1. I was born in Broomfield, Colorado.
2. I moved to Pueblo, Colorado when I was about 3.
3. My family belonged to the Minnequa Country Club in Pueblo, and my mom, sister, and brothers would go there every day, all day during the summers.
4. The summer swim team coaches at Minnequa called my family at 7 p.m. one night when I was 5 years old to see if my sister and I wanted to be on the swim team.
5. I said yes because she said yes.
6. At my first meet, even though I knew how to swim perfectly well, I refused to put my head in the water and no one wanted me on their relay team.
7. I ended up being on a relay team with my sister and Heidi and Heather Holter.
8. We got last, because they couldn't make up for me.
9. The next summer I broke all the records for 8 & unders at the Colorado state championship meet.
10. I cried a few times because I thought all the boys at Minnequa Club liked my sister and none liked me.
11. I went to Happy Hands Pre School, and my teacher's name was Mrs. Horny. I kid you not.
12. I had to stay at Happy Hands an extra year before starting kindergarden because I could not say my "r." For a long time, my name was Nikki Hawt.
13. My first crush was Brad Gardner, but I had a list of other crushes at the same time.
14. I think my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Champion, hated me.
15. I always loved school.
16. I always loved bedtime. Literally, I would look forward to it.
17. I would sometimes sleep in my swim suit the night before a swim meet.
18. My sister and I shared a bedroom and a bed while we lived in Pueblo.
19. We had a picture of Andy Gibb in our closet.
20. I slept on the left side of the bed.
21. I still sleep on the left side of the bed.
21.5 I remember the day that Marvin Gaye died. I was in my basement, listening to eight tracks and the radio, and I cried.
22. My family moved to Colorado Springs when I was in 5th grade.
23. Before we moved, I would walk to Pitts Junior High to take the 7th grade math class each day.
24. My sister was in the same math class.
25. In Colorado Springs, my brothers and I were bussed to Washington Elementary (about 10 miles away) as part of socio-economic class integration efforts despite the fact that Jackson Elementary was about 1 mile away. Most the other students at Washington were very poor, aside from those that rode my bus, who were basically middle/lower-middle class.
26. While at Washington Elementary, I was the only person in my math class, which consisted of me sitting on my own during math class doing nothing.
27. My teacher at Washington, Mr. Strom, recommended me for the city's gifted program. No one listened.
28. I dated Chris, who was the best break dancer at school and looked like Kevin Bacon.
29. Aside from saying "yes" when he asked "would you go out with me," I never remember talking to Chris, just holding his hand.
30. In sixth grade I went to Jackson elementary for one week.
31. My teacher recommended me for the city's gifted program. I was accepted.
32. I had the same gym teacher at the gifted school as I had at Washington, Mr. Kaiser.
33. Mr. Kaiser was friends with my swim coach, Coach Christy.
34. Mr. Kaiser would exchange notes between me and my old friends at Washington, Autumn and Olivia.
35. While we lived in Colorado Springs, my sister and I each had our own room.
36. I kicked her door one day and split it in half during a fight.
37. She took the blame.
38. My dad stopped drinking when we lived in Colorado Springs because he didn't want to lose his family. He has never drank again.
39. The house my parents bought in Colorado Springs was built on a faulty foundation and started cracking.
40. They sued the builder, who claimed bankruptcy.
41. My parents later had to claim bankruptcy because of it.
42. After 2 years in Colorado Springs, we moved to California.
43. The first house we rented in California was owned by a former San Diego Charger.
44. It had a pool and horrible wall paper.
45. When we moved into the second house in California, my sister and I shared a 20 x 20 room that was supposed to be a game room.
46. My brothers shared a 11 x 11 bedroom.
47. All of us would use my parents bathroom instead of the one that we all shared.
48. This drove my dad crazy.
49. I was grounded once in my life, for coming home late.
50. My sister took the blame (this time, it was in fact her fault), so I was only grounded for about 45 minutes.
51. I got away with murder in junior high and high school.
52. I never less than an "A" until college.
53. Because I never got less than an "A," I would help my friends get away with murder, too. ("You can't go to Mexico." "But, mom, I am going with Nikki. She's driving." "Oh, okay.")
54. I was the valedictorian of my high school class.
55. Two people boycotted graduation because I was the valedictorian.
56. They boycotted because, basically, my GPA was slighly higher than theirs because I didn't have to take gym (for which you can get no weighted AP grade) because I swam for 4+ hours a day and got independent credits.
57. The speech I gave at graduation was based on a quote by Ralph Waldo Emmerson, "What lies ahead of you, and what lies behind you, is nothing compared to what lies within you." Or something like that.
