Random Crap: 25 Things About Me

After being hounded with tags from everyone about their "25 Things" that they wanted others to know, I was sucked into doing one myself. I remember doing something very similar in college and decided to do it again.

Here goes: 25 Things About Me

1. Before my sister was born (I was six years old at the time), the doctor asked me in the elevator whether I wanted a brother or a sister. I told him “brother”. Seven or eight years later, my mother retold this story to my (now) sister. She has never allowed me to live it down. Whenever she doesn’t get her way with me, she breaks out the “You didn’t want me in the world anyway!” Damn.

2. My first (real) kiss came when I was 15 years old. Apparently, it was later than most everyone else was and that still eats at me.

3. I know I am very fast talker. However, I didn’t know that how fast until I started listening to myself on tape. I’ve been like this since I was little, so it will take a while for me to fix that.

4. Steak is the greatest food ever invented. The way to my heart is someone who can cook that to perfection.

5. I don’t trust people easily. Even if I’ve known you for a while, that doesn’t mean I trust you. I grew up with the model of “Don’t Trust Anybody”. It works for me. There are maybe 10 people in the world that I would put my complete faith in and that’s it.

6. I will almost always give you an honest answer. You may not want to hear that answer, but if you didn’t want the truth, don’t ask. The only exceptions to this rule is when I know the person asking the question is lacking some confidence and needs a boost.

7. I’ve only had three real serious girlfriends in my life. Two of them lasted two years and the other lasted one-year. Everything either before or after does not count. I have never had a bad breakup. This is probably because I have always ended relationships before things ever went bad. Why have I done this? I’m not really sure. Possible insecurities, maybe.

8. I have never been a big fan of approaching women. Ironically, the three girlfriends I had all approached me. For someone who is built on communication, this is one thing that I haven’t been able to overcome. Why? I’m not really sure.

9. I admit that I am slightly arrogant, pompous and sometimes overly smug. But its all in a good, quiet way. Most of it comes from a self-assured that I’ve always had. I wouldn’t be the same person if I wasn’t that way.

10. I’m probably the best non-restaurant chef you will know. There is a reason I do not go out to many restaurants. Why buy someone else’s food when I can arguably cook it better than they can in the first place?

11. The word “Excuse me” is not in my vocabulary. I will always say “Watch out” whenever I am out in public. If you are in my way, you have two options – 1. Move out of the way, or 2. Get run/trampled over. I know that may make me an asshole, but that’s fine.

12. I am not Mr. Handyman when it comes to fixing things in my house. This is what I pay other people to be for me.

13. I have known my long time friend Olga off and on for nearly 20 years. I remember writing in her yearbook after we graduated high school that she was the one person I would trust more than anyone in the world. Though we haven’t seen each since high school, I still feel the same way.

14. I’m still pissed to this day my parents did not teach me Spanish as a child growing up. Apparently it wasn’t that important as learning English. Can you imagine growing up with the last name of Martinez and not have a 100% knowing of Spanish?

15. I get a kick out of people that say, “How can you have a last name of Martinez? You don’t look Spanish”. My suggestion would be that you need to get out more. Yes, I’m half-Spanish (even though a lot of my relatives try to run away from it) Besides, what exactly does a Spanish person look like anyway? I’m curious. Help me out with this. Open your eyes a little bit and experience the world. Yes it is possible and we are out there. It goes to show how just plain stupid (I like to call them “morons”) some allegedly intelligent people are. What, because I happen to speak better English than most people?

16. I’ve noticed since I was a kid sometimes have to bring my intelligence down for some people in certain situations depending on where I am and then raise it back up for others. I shouldn’t have to do that, but as a means of “fitting in”, I had to do it and I still do it to this day.

17. In my closet, I have certain clothing matches that I compare to a baseball starting rotation. I’ve been doing it since high school. There’s a certain pair of jeans and a shirt that is in my closet right now that I consider my “Big Game Starter”. I believe every guy has this whether they choose to admit or not.

18. I wonder often how everything would have turned out if I never left at St. John’s.

19. There are eight people from St. John’s whom I’ve kept in touch with all these years later after leaving and I consider them friends for life. They know who they are.

20. The only time I cried (more like “tear up”) over a sporting event was Game 7 of the 2001 World Series when the Yankees lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks. I was watching the game in my friend Stevie J's dorm with a group us. Little did I know some of those guys would become lifelong friends. I guess you can say we all bonded that night. It's what sports does sometimes.

21. Since I was nine years old, it’s been my dream to be in broadcasting. At first, I admired Marv Albert, later John Sterling, and now Bob Papa. If I can grow and be anywhere close to a great as those three guys, my future career will be a success.

22. My dream job since I was 11 years old has been to be the Yankees play-by-play announcer in some capacity. If luck were to having me doing the same job for the Boston Red Sox or another MLB team, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. There's only 30 of those jobs! However, if you told me I can work for MLB.com and get to be in their control room and get paid to watch every game, every night and produce highlights and call that “work”, I would say “Sign me up”.

23. I still personally do not get into these social networking sites like Facebook. Thanks my two great friends Nicole and Stacy, I was talked into this stuff. I think it’s been all downhill since that moment. The “Wall”, “Status Updates” and the “Pokes” are something I probably could have done without.

24. I doubt I will ever be truly content with anything. It is my way of striving and believing that something greater is out there that I believe exists even if it may not really be out there.

25. I’ve grown such disdain for my job over the last few months that I have decided to use my work time and dedicate that to such interesting things as listening to streaming internet radio, my own personal blogging, my class assignments, podcast shows and what I am (was) writing right now. And to think, I’m actually getting PAID for this!

This was my way of cleansing who I actually am. It would have been very easy to lie about certain stuff, but what's the point.