In honor of PPB's and RM's and netter's 100 things posts, here is my list. Imitation of Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and lack of originality. Just ask the designers for the clothes at WalMart.

100 things about me (how sick is it that I could have done 100 more...apparently I have narcicistic self-disclosure issues)

1. I am the second youngest of four and the middle child of my parents' marriage.
2. I am a Texan by birth, living in the diaspora
3. I’m not married, have never been, and barring a move to Mass. or Canada, it's not likely I will be.
4. I am a reverend
5. and an uncle
6. I remember plots of tv shows really well
7. I write
8. and bowl, badly
9. I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but it will involve words, not numbers, if I have a choice.
10. I like what I am now
11. I do treadmills, sometimes
12. I wish I was a perfectionist in recovery
13. I am gay
14. but I didn't come out until I was well into my adult years...
15. And a part of me thinks my late blooming kept me alive.
16. I've never smoked a cigarette
17. or taken illegal drugs of any kind
18. but I have been known to eat an entire bag of Yukon Gold potato chips in one day
19. I am a night owl and a morning person...it's the afternoons that kill me
20. Napping is my second favorite thing to do with my free time
21. I used to review movies on the radio and in my college paper
22. and I have a far too extensive collection of DVD's and laserdiscs
23. I used to dream of being a figure skater
24. did I mention I've been at least pudgy since the 5th grade?
25. Other than watching baseball, I am not into team sports at all
26. I am blatantly parallelling RM's list
27. but I don't feel bad about it
28. I was a double major in Political Science and Communications
29. who went through a phase of reading Star Trek Next Generation novels and Dick Francis mysteries obsessively in college
30. and my Poli Sci concentration was in Russian politics
31. and I ran the radio station on campus my senior year
32. I also sang in a church choir for the first time in college
33. My English composition prof sat next to me in the Bass section
34. I did readers' theater in the speech department because I was afraid to piss off my parents by being a theatre major
35. I was the narrator in a production of Wuthering Heights and had 30 gazillion lines and would be hoarse after every performance
36. I am also a musical theatre queen of the first water, and sang the role of Charlie Brown in "You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown" in the most financially successful production in the history of my high school
37. I too think Sondheim kicks Lloyd Webber’s sentimental, derivative butt , though I love them both in their own way
38. I took piano lessons for 7 years, but suck
39. my older sister is Greek Orthodox
40. my younger sister is Catholic
41. my brother was a member of Bible Church and won't let his kids read Harry Potter books because "that woman is a real witch" (a total internet hoax that his pastor swallowed hook line and sinker)
42. I'm the only Presbyterian in my family
43. As far as I know, I'm the only man in my family that goes to church every Sunday...and I get paid to do it.
44. My folks are Baptists
45. I was baptized in a Baptist church at the age of six and almost drowned (not really, but it is funny what happened)
46. when I was little I thought that Santa was fake, but the thing in my closet might be real
47. then I became obsessed with vampires in Junior High, to the point of not being able to sleep at night
48. a therapist once suggested my obsession with vampires was part of my sublimation of my homosexuality
49. but I sort of think he was full of crap, I was just a drama queen who watched too much “Dark Shadows”
50. I went straight from college into Law School
51. where I was known as “rocket arm” our first year because I was always showing off by raising my hand to answer questions
52. and I hated the man I was that year, and vowed to be different
53. and tried to surrender the teacher’s pet/best little boy in the world personality that had served me so well for 25 years
54. with little success
55. Now, THAT did have a lot to do with my suppressed homosexuality.
56. Physically, I’m pale, pudgy, hirsute and bearded
57. I have fine, really soft brown hair
58. that is thinning in the front
59. I mainly hung out with adults when I was a child
60. and now I mostly hang out with gay guys and old people
61. I feel like I didn’t finish the whole college/law school chapter above
62. and don’t want to leave it undone
63. because I too am a J, in fact an ENFJ
64. but it’s interesting that nowadays, I enjoy sitting alone in a park and reading a book way more than an ENFJ is supposed to
65. and I’ve forgotten my Enneagram score
66. on the Steel Magnolia scale, I have strong MaeLynn tendencies, but when I’ve been drinking my Truvee side emerges
67. and in gay nomenclature, I would be considered a “Bear” though if Baylor found out that its mascot was now a category of gay men, all hell would break loose.
68. I mainly read fiction unless it’s church/theology/Bible stuff
69. I never read the Chronicles of Narnia until I was an adult
70. and my first favorite book growing up was Harriet the Spy
71. and my second was A Wrinkle in Time
72. I have almost despaired of finding a Spiritual Director in Chicago
73. and though I am increasingly an embodied person, and am very tactile, I often dwell in my head too much as well
74. I love talking theology and politics
75. and in seminary I was Greek School President
76. and also a TA for a preaching practicum
77. and was president of the Senior Class (are you seeing the frightening parallels with ReverendMother yet?)
78. but I did a poor job because I was an angry gay man that year
79. and I used to feel bad about that
80. I am a good car and train traveler because I don’t get motion sick and can face any direction in a train or car.
81. and am really near-sighted
82. although I wear glasses most of the time
83. that have prisms because I have a sort of f*&ked up right eye
84. I watch The Daily Show
85. and West Wing reruns on Bravo
86. and the occasional Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (which I used to watch religiously)
87. and I don’t read near as many magazines as I used to.
88. But I do read Advocate and Out
89. Christian Century
90. Presbyterians Today
91. Chicago Magazine
92. and at least 5 fiction books a month.
93. and numerous blogs
94. Here I will digress from RM’s format for the last few entries
95. I will never be a father….this was not an easy thing for me to accept, but I have.
96. If I had come out sooner and stayed a lawyer, it might have been possible
97. My three great goals in life are to be a good pastor
98. a loving partner
99. and a published author/poet/hymn writer.
100. Oh yeah, and to include something I know RM couldn’t, I’m circumcised, and not at all sorry about it.