50 things you don't know about me....Ben's version

Ok.  I feel totally lame for doing this, but some of my sisters have been doing this and I just felt compelled.  Plus, I am totally worth getting to know on a deeper level.  

1.  I am the 6th of 10 kids.  Crazy right?  Who does that?  My mom is a saint...I wonder if a Mormon can be up for Catholic sainthood?  Sometimes I am embarassed to say how many kids are in my family, but it was way fun growing up and I would be really sad without any of them.

2.  I kind of like my little manblogging time.  I know, it's a chick thing to do, but every now and then my funny bone itches and this is how I scratch it.  

3.  I like swimming.  I have been obsessed with it lately.  Michelle is a swimmer so we have been battling winter and fatness by going to swim laps at our gym.  I suck, Michelle is a fish.  I swear I work twice as hard to swim half as fast.

4.  I drink about a half gallon of water per lap.  I can't seem to breathe without taking a giant gulp of the urine/chlorine water.  How do I know it is urine water?  I, for one, pee in the pool the instant I jump in.  Doesn't matter how many times I go pee before I jump in, it still happens.

5.  I failed polywogs when I was a little kid.  Twice I think.  I must have repressed the memory.  Regardless, I don't feel like I was ever taught how to swim correctly.  My confidence has never recovered...Imagine what I could have been!  (Side note for the uninformed: polywogs was the beginners class for 4 yr olds, all you did was stick your face in the water and splash)

6.  I have always hated going to bed.  It seems like all of the fun happens late at night.  My dad used to threaten to beat me if I didn't go back to bed.  I ran downstairs scared, but not too scared to creep back up the stairs so I could listen to the grown-ups talk.  I still don't like going to bed...rarely happens before midnight.

7.  Speaking of...I snuck out a lot in high school.  Sorry padres.  Having double doors downstairs may not have been the best idea.  My friends used to drop me off before midnight, I would check in with my parents - tired as zombies - then go straight downstairs and back out the door.  Never got caught.  We never did anything bad though...played Nintendo 64, went to Denny's at 2 am, all the usual stuff.

8.  Never been pulled over (knock on wood).  I think I told my parents that I had when I was late a few times, but I think they saw through that.

9.  I never remember being in trouble or fighting with my parents much.  Except for one time I must've gotten in a fight with my dad because I asked Dave Gilbert if I could stay at his house in case I ran away.  Never happened.

10.  I have fun doing the dumbest stuff.  Last Christmas we got the hairbrained idea to pull each other on the kneeboard behind the four wheelers.  Stupid, but fun.  A couple of dentists doing this kind of mularky? (I'm really only a dentist in the loosest sense of the word, I really consider myself a student).  I think it is becoming a Christmas tradition now.  Did I mention that we dress like idiots while we do it?  Words don't do justice...

11.  I almost joined a fraternity my freshman year of college.  That's right, the Pi Kappa Alpha's.  I don't know why, they were probably all losers, but a couple of them were actually cool and pretty nice.

12.  I had a potty mouth on the soccer field in high school.  I don't know why.  I even used to say the mother of all swear words, F-dash-dash-dash.  Now this word makes my ears cringe.  I honestly think it hurts my soul.

13.  I am shocked at the amount of spelling and grammatical errors found in blog entries.  We all have errant keystrokes now and again, but c'mon people!  Most common errors: of coarse, there/their,  and to/too/two.  All of you that have any grasp of the english language are nodding your collective heads right now.

14.  I just became very self-conscious.

15.  That reminds me, I had the worst teeth growing up.  You should have seen those puppies.  I mean bad, as in not good.  I was always self-conscious about my teeth and still am.  I think they are pretty straight and what not, but I still don't like other dental people looking at them because I am afraid they will think they are bad. 

16.  My little sister Jill beat me in the spelling bee.  I was in 6th grade, she was in 4th.  She won it all.  I got a lot of garbage from the kids in my class after that.  I'm not sure why, she did beat all of them too after all.  I think Dan Quayle was judging.

17.  I didn't kiss a girl until I was 17.  Loser huh.  It's OK, I made up for it big time.  No girl was safe around me.

18.  My older sister Kim shoots better free throws than I do.  At least she used to.  She was some kind of uber-champ in junior high.  Won a competition in Brigham, won in Vegas, went to Indiana because she was so good.  I'm not sure what happened there.  I'm pretty sure I would kick her butt now though.

19.  I played in a big soccer tournament near San Francisco when I was 14.  My team made it to the championship, but the game was on Sunday.  I decided not to play and we left for home Saturday night.  I didn't want to let my mom down.  I know it was the right thing to do, but I have wished many times that I could have been there and played when we won it all.  I have passed on other Sunday championships since then.  If I missed the big one, I might as well miss them all. 

20.  I pick zits.  There.  It's out.  Some people struggle with alcoholism, gambling, drugs, whatever.  I pick zits.  I see a zit and I just want to pop it.  Sometimes I secretely wish for one on my back so I can pop it.  I know, it's gross.  Maybe I should have been a dermatologist.

