The Price of Admission

I'm 25, halfway to 50 or better yet, a quarter of a century old. That being said, I heard something this morning in a men's locker room that made so much sense. "My 40 year old body should stop listening to my 15 year old mind". Let's dissect that for a minute.

I had just finished throwing up in a trash can and felt like I was about to pass out. I thought I had prepared fairly well leading up to the 45 minutes I spent trying to get my "sea legs" legs back out there on the ice. I thought that Jillian Michaels was going to take better care of me after 3 levels of home work outs, but then again, I probably can't hold her accountable for the Caramel White Mocha's from Starbucks that are a million calories each. Or the Cheesy Gordita Crunches from Taco Bell that comes with a side of "You're Going to Regret This Someday" either...So there I was. Light headed, but freshly showered as I had been the first off the ice.

The gentleman that made the comment was almost twice my age and by the sound of his phone calls, probably worked in construction. Out on the rink, he played well with fast and heavy strides, a good shot and what seemed like plenty of gas in the tank. I thought to myself, "This has to get better." You see, I walked out on hockey during my junior year in high school. I wasn't getting the ice time as a rookie on a team full of senior players. If you don't already know, hockey is probably the most expensive sport to play for kids and adults alike, so I figured I'd save myself the frustration and my parents the money and throw in the towel to pursue a love of music and play in a band. That was it. My pads stayed dormant for years while a thin layer of rust would accumulate on the blades of my skates. I had turned a corner and wouldn't circle back to that street for a long time...

So that was vintage me. Circa 2002-2003. This is 2011 and the slightly heavier, certainly fluffier, more hair in stranger places version of me feels like the bottom of my skates: dull and rusty! Today was the first day I'd played organized ice hockey in over 5 years (a brief skate in college in 05 barely counts). It was almost like riding a bike. The smells, the atmosphere in the locker room brought back that old nostalgia of my memory as a 15 year old. Forty five minutes later came the reality that my 25 year old body was trying to sync with it's memorial pal which wasn't quite working. A year ago, I joined an inline hockey league here in Nashville. I don't know if that really helped me or hindered my play on ice. First of all, that style of play is 100 times slower. You physically can't do anything as hard as you can on the ice. Once I slowed my expectations to let my muscle memory come back, I did alright. I made some nice defensive plays, and assisted on a goal. No rookie of the year, but like I said, I held my own. I'm really looking forward to getting out there again and playing a little harder and little longer. I'll get it back. At 5'6" I'm no future NHLer but I hope at age 56 the hockey in me is still burning just as strong.

Hockey at 6am: $10. Tape for stick: $4. The realization that your body doesn't just take care of itself: priceless.

When the flip did we get ice cream?!?!

Jonny Knoxville plays a desperate man trying to come up with some quick cash in order to help the lawn care man at his apartment complex (which he employed and promised health insurance). He now has to try to pay for a surgery to save the mans fingers that were ironically removed in an accident with a push mower. How does Mr. Knoxville attempt to do this? Well, after a little visit from his even more desperate, gambling uncle, together they decide to rig the special Olympics. (I know...this sounds awful). The movie ends up giving you some serious laughs, some very endearing moments, and the line, "When the flip did we get ice cream?"

Now let's snap back to reality a moment. Where flip, (pardon the shout out) would we find this movie if we didn't own it and wanted, to say, rent it as a cheap date in for movie night? Hmm...I don't know. Because if your city is anything like mine, you don't have video stores anymore. Oh sure, I could drive way out of my way to find one still in existence, but who has that kind of time? The question is, "Am I that excited to see a C movie at best?" Nope, just about talked myself out of wanting to do the whole "movie thing". But wait, isn't there this handy little kiosk that stands ever so humbly outside my neighborhood Walgreens, McDonald's, Kroger, and...Holy Shnikes how cool is that? There are all these places that all I have to do is create an account, put in my info, swipe my debit card, and viola! I now have just rented a flick of my choice for only a buck! Seriously? So then what? Well, simpletons, simply watch the disc you have rented and the next day, pop it back in not only that machine you rented it from, but ANY machine! That's right. How's that for convenience? Hmmm...are you still not buying this? Me either, and regretfully, I was once the biggest believer in what is now my mortal enemy: Redbox.

