100 Things About Me

I didn't know about the whole "100 things about me" tradition for the 100th blog post until around post 230.

I have now made it to post 300. Here are my 100 things, a few posts later than traditional.

  1. I was born in Provo, Utah
  2. I lived the first year of my life at Wymount Terrace – BYU’s married student housing
  3. I have four younger sisters
  4. They were all born in Omaha, Nebraska, where I lived for the next ten years
  5. Our family moved to Laie, Hawaii when I was 11
  6. Music has always been very important to me.
  7. I started piano lessons at 6
  8. I stopped piano lessons at 11, when our piano failed to make the move to Hawaii
  9. Our family owns two pianos now – one is over 100 years old
  10. They are both in the storage unit right now
  11. I really don’t play the piano very well.
  12. But the years of piano lessons gave me a good foundation for music
  13. I played the saxophone in the concert and jazz bands
  14. And the xylophone in the marching band
  15. Our marching band played in the 1983 Citrus Bowl parade
  16. I earned the money for the trip by picking pineapples in the summer
  17. I picked pineapples all four high-school summers
  18. In the summer of 1983, or family bought a house on Iosepa street
  19. We found some of the most amazing things cleaning out the back yard
  20. One thing we found was a sled, which is not something you expect to find in an overgrown sweet potato patch in Hawaii
  21. I gave the sled a fresh coat of paint and took it to the school as part of my Citrus Bowl trip luggage
  22. The sled didn’t actually make the trip, but the look on the band directors face was so worth the effort
  23. I also sang in the Laie Choral Union with my dad
  24. My freshman year at BYU-Hawaii, I took three different girls to the same movie one week at our local dollar theater. I thought I was hot stuff.
  25. Over the course of the next year, I dated two of the girls.
  26. The first relationship ended on a date to watch Star Trek IV during opening week.
  27. The second relationship ended on a date to watch Star Trek IV at the dollar theater.
  28. I don’t much enjoy watching Star Trek IV
  29. That year I played Young Ebenezer in Scrooge.
  30. I also played Father Drobney in Don’t Drink the Water
  31. I worked in the PCC Brass Band, playing the tuba,
  32. And the baritone
  33. And a whistle made from rolled coconut leaves.
  34. I even took the mic several nights a week to MC the band concert
  35. I applied for a job at McDonalds, but they turned me down
  36. Which was good, because I ended up working at a flower shop instead
  37. To date, the flower shop job was the most enjoyable I ever had
  38. Especially giving neck rubs to the girls working on the flowers
  39. I served my mission in St. Louis, Missouri
  40. After my mission, I saw a cute girl in band class
  41. I saw the same cute girl in the computer lab
  42. A friend introduced me to that girl at a devotional
  43. I asked her out to the movie
  44. We saw Beaches. It was sad, and I cried
  45. She said that was why she married me
  46. Married couples at BYU-Hawaii live in TVA. We were in building R
  47. I got a degree in computer programming at BYU-Hawaii
  48. I was the Computer Lab supervisor my senior year
  49. I had the David O. McKay scholarship there, too
  50. And I was in three bands at the same time. That was crazy
  51. After graduation, we moved to Austin, Texas
  52. I got a job at Apple Computer
  53. I learned that Technical Support is not my dream job
  54. At my first performance review, my boss said “You’ve done a great job. If we were giving raises, you’d get a big one.”
  55. After 4 years in Texas, we moved to Utah
  56. Technical Support at Novell was not much better than at Apple
  57. So I moved to software testing
  58. And I became a dad
  59. Twice
  60. I love being a dad
  61. I taught programming classes at Utah Valley State College part time
  62. One day I asked myself why I was teaching computer programming, but not actually doing it
  63. I didn’t have a good answer, so I asked my boss if I could start programming instead of testing
  64. Now I write printer drivers for really, really big printers
  65. And some small printers, too
  66. We live in Texas again, this time just west of Fort Worth
  67. I am fortunate that my company lets me work from home
  68. I want to be a pilot some day
  69. I have one hour in my log book
  70. A friend of my dad took me on my first airplane flight as a child
  71. Remembering aerobatics I had seen on TV, I asked if he could do any tricks
  72. He did a couple of power-on stalls. That was good enough
  73. Years later, that same friend flew us from Las Vegas to Provo. I got to fly most of the way
  74. I signed up with Angel Flight the day I found out about it
  75. I was the Utah Wing Webmaster for a while
  76. I was the Utah Wing Leader for a while, too
  77. When I was 10 I played little-kid football
  78. I loved playing football, though I wasn’t very good
  79. I kept garter snakes in a box under my bed
  80. My parents found out about the snakes when Grandma announced that either the snakes went, or she went
  81. Grandma lived with us for many years
  82. I had a pet rat, too. It was officially sanctioned
  83. I built model airplanes in my youth
  84. I should have spent more time at the beach
  85. I took up running a while back
  86. I really need to take up running again
  87. I love to read
  88. I don’t get to read nearly enough any more
  89. One of the best parts of being a dad is reading bedtime stories
  90. My love for reading has long made me want to write
  91. I tried writing as a teen
  92. I hated everything I wrote as a teen
  93. I finally don’t hate the things I write
  94. I don’t love the things I write yet, but I think I’ll get there some day
  95. I do love keeping a blog
  96. I appreciate the people I’ve met while blogging
  97. I hate Daylight Savings Time – won’t someone please rescue us from this fiasco?
  98. I like watching Hayao Miyazaki movies
  99. I think we should eat pizza and ice cream once a week
  100. I turned 40 today (though I don’t feel a day over 65). Happy Birthday to Me!

Comments

Autumn said…
Happy, Happy Birthday, Jonly dear...
May happy days come to you all year!

If I had one wish it would be...
A HAPPY HAPPY Birthday to you from ME!

This post was great to read more about you. I was born in Provo, UT myself while my father attended BYU.

I didn't know you were so musically inclined and driven. That's pretty cool!
Happy Birthday. Hey, for activity day tomorrow we're having a Hawaiian night. Any ideas for games or something fun the girls will like?
Happy Birthday! Hope you have a great year.
Don said…
Thanks, everyone.

Marcia, I know you claim to not have much success in the kitchen, but panipopo is a real easy, real yummy treat.

Find a recipe here:

http://www.rhodesbread.com/recipes/panipopo.html
Don- Thanks for that recipe for panipopo. It's my kind of recipe-only 3 ingredients. I actually didn't mess it up. They came out perfect, and the girls loved them. Thanks so much for the suggestion. They're yummy.
Marsha Ward said…
Don, I'm so sorry I missed your birthday! I was spending so many hours a day reading blogs that I took someone's suggestion (Tristi's?) to limit each blog to once a week. I now have a schedule. I read yours on Sundays.

Anyway, it was nice to get to know more about you. I hope your birthday was wonderful.

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