44 Years Old, 44 Random Facts

1. I was born in Halifax on Oct. 24, 1969, the youngest of Garth and Patricia Reyno’s six children (three boys, three girls).
2. I am the exact same age as former major league pitcher Arthur Rhodes.
3. When he saw me after I was born, my father said, “Take him back, he looks like a skinned rabbit.”
   

   Not a skinned rabbit.

4. My earliest memory is my mom giving me a bath in the kitchen sink.
5. Or 4a: I remember the late afternoon sun shining in from the window at my right, and I was very happy to be in the sink. If I could have, I would have said, “Cool!”
6. I would not want to own, lease, or borrow a haunted car. Can you imagine driving down the road and all of the sudden a ghost beeps your horn?
7. I dislike really long paragraphs and really small print.
8. Since my childhood home was always stacked with junk food, Halloween was an inconvenience for me. Why dress up, go out in the cold and collect crap, then come home and eat it — when I could eliminate the middleman and stay home and eat the crap we already had?
9. I was raised staunch Irish Catholic, to the point where for two years my mother had me skip a grade in religion class, since I’d supposedly learned so much at home.
10. I now have an unshakable faith that everything happens for no reason.
11. If I think I have a stain on my pants (usually coffee), I always check slowly and gingerly, as if that will somehow make the stain disappear or not exist.
12. The first concert I ever saw was Joe Walsh opening for Foreigner at the Halifax Metro Centre, I think it was 1995.
13. If I may (and it’s my blog, plus it’s my birthday, so damn straight I may), my favourite self-penned Facebook status is: “I know life is what you make it, but it can’t be all my fault.”
14. When I was about four, I saw one of my sisters shaving her legs in the tub. So I thought I’d give it a go. After the scabs healed: Smooth as silk.
15. I dip my fries in my frosty when I go to Wendy’s.
16. When I had my tonsils and adenoids removed in the summer after Grade 4, they had to give me two needles to put me out.
17. When I had my wisdom teeth removed in my late 20s, I woke up before the dentist was done hauling. I tried to tell him, “That wasn’t so bad,” while he was still digging in my mouth.
18. I have one tattoo, an exclamation point on my right shoulder. I got it when I was entertainment editor at a Halifax newspaper. We did a spread on tats and I wrote a first-hand account of getting one.
    

    ?

19. I don’t think I’ll get another tattoo.
20. Hahahahahahahahaha! The other day I was trying on pants at the Gap and I grabbed a pair that had a 32-inch waist! Hahahahahahahahaha!
21. My last name is pronounced Ray-no. But everyone at home says Rhino, so that’s how I pronounce it (plus it rhymes with albino wino).
22. I played on the Herring Cove Junior High soccer team in Grade 9 and had two own goals.
23. I’ve read James Joyce’s Ulysses twice. That Irish Catholic stuff sure sticks around.
24. I bawled my eyes out when I saw Titanic. But in my defence … Jack and Rose were just starting their life together!
25. I will always love the smell of Liquid Paper.
26. Two summers ago I was playing my mandolin in my living room in London, Ont., when a bat flew up from the basement. I clubbed it with my mandolin.
27. When I hold a door for someone, I always say, “You’re welcome,” regardless of whether they thank me.
28. Really high heels creep me out.
29. I’m terrible with names. Not that I mistreat them; I just can’t remember them.
30. I always have a book on the go. If I’m not enjoying what I’m reading, I’ll buy a book I’m excited about to inspire me to hurry up and finish the bad one.
31. I never wear sunglasses. Who am I to deny God’s gift of squinting?
32. I got my first grey hair when I was about 15.
33. Once I was in a Mexican restaurant in San Francisco and had a little accident while I was at table.
34. I won a contest in junior high when I fit 22 marshmallows in my mouth.
35. TV shows I’ve never seen: Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones. I have no explanation for this; I hear they’re all great shows. When are they on?
36. My weirdest habit has to be book-sniffing. I think it stems from the stencil days in grade school.
37. Having said that, I have a very poor sense of smell.
38. I’d rather people meet than people watch.
39. I’m sure I have food allergies, but I won’t get tested because I’m afraid I’ll have to give up all the deliciousness.
40. I celebrated my 23^rd birthday at the Philadelphia Spectrum with my brother Leonard, watching the Flyers lose to Montreal. When we returned to his apartment in Baltimore, he turned on the TV: Dave Winfield and the rest of the Toronto Blue Jays were rolling around on the Atlanta field, celebrating their first World Series championship.
41. I’m 44 years old. I don’t miss having to rewind tape from a cassette by repeatedly rotating a pencil in one of the cassette holes.
42. I’m 44 years old. I never did read all the Mr. Men books.
    

    Not George Clooney.

43. I’m 44 years old. My arm hurts, my foot hurts, sometimes I sweat the small stuff, and I don’t sleep very well. But I’m all right.
44. I’m 44 years old. I am still younger than George Clooney.