Saturday, January 29, 2005
101 things
1. With a batch of fresh-out-of-the-oven, homemade chocolate chip cookies, I can be bribed to do just about anything.

2. I was born Tuesday, December 12, 1978 in Tulsa, OK.

3. Coincidentally, that was also my dad's 25th birthday.

4. In high school Spanish class, I was assigned the name "Pedro." The nickname has stuck ever since. Everywhere I've ever lived.

5. I lived in a blue house on 12th St. in Sand Springs, OK until the 9th grade.

6. My family then moved approximately one mile away where my parents still live.

7. I graduated from Charles Page High School in 1997.

8. I graduated from Oral Roberts University in 2001.

9. I received a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature with a minor in Biblical languages (Greek/Hebrew).

10. I am one of the few blessed to be employed utilizing both of these skills as an editor of Reformation-era documents.

11. I have been an Associate Editor with Ad Fontes since October 2003.

12. I am an oldest child, with a brother two-and-half years younger and a sister six years younger.

13. My brother, sister-in-law and sister are all nursing majors at Oklahoma University.

14. Me, I can't stand the sight of blood, which is why I spent my college years in the library.

15. I have bathed in the Baltic Sea.

16. I have ridden a motorcycle through the dirt roads of Kousseri, Cameroon.

17. I have stood at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe.

18. Countries I have been to: Mexico, Canada, Finland (if the Helsinki airport counts), Estonia, France, Cameroon, Chad.

19. Baseball is the only sport that captures my attention.

20. I have witnessed a future major leaguer hit for the cycle while he was in the minor leagues.

21. I have been present to see a ninth-inning, 3-2, walkoff grand slam.

22. In 2002, I purchased a partial season ticket plan for the Seattle Mariners.

23. A home run once landed two seats to my right. That's the closest I've ever come to a batted ball during a baseball game.

24. I have attended home games in Seattle, Baltimore, Colorado, Cincinnati, Texas, Kansas City, Atlanta, St. Louis, and Chicago.

25. My first concert was Steven Curtis Chapman with Susan Ashton and Out of the Grey. I was probably 14. Back when Steven Curtis had a mullet.

26. Along with a friend, I once made $50 playing dc Talk cover tunes outside the Mabee Center before and after one of their shows.

27. My most recent concert was Over the Rhine.

28. I once fell asleep at a Black Heart Procession concert. I then proceeded to miss the last Metro train out of the city which cost me a $40 cab ride.

29. The first music I remember purchasing was the soundtrack from Cocktail. Had to have that Kokomo tune.

30. The last music I purchased was From a Basement on the Hill.

31. Some of my favorite films include Magnolia, The Empire Strikes Back and The Big Lebowski.

32. My senior paper was entitled "Mythic Archetypes in Modern Film". Think a Joseph Campbell-ian analysis of The Matrix.

33. I have seen 211 of the IMBD Top 250 movies of all time, including all of the top 100.

34. I enjoy cinema of all kinds—foreign, art house, silent—and prefer films with interesting characters I like.

35. Since graduating college, I have lived in six different zip codes.

36. I lived in Sand Springs, OK for 18 years from the time of my birth until time for college.

37. I then moved to Tulsa, OK where I lived for 3 years. (I moved back home for my junior year.)

38. I lived in Everett, WA from July 2001 until May 2003.

39. I then lived in the suburbs of Northern Virginia from May 2003 until August 2004.

40. Presently, I am a seminary student in Wilmore, KY pursuing a Masters of Divinity degree.

41. In the 8th grade, I was a top ten finalist in the Oklahoma State Geography Bee.

42. I have studied at various times Spanish, Russian, Greek and Hebrew. I can speak none of them.

43. I am fascinated in learning where stuff comes from.

44. The nationalities that compose my family tree include English, Irish, German, French and Cherokee.

45. Unlike every other American male born in the late 70's and early 80's, I never owned a video game system. I suck at video games to this day.

46. Dad finally broke down and bought us a Nintendo once he discovered a teach-yourself-piano program that worked only with that system. This was long past the time that the 8-bit Nintendo system was cool. Several years later, since I’m a nice guy, at Christmas time I donated it to a “less fortunate” family—not a homeless family, contrary to urban legend.

47. I did not drink my first beer until I was 25.

48. Were it not for a seminary ethos statement, I would presently be nursing a cold bottle of Hoegaarden.

49. In 7th grade, I won $50 in a Christian Women's Temperance Union essay contest. I think it had something to do with why illegal drugs are bad.

50. I have never smoked anything. Except for the competition.

51. My parents met and married while attending Oklahoma University.

52. My mother's father was raised in New York City, where he followed the daily exploits of Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and the rest of Murderer's Row. He was stationed in the Philippines during the World War II. Afterwards, he was employed by the Department of Transportation in Washington, DC. He was transferred to Oklahoma City while my mother was in high school. He died when I was a senior in high school.

53. My mother's mother originally hails from Pennsylvania. She presently resides in an assisted living facility in Yukon, OK.

54. My father's father was born and raised in Oklahoma. During the Dust Bowl days, his family moved to California. He was the only one to move back to Oklahoma. He served as a minister in the United Methodist church for 40 years. These days he's enjoying retirement seeing the country with his RV and Jeep Cherokee.

