7 Things About Me

I've been tagged a couple times now to reveal 7 things about myself. It's easier for me to write about food than it is to write about myself, but here goes.

1. I'm a terrible procrastinator, which is probably why it has taken me so long to get around to doing this. As my dad would say, " If it weren't for the last minute, I wouldn't get anything done."

2. Brian is my middle name. My first name is James. If you happen to have the opportunity to name a child, please give them the name you will be calling them as a first name. Going by my middle name has caused more than a few headaches over the years.

3. I climbed Mt. St Helens about three years ago. It was incredible to look right into the crater (behind me in the photo.) It was very impressive to see, up close, how much of the mountain was blown away in the 1980 eruption. If you have children, I would say at least 7 or 8 years old, you should check out Ape Cave which is also on Mt. St. Helens. Ape cave is a very long under ground lava tube that you can hike through. It's very cool.

4. I finally finished my Bachelor's degree this past March. I have to admit that I've never been a big fan of being in school. Education is important, I've just never liked school. After high school, I completed two Associate degree's. I have one for Fire Science and one for being a Paramedic. You see, my line of work requires more brawn than brain most of the time, so higher education is not a priority for most firefighters. However, completing my Bachelor's degree was a goal of mine that I wanted to accomplish for a long time. So here is the irony of my life; I've never liked school, yet I now have three college degrees. To top if off, I married a school teacher.

5. I have been in the fire service for ten years now. In that time, I've delivered a baby, pulled a man from a burning house, and saved more than one heart attack victim by administering CPR and shocking them back to life. So what did I do that landed me in an article for a fire and rescue magazine circulated nationwide? What photo of me was placed in a calendar about firefighters that was sold in malls across the country? I saved a cat and the photo above (I'm on the left) was placed into a calendar. You can even buy the picture online and no I won't provide a link. My partner and I were at a house fire when we were handed a cat suffering from smoke inhalation. We grabbed our oxygen kit and revived the cat. A man began taking pictures of us administering oxygen to the cat. I thought he was a local reporter but he was actually a photographer for a national firefighting magazine.

6. I basically grew up in two different towns. My parents moved around a bit when I was younger. I was born in Puyallup, Washington, near Seattle but I spent my formative years from about age 6-13 in Aberdeen, Washington and from 13-19 in Pendleton, Oregon. Both Aberdeen and Pendleton are small towns, about 18,000 people each. Aberdeen is full of depressed loggers and Pendleton is full of depressed cowboys, they're quite similar.

7. My wife and my daughter are my whole world.

Well, there you have it, a fascinating look into who I am. Thank you to everyone who has read / commented on my blog thus far. I am really enjoying getting to know so many of you out there.
Take care,
Brian