58. I loved giving that speech.
59. I got accepted everywhere I applied for college, including Harvard.
60. I went to Georgetown, because I felt like I belonged there when I visited.
61. Some people - none of my family or friends - told me this was a mistake.
62. One of my best friends from high school went to Naval Academy, 45 minutes away from Georgtetown.
63. That might have been one reason he wanted me to go to Georgetown and I wanted to go.
64. My freshmen year of college, I did not have much luck making good friends.
65. I missed my high school friends and my family.
66. I was burned out with swimming, but swam because I had a partial swimming scholarship.
67. My life at Georgetown got better with each passing year.
68. I was an academic under-achiever in college.
69. I wish I could re-do a lot of decisions I made during college.
70. I got my heart broken severely my senior year of college.
71. One reason I moved to NY after college was to be with the guy who broke my heart.
72. We were also going to travel around Europe together.
73. So I traveled by myself, and met up with different friends along the way.
74. The trip could not have been better.
75. I got my master's because I did not know what else to do.
76. I taught at a K-12 school because I did not want to practice social work or be a counselor after getting my masters.
77. Deciding that I wanted to be a lawyer for the NFL or some similar sports organization, I decided to go to law school.
78. I read "1000 Great Places to Work With a Law Degree," which reiterated my desire to work at the NFL.
79. I got into every law school I applied, including Columbia and USC.
80. I went to St. John's because they offered me a full scholarship and I already had massive student loan debt (that had increased due to capitalized interest) from my masters program.
81. I was valedictorian of my law school class.
82. Many people (although no family or friends) told me I was making a mistake by going to St. John's and not Columbia.
83. I now work at the NFL - one of my dream jobs.
84. So I guess the people who thought I should go to Harvard undergrad and Columbia law school in order to achieve my dreams were wrong.
85. I met my husband on a blind date.
86. I told him, "I want to go somewhere close to my house, so if I don't like you I can get home quickly." He said, "Fair enough."
87. He thought I was joking.
88. I didn't think he was good looking when I first saw him. (I know, I know, I was wrong.)
89. I did think he had nice legs and his butt looked good in his jeans.
90. After we dated for a year or so, he broke up with me because he thought I was too good for him.
91. We got back together like two weeks later.
92. We got married on July 4, 2002.
93. I was scared of marriage. I am not anymore.
94. At our wedding, my sister gave the best toast I have ever heard.
95. I look just like my dad and my brother Cookie.
96. My brother's nickname, Cookie, came from me not being able to say his real name, Kirk. (See #12 above).
96. By pretending to be confident and outgoing for most of my life, I have become confident and outgoing.
97. Being outgoing feels exhausting to me.
98. The better I know you, the funnier I am.
99. I suck at blogging.
100. For some reason, I keep doing it anyway.
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5 comments:
You don't suck at blogging.
This was very cool for me to read, because I think that even though we lived together in college, there was a lot about you that I didn't know. Or forgot. Not sure which. :)
But then, I know a lot about you that is not on this list, so I guess that's okay, right?
Thanks for your kind words. But I do suck at blogging. I am not revealing or open enough, but stick to a lot of superficial, shallow content and I rush when I write anything. But thanks:) I am better in person, I like to think.
Yes, I am sure you know many things about me that I could add in the next list one day;) Maybe even things that I forgot myself! You've got quite a memory. I have a random one.
#10 ~ were there even any boys on the swim team??? aside from Brian Duell (sigh), Jimmy what was his last name??? ah! Stephens!! and of course, Derek Fox who was way too old to give us the time of day but still a "fox" :)
you're silly! but if it makes you feel any better, I thought all the boys liked Tricia!
I think there were boys on the swim team. As a matter of fact, I had lunch with one of them today (Derek) and considering I am one of them myself (Jimmy), I'd think I'd know that. I met Derek for the first time today and after comparing war stories (i.e. Minnequa Club lore), he said that my name sounded very familiar. After some pondering, he realized that he saw it in a blog. After sending me the link, here I am. I don't think all the boys liked Tricia, if it is any consulation.
-Jimmy
This is hilarious, Billi, that you and Jimmy Stephens wrote comments on this note years (I think) after it was written. Will you even see this comment? I am not sure. But that just made my day. And that there is a discussion of the boys that belonged to Minnequa Club (it was Jimmy and Brian Duell and maybe Brian's brothers that I thought liked you) and who they liked. I forget about Derek Fox, and Mark Horny, who wasn't a fox but who was kind of cute. There were also two sets of twins and Rusty Pagano and some others. It almost makes me miss my short and bad attempt at blogging, and it definitely makes me miss Minnequa Club.
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