At first, I just knew this was the cutting edge in how technology. I mean, seriously, how easy is it to just go up to the thing, select the movie you want via touch screen, maybe even browse some "older titles", and watch as it spits out a neatly encased DVD decked out with the Redbox logo on it? Pretty smooth. Unless, you run into some common problems...Do you remember that old "insurance" plan you used to put on your DVD's and video games because you just knew that it didn't matter how many times you told your 7 year old that they don't dually serve as frisbees. And if he didn't end up chucking it around the house for a while your 14 year old daughter had 75 of her closest friends coming for an all night makeover and slumber party and just because she watched the movie with you the night before and you approved, wants to share it with her wet fingernail polish wearing, tweezer dropping girlfriends. Yeah, that's going to go through some pain and well, all because you are the responsible parent, you don't get charged out the wazoo for the scratches on your rental.

Forget it. Redbox wants to make it easy for you to have a movie going experience at home. Of course they won't ask you questions like, "Are you sure you can take responsibility for this dollar you are about to spend by not messing up the physical properties of this little piece of technological heaven? Just checking...Well then, have at it!" (Or in a few less words)...Their motto is three steps:

1. Find a movie

2. Swipe your credit or debit card (and enter an email address to receive the receipts)

3. Grab it and go!

Ok, never a big fan of "Play Guard" or whatever your store called it? I've got some more ammo in the tank and trust me, it's going to get used.

What about "R" rated movies? (I figure while were on the subject of responsibility I may as well keep it rolling. Wait, there's another "r" word. Wow. Forget it). But seriously. Our friends at Redbox assume and recommend that any user be at least 18 years of age. In fact, here's the effort our brilliant creators of convenience are. Let's just say you have decided to rent a "R" rated film. You select your movie, put it in your "cart" to "check out", and before asking you to swipe your card a blurb pops up that says something along the lines of, "Oh by the way, did you realize that the movie you are renting is rated 'R'? You did? Ok. Well, that's cool because you know that only legal adults 18 and older are supposed to be viewing most of the content on this disc and we believe that you probably are. I mean, why else would you have in hand the credit card you are about to swipe right? Nervous laugh. Totally. It's cool. In fact, I'm sorry I asked. Let's just forget this whole thing happened by pushing 'Proceed' and we can all just get on with our night."

How's that for accountability? You would think that the same person that is smart enough to invent a magic box that vends DVD's to practically anybody with some plastic and a pulse could at least have a way to check ID. I mean, they already have your card number which is the main artery for our finances. Why not throw down all the way by carding properly? I'm not suggesting finger printing or anything crazy but come on!

So as a recap we've have issues with consumer protection via "Play Guard" and a serious lack of parenting skills via the 18 and up policy. Great! You still with me, class?

When Redbox came out, I think I spoke about it several times to my parents, who are relatively hip to changes in society and technology. They, however, being in a more rural part of Michigan, didn't have a Redbox machine until maybe a year after my amusement with the concept had come and gone. I remember one night I was telling my dad who was standing at the kiosk talking to me on the phone that he needed to rent a particular movie. Well, he was scrolling through his options and could tell that the movie was there so after convincing that it was worth watching and that mom wouldn't be mad at him for getting it, he selected it and waited for it to vend. Usually after I excitedly recommend a movie for someone to watch, I'm pretty quick to follow up and see what they thought. So the next day, called my mom and asked if she liked it. She informed me that the movie that my dad got was not at all what I had recommended. I was a little puzzled. After all, I had been on the phone while Dad was getting it right? Mom continued and said that in the opening scene there was content that would make Hugh Hefner blush and I assured her that Dad had clearly selected the wrong movie. Mom said, "No honey, he swears up and down he picked the one you told him with no problem. That stupid machine probably just gave him a different one by mistake." Sadly this is not outside the realm of possibility...third strike Redbox and we have more batters to go to get out of this inning!

If you have a kiosk or double kiosk near you, here is my question. (I'll get to it shortly). Redbox to me is kind of like a vending machine for digital entertainment. It pretty much works just like a Coke machine or a snack machine. You see what you want, jump through a few little hoops to get it and boom. It comes out for you to enjoy at your convenience. Ok well, here's my point. I see people restocking vending machines all the time. The place where I work has a few of them and one of the more entertaining things that happens during a week is when the guy rolls in with his cart full of carbonated goodness and I just know that the one little section of Grape Fanta that has been lit up as "Unavailable" will now look just like every other option so that I may select it for drinkability. (Sorry. Apparently I am also passionate about my pop). My question? Have you ever seen anyone at all, working on/restocking/updating/fixing a Redbox? I have 10 within a half mile radius and I've got nothing. For all I know, they are like little DVD factories that just press whatever titles that particular machine is supposed to have like robots. And what about what I mentioned at the beginning of this novel? You know that you can take your rented DVD back and return it to any existing Redbox even if it's in another state! How does that not mess the flow of movie availability up? (Did that get your gears turning)? Ok I just opened another can...

