A Little About Me

A wise man once said "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get". I don't remember exactly if it was Plato, Confucius or Forrest Gump, but it was definitely one of those really smart guys. Thus far, my box of chocolates has been an interesting assortment of wonderful experiences. They have been good, bad and sometimes downright ugly. All have been educational and have made me who I am today.

In a nutshell, I am a 36 year old husband and father. Here is my wonderful little family.

I married an unbelievable woman in 2001 and we have two terrific kids. Tyler was born in 2004 and he has more energy than I can fathom. Kailey joined us in 2007 and she already thinks she runs the house. She does. We are happy and we love each other. I couldn't ask for more.

But I am more than that. I am also a study in insecurity. My multiple diplomas would suggest that I am at least moderately intelligent, but I always doubt myself. I love people, yet I am so shy that I rarely open myself to new friendships. Others have called me successful, but I expect to fail more than succeed. I try hard to believe in myself, but at my core I am just an insecure person who is afraid of not being good enough. But, I make a mean margarita, so that's something!

Growing up, I was poor. I was the kid with the homemade Rubix cube Halloween costume (a.k.a. old cardboard box) asking to "borrow" some of your lunch. Here was the trailer that we "upgraded" to once we could afford it.

The lumberjack with the devil-may-care, Charles Manson beard is my dad. Apparently the serial killer look was popular that year.

Here is a cute picture of my sister and me playing a fun little game we used to call "See If You Can Take A Bath Before You Freeze To Death".

We only had to play this one a handful of times. Other times we would play "Shower Under The Freezing Garden Hose". Whatever doesn't kill you, right?

At the time, I didn't like growing up poor. I wasn't bothered by the lack of nice things. It was the being laughed at and pitied that bothered me the most. Now I look back on my childhood relatively fondly. It had a little bit of everything - good times, bad times, scars, guilt-trips, turmoil, love and family melodrama. I love it because it was mine and it made me who I am today. Of course, I'm still working on some of the psychological scars of my childhood, but I'm happy and blessed NOW and that's all that matters!

Professionally, I have had an odd assortment of jobs from shoveling dead animals off the side of the road and delivering ice to selling software to Fortune 50 clients and being a Director in charge of a multi-million dollar marketing budget. At each job, I have worked incredibly hard, been successful and learned a lot about myself and a little about life.

Oh, and I am absolutely fascinated by human behavior. I am simply amazed at how we behave and how we treat ourselves and others. Both in college and informally on my own, I have studied human behavior, psychology, consumer behavior, marketing, organizational behavior, family dynamics and employee satisfaction. These all try to answer the same question - why do people behave the way that we do? What an awesome question. From the soccer mom to the tattooed teen, we are all different and yet so fundamentally the same. I love it!

So that's a little about me. Just an obsessive-compulsive, married, average, middle-age, insecure father trying desperately to help myself and others live NOW.