25 random things, facts, habits or goals about me.

I got this thing that said:

You are supposed to write a note with 25 (or thereabouts) random things, facts, habits or goals about you.

So I thought I'd give it a whirl. Let me know what you think.

1- I've never been farther east than Denver, Colorado, but I've been to 9 states, and lived in 6 of them. I think that's all about to change though because I'm flying to Baltimore to drive my Mother-in-law and all her stuff back to Utah from Washington D.C. during the second week of February. My two ventures outside of our country was to Tijuana, Mexico and Alberta, Canada each for less than 12 hours. So I haven't even been out of the country for an entire day.

2- Because I moved around so much, I went to 9 different elementary schools, 1 middle school, 1 Jr. High, and 1 High School. By the time I got into High School, I moved in with my grandparents. I was determined to go to the same high school all the way through. It was rough going to so many schools. As soon as I would make good friends and start to get comfortable in my surroundings, we would pack up and move again, and I'd have to start all over again as the new kid in school. I guess that's why I've never had a problem finding friends. It was either that, or be a loner all through grade school.

3- I've been married 3 times, (some of you already know this) but I married my first wife twice. We were much better as friends. They say third times the charm, for me it is. Truthfully, I realized what I really wanted in a life-long partner, and waited until she came along, I just didn't think it would be someone I had already known. I have never felt this way about another woman before, and the day Rachel and I got married, was one of the happiest days of my life. (definitely top 3).

4- I've written a book (more of a guide really) called, "So You Wanna Get Married, Huh?" So far I've managed to sell about 35 copies. It's a book of universal truths that nobody ever tells you about, you end up having to learn them after you've been married, which is where I gleaned the information in this book. My previous 2 marriages taught me a lot about tying the knot. If you want a copy, I still have about 200 copies to sell. LOL

5- I broke up with my girlfriend and got a new date to my Senior Prom just hours before the dance. There was 2 great reasons for this: 1) I was avoiding asking my girlfriend, because I was planning on breaking up with her, but I was having a hard time finding a date, and she was expecting me to ask when really, I was just trying to find a way to get out of the relationship all together. 2) I had asked a certain gal to dances before, only to find out she had a date like 3 months in advance. At the Senior assembly, I sat next to her and found out that remarkably she had not been asked to go with anybody, and this was my last chance. My friend John Ricks was sitting with me in the assembly, and knew my predicament. He asked me what I was going to do, and I told him he would have to see who I showed up with at the prom. When I walked in with the gal from the assembly and not my (ex) girlfriend, he was stunned, and quite frankly, so was I.

6- I've written 4 screenplays. Only 2 are prepared for the screen now, so if you know anyone looking for a good script to turn into a movie, send them my way. Actually the last one I co-wrote with my brother in law, and we'd like to shoot it ourselves, but we're short of fundage right now, but please feel free to let us know if you would be willing to donate to the cause, and we'll see if we can set something up for it.

7- I have a forked tongue. Well, not really, but I can make it fork so that I can whistle really loud without using my hands.

8- All the way up to my 18th birthday, when I blew out the candles on my birthday cake, I wished that I could fly like Superman. I never told anyone either, and it still never happened. Whoever said that it won't come true if you tell was full of it!

9- I'm in the opening scene of the movie Boogie Nights. I had no idea what the film was about until my 3rd day on the set. I knew my parents would be proud after I learned that it was about a porn star with a huge member. If you look for me, I'm like the 3rd person in line waiting to get into the club when Julianne Moore and Burt Reynolds pull up in their car to go inside. At that time in my life, I had hair down to the middle of my back. Don't bother looking for me in the rest of the movie. I was in some other scenes, but I'm so far in the background, or I'm like 2 feet out of the picture.

10- I hate not having my watch on. I wear my watch all the time, sometimes even to bed. We don't have an alarm clock in our room, so when Noah wakes up in the middle of the night, I like to be able to look at my wrist and know at what ungodly hour he's interrupting my sleep, so I can torture him later when he's a teenager and I can get even. Besides, my watch was given to me as a birthday present from my lovely wife when we were dating. She had it inscribed, and it's got a ton of sentimental value to me.

11- I once left my watch as collateral at a cowboy boot store, so that I could borrow 3 pairs of authentic cowboy boots worth about $450 for a skit I was asked to perform within 2 hours. The skit was awesome, and we got lots of compliments on the boots.

12- I like to cook. In fact I cook about 90% of my families dinners.

