Victoria tagged me to post 5 little known facts about myself. Here we go....
- I attended UC Berkeley for 5 years. The UC Berkeley Academic Talent Development Program that is. It's basically summer school for gifted kids. I went there from 1986-1991. It was a lot of fun. Took science classes, drama, creative writing, stuff like that.
- When I was a kid I had some weird phobia about hearing people sniffling their noses, or people eating loudly/smacking their lips. Bothered me so much I would sit in class with my fingers in my ears if someone had a cold. Bad enough I couldn't sit in the same room as other people eating. Started when I was about 8, waned off about 5 years ago. I'm not joking. I still cringe when people chew their gum loudly.
- I got constantly picked on in middle school and high school. Bullied a lot. I was definitely different and nerdy. I didn't dress like the others and frankly didn't care. I was asked "Are you in special ed?" on more then one occasion. I also got laughed at in the hallways. I took almost all honors classes, so the kids in there left me alone for the most part. The mainstream classes like P.E. and electives like Drivers Ed are where I got the most trouble.
- Both my parents are in pretty severe health. It's sad. That's why I try so hard to be healthy, lose weight and such. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 14 and had a mastectomy. After she recovered from chemotherapy, a few years later, she had eye surgery for the ulcers she has in both eyes. It helped somewhat, but made her legally blind so she could barely drive. She then began to suffer from Charkot's disease, where the bones (in her left foot in this case) become brittle and disintegrate. She began walking with a special brace on her leg. In December of 2003 she collapsed in the bathroom at home and was rushed to the hospital. Turns out she has congestive heart failure, and her kidney function was down to under 10%. She had to start dialysis. Her left leg had also become severely infected with gangrene, thanks to lots of sores from diabetes and the Charkot's. They amputated her left leg from the knee down. She's been doing okay since then. We found out recently that she probably has to go back on dialysis soon because her potassium levels and such are up. Right now she's waiting for my dad's condition to improve before she goes back. My dad has pretty messed up lungs from smoking for 50 something years. He went in the hospital with pneumonia on November 21st, and has been transferred to another hospital since then. He may be transferred to another one in the near future. It's more like rehab then skilled nursing, which is good. But yeah, it sucks to have ailing parents.
- My grandma on my mom's side was first cousins with Herbert Hoover, one of our former presidents. They used to ride horses together. Weird, huh? I also learned that my grandpa played the steel guitar. How fascinating.