55. My father's mother was born in Indiana. She is rarely seen without her black lapdog Sally.

56. My father is a UPS driver, minutes from retirement. He prefers drawing, painting and making use of inter-library loans to delivering brown packages. He studied speech and drama in school and once portrayed Thomas Jefferson in OU's rendition of "1776".

57. My mother is an elementary school teacher at a private Christian school. She gets a wild kick out of organizing large fundraisers at church.

58. I was married from September 2000 until June 2004.

59. I never took a drama class, but my senior year of high school I portrayed 5 different characters and had three lines in the school's production of "Damn Yankees."

60. My sophomore year of college I was a chorus member in "Oklahoma".

61. I also portrayed Rosencrantz in a one-act version of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" the same year. The drama teacher praised my director for my comic timing. Thus, I quit my dramatic career while I was ahead.

62. I took piano lessons for three years while in middle school.

63. I taught myself how to play guitar beginning the summer after my freshman year of high school.

64. I once wrote a song for a girl. Don't ask; I don't remember how it goes.

65. The longest book I have ever read cover to cover was David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

66. My favorite book that I read in college was Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.

67. In the 5th and 6th grade, my brother and I shared two paper routes in our neighborhood.

68. The average age of our neighborhood while we were growing up was approximately 65.

69. Thus, my brother and I spent many an hour playing one-on-one baseball in the backyard (with a tennis ball and aluminum bat), basketball in the driveway and football whenever it snowed.

70. I purchased a factory set of 1989 Upper Deck baseball cards for $40. As I was 10 years old, yes, I opened it and manhandled each and every card.

71. The first pack of the above mentioned set contained the mythic Ken Griffey, Jr. rookie card, which I sold several years later at a baseball card show for $36.

72. Because of the above financial decisions, I cannot recommend coming to me for financial advice.

73. I feverishly collected baseball cards from 1987 until 1993. They are all still in the closet of my boyhood room.

74. The crown of my collection was an assortment of 250+ Rickey Henderson cards.

75. I played Salvation Army basketball from fourth grade until sixth grade. In seventh grade, we actually had to try out for the team.

76. I played Little League baseball from third grade until sixth grade. In seventh grade, we actually had to try out for the team.

77. I served as sports editor for my high school yearbook as a junior, and a senior editor as well as sports editor my senior year.

78. Several of my photographs appeared in that senior yearbook.

79. I scored a 33 on my ACT and a 1280 on my SAT.

80. Call me cold-hearted, but I find domestic pets of most kinds to be an irritating hassle.

81. I once saw Steve Largent in an airport.

82. According to the all-knowing Myers-Briggs, my personality type is "Counselor-Idealist" (INFJ).

83. If I could have a superpower, it would be to fly. Or to be invisible. Or to be able to instantaneously transport myself from one location to another.

84. I have required glasses and/or contacts since I was 12.

85. American states I have not been to: Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont.

86. I wrote in essay on biblical aesthetics that was published in the college arts journal.

87. Previous places of employment: HiCorp (warehouse grunt), Prairie Production Company (warehouse manager), Old Navy (fashion engineer), Finales Restaurant & Cabaret (waiter), FMG (office manager), Interchange PMP (customer service representative), Rainbow Home Cleaning Systems (regional service manager), MedWare (medical transcriptionist)

88. My great-great-great-great-great grandfather was a cousin to Abe Lincoln.

89. I have never learned to ride a bicycle.

90. I remember Dad purchasing our first computer when I was in the 2nd grade. It was an Apple IIc.

91. I have been in three car accidents. None of them serious. None of them my fault.

92. I have been pulled over once in my life. For taking an HOV-only (high-occupancy vehicle) exit from the freeway. We will not even discuss the brilliant idea of HOV-only exits in Northern Virginia.

93. My first car was a gray 1985 Isuzu I-Mark.

94. I have been quoted in the Seattle Weekly regarding my opinion of the Seattle Mariners.

95. My favorite authors from my English Lit days were John Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, T.S. Eliot and Ernest Hemingway.

96. I have been to the emergency room once. I fell asleep with my contacts in a scratched my cornea. Searing pain. I’ve made it a point never to need the emergency room again.

97. I have had one surgery. Out-patient.

98. Some favorite foods: A patty melt from Mike’s Hamburger Palace, General Tsao’s chicken from Wah-Mei, cheese fries from Outback, a roast beef sandwich slathered in Arby’s sauce, chicken pancakes and cherry beer (a.k.a. crepes and Kriek) from L’Enfant, warm chocolate chip cookies with ice cold milk. Pretty much anything with a side of honey mustard. Except the cookies.

99. When I was eight years old, I got my foot stuck in the escalator at Sears. It was a traumatic event as some maintenance dudes had to cut my shoe off my foot to make the escalator functional again. I did get a free pair of Chuck Taylor high-tops out of the deal, so all was good.

100. Here is how you get to my library.

101. Clay Aiken has a fanclub. Why can’t I? Oh wait. I do.

posted by Peter at 1:52 AM
| | permalink |