AVAILABILITY

This is actually what ended up as the last straw. Last weekend, my wife and I and another friend wanted to watch a new release. So, naturally, we drive to our favorite Redbox location (the Walgreen's down the street from us) to check it out. Now I'm about to tell you a secret that's not really a secret but more like a mega convenience. We have iPhones. You probably know where I am about to go with this so yes, there is an app for Redbox. We have always relied on it to tell us which kiosks have the movie we want "in stock". If one doesn't have it, we locate the one that does and if it's far enough away, will even reserve the movie so we get there, can just swipe our card and it knows that we have a movie waiting for us at that location. This of course can end a multitude of ways so I will begin my story and it will be made known to you, why I hate this...this...Redbox.

As I said, we get to our favorite Redbox location and wouldn't you know, that in the excitement of deciding that we wanted the movie, I didn't check to see if it was available at that particular stand. We pull up and the place is packed. By that I mean there are people standing in a line about 6 people long to find some way to round out their Saturday night. Ok, well, we didn't even step foot out of the car. I checked the Redbox app and sure enough, the movie isn't even at this location. "No biggie", I thought. Like I said, there are about a million different kiosks within a half mile so I start checking all of the ones in order of the closest to farthest. Upon finding one that had the movie, I try to reserve it. "I'm getting wise to this process", I thought. No can do. Ok, now I was confused. It threw some wacky error code I've never seen and after I read through the mumbo jumbo, I translate that someone has already reserved the movie at that location. Darn. Ok, on to the next one. And the next one. And you know what? All this convenience is starting to tick me off. Where in the world can I just rent the dang movie? Finally after walking into a store where a kiosk was that supposedly had it according to my phone but then didn't show up on the kiosk itself, I had had enough. So for the price of a Blueray disc at the place I formerly rented movies from a physical person, I went home and purchased it on Demand from DirecTv. Stupid. What a waste. That was the moment I realized the importance and felt the void of our former video guy. I reminisced about the nights after work my wife and I would walk in and pick a movie after browsing and reading the backs of the copies in the store. We'd walk up to the counter only to have our guy at the counter say, "Come on, you know your money is no good here! Enjoy your night!" And just like that, we had a free movie. It wasn't really free though. It took time to build that relationship with the kid going to college and working 3 jobs barely hanging on to the movie gig just because he loves entertainment and the perks of free rentals himself. It took tons of rentals to get past the small talk like, "Oh man, this is a good choice!" to the respected advice of, "If you are having a hard time finding anything tonight, you guys should check out this movie. My girlfriend loved it!"

Great, now instead of harmless recommendations by our former "movie guy", we've got a flat screen that serves as a proverbial chalkboard with it's very own movie assignments on it. "Coming soon"...What's not coming soon is who the heck these Redbox people are. These things will just keep popping up and, guess what? In many cities, they are already the new standard in the way movies are rented. I have spent some time at the Redbox website and while it may be a new luxery for society to reserve a movie at a specific kiosk from your phone or the internet and only pay $1 for it, that's about it. We have a serious gap in the entertainment industry now. Redbox can be no substitute for a movie night. Great for college kids, quick picks, and cheap dates but this cannot be the new standard in movie rental.

