Getting to Know Me -- Absolutely True Facts About Me (For Real)

Yours truly and youngest daughter circa 1989.

Last August I wrote a post in which I listed "true" facts about myself. It was a humor piece as anyone with half a brain could tell (thus leaving Republicans quite confused). Today I present "no, seriously" facts about myself. All guaranteed true.

I have dual citizenship, Finnish and U.S.

I completed a two year M.A. program in history in one year and graduated with distinction.

I scored the winning goal in overtime in my sixteen and under soccer team’s state championship victory.

I have never bowled.

In 1991 I met and shook hands with my hero, Muhammad Ali.

As a reporter I interviewed Jerry Brown, Margo St. James, Jane Fonda, Willie McCovey and Pete Rose.

My oldest daughter was born on May 5th (5/5) at 5:05. My youngest daughter was born on December 27 (12/27) at 12:27.

My father was at the helm of a merchant marine ship that was sunk by a Japanese submarine in the Arabian Sea. 

A paper I wrote for a graduate course on the Bay Area response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, was published in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle-Examiner.

Since getting food poisoning from chicken, I have been a pescitarian, excepting Thanksgiving when I eat turkey.

Most people who have ever gotten to know me think that I'm very funny.

I have poetry blog.

The first baseball game I remember going to was game one of the 1962 World Series between the Giants and the Yankees. I noted to myself at the time that I was seeing both Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle play.

I was at the most famous finish in college football history when Cal defeated Stanfurd in the 1982 Big Game on a last-play-of-the-game kickoff return through the Stanfurd band.

As an ESL teacher I’ve had students from over sixty different countries.

I do not now, nor have I ever, owned a pair of sandals.

On my first visit to Paris I came upon one of my favorite all-time students from my middle school teaching days.

On a trip to New York I came upon another of my favorite all-time students from my middle school teaching days.

On a second trip to Paris I came upon a student who had been an ESL student of mine a few months before.

I’ve had former students go on to all eight Ivy League schools as well as Cal, Stanfurd, Oberlin, the University of Wisconsin and UCLA.

I have two former students convicted of murder, at least one of armed robbery and at least one of rape and kidnapping.

I was a co-founder of the Chico News & Review which was an offshoot of Chico State’s school newspaper. It is still extant. 

I have never had a broken bone and only once have been hospitalized over night.

I worked for one year as Development Director for the California State Students Association which is the student lobby for the nineteen campus California State University system.

I have self-published two novels, have written the first draft of a third and am working on a fourth.

Three of my former students (Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer) worked on Saturday Night Live, two as writers and one as a cast member. They are all still active and successful in entertainment and produced, wrote, directed and starred in the successful comedy, Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping.

During my soccer playing days I never missed a game due to injury or illness.

I have been to five NFC championship games, seeing the San Francisco 49ers win three of them.

I have been to World Series games, an NBA finals play off game, a college football bowl game, two Stanley Cup play off games, two heavyweight boxing matches, two U.S.A-U.S.S.R track and field meets and two NCAA women’s championship basketball tournament games.

I attended my first English top division soccer match in 1973 and my most recent in 2017.

I do not believe in astrology, tarot cards, palm reading, crystal balls or reading tea leaves.

I have seven grand nieces and nephews.

Two of my best friends died within six months of each other in 2017. They, like my very best friend I've ever had who died in 2002 at age 41, and another friend who died in 2011, all died well before their time. (Two from pancreatic cancer.)

I have loved The Beatles since watching them on the Ed Sullivan show in February of 1964.

I coached my school’s soccer team for eighteen years and coached the girl’s softball team for seven years.

For a few years in college I was known by the nickname, Ace and indeed at least one group of housemates — not to mention many friends — did not know my real first name.

I am a cinephile and have over 250 DVDs, 122 of which are from the Criterion Collection.

When I was sixteen my father sent me to Finland for six weeks, I spent about four of those weeks with relatives and the rest traveling around the country on my own.

I currently have thirty three years and eight months clean and sober. 

I am on the bi-polar spectrum, have PTSD from being an abuse survivor, suffer from Acute Panic Disorder, am prone to severe depression and am a recovering addict/alcoholic. Yet I have been teaching for over thirty four years, have had a long and happy marriage and have raised two successful daughters. 

I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world.