Brian Factoids

Stealing the idea from my friend Karen’s blog in which she had an entry that lists interesting factoids about her self. I’ve decided to make a list of weird/interesting things about myself.

1) Cutest Baby Contest
It just so happens that I was pretty stinking adorable when I was a baby (see below)…I know, everyone says it…what happened? Now it was only the cutest baby in the Pigeon Farmers Festival, but it still counts alright.

2) Studied Chinese
Ok so I don’t know any now and my Chinese friends always enjoy laughing at me if I make any attempt at saying something in Chinese, but nonetheless I have studied it for 2 years in high school. What really makes this interesting is I live in a small farming community that almost every family came from Germany and then many Mexicans come up for the summer yet neither German nor Spanish was offered in high school. My options were French and Chinese (I chose Chinese because the teacher was awesome).

3) Only 1 Classmate
Up until high school I only have one other classmate, Robin. There were a few years when we had someone else in the class, but the vast majority of kindergarten through 8th grade was just me and her. I went to a Lutheran school that was 3 classrooms for 9 grades. While most people have a hard time comprehending this situation, I really enjoyed it…it was a really good school.

4) 30 Years
My father is 30 years older than me (I was born in 1981 and he was born in 1951). Then my grandfather is 30 years older than my father. This trend goes back 5 generations (I think). What makes it even more difficult is that the father was 29 years old when the son was born. That means for the tradition to continue I need to have a son between Jan.1, 2011 and Apr. 20, 2011 (less than 4 months). Now my dad did all he really could since he was born on May 1st.

5) Can’t Speak
I couldn’t speak properly until I was in 2nd grade. When I was a baby besides being totally adorable I had a hearing problem that no one knew about. I would respond to sound so the doctors thought I could hear fine, but there was fluid trapped in my eardrum. I’m not sure if the fluid just filtered out certain sounds or shifted them to different frequencies, but either way when some would say something I would hear something totally different. Then once I started talking I would say what I heard, and this translated into complete gibberish. Sometime around 1st grade a specialist figured out the problem, relieved the pressure, and suddenly I could hear properly. I then had to relearn English the proper way.

6) Dunking
I first dunked when I was in 8th grade. While that is quite unusual, what is even odder is that in spite playing throughout high school I never dunked in a real basketball game.

7) Allergic to myself
I got really, really sick for several weeks when I was in grade school, but no one could figure out why. The doctors finally sent me off to be tested for allergies, and as it turns out I was allergic to myself. Mites are on everything, including ourselves, and I was allergic to all mites.

8) Mullet
Oh yeah, I sported a mullet for a couple years…you all know it is cool and you're jealous. You may make fun of me now, but I was freaking cool.

9) Almost Died at Birth
Don’t have much details on this…I don’t even know exactly how, but it happened.

10) Reading
I could easily count on one hand the number of books I read before college. I refused to read anything…even on standardized tests I won’t read the short paragraphs that were suppose to be used to test comprehension. It is really amazing that I’m literate.