Is it just me or has this entire decade flown by? I remember when even three years seemed like an eternity. Now I can do ten years standing on my head. Where does the time go?

At the moment, I do medical-type transcription work from home and am also taking online classes to be a freelance court stenographer/closed-captioner and should be done around March. Getting excited about it! Looking forward to a career where I can be my own boss, live anywhere, make a decent living, and one with good flexibility overall. Court reporting school seemed more up my alley than going to graduate school or law school after getting my undergraduate degree. So what makes me happy and what are my favorite movies and such? Well, I like to do checklists, so here goes:


-My puppy, Natascha. She's a three-pound dauchsand-chihuahua mix. She warms my heart and makes me happy! I have even puppy bitemarks on my hands to prove it. :)
-Being able to endure the death of my older brother when I was 19 without resorting to drugs or alcohol or acting out to cope with it.
-Not being a 'manwhore' who sleeps around. Call me old-fashioned, call me conservative, but manipulating girls sleeping around has always seemed very shameful to me. I know some women like that 'bad boy' stuff, but my conscious always gets in the way.
-Can bench press 230, squat 400, and can run for an hour without getting tired.
-Getting a degree when people thought I was too stupid to get one, and sticking out court reporting school even though it's been very tedious, taken a while, and been very hard at times.
-I'm probably immature for liking this, but I almost pee my pants laughing so hard to celebrity soundboard, prank phone calls off of youtube. I know, I need to grow up. But at least I admit it. :)
-Feeling more confident having a traditional male look (short hair, dressing normal, clean shaven, etc), instead wearing baggy pants or massive artwork on my body or shaving my head or having a metrosexual look to fit in.
-Having good loyal friends and my parents and my younger brother, definetly!
-Taking off the summer of 2007 to help my grandmother move into an assisted living. That was the closest I'd ever gotten to her in my entire life.
-Letting someone in front of me while we're stuck in a traffic jam.
-Putting away 10% of my pay for my retirement down the road.
-Driving in LA traffic this summer without getting scared or nervous.
-Helping up an old man at Chili's when he fell down and couldn't get up.
-Learning to be patient and not getting angry when things don't always go my way.
-Knowing that I don't have ten different kids by four different women.
-Parents that have been married since 1974 and have always been there for my younger brother and I.


My favorite movies:
-My Cousin Vinny
-Ghost
-The Shawshank Redemption
-Most 80s comedies, like Revenge of the Nerds, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Caddyshack, and Weird Science to name a few.
-First Blood
-Gran Torino
-Falling Down
-Lean on Me
-Driving Miss Daisy
-300
-Dumb and Dumber
-Superbad
-Men of Honor
-Lots of horror movies from the 80s!

Claims to fame:
-Saw Keanu Reeves behind me in traffic while in Beverly Hills.
-I once had an old man while I was in Texas get mad at me and call me a Yankee.
-Shook hands with a CNN anchor while in DC on my senior high school trip.
-Saw a ghost in an old hotel while in Seattle. I'd never been that scared before!
-Went in the Twin Towers in Spring 2001 six months before 9-11.
-Having a grandfather that saw the Iwo Jima flag raising in World War II.
-Met an old lady who was a court reporter in 1947 when the Nazis were on trial in post-WWII Germany.
-Helping my two-year-old cousin put nail polish on her nails in a room full of grown men at Thanksgiving 2009. It really hampered my manly reputation. :)

Well, that's pretty much it. If you notice, I didn't list dealbreakers and I don't want to air out my dirty lanudry by getting into details about my past relationships. I've been used, heartbroken, lied to, and so forth just as I'm sure you have, you friends have, people in your family, and so forth. I prefer to focus on the positive and not let those people in my life who screwed me over or treated me bad make me bitter and resentful. To quote actress Carrie Fisher, "Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die."


If I sound like someone you'd be interested in, let me know. If not, no hard feelings, but thanks for taking the time to read.

I'm the man. Let me take care of that. -;)