My name is Joel, and these are intersting factoids about me.
Factoid #1: I grew up in Texas... kind of
When I was 10 months old my family up and left Salt Lake and headed for the prairies of Texas, Dallas to be exact. We lived in a nice little suburb named Carrollton. I still remember learning how to spell Car-roll-ton in elementary school, at McCoy Elementary, just a short walk from one fo the 3 houses we lived in on or right off of McCoy Road. There I had my best friends Jordan Sandifer and Mark Paxton. Although I learned to speak in Texas, I don't have a Texas accent. On my 9th birthday we packed up the Uhaul and headed back to Utah, where I've lived pretty much ever since. More on those other places in later Factoids....
Factoid #2: I've had my eyeballs removed
When my mother went into labor having me, the doctor giving her the epideral gave her more than she should have had, basically making her immobile; she couldn't push. Good Dr. Romney (uncle to Mitt) had to resort to basically using forceps to pull me out, and somewhere in the pinching of my head he sent my eyes out of alignment. I also came out covered in a red rash, so, in the beginning I was an ugly lizard baby. Sometime in my younger years, I had a surgery performed where they took out my eyeballs and put them in straight. Yep, I've had my eyeballs removed.
Factoid #3: I've chauffered Kristy Yamaguchi
That's right, the Kristy Yamaguchi. During my senior year of High School and a little time after, I used to 'grip' for various sporting events TV Crews. For one of these shoots, I was the 'runner' for the producer. It was for a made-for-TV Ice Skating show put on by TBS. Day one was rehearsals, Day two was actual taping with a live crowd, and Day 3 was shooting scenes for the intro, and commercial breaks. The show was hosted by Kristy Yamaguchi, and on Day 3 the Producer asked me to drive her around; pick her up from the hotel etc. So, for Day 3, I was Kristy Yamaguchi's Salt Lake Chauffer. I went shopping with her and her mom. For jeans. Boys jeans.
Factoid #4: I can speak Japanese
I don't think this is new news to most people I know, but I can speak Japanese, fluently. I served a mission to Nagoya Japan for 2 years, and it was awesome. It's a lot of fun being able to speak two languages, and it's also rather weird. I always thought I'd have to mentally translate what I heard in Japanese into English, but that's not the case. When you hear English, you understand English. When I hear Japanese, I understand Japanese, I don't have to translate ki (?) in my head to realize it means tree... it just happens. It's fun.
Factoid #5: My first car was topless
The day of my 16th birthday, I had to march in the Highland Fling parade with the marching band, when I arrived home there was a dull, oxidated Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 in the garage, complete with skinny scrawny tires. It was beautiful. I had actually found it about a month before, and talked to the owner. I knocked on the door and asked if they were planning on selling it, which they were. I told my dad, but he just shrugged it off. About a week later, I took a friend over to show it to him and found my dad, with the neighborhood 'Cruiser geek Scott Olsen, sitting inside ready to go drive it. My dad told me he was talking to Scott about a business deal and Scott wanted to take it for a test drive. Lies!! But all for a good reason. My dad was actually having Scott take a look at it for him to see if it was a good buy at $2000. It was, my dad got a loan in place for me and took care of buying the 'Cruiser for me. I loved that car. The top and doors came off so summertime driving was just a blast. I sold it to my neighbor before my mission to pay for some new eyes. That's another fact for another day.
Factoid #6: I worked at McDonald's
When I tured 16, it was time to get a job. But with school and Marching Band after school, I didn't have much time to get one. However, once Marching Band ended for the season, my dad gave me the commandment to 'Get a Job, and don't come home until you do'. I took that commandment literally. I drove down to American Fork and applied at a few places, even McDonalds. When I handed over the application, the manager sat me down and interviewed me, and then hired me. I honestly thought that was kind of normal; my dad was quite surprised when I got home. I worked there, quite happily, for 2 years, until I just couldn't stand the new owner of the place any longer. I made some good buddies there, and had a great time spending hours making hamburgers, and then promoted to the drive-thru where I loved to greet people with 'Hidey Ho Good Neighbor' for 8 hours. Most people got a good laugh.