Why, when all the movie stores started dropping like flies, did someone not say, "Huh, movies for a dollar a night! Genius! Let me get rid of some of my stock, (remember when you'd walk in to the movie store and you'd see over 50 copies of the same epic box office flop and just keep walking), and give the people what they want. I think there is still time for video store owners to wise up and get savvy. Seriously, nothing beats being able to buy your candy, rent games, find cult classics, and talk to someone at the same time. GET REAL HERE PEOPLE! If the new thing is HD why aren't these giant toasters popping out Blueray discs too? Hmmm...takers? Nope! Because it's all about profit and fast money for this company. There is LITERALLY no customer service involved. DVD's are cheap. If you don't return it, they've got your card. So as long as you have an email address on file, Redbox will kindly send you your receipts letting you know they've taken the liberty of charging your card again because, clearly, you must be enjoying that movie so much to be keeping it so many nights in a row. Humph! Movie for a buck. Duh? This makes me mad at video stores too! I remember getting something and having the cashier tell me, "That'll be due back on Friday." Ok, so that's cool, I paid $4.99 for this movie and I can watch it as many times as I want between now and then. What if, and I'm just spit balling here, I wanted to return that little ol' flick a good 4 days sooner? Could I only pay a dollar? And what about Blockbuster trying to get on the mail bandwagon and the "no due dates" trolley? LAME! If these guys didn't make it so completely obvious that they had zero marketing skills and subzero creativity, the public might've seen Redbox for the brain washing cyborgs they are.

Wow. Let's all just settle down. I AM CALM! Ahem! Ok. I've just ripped Redbox a new one. I am aware. So let's pump the brakes a second while I through a change up here (2nd baseball reference and now I challenge you to find/remember the 1st). I'm not saying I will never rent from Redbox. Yes, sadly enough, I am that sellout that complains about being hot and refuses to take off my sweatshirt. My wife and I rented a DVD tonight from, gasp, the "red box"! It was fine. We used the dang iPhone, reserved the B rate chick flick, and had ourselves a little evening. So if I can't stop funding the Redbox giant because they have us right where they want them, do I join em? No. I will always be looking for the simplest way to rent a movie, yes, and cost is definitely a factor too. But as I said, I challenge someone to throw some ideas out there and derail this movie giant. I don't like being told what I can and can't watch by some movie vending machine that doesn't give me any reason to come back to it. Ironically, I think I saw a kiosk near me that has The Terminator. Well, I've done my homework and I now know how to spot a Skynet threat a mile away. In fact, there's a few on my block. And if you're not careful, they'll just keep adapting, multiplying, and growing stronger by the day. So aside from only being a dollar, and taking less time to rent than it takes to spot a Starbucks anymore, Redbox had better watch itself. This is John Connor signing off. And if you are reading this...you are the resistance!

Trading Spaces

My wife loves real estate. I kind of could care less but at the same time, I chose to temporarily love the thought of potential home ownership as much as she did. Key word being did. This is how to quickly, stressfully, and successfully occupy at least a month of your time.

Come to find out, there aren't any isles at Walmart that feature homes for sale. In fact, I can totally see why the government would pay someone almost $4 an hour(that's $160 a week, $640 a month and a total of $8,000 in a year) to buy one. Let's just say you've got a budget. Then let's say you've got your version of what you want in a house (assuming you are not custom building here). Then you venture out into this big world with or without a realtor (although ours saved our rears)! Ok, so far so good. You've seen one, two, and even a third and fourth house. It's pretty easy to differentiate and think about what you did and didn't like right? Let's throw out a few of the ones you weren't just absolutely in love with. Hmm. You might look at your husband or wife if you have one and say, "Well, that one on the corner of 'not-that-awesome' street didn't have a basement." "Yeah," (you've just opened a can here), "The little one in Mediocreville only had one bathroom and it was super tiny!" And on and on. Back to square one. You're pretty sure your realtor hates you and you start to wonder how it is these people actually make any money after spending umpteen evenings accommodating your work schedule and doing research on what the neighboring houses sold for at one point in time. Gee. This is WORK!

Long story short, like most about to not be untold true stories, ours took a magical twist, once again proved that God loves us, and brought us home. A great young couple looking to just be rid of their first home who was moving to Atlanta, GA. Sweet. We looked at 15 homes over 3 weeks and the rest of the time was spent providing endless paper trails proving our existence and justifying every penny we ever spent.

Great, we have a dog, a house, and a yard. Did we just become part of some elite and yet very grown up sect of Americans. I mean, even the Census people came-a-knocking and I stepped out on to our front porch to invite her inside. Welcome to a new bracket in United States statistics, Rogers Family!



