10 Things About Me

I was tagged for 10 things by Marcia Mickelson. Here we go:

1. About ten years ago, three of my sisters all had their babies on the same day. I sent a little note to the Associated Press and, as a result, the story took on a life of its own. It hit the local news, national news, lifestyle feature pseudo news, and the talk show circuit. They were in papers around the world, had a full page in People magazine, were drawn into a Ripley's Believe It or Not cartoon, written into a textbook, and were interviewed by Oprah, among others.

The sad irony to this tale? The three births took place the day after my 30th birthday. Had the cousins been born a day earlier, I could have been part of the story. But as it was, fate robbed me of an appearance on Oprah by a mere 24 hours.

2. Speaking of cousins, Secretary of Health and Human Services and former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt is my second cousin. Our great-grandfather Thomas Dudley Leavitt had 24 children, so there are a lot of cousins out there.

3. Former Miss America Sharlene Wells Hawkes is also my cousin. Sort of. My mother's sister was married to Sharlene's father before she was killed in an airplane accident. Sharlene was born after her father remarried. However, we still claim her as our cousin. No word on whether or not she claims us.

4. Casey Elliott, who plays Daniel in the Liken the Scriptures movie Daniel and the Lions, is my first cousin once removed (meaning he's my first cousin's son - here's a table of consanguinity if you're confused).

OK. That's enough of the relatives. Back to me.

5. My Kahuku High School band was featured in the 1983 Citrus Bowl parade, and we marched the bowl pre-game show. Some friends and I made a sign on a king sized bed sheet that read "Aloha! We made this sign just to get on National TV!" We put all of the proper logos on the bottom, and I smuggled it into the game in my xylophone case.

We whipped it out during a lull in the action, and our goal was achieved!

6. My freshman year at BYU-Hawaii, I taught myself to play the tuba so I could get a job with the now-defunct Polynesian Cultural Center Brass Band. This action was in large part motivated by an unrequited attraction to a girl who danced in the PCC night show. Playing in the band didn't help this affair, however, and I'm not entirely sure how I thought it would. But the job turned out to be a lot of fun, anyway.

If you visited the PCC in 1987, or 1989-91, pull out those old video tapes. I might be on them!

7. When we sold our first house, we learned it had originally belonged to "Auntie Anne" of Auntie Anne's Pretzels fame. It seems that Anne Beiler's two daughters were moving back to Round Rock, TX, to open a store in the new Lakeline mall, and just for fun they drove past their childhood home, which we happened to be trying to sell. They ended up buying it back from us. The story made the local paper.

8. Our giant land yacht Gran Torino wagon, with automatic transmission, died just before I was to take my driver's test. It was replaced by a little Datsun 210 sedan. With a stick. Thanks to a steep hill in Kaneohe with a stop sign right at the top, I was allowed to take the driving test three times.

9. I was once a dues-paying member of the Teamsters Union. Pineapple pickers were automatically made part of the ILWU after 100 days on the job. As I only picked pineapples during the summer, I was well into my 4th year before becoming unionized. The pay raise I got was pretty nice - and it was even bigger than the union dues deduction that showed up at the same time.

10. I once had a job selling computers at a large computer store chain that went out of business and was bought up by another large computer store chain that will be going out of business at the end of this year. Those were six weeks of my life that I will never get back.

I now tag - you! Yes, you. You know who you are.

Comments

Thanks for playing. You missed out on Oprah? That does stink. What a cool story.

Popular posts from this blog

Canoe-Paddling Polynesian Guys

Lyme Disease Awareness: Kara's Story

Guavalicious Contest Rules