Wednesday, January 28, 2009

25 Things About Me - I finally caved and did it.

• I ran away from home and headed for the Florida Keys at 17 with my best friend Matt. The plan was to become fishermen while living in my ’82 tie-dyed Volvo and making extra money by playing our guitars on the streets. We got stopped in Daytona for a broken taillight and were detained for a few days in Juvie until our parents felt like we learned a lesson and drove down to pick us up. I had the time of my life and would do it again.
• I found a dead body floating in the Atlantic while walking the coast with my father at 14. The guy was a friend of my grandfather’s and had shot himself in the head because he found out earlier that day that he had an inoperable brain tumor.
• Of the numerous jobs I’ve held over the years, I learned my most valuable skills about business, character, integrity, persuasion, patience, ethics, and perseverance while working at a crooked telemarketing company with open drug use and ex-con coworkers. I was 17.
• I was shot in the neck with a BB gun in middle school. The BB is just below my Adam’s Apple and you can see it if you look carefully. I’ve never had it removed because I’m scared of a doctor taking a scalpel to my throat.
• My sweetest times of worship and communion with my Savior are when I’m driving alone.
• I sometimes make faces in front of my bathroom mirror for as long as an hour because it cracks me up.
• I sleep with a small blue pillow that I’ve had since sixth grade. It goes with me on road trips and sleepovers.
• I never cried a single tear over my father’s death, yet miss him and think about him constantly. His cremains are in a cardboard box under my bathroom sink.
• I have a half-sister. Her name is Jamie, she’s 19, and the daughter of my father’s fifth ex-wife. I have no idea where she is and haven’t seen her in years. I usually tell people that I’m an only child because it’s easier than explaining.
• I think about my future wife, pray for her occasionally, and wonder what it will feel like when we lock eyes for the first time.
• Passion spills from my pen onto the pages of my various journals faster, easier, and with more clarity than I could ever express in any other way.
• I have no idea what I’m doing and I’m absolutely convinced that I am cheating at the whole Adulthood thing. I’m perfectly content with that, too.
• My mother was once a professional nude model and later owned a successful modeling agency in Atlanta. She also lived with a drug lord boyfriend in Peru in the 70’s.
• My heart yearns to travel and fully comes alive on the open road. I travel best alone.
• I still have the leftover popcorn, ticket stubs, change, receipt, a Polaroid picture, and a hand written note from my first date. I was in second grade at the time. The popcorn still looks fresh.
• I was suspended in second grade for defending myself against a group of bullies with a large cleaver. It was in my own front yard but considered an extension of school property because of the bus stop on the corner. (The bullies didn’t bother me after that day.)
• My greatest fear is living a life of mediocrity and leaving no legacy or mark on the world. My second greatest fear is snakes.
• Due to the way my mother raised me, I’m the most physically affectionate person you’re likely to meet.
• I was brainwashed as a child and was forced to listen to the oldies radio station against my will. Music from the 50/60’s became my favorite music and I listen to an oldies channel to this day as often as I can.
• Serial killers and the like fascinate me. I like to read the profiles of murderers – especially unusual bits such as their last meal requests before they’re executed.
• My favorite bands are Weezer and Dave Matthews, in that order. Their music has gotten me through the harshest winters of life’s cruelty.
• My youth pastor and I spent a summer building the outside baptismal at Calvary Chapel Stone Mountain. I’ve played guitar in summer concerts on it (it doubles as an outside stage). My Jewish father was baptized in it shortly after he accepted Jesus as Messiah at 60 years old. He and I got matching Malachi 4:6 tattoos earlier that day to celebrate.
• My grandfather was one of the wealthiest men in Florida from the 1940’s till the 1970’s. I’ve seen a picture of him arm-in-arm with Al Capone, who was one of his close friends.
• I cry often and easily but rarely in front of anyone.
• My favorite places in the world to be: standing in front of a group of people and teaching from the Bible, in a quiet coffee shop with a journal and pen in hand, in the arms of the woman I love, on my face before the Lord in worship, setting out for an adventure that has yet to be determined, basking in awe of God’s beautiful creation, and getting lost in the eyes of anyone who inspires me.