In other news, we recently experienced record setting floods in Nashville. Our house smells thanks to the water that seeped into our basement. Truthfully, it's an extremely small price to pay compared to the damage that occurred downtown and other residential areas. I've heard tons of stories from people on the news as well as folks I know that have lost everything. So many Nashville landmarks are submerged in water including music sanctuary, The Opry House. It's been pretty eye opening as far as the power of "nature". It's tough when you see natural disasters on TV or the news and, yeah, you feel sympathetic but you can't really understand the full extent unless you volunteer your time and efforts to offer physical support like people did for 9-11, Katrina, and Haiti. It's all pretty real here. So real that I was able to add to my resume of cancellation explanations. I've had snow days, fog days, rain days, hurricane days, and now, a flood day. Don't break out the cake just yet. There's a lot of work needs done in the kitchen-actually, a lot of kitchens...

Mr. Nanny

It's been a while since I've written. Either it really takes this long for me to conjure up something worth talking about, or I haven't cared enough to share. Probably a little of both. I mean, I AM pretty boring...

Oh yeah, the puppy at the top. Well, that would be Madeline Jolie. Consider the fact that you've just been poorly introduced to me and my wife's first, adorable, angelic, fuzzy, stinky, poops-in-the-house, pees-in-the-house, ADD, barks it up for no reason in the middle of the night, kid. Yup, they are all saying this is the "hands on training" before the real thing. I'm starting to believe it. It's been 2 weeks today since we've had her. I adopted her as a birthday present for my wife. Since then, sleep and free time have been scarce. Well, maybe not for her; the dog I mean.

Since yesterday, I have been like Mr. Nanny. My wife and I have had a family situation arise and she was needed back in our home town a few days before I could get there. She kept saying, "I feel so bad you have to be there all by yourself", and "Are you sure you are going to be ok?" I scoffed, "Psh! Of course, Hon, I can handle things!" What did I know...

Last night went surprisingly well. I had some of our friends over and one of them brought her puppy for Maddy to play with. They had a blast and were non stop the whole night. I would've figured 4 hours of neck to neck nibbling would tire her out more than usual, but to my surprise, like clock work, she had to "number 1 and number 2" twice throughout the night preceded by a warnings in the form of barking to the tune of "I really have to go" and "Hey I'm prairie dogging it!"

It's been pretty rainy all week so the ground is soaked which makes for muddy paws. Hey, I'm not complaining, I'm just trying to give you a snapshot of what I have to work with here. Well, right before 6am, as always, Maddy's internal alarm clock goes off and I have to drag myself out of the bed to start the day. (I once was privileged to sleep until almost 7 but who's counting)? To make matters worse, I could see a flicker or two of lightning in the distance. I didn't pay it much attention as I slipped into my robe and flip flops and walked out the front door with the dog.

She's gotten pretty good with the whole potty training thing. We still have to watch her or she'll tinkle in the house but she tries not to "boom boom" unless she is outdoors. Unfortunately, a much bigger "boom boom" got to us before hers did which sent her into a tizzy! She bolted until she reached the end of her leash but had so much momentum it yanked her back sending her into a backwards somersault. If that wasn't comical enough (I don't think there was much pain involved you animal rights activists as she didn't let out so much as a yelp), she toppled into a mud puddle and skidded to a stop. She finally gained her senses and scampered back over to me, but couldn't regain composure enough to finish her appointment with Dr. John underneath the pine trees. We had both just experienced puppy's first thunderstorm.

Knowing well and good that the distance from the door to the bathroom is covered entirely by carpet, and envisioning that whole mess to clean up, I picked up our sopping dog and opened the door to go inside. I was greeted with a fraction of whatever natural, not quite morning light was seeping in around the edges of curtains and through the open blinds in the dining room. "Great," I thought, "Now the power is out". I somehow made it to the bathroom without setting her down, and smothered her with a bath towel hoping I transferred some of the mud onto it instead of the floor. I got my hands on a flashlight and once the dog was dry and clean enough to walk around, I just sat kind of staring into space for the next hour until the power sprung back to life. Most of that time, Maddy rested in my lap, completely at peace and grateful for not being subject to an angry Mother nature. Hey, if I were Her, with all the Lassie Loaves being dropped on me every little while, I would've fought that one too. If anyone cares, I was not late to work...