13- I can solve a Rubik's cube in less than 3 minutes.

14- I'm really good at starting things. Coming up with great ideas. My self assessment has revealed that I lack at getting things finished. The hard part for me has been implementing these ideas and taking action on them. That is one of my goals this year. To take action! So I'm not really going to care so much how pretty or perfect the idea is. It will never come to life if I don't take some kind of action to bring it to life, even if it turns out at 75% of what I expect it to be, it's still something. And I don't know who said it, but it's fitting "If you fall on your face, at least you're moving forward." How very true, and 75% of something is better than 100% of nothing.

15- I'm a total night owl. I stay up most nights until 12:30, but I succeed at getting to bed at 11:30 from time to time. On weekends the wife and I sometimes stay up til 2AM, but it really hurts the next day because for some unknown reason, our nearly two year old, Speed, is waking up at the butt-crack of dawn. I'm lucky if I can sleep past 7:30 on the weekends.

16- I've personally trained my blue-tick Beagle "Callie" how to perform over a dozen tricks on command (of course I have to have a treat in hand or she won't budge) including Roll Over, High-Five, Dance, and her best performed, highly dramatic, Play Dead.

17- I'm into the "Green Movement". I really believe that every single one of us can make a difference on this planet, and in what we leave behind for our children. I'm a little perturbed that in my little cul-de-sac, I am one of 3 out of 8 neighbors who puts out the recycle bin for collection, and that I only take my garbage to the street every 2 weeks. I think some people don't care, but in reality I think it's more that they just don't know. So here is a little tidbit. Did you know that 40% of landfills consist of paper that could have been recycled? Or this one: It cost's 90% more money to mine and refine aluminum than it does to recycle it. There is plenty more where that came from, but I'll stop now.

18- I've been a bartender ever since I was 22 despite having an alcoholic for a father. The amazing thing is, I know how to whip up a tasty drink, but I can count on one hand how many times I've been drunk in the past 3 years. Some of you may have known that, the bartending part, but not all knew that I worked most of those years slinging drinks at a gay bar. There will be no coming out the closet for me. I am comfortable enough with my own sexuality to know that I'm not gay, but I don't have anything against the gay boys or girls. They really know how to party, they are great tippers, and there is rarely ever a fight at a gay bar. Not to mention that while I worked in a crowd of people that was 98% male, the females that did come were usually smokin' hot. Let's just say, that I went home with more hot straight women's phone numbers in my pocket on gay nights than on non-gay nights. Plus it was never dull, I always saw something different every night that I worked.

19- I really enjoy coaching youth sports! I've only played baseball on two official teams in my life, but I've coached youth soccer for the past 8 years, both recreational and competitive teams. I also tried my hand at coaching Jr. Jazz one season. I was assigned a team that lost every single game the previous season, and we won 8 straight games before losing the last 2. I was really proud of that team for coming together. I've only had a child of my own on 6 out of the 12 teams that I've coached, so I'm definitely doing it for the love of sport. I get excited about seeing them improve throughout the season. I think I'll be taking on a 4th grade baseball team this spring due to the Kiddo branching out and trying a new sport.

20- I am a happily married man. My wife and I have been crossing paths over the past 13 years. I'm so glad we finally had some decent timing and I was able to move to Utah so I could marry her in front of my family and friends. Now more than 2 and a half years of marriage, and I love her more now than the day we said, "I do."

21- I love the outdoors! I love to mountain bike, go camping, hiking. I used to love to go rock climbing until I got banned from it by the wife, but hey, what can I say, she loves me.

22- I have never bowled a game above 200. I've been really close a few times, but I don't go often enough to get there. Maybe I'll cross that threshold on the Wii soon though.

23- I was in the Jazz Choir and Madrigals singing groups in my high school. I'm still not really sure how I made it really. I couldn't tell you what note to sing without doing the Every Good Boy Does Fine, and FACE. I just blended really well. I think it's was all that singing in the car my Mom and I did when I was a kid. Because of that, I've been known to belt out some beauties at Karaoke Night.

24- Every day I'm thankful to be alive. My mother gave birth to me at the tender age of 15, and has taken care of me mostly on her own. We ended up growing up together through life, and I'm thankful that she brought me into this world and did everything she could to take care of me growing up into who I am today.

25- I'm dedicating 2009 to getting into the best shape of my life. I'm ready to push my body through the aches and pains of starting up a new exercise regime. I don't think I'll do any Marathons this year, but I might just hike to a few peaks this summer.