Factoid #7: My favorite song is Simon, by Lifehouse
I came home from my mission in August 2000, and shortly after that Hanging by a Moment became a huge hit. It might have been before that actually... At any rate, Lifehouse released their debut album and I got a copy of it from my sister. I've been a big fan since. They're definitely one of my top favorite bands ever, and I always look foward to their next CD or concert tour. Sadly, my last concert trip to see them was not a success (3rd Paragraph). And then they came to Salt Lake in March but I was too slow on buying tickets and missed that too. And I am really looking forward to seeing this most recent CD in a concert. I'll figure out it. Anyways, from that CD came my favorite song of all time, a song called Simon. I love the lyrics, the music, the feeling; it's just so well done. Jason Wade (Lead Singer) does a fantastic job at musical poetry.
Factoid #8: I play the Trumpet
Seventh grade rolled around, for the first time in my life I got to pick classes; how exciting! A lot of my good friends were joining the Band, so I decided to go with the flow. In the beginning, it was the French Horn. I don't really remember why, but that only lasted about a week. My older brother had played the Trumpet, and we still had his (which we had borrowed from someone else) so suddenly I dropped the French Horn for the Trumpet. I kept at it. I got pretty good. I was a band geek. In High School I joined the Marching Band, I met some of my best friends there. I had a blast! And, to the credit of John Miller (director), we were good, very good. American Fork always has the #1 Marching Band in the state, and we lived up to that. I don't think we lost one state competition. And, I got to go to California twice and Indianapolis once. We traveled way more than the football team. My Junior year we went to the Grand Nationals competition and played in the RCA Dome in front of 20,000 people. We took 14th place in finals, making us 14th in the Nation. That was a lot of fun. Sadly, the trumpet sits in my closet gathering dust anymore, I haven't played it for years. I'd like to though, just one more time. Maybe two.
Factoid #9: I've been to the Price is Right
Shortly after buying my current 2002 Camry, I took a road trip with some friends out to Southern California to go sit in on a taping of the Price is Right. Obviously, we also hoped to participate. It was SO much fun. Those of you who know me know I'm not a super, cheery, outgoing crazy person but there was something about that stage that just got me crazy! I was clapping, and shouting, and totally getting into it. It was a BLAST! I was keeping a blog back then, here is what I had to say about it:
Hmmm, shortly after my last entry we did end up going to see the Price is Right, and one person from our group went up, but he didn't win the bid round and so he didn't make it on stage. He was called up the very last of the bid rounds, and overbid his item (a fridge) by $1. He bid $1100, price was $1099. The rest of the trip was pretty fun although I'll say now I'm not a big fan of that part of California. Los Angelas is just way too many people. Way too much of a lot of things.
The funny part about the overbidding was, my friend Jesse who orchestrated the whole trip watched hours and hours of the show before we left. While standing in line, he said to never bid a whole number, always round down to 99. So, when this fridge went up, the kid turned to look at Jesse who shouted "$1100!". Had Jesse remembered his own advice, and yelled $1099, not only would the kid have won the round, but an extra $100 for guessing the price right on.
Factoid #10: I'm Scuba Certified
In Feb 2009 my parents took all the kids on a Royal Caribbean Cruise to the Western Caribbean. It was an amazing vacation. A few months previous my older brother Kurt had gotten himself Scuba Certified and went on a diving vacation to Cozumel, Mexico and Belize. So, since we were going to a few cool dive spots on the cruise he convinced a few of us to become PADI Certified Open Water Divers. The course wasn't too tricky, Ryan Reynolds from Scuba Ted's in Springville was our instructor and he was awesome. We did our Open Water Dives at the Bonneville Seabase (which I won't be returning to) and a natural hot water spring clear down in Fillmore, Utah. As of February 3, 2009 I became officially certified. I've since done a few dives in Grand Caymen and Cozumel and it was incredible!
This is the name badge that I wore as a missionary in Japan, as well as my passport. I was there from August 1998 to August 2000, in the Nagoya/Chubu region. I've been back once and want to go back again!
The picture in this picture is me in High School, playing for the American Fork High School Marching Band. My Junior year we played at the Grand Nationals competition in Indiana and took 14th place in the Finals. It was awesome!
In January 2009 I became a PADI certified Scuba Diver, and I'm totally hooked! These are some scuba tanks I took while in Cozumel on a dive adventure.