Years ago, my friend Kate sent me a message entitled “25 Things” via Facebook. It included a list of 25 random facts about her and a request for me to reciprocate.
I suspect it was a meme of some sort at the time.

I made my list as requested and posted it online, too. But I also held onto it, recognizing that it was supremely valuable. It contained stories I had never told. Personal anecdotes worth sharing at the right moment. Oddities that I had forgotten until asked to remember.

1. I once owned a pet raccoon.

2. I haven’t thrown up since 1983 on the Music Express at the now-defunct Rocky Point Amusement Park.

3. I was once homeless for about six weeks before being taken in by a family of Jehovah's Witnesses and sharing a room with their pet goat.

4. I met illusionist David Blaine at a charity event and repeated a story so he could record my performance on his phone. Then he performed a magic trick for me and a New Yorker reporter that convinced me he's made a deal with the devil. Then he gave me his business card, with his contact information embedded in a playing card — the king of diamonds.

5. Touching cotton balls is like nails on a chalkboard for me.

6. I was once unknowingly fed my pet rabbit by a girlfriend’s father.

7. A small band of cowards tried to get me fired from my teaching job by writing a letter comparing me to the Virginia Tech mass murderer and constructing a 36-page packet of my blog posts — deliberately taken out of context — then mailing the letter and packet to the Board of Education, Human Resources, and 250 families in my school district.

8. I have died twice before being revived both times by paramedics — bee sting and head-on collision.

9. Despite my many injuries, I have never been bruised. The same is true for my brother.

10. I asked my wife to marry me at the top of the staircase in Grand Central, with more than two dozen friends and family secretly looking on.

11. I’m left-handed but play many sports right-handed or with both hands.

12. I grew up outside of Boston but am a Yankees fan because I hated my stepfather, who was a diehard Sox fan.

13. I am a wedding DJ and non-religious minister who marries couples, works as a substitute minister in Unitarian churches, and performs baby naming ceremonies.

14. I have entered four lip sync contests and placed first, second, third, and last.

15. As a drummer in my high school’s championship marching band, I marched in the Rose Bowl, the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade, and down Main Street USA in Disneyland.

16. I was a district champion pole vaulter in high school.

17. I was once lost in the White Mountains of New Hampshire for almost two days.

18. I was carried from my burning home as a child by a firefighter.

19. I grew up on a horse farm and rode horses almost daily until my parents divorced.

20. My favorite food is ice cream cake, followed closely by hot dogs.

21. I was robbed at gunpoint and knifepoint on two separate occasions.

22. I worked as a McDonald’s manager throughout high school and college.

23. I competed in underground Vietnamese arm wrestling tournaments in the basement of an abandoned elementary school as a part of a larger illegal gambling ring.

24. I was arrested, jailed, and on trial for a crime I did not commit.

25. I was suspended from school for "inciting riot upon myself."