21.  My oldest sister Melissa thinks she knocked me out once.  She was mad because I wouldn't put the dishes away or something, but I was determined not to so I bolted for the door. I underestimated her speed and she opened the door on my head.  It hit me and I hit the floor, but I wasn't knocked out.  I laid there motionless until she finally left me alone.  She still thinks she knocked me out, but I can assure you that this was not so.  Plus, I never did put those dishes away.  Hooray for hard-headedness! (get it- that's a play on words...I was stubborn AND never got knocked out...anyways) 

22.  I drive past what I think is a sewage plant on my way to and from school every morning.  Sometimes I think it smells like food.  Maybe that's because as a kid when I would ask my mom what was for dinner she would always say "Poop!"

23.  I hate the number 23 and I hate Michael Jordan's smug face.  He cheated my Jazz out of a championship.  He cheated on his wife too so it just proves he's a cheater. (admittedly a little harsh)

24.  I am becoming a recycling junkie.  I will dig things out of the garbage can so I can recycle them.  I am always getting after Michelle for throwing things away that can be recycled.  

25.  I am a huge Buckeye fan.  However, if you know me at all this is not necessarily news.

26.  I thought I had never punched anybody in the face before.  Recently my little brother Adam recounted an incident wherein his face felt the fury of my fists.  Sorry dude.  I guess I must have gone Mr. Hyde on him and just didn't remember it.

27.  I've never driven a monster truck.  It's sad, but true.

28.  I can't believe I'm 28...I feel young (maybe because I'm still in school), but this number is starting to seem old.

29.  More depressed that I'm staring 29 down the barrell.

30.  If I don't start putting in more junk this may turn out to be the longest post in history.

31.  I played little league football for only one year.  I was the center.  If you knew me as a kid you would know that this made no sense.  I was scrawny and fast.  But hey, coaches' kids always play the skill positions.

32.  Here's another good one...I wrestled varsity as a freshman in high school and lettered.  That's right. 5'2", 106 lbs. and a couple of years short of puberty.  My singlet was actually loose.  I got dominated like none other.  I think the older guys probably had side bets on how many seconds before I got pinned.  45 seconds probably would have been a pretty safe bet.  Lots of tears.  

33.  I once asked AJ Hawk to sign my T-shirt on the field after a game with my brother Josh.  Too bad I didn't have a pen.  There is a really funny story that goes along with it.  Wait, few of you bloggers will know who AJ Hawk is...never mind.

34.  My Mom has been a piano teacher forever but I never learned to play very well.  She always looks at my big hands and spindly fingers and gets sad about that.  Sorry Mom.

35.  Speaking of long and spindly, my toes are like a normal person's fingers.  Maybe that is why I wear size 13 shoes.  I should be way taller than I am for having feet that big.  I've always had big feet.

36.  My first soccer cleats were red.  That's right, big huge red Ronald McDonald looking cleats on a little kid.  I looked like a total clown.  I got teased.  A lot. 

37.  I used to love watching my little brothers (twins) fight when they were younger.  We used to rile them up like pit bulls and put them in the ring.  That's what you get for free babysitting Mom and Dad.

38.  I really dislike a lot of the crap on TV.  We flipped through and saw 'Are you smarter than a 5th grader?' the other day.  A nurse, who had a 3.6 gpa in college, could not spell "kindergarten".  Please pray for me if I ever go to the hospital.  

39.  I trim my armpit hair VERY short.  Borderline shave it.  Unmanly?  Perhaps.  But I never worry about sweaty pits.  All men should consider this.

40.  I love it when somebody says something racist but insists that they are not because they have black friends.  This sounds soooo dumb.  

41.  I have fun playing Dance Dance Revolution.  I think I've got decent feet and excellent rhythm.  Better rhythm than feet.

42.  I am awesome at remembering lines from funny movies.  Say one near me and I usually call out the movie.  If I don't know it, the movie wasn't that funny.

43.  I have the best wife in the world.  She is beautiful and loving and works her butt off so we can live.  She deserves more.  I wish she could win the lottery or something.  At least her husband is gorgeous.

44.  I also have the best dog in the world.  Perfectly behaved, VERY patient with kids, NEVER barks.  The only thing that could be better is if he let himself out and picked up his own doo-doo.

45.  I am really wanting a king-sized bed.  I am always being pushed off of the bed because Michelle starts out on my side and keeps pushing me.  Not sure how a bigger bed would fix this now that I think about it.

46.  I love 'Arrested Development'.  Funniest TV show of all time.

47.  I can sing the tune to nearly any classical arrangement.  Don't know the name or the composer, just the tune.  That's from listening to piano all day long growing up.

48.  I love watching football.  Mostly college.  Again, not earth shattering news if you know anything about me.

49.  I have never had stitches from an accident (knock on wood).  I did however open the van door into my brother Adam's head once.  He got stitches and we never made it to the rodeo that day.  I was quite unpopular for awhile.

50.  Growing up if somebody did something bad and wouldn't fess up my Dad would threaten to spank us all until somebody confessed.  I never confessed.  I was not against tattling though if it would keep me from getting spanked.

OK.  This is supposed to go to 100 but I don't have the stamina to go to 100 right now so you'll have to settle for 50.  Perhaps after some rest I can post another 50.

Ben