What is something most people don’t know about me?
I’m having a hard time answering this one. I’m pretty much an open book to those around me, and to everyone else, man, I’d imagine they don’t know anything about me, lol.
I know people have expressed surprise to me when learning about my family makeup; that I grew up with just my mom, never met my biological father, got adopted by the man my mom married—Jon Heinichen—and they had two children together: Scott and Russell. Then we adopted my cousin, Seth, who was in foster care up in Washington state at the time. And then my brother Russell completed suicide at age 17 back in 2006. So, yeah. My nuclear family is an unconventional one, which is what I’ve heard from a couple people, actually. So, maybe that counts?
Yeah—I’ll go with the fact that most people don’t know that I was actually born Ira Edward Miller, named after my great-grandfather, my mom’s grandpa, who she was very close to. I didn’t take on the name Heinichen until I started school, which was after my mom got married, and I guess they wanted (or, maybe I wanted? I don’t remember) my last name to match the rest of the family’s. I didn’t actually legally change my last name until I was 18, and I wasn’t actually adopted by Jon Heinichen until I was in my late 20s. But I am now.
Beyond that. Ooof. I bet there is SO MUCH you don’t know about me. Like, probably, that I was an actor before I was a writer. That I grew up on four acres of forest land in far Northern California where the redwoods were my playground and I stopped and peed wherever I wanted to whenever I had to go. That I grew up with a German Shepard named Merle who was my best friend, or that I helped organize the first-ever Sci-Fi convention in Eureka, my home town, or that I was pretty good at baseball, or that it took me TEN YEARS to propose to my wife, god bless her, or that I actually started nursing school up at Humboldt State University (as it was called back then) before switching to theater school down at Cal State Fullerton.
Lots of things.
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I took a twenty mile bike ride today, lol! I didn’t know it was going to be that long, but the weather was perfect for it and work was suuuuuper slow, so I got all my work done and then bugged out a bit early to go and finally ride all the way down to the end of the Chandler bike path. It ends earlier than I thought it did. I thought it actually went all the way across the 5 freeway to the downtown area, but no. It stops well short of that, actually. Anyway, it’s about an hour out and an hour back, almost exactly, from where we live. Ten miles each way, again, almost exactly. It’s all flat, too, which makes it pretty easy, even though there was some breeze on the way back. Makes me want an electric bike sooooo baaadddd. But, I’m afraid that’s a ways off. I know the one I want, though: the Turbo Vado SL2 Carbon by Specialized. That sweet-ass baby is $4,500, lol. WAY out of my price range right now (which, to be clear, is $0). Really fun ride though.
Cool, gray day. Really lovely for a ride. Enjoyed it very much. WIPED out. Time for bed.