Our good friend (the one with the aforementioned puppy friend of Maddy's) let her out while we were gone throughout the day. Somewhere, however, between noon and 6pm, in her kennel, Madeline decided to clean the sewage pipes and painted a picture somewhat resembling a modern art piece for me to admire when I got home. And like all great painters, she wasn't afraid to get a little "dirt" on herself in the process. "Nice, Maddy," I said to her. "Good work". After a bath, dinner, and a ton of cleaning up (both her messes and mine), it's late. My eyelids are starting to lose the ability to resist gravity. All I can think about are single moms. How in the heck do they get anything done?? Seriously. I work with hundreds of single moms for a living and am supposed to be the one offering them help and solutions but I am realizing that I am all talk. I have seen a SLIVER of what they are going through by being on my own here the last few days.

Now I know what you are thinking, "This guy is a whack job! His wife leaves him for 2 days and he can't even take care of himself and a puppy?!" I know. I'm not saying it's the same or remotely close but I sort of get it. My line of sight has broadened slightly is all I'm saying. So here's to you mothers of pets and more importantly, real kids, I will call myself Mr. Nanny.

Hail the First Timer!

So, I'm trying something new. I like to talk. I like feedback. You could say I'm a "communicator" however, sometimes I get a little selfish and only do it on my terms. Well, I suppose this is how I can get away with it. Let me start with the whole, "about me" nonsense so everyone can be on the same page:

"Look Up To 'Waynes'" was inspired by these facts. Several of the people I admire have something (or everything) to do with Wayne. First and foremost, my brother, Nathan Wayne: he's physically and mentally challenged and lives with a handicap called Cerebral Palsy. He suffered from severe seizures at a young age which caused more damage to his brain. Nathan has persevered through more ailments and sicknesses than any human I have ever known and if you were to ask Nate how he is doing today, he'd undoubtedly reply, "Good".

My father, Terry Wayne, (whom Nathan was named after) is the second "Wayne" on the list. Second only to such a miraculous display of Life mentioned above. 'Ol Dad is one of the most patient and hard working dudes you'll ever meet. I could probably count on two hands the number of times I've ever really heard him complain about anything.

Third, number 99-Wayne Gretzky. I'm from a hockey family. Sorry football fans, I now live in the south where a little team called the Nashville Predators play and I can say you've got some catching on to do. (I always will be a die hard Detroit Red Wings fan but that's another story and may lose me some readers here as I digress)...The Great One stands out for a reason that you could not possibly guess. A reason that earned my respect completely outside of the fact that he's one of the world's greatest athletes. A hockey card. Yup, you heard me. It was a class project in 4th grade and we all had to pick someone famous that we admired and write a letter to them. I have no idea what was going through the teacher's mind. What a horrible way to crush the hopes and dreams of a little kid. Her expectation was that later in the year, we would start to see a reply. (Well here goes nothing)...A buddy of mine picked Dan Marino, someone else picked Joe Montana, and I picked Wayne. After displaying what seemed to be a "sure fire plan", a couple other kids in my class were digging my 4th grade intellect and followed suit. I was even nice enough to bring them some of the duplicate hockey cards I had of Gretzky in addition to the one I was including in my letter for him to hopefully sign. In reality, there's absolutely no way the result should have been anything but a big donut. (That's a zero, nothing, nada)...What I and 2 other kids ended up doing was sending a hand written letter with the card enclosed to the arena where the Los Angeles Kings play in hopes that some kind staff member would contact Mr. Gretzky and get him to sign the card and reply. It wasn't long before people actually started getting mail back! I can't remember what it was the girls would get so excited about because all I recall is the day that mail finally came for me and my friend David, who sent off for Dan Marino's autograph. Both were pretty big Hail Mary's if you ask me. He opened his legal size manilla envelope and pulled out an 8x10 signed photo of Marino! We were stoked! Well, everyone was really clambering around me as I opened my mail which was just in a normal envelope. (David was so excited he later stole the envelope because he thought Wayne Gretzky had addressed it himself). I peered in to find the hockey card I sent sitting safely inside. I half expected to pull it out only to find disappointment, but instead held between my fingers, a hand signed, Wayne Gretzky trading card formerly worth about $.75!! We were going nuts. And the funny thing is I was the only one who got anything back from him! I believe he saw through the malarkey...

All that to say, I intend to share stories, random thoughts, photos, videos, and music with anyone who is interested. The real "about me" isn't that exciting I don't suppose. I'm married and loving it. I went to college to learn the recording arts. I have a day job which I also enjoy even through the amount of stress that manifests from it. I play and write music which is my passion. And I'm a ginormous hockey fan which is my hobby and first love. I will end here. So much more to come!