100 Things

100 Things About Me

1. I was born in Ft. Worth, Texas in 1954 and adopted at birth.
2. My new family lived in Longview, Texas and moved to Houston in 1958.
3. I commonly wet the bed til I was 8 years old.
4. I sucked my thumb til I was 10 years old.
5. I bit my fingernails til I was 30 years old.
6. I have been to approximately 1000 pubs in London.
7. I got 2nd place in my 6th grade spelling bee, missing the word “buses”. I spelled it “busses”. I cried.
8. I have lived outside the USA for a total of 9 years.
9. I began running track in the 7th grade, age 12.
10. I ran track through the 12th grade, age 18.
11. I was a cub scout and my Mom was Den Mother.
12. My first ride in a Mercedes-Benz was in a taxi in Munich, Germany (1976).
13. I have fallen in love one time.
14. Our next door neighbor when I was 7 was the cousin of A.J. Foyt and I got to meet him once at their house. He was a legend then, in 1961.
15. I laid the first brick in our custom-built home in 1962. My Mom still lives there.
16. I only got swats once in school, in the 7th grade.
17. I once laughed so hard at a water fountain in school that the water ran out of my nose.
18. I rode a train by myself to Ft Worth at age 12. Went to my cousin’s house.
19. I was sexually seduced by a high-profile executive of the Houston Oilers at the age of sixteen. Loved it.
20. I was quoted in a Sports Illustrated article at age 17.
21. I went to Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas on a half-semester scholarship and never collected on it.
22. I lived in my grandmother’s boarding house for 3 years in Nacogdoches.
23. My high school prom date (1972) recently contacted me on Facebook after 37 years.
24. I have had sexual intercourse with 2 females; at ages 17 and 19.
25. I’ve driven left-hand drive autos in 7 countries.
26. I went to Al Somers Baseball Umpire School in Daytona Beach, Florida for 6 weeks in an attempt to be a professional umpire.
27. I taught middle school for one year, 1977.
28. I was mugged on a dark street in Dakar, Senegal by 3 black men. They got nothing when my adrenaline kicked in.
29. I coached 7th grade football for one year.
30. Met my first gay roommate in 1977. Billy. We’re still friends.
31. I worked part-time in college for Texas Farm Products/Lone Star Feed & Fertilizer as mail clerk. I’d carry around hundreds of thousands of dollars in my company pickup truck and wasn’t even bonded.
32. I bought a 1965 Lincoln Continental in 1985 as a party car.
33. I managed a retail cookie store in a shopping mall.
34. Worked offshore on a boat for 3 years.
35. I’ve been to Amsterdam more than 30 times.
36. I have lived in 11 countries in Africa for 1 month or more.
37. I’ve crossed the equator twice in one day.
38. Spent a month in Barcelona just before the 1992 Olympics. Construction was rampant.
39. I’ve been to 30 gay bath-houses in 21 countries for a total of at least 500 times.
40. One day, I traveled on 3 different boats, a helicopter, 2 airplanes and a van.
41. I’ve flown a helicopter and an airplane (with the pilot at my side).
42. I’ve whale watched off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
43. I helped catch a 6 foot female shark off the back of a boat using a whole chicken as bait. She delivered a baby shark as we brought her onboard.
44. I dangled my feet over the stern of a 180 foot boat in 25 foot waves.
45. I’ve slept on the London Underground several times to the end of the line.
46. I once had a marijuana joint poked directly in my eyeball at a concert.
47. I have owned 6 new cars and smoked cigarettes in them before leaving the dealership.
48. I’ve been at the airport in Bamako, Mali, the poorest country in the world.
49. I’ve been to McDonald’s in 12 countries.
50. I’ve watched the end of the Paris-Dakar Road Race. Twice.
51. I’ve seen the Popemobile in Senegal.
52. I spent 4 hours at the Libreville, Gabon Immigration Office at the airport trying to enter the country.
53. I have never scubadived but I went skydiving in 2008.
54. I have been arrested for DUI twice but have no official record of it.
55. I have rafted on the shortest river in Texas – the Comal River.
56. I have had a police escort from a baseball field after umpiring. For 3 miles.
57. I’ve walked around all 3 of the Pyramids.
58. I reluctantly accepted a bribe once in Egypt. 10 each $100 bills. All counterfeit.
59. I drove a school bus to transport my football team for one season.
60. I rode in an elevator with Rev. Jesse Jackson in a hotel in Lagos, Nigeria.
61. I am HIV- which I consider to be a miracle.
62. I once drove 4 complete round-trips to/from Houston/Galveston in one day.
63. Into my early-teens, I had a model car collection totaling over 100 cars.
64. As a former blackout drinker, I can’t account for at least 4000 nights.
65. I’ve flown about 200,000 miles but only once in first class.
66. I have been to a village in The Congo where no white man had ever been before.
67. I quit a 60K / year job so I could live in Amsterdam and smoke dope and have sex.
68. During my last 10 years of drinking, I was only employed for 4 of them.
69. I haven’t had a Caucasian boyfriend in 30 years.
70. I began driving a standard transmission at age 10; a 1964 Dodge Dart.
71. I had a tire blowout while driving my Dad’s 1957 Chrysler – at age 4.
72. I quit an offshore job to spend more time with my boyfriend, then he left me.
73. I once umpired a baseball game behind the plate with Roger Clemens pitching. He was a senior in High School.
74. I once spent 22 hours in the same seat on the same airplane.
75. I vomited out the driver’s window on the freeway while driving about 80 mph.
76. At age 17 a friend and I drove from Houston to Acapulco; a 2-day drive.
77. I bought my first PC in 1985 – a Commodore Amiga.
78. I can only tie a tie while looking in a mirror.
79. I began playing golf at age 5. Have not played since age 20.
80. My non-drinking hangout in college was The Kettle in Nacogdoches, Texas.
81. I once drank for 17 hours at Griff’s, from 10am til 3am.
82. I have seen every episode of I LOVE LUCY, THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW & THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW.
83. I drank alcohol for 33 years and could not stop until I asked my God to help me.
84. I have seen 6” of snow twice; otherwise never more than 1”.
85. I observed the Space Shuttle land in Houston, on the back of a 747.
86. I was once robbed of all my money at gunpoint; by a policeman in Nigeria.
87. I was sexually attracted to a male neighbor at age 9.
88. I have ridden in a limousine twice – both times hired by myself.
89. I once flew from Houston to Las Palmas (Canary Islands) and stayed for one hour. It took 14 hours to get there.
90. My cat delivered 7 kittens on the night of my last drunk.
91. The first time I went to London, I instinctively knew I was “home”.
92. I drank beer from a teapot in Alexandria, Egypt.
93. I spent 3 consecutive Christmas Day’s on 3 small islands: Trinidad & Tobago, Malta and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain).
94. My assigned driver in The Congo for one month spoke no English and I spoke no French yet we communicated well and freely.
95. I went to about 800 AA meetings in my first year of sobriety.
96. I have had the wonderful opportunity of watching my mother recover from a near-fatal stroke. But she died in August 2008 at the age of 85.
97. Through the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, I have been able to rid myself of all resentments, small and large.
98. I cannot stand to be around snakes, horses and cows.
99. I am claustrophobic.
100. I love making lists.