25 things about me...

(originally written January 2009)

Right. This should be interesting.

1. The only bone I've ever broken is my skull, which is simultaneously cool and lame.

2. I've been in an ambulance 3 times, and puked blood over the EMTs in 2 of those.

3. When I was a kid I would sing Petra songs in bed at night in falsetto while my brother kept time with his "tummy drummies."

4. I absolutely love treehouses, and have built a couple huge ones.

5. I engage in extended periods of intently thinking about something when suddenly I find myself pulling into my driveway. I don't remember making any of the turns, seeing any speed limit signs, etc. This can't be good.

6. I enjoy Bond films in a way that's not normal. It's almost geekish.

7. Since the first time I heard a renaissance choral piece, I've been hooked. It consistently gets to me like nothing else.

8. "Have yourself a merry little Christmas" is my favorite Christmas song...ironically it always strikes me as bittersweet and meloncholy. Maybe it captures the essence of Christmas for me- joy laced with longing for the way things should be.

9. In high school youth group there were battles on every retreat between the guys and the male leaders. I was introduced to atomic wedgies at a young age, and still have the tags from some of the guys I nailed.

10. I have a pipe I got in this little smoke shop in Castle hill, Prague. The owner looked like Grizzly Adams and smelled like wonderful. I asked him which pipe I should buy, and he said in a deep, thickly accented growl, "For you? Heh heh heh." He pointed to my pipe and I paid the obscene price without regret.

11. I've gotten halfway through this little note on two occasions only to have my computer erase it.

12. I hate double standards, esp. in the media, who stopped even trying to pretend to be objective a long time ago.

13. When I was a kid, I literally had a fleet of tonka trucks and a sandpile that got replenished every year by a dump truck. My pulse still picks up when I see heavy equipment in operation.

14. I've been plowing for three years now and keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, when I'll hate it like all the other plow drivers I talk to. I still love it though.

15. Very few things strike me as laugh out loud funny. However, I know if I give my friend Jon 5 minutes I will literally be crying. He's the only person in my life who can do that whenever he wants to. I'm blessed because I know we'd be friends even if he weren't funny...although that is hard to imagine...

16. I told Jen 3 weeks into dating her we should just skip the hassle of the next few years and just get married now. I heard the air whoosh out of her lungs in a shocked kind of chuckle, but we both knew we were the ones.

17. At our new shop the techs from New Meadows work on big trucks with a totally different set of tools than I have, and I feel like a kid in a candy store, just wanting to watch.

18. I grew up in Maine and have never been skiing. Not really sure why.

19. My idea of heaven on earth is two leather chairs, a walk in humidor, and a bottle of Taylor Fladgate 30 year tawny port with Sam. I have luckily been able to experience this once already.

20. My mom used to hide under my bed and scare the crap out of me. Ask her about this and she'll lie.

21. My whole life I wanted a dog who would sleep on my bed and lay at my feet and just be my bud. I didn't get this 'till I was in college. Unfortunately he's now a 100 pound eight year old chocolate lab who still gets into my lap when I go home. He's so lovable, I can't tell him no...

22. I still get excited at the thought of sleepovers, even though they don't really work anymore. I need to grow up.

23. When I was a kid I had an accident because this girl my mom was babysitting took forever in the bathroom. I informed her after the fact that she had taken longer than a dumptruck takes to unload. This was honestly the longest period of time I could contextualize in my 6 year old brain. I didn't understand why my mom kept laughing so hard.

24. I remember the day my freshman year of high school when I knew God was calling me to the pastorate. That sense of certainty has never waned, though my path to this point has been somewhat unorthodox...

25. There was an episode of Top Gear where they were flogging a ridiculously gorgeous exotic around a track, talking in their amazing accents over the roar of the exhaust while a British men's choir sang Renaissance music in the background. I cry like twice a year, but this year there will have been 3.