So you can either take this upon yourself to write your own 25 list. And if that seems to daunting for you, do a 16 list. But don't feel pressured by me.

Sharing time

This is from a journal entry I wrote last night. Enjoy.

HA HA HA! :) I laugh as I look at my watch to figure out what the date is. For posterity sake - It's January 13th 2009.

I'm watching the damn History Channel and "The Universe" is on. This silly show just blows my mind every time. And while I'm in an entranced and enchanted (read: sucked in/duped/slapped in the face/punched in the gut) sort of way, I really realized how very lucky and fortunate I am to even be living and breathing in this insane, chaotic, unpredictable, AMAZING Universe, let alone the Galaxy, or even the life sustaining, free thinking, fast moving, communicative, goal chasing, hard working, insanely great feeling baby making, ever progressing, always learning, critical decision making, creative and daring, colorful and melodic life this planet has to offer. I am thankful to be able to love and enjoy the people who love and enjoy me, and to be able to plant my foot, raise my flag, scream from the highest mountain, take care of my family, and not worry that my neighbor is trying to take what I love away. Oh, that and I'm thankful that we have a good Jupiter in our Solar System that protects us from all the outside bad shit that could wipe each and every one of us out in two minutes, and there is nothing we could do about it. Thanks History Channel.
Be thankful that you have the eyes to be able to read this, and a brain to understand it (maybe). I'm just thankful I have the wherewithal to be able to write it in the first place. I'm thankful that I even have a place in this Universe to be able to live out this life, which begs the question:
Why the fuck do we (and I say "we" as in the entire Human Race) need to be fighting in wars with one another?
How hilarious it would be if some old planet near our solar system blows up and sends a "cosmic burp"thanks to HC right at us and blows the atmosphere clean off the face of our planet! Those men with guns pointed at one another better start laughing soon because there wouldn't be enough oxygen to make it past 2 minutes, and they'll barely have time to wonder what the hell happened. Let alone what they were even fighting for. In the words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"

Enjoy this life! It's that simple. Oh, and another thing, be nice to one another, and other people will be nice to you. Because the truth is, we are all miracles! Each and every one of us.

Do whatever it takes to do these two things and you will live with a smile on your face, and hopefully a ton of laughter. I love this life! I wouldn't want to be any other place than where my wife is and where our children are, wherever that may be on this one-of-a-kind planet, in the great free-thinking and innovative nation of the United States of America. Why do you think so many people have (and still do) immigrated to this country? I feel incredibly lucky to be here, where I am at this moment and that I have a mind that can figure out a way through many things in this life, but not anything beyond it. So I'll choose to enjoy my life today, tomorrow, and always - RIGHT NOW!

So it's officially 2009

Good bye 2008, and hello 2009. You know, in all honesty, 2008 was a pretty good year for me and my family. No broken bones, doing much better financially, and we got a new bed right at the end of the year. I'm really looking forward to this year. I think this is exactly the time for me to kick it into high gear and really start going for my dreams. I've been doing a little personal education, and I'm going to start a study group this month. We're going to be reading "Think and Grow Rich" by Napolean Hill. I think that this is exactly what I need. A personal study group of people who are looking to better their life. I don't want anyone attending to try and recruit people to join their MLM or even for the group to say what company they work for. I just want them all to be people who are skilled and have some brains, and are creative, and for us all to help collaborate and help each other with their ideas and help encourage them to keep pursuing their dreams. I think it's easier to do when you have people like that backing you up and holding you accountable for your actions. This year my theme is going to be, Improving my life in more ways than one! I know that sounds pretty basic and simple, but I don't think I've ever consciously thought about it every day. Things improve in my life, but I don't always see a daily progress towards improvement, hell sometimes I don't even see a weekly improvement. Not so this year. It's going to be on my mind everyday. I'm so thankful that I have today to do something that will get me closer to my dreams becoming a reality. I'm tired of barely making ends meet. Now is the time to make something happen. I found this quote by Ray Bradbury - "You've got to jump off cliffs all the time, and build your wings on the way down." Of course when he said this, he was pertaining to getting into a relationship, but I think it's fitting for many things. You can't just stand at the top of the cliff and work on making your wings so you can eventually jump. Otherwise you'll second guess yourself and find excuses to not jump. If you just jump, now you'll have to take some kind of action to build those wings.