Hello. I guess you clicked on my face. I'll try to update the picture of my face as often as I can, I have a tendency to change appearances quite frequently. I don't know what you were expecting, but yer gonna git some info about me. So, if you don't want to know about me, GO AWAY!! Just kidding. Stay, and learn about a person who I find quite interesting: Myself. Oh, and stay tuned, this part will be under constant construction....
IN THE BEGININING.....
My life began on FRIDAY July 13, 1979 (my birthdate may explain things to some people...)at Boone Hospital Center in Columbia, Mo. That's where I spent the first six years of my life. It was cool, I don't remember much, but I have a lot of good memories from those times. I had a good friend named Rob, and I had a cool house with a cool deck. It also snowed in the winter, and in the summer there were a bunch of lightning bugs. I had my first official "girlfriend" at the tender age of four. I don't even remember her name, but she was blonde and we attended Jack and Jill Nursery School. We "hooked up" at some Christmas party. Maybe someday I'll find the cute picture of us holding hands, where I'm all decked out in my Smurfs belt (you know, the kind that buckles with a magnet). When I was like five I was kissing the sister of the girl next door. I guess you could say that I kinda like girls. ;) I went to Blue Ridge Elementary school in the morning, and in the afternoon I went to the babysitter's house with a bunch of other kids. We had some fun and wacky adventures in that house.... Anyway, we lived in Missouri until I turned six, when my dad got a job teaching at the University of Florida here in Gainesville. We left my sister to fend for herself at the University of Missouri (she's 12 years older than I am). So, in August of 1985 we moved to a whoooole 'nother state.......
Fire Ants, Heat, and other Mis-adventures...
Ah.... Florida. The land of palm trees, dolphins, sun, and Mickey Mouse. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention a few things: roaches, palmetto bugs, mosquitos, alligators, stink bugs, 5,000% humidity, hurricanes, fire ants, rednecks, and other "less pleasant" features. Not that I hate living here, but it sure ain't what ya see on the 3 for $10 T-shirts available at the local Chevron... I guess I don't have to tell you, there is a rather large difference between Florida and Missouri. I thought Florida was pretty cool in my wide six year old eyes. Especially the ant hills all over our front yard. There are ants in Missouri, but they sure as H-E-double hockey sticks aren't the in the same class as the little seeds of Satan walking around in the Sunshine State. I learned this first hand while stepping on a gigantic antpile in