Five Things You Might Not Have Known About Me

1. My favourite colour is Orange. When I was a wee lad I wanted a favourite colour that was not an obvious choice. I often go for the underdog. So I picked orange which was bright and friendly but not as popular as blue or red.

2. I originally cheered for the Montreal Canadians before I knew what hockey was because my Aunt Jolene cheered for them, and later as a kid I cheered for the Calgary Flames. Yes, I started cheering for them the year before the year they won the cup. Then as a teenager I switched to the Toronto Maple Leafs (sad I know, but I didn't know better and I liked cheering for the underdog... and the Leafs are always the underdogs). Finally, after living in Ottawa as I started university I switched loyalties to the Ottawa Senators where they lie now.

3. I played organized hockey growing up but had to quit because my lower back killed me when I was skating hard. I played organized baseball but found it quite boring and frustrating since I was not an athletic child.

4. As I grew up, I reached an age as a young teenager where I could stay home alone during the summer and after school. But I was terrified of being downstairs for any length of time when I was alone. The house creaked like there was someone upstairs and it quite frankly freaked me out. I had an overactive imagination you see, and the noise from the house settling set my mind racing even though I knew there was no one there. In a similar vein, as an older teenager/young adult I could not stand the idea of swimming alone, my mind convinced something was going to happen even though logically I knew that swimming in the shallow end at 17-18 years of age to cool off was very safe.

5. I was always the second oldest in class when I went to public school at Addison because my birthday in February put me at the edge of the cut off for starting kindergarten and when I was evaluated the educators decided I needed another year off before starting. There was one other student a month and a half older than me but I don't know why she started a year later.