100 Things

1. Given the option, I will go to the beach.

2. Given a second option, I will go for a hike.

3. There were eight kids in my eighth grade class.

4. There were two sets of twins in my eight grade class.

5. It usually doesn’t rain when I visit Seattle.

6. I usually have a camera with me.

7. I was born in Alabama and grew up there.

8. My family spent a lot of recreational time in Gulf Shores, Alabama when I was a kid.

9. My name is the same as a well-known British missionary, who I know little about.

10. There’s a singer in Kansas City with my name: He’s the lead of The Roland Allen Band.

11. I’ve been to all fifty states in the US.

12. I really like Vancouver, BC.

13. I think that Grace Paley’s short story ‘Wants’ is brilliant.

14. Everyone thinks that I’m an extrovert. They’re wrong.

15. I use the handle ‘Flannery’ a lot because of my love for Flannery O’Connor’s fiction. She’s my favorite author, hands down.

16. I did a pencil rubbing of James Deans’ tombstone in Fairmont, Indiana.

17. Once I contested a parking ticket in Boston, but lost.

18. My ideal job would be to own and operate a coffee/winebar/cyber-cafe – in Santa Barbara.

19. I’ve been to Crete, Greece two times.

20. When I lived in Boston I bought a car as an accessory to my bicycle.

21. I’ve ridden my mountain bike to the top of Mouth Tamalpais in Marin County.

22. I like snorkeling.

23. I really don’t care for Milan (Milano).

24. When I worked in the admissions office at MIT, I was assigned to make frequent trips to the Caribbean Islands.

25. I’ve been to Little Big Horn, Montana.

26. I was part of a successful book club in San Francisco.

27. I like my coffee strong.

28. I use a wireless network at home.

29. I won a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to study at Yale.

30. INFJ.

31. I like going to baseball games in Boston and San Francisco.

32. I’m not good at remembering names when I first meet people.

33. I hate being late.

34. I’m usually early.

35. Stowe, Vermont was the first place I skied.

36. I am a published author.

37. The first time I traveled to Europe I went to Christmas midnight Mass at St. Peter’s at the Vatican.

38. I know that ‘David’ is not at the Vatican Museum.

39. I’ve lived in Maine.

40. I dislocated my shoulder kayaking.

41. I was hit by a car while riding my bicycle.

42. One of my favorite hikes is Mt. Katahdin in Maine.

43. I can’t remember my home telephone number.

44. I don’t ‘get’ Faulkner.

45. I was a philosophy major in college.

46. I prefer bold red wine (Cabs) in the winter, and lighter whites (Pinot Grigio) in the summer.

47. I’m more comfortable living near a coast because I feel that I have a better sense of where I am.

48. I prefer an aisle seat.

49. I’m a morning person.

50. I don’t care for Houston, Memphis, El Paso or Anaheim.

51. I’ve driven across the United States from California to Maine.

52. I tend to be obsessive about things working correctly.

53. I’d like to visit Costa Rica.

54. I was surprised that I liked London when I first visited.

55. I’m not good at painting a room.

56. I balance my checkbook every week.

57. My preference is for art-house, foreign or classic movies because I like character development over a lot of action.

58. I was an artist for a brief period: paint – watercolor, acrylic, oil.

59. I’ve always wanted a nickname.

60. I’m very proud of my niece and nephew.

61. I like Jasper Johns’ art.

62. I could cross-country ski to work when I lived in Maine.

63. Baños was my favorite town when I visited Ecuador.

64. I’ve been to Duluth.

65. I installed a kitchen ceiling light.

66. I enjoy hiking in the desert.

67. I completed the Honolulu Marathon.

68. One of my childhood hobbies was to collect and read college and university catalogs.

69. I’ve never walked across the Golden Gate Bridge.

70. I’ve traveled to China and Japan.

71. I’d rather not wear a tie to work.

72. I once owned a VW ‘bus’.

73. I’ve camped in the Anza-Borrego desert.

74. I’m sad about the decline in New Orleans.

75. I went through a ‘cowboy stage’ in college because I thought that it fit with being a philosophy major.

76. I also went through a ‘Bourbon stage’ because I was reading a lot of Walker Percy.

77. I’ve been to Israel.

78. ‘Metaphysics’ and ‘Logic’ were two of my favorite classes in college.

79. I’ve never re-read my Masters thesis.

80. I don’t care for winter on the east coast, except for in Maine.

81. I pray.

82. I don’t have facility with modern foreign languages.

83. I don’t use the library.

84. I’d like to see more of Montana.

85. I usually vote.

86. I’m a very poor comparison shopper.

87. I sometimes wear a bowtie that I tie myself.

88. I pull for Auburn over Alabama.

89. Sometimes I follow professional sports, but that’s hard to do for someone who’d rather be hiking rather than sitting in front of a tv.

90. I think that MIT is the most interesting university in America.

91. I’ve had my car towed in New York City.

92. I like French food.

93. I won a silver bar (100 troy ounces) at a bank opening.

94. I have friends who are rocket scientists.

95. I forget that people outside of California still smoke in public.

96. I tried to like country music; it didn’t work.

97. I’m not bothered by the ‘freaks’ in Southern literature.

98. I’m not much for crowds.

99. I’ve seen lots of banana slugs. (Near Point Reyes in Marin County.)

100. My name and my twin brother’s name have the same letters, with the ‘l’ and the ‘n’ swapped: Roland/Ronald.

Lagniappe: I’ve gotten more and more comfortable with technology as I’ve grown older.