Rex Ricks:  

Life I have had quite an interesting life. I was born in Germany on an army base. Moved to San Diego when I was one. Then at 5 years old I lived in HB. However, I am only geographically from "The OC". I am not emotionally, culturally, or spiritually connected to it. I had no control over where I grew up. I wish my parents would move out of there, so I would never have to visit there again! However, I very much do enjoy living in Nor Cal. I am in a small town in the Sierra Foothills where we have lots of trees, deer and other critters. We even get snow too! =) I have ran five marathons. I have met Bill Clinton......TWICE!!! I am newly married and never thought I would be. But then again I never thought I would see the Boston Red Sox win a World Series in my lifetime. LOL! I love to travel and have been to over 30 states. Other (in)famous people I have met include Barbara Boxer, Leon Panetta, Dan Quayle, James Hetfield & Lars Ulrich (Metallica), Slash of Guns N' Roses, Ian Astbury of The Cult. I have seen well over 100 concerts/gigs in my life. School To be honest, I do not wax nostalgic for high school or beyond. But I would like to connect with some people from the past simply to see what they have been up to. But when I was in high school, I majored in partying, punk/speed metal, and cross country. I never did dream I would ever go to college, let alone earn a degree. In my sr. season of cross country we were undefeated in league. But we lost in the championship meet, even though I ran a personal best! It was bittersweet! But I was so unhappy over 2nd place, that I did not attend the end of season banquet. I come to find out I would have won "most improved", but a personal trophy could not negate the agony of losing first place. I think I know how Jerry West feels. Anyways these daze, I am much happier being old versus being young. When one is a teen there is much pressure to conform, fit in, and find the right clique. I made waaaaay too much effort to try to "cool" or "hip". I was simply putting on a front in hopes of fitting in or trying to be popular. I even threw a wild toga party in my jr. year where over 300 people showed up to utterly disrespect and trash my house. All so that I could try to be "cool". Today there is NOT one person I talk to who attended that infamous event. So, screw being cool. If I am a dork, nerd, geek, misfit or whatever, then I am what I am. I am secure in my own skin. I am happy with who I am. It is nice to have NO PRESSURE of trying to have a certain image. For those who can accept me as is, then great. If not, then find someone else who can please you. College I have been to numerous colleges. For Jr. College I attended Goldenwest, and OCC . (I have an AA with honors from GWC.) Then, I spent one year as a business major at Long Beach state. I even pledged a frat and got booted within a week. (I was too wild for them! I literally put the animal in "Animal House") I bailed on the state school in the LBC because it was a boring commuter school. I then went to UC Santa Barbara and majored in Environmental Studies. But I partied way too hard there. Many people did or do academics in their spare time. One of the funnest things I did there was go to Grateful Dead shows in Vegas. There were TONS of people from UCSB out there. (IV was a ghost town on those weekends.) Probably, the craziest thing I did in college was hitchhike from Sacramento to Santa Barba...Expand for more