All About Thom

The Facebook game goes like this. Someone gives you a number and you have to list that many interesting, but generally unknown, facts about yourself. While the interestingness is debatable, my responses were a bit long. How lucky you are to get a glimpse into the mind of Thom!  

1.       I often have dreams that I can fly. Not Superman flying. There are 2 types of dreams. Sometimes I concentrate & levitate up and then take off.  Other times I am while running, my strides get longer and higher until I am flying. It seems so real that when I wake up, I still think I can do it.

2.       We pride ourselves in that we have been to so many places. I believe that I could move to and be happy living in any of them. We have never lived in a downtown urban area & that is something that I’d like to do.

3. The three women who have come closest to the American Presidency are Geraldine Ferraro, Hillary Clinton, & Sarah Palin. I have seen them all in person (met two). All within 20 miles of our home. If you knew where I live, you’d be amazed.

4.       Two baseball/softball injuries plagued me for years. First, a bad hamstring ( hamstrung by a hamstring? ) and couldn’t throw a baseball without shoulder pain for years. But both were seemingly cured after only a few weeks of yoga.  

5.       Despite the aforementioned pains and the fact that I am overweight, I am worried that for the most part, I’ve been pretty healthy my whole life. I’ve never been the one looking up from the hospital bed and I am not looking forward to it.

6.       I’ve been to a lot of places, but tops on my list of places that I have yet to see is St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow and the Parthenon in Athens.  Those are lifelong dreams.

7.       If Jennie & I had started having children sooner, we’d probably have 5. When accounting for our kids, I’ll see all three, but still think I’m missing some.

8.       I’m a church going Catholic, but in my view, the message is infinitely more important that the messenger. I really don’t think Jesus minds, but I am sure there are plenty of Christians that would.

9.      I feel passionately about things and the way I think our country should be. But my views are tainted by pragmatism, so I focus on what I think is possible. I feel like I have to sacrifice for progress, but that makes me feel like I’m giving up on what I believe.

10.       I rarely drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t even like coffee. But I need soda. I really do. Diet or regular matters not as long as it is caffeinated and carbonated.  We don’t keep it in the house, so I get little bits at a time. Out to eat or a bottle at work. If I go a couple days without it, on comes the DT’s.  

11.   Smell is a very important thing to me. Not turned off by bad smells as much as enjoying good ones. I always smell my food. I love the scents of the seasons. The smell of perfume or shampoo when a woman passes by or even the smell of cigars & beer that always takes me back to Wrigley Field.