agnostic, or anything else. Some of my closest friends are Catholic and Methodist and we routinely trade barbs with one another. How much better the world would be if everyone respected others in this way.

3. I'm a college football nut. As you can imagine, I'm pretty much glued to the TV now with bowl season in full swing. When I was in my early 20's, I would bet on the games each week, and actually did pretty good. As I matured, the attraction to betting on the games faded, but not the attraction of the games themselves. So from August until the following January, you'd probably find me in front of a TV on Saturday afternoons. :-P

4. I used to have a mild form of Social Anxiety Disorder. I used to do everything imaginable to avoid social gatherings. I would pretend to be ill to avoid Christmas parties, or other business gatherings. I would become physically ill if I had to give a speech to coworkers or for a college class. I would have to be dragged by friends to go out to clubs or other social gatherings when I was single. And so on. I'm still not a raging extrovert, but I can definately say I'm a lot more social now than before. It's ironic, but diving into REI and being forced to interact with others on a near daily basis has actually been a blessing in this regard alone.

5. Okay, I actually mentioned this in a recent post, but I grew up mostly in small, unincorporated town in West Virginia. My family was poor - not poverty poor, but not too far off, either. We moved around a lot (see #1 above), but the majority of my youth was spent in this place. To fully set the scene, we also lived in a mobile home. My mother and step-father always made sure we were well cared for, though. It has definately given me a real sense of humility. In their defense, me and my siblings ALL turned out very well. I am an engineer, my older sister is a Doctor, and my other sister is an insurance agent - all of us graduated from college despite both my parents only having a high school education.