I am a little over 60 days away from hitting my 30th birthday. Looking back so far, I wanted to list my favorites of then and now just as a reflection of my life stemming from 1979-2009...
Favorite Movie: 1998's Out of Sight. Movie starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. This film is a fantastic adaption from Elmore Leonard's novel of the same name and Steven Soderbergh's first of many ventures with George Clooney. Great editing and acting, especially from the two leads in the trunk of a car and in a bar. Those represent the movie very well. Steve Zahn brings comedy to this film that can not be identified as a comedy, drama, action film. It is really all of the above. I remember seeing this film in the North Canton Tinseltown Cinemark after class and before football practice at Walsh University. Only movie to come close to knocking it out of first place is my number 2 (Finding Neverland) and 3 (American Beauty).
Favorite Television show: Big Bang Theory (Comedy) and ER (Drama). Throughout my life I have loved Mork and Mindy, Perfect Strangers and Mystery Science Theater 3000 and South Park (Comedies). Now that I am older, the drama has not fallen into place as of late. I was a HUGE fan of ER. It is the only drama to make me cry. When the cast decided to leave, I stopped watching when Carter went to Africa and the main characters were the handicapped doctor and the blad one that everyone hated. Since that time I have bounced between House, Bones, NCIS, CSI: Miami, The Mentalist and of course Raw and Smackdown. The wrestling shows aside, it has been hard to stick with one drama. One thing is certain: I miss the 90s "Must See TV" on NBC Thursdays (Friends, Fraiser, Seinfeld, ER).
Favorite Book: On the Road by Jack Kerouac. A novel that I read for a college class taught by my favorite professor TC Schmitzer. Loved how the main character was just a "professional bum" and traveled, hitchhiked, lived off the land and was very laid back about life and love. A very hard read to get through and slow at times, but this was a very enjoyable read. Now as a teacher (or soon to be again), my favorite books to teach are Tuck Everlasting, The Watsons Go to Birmingham, Hatchet and Maniac Magee. If you ever have me as a teacher, look out, those are the books we are reding throughout the year.
Favorite Wrestler: When I was a kid through now...Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, Hulk Hogan, "The Model" Rick Martel, Shawn Michaels, Triple H and now Randy Orton. WCW didn't really interest me that much but a favorites were always Sting and Flair. In wrestling history, why can't we match up Steamboat/Savage at WM3 against Flair/Funk (the match where Sting, The Great Muta all interfered). Those two matches define my wrestling experience. That and at the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield, OH, I saw a house show where the British Bulldogs and Hart Foundation wrestled in a cage where we saw the Hart Foundation win when Bret was escaping through the door and slammed it into Davey Boy Smith's Head. What a brutal match.
Favorite Actor (with my favorite movie they were in): Johnny Depp (Finding Neverland), Tommy Lee Jones (The Fugitive), George Clooney (Out of Sight), Jim Carrey (The Majestic).
Favorite Actress: Kate Winslet (Finding Neverland, Titanic, Revolutionary Road)
Favorite Sports teams: Saints (NFL), Aeros (Minor League Baseball), Indians (MLB), Cavaliers (NBA), Red Wings (NHL), Michigan State (college basketball), Ohio State (college football).
Favorite vacation spot: Disney World in Orlando, FL
Favorite place I'd like to visit: New Orleans, LA for a Saints game in the Superdome.
Favorite Memories: February 24th, 1988- my brother being born. Summer of 1992- Space Academy in Huntsville, AL. 1997- Making 2nd team all conference in football as a kicker/punter. Summer 2000- Visiting my cousins in California (still the only family member on my side to do that). August 2002- getting my first teaching job. Fall 2003- meeting my future wife. July 4th, 2004- Wedding. April 16th, 2005- my first daugher, Selina Rose, was born. January 16th, 2006- A surprise to all of us when Sophia Grace came into my life 3 months early at 4 lbs 10 oz. April 14th, 2009- the date I get my life back as a teacher.
That's me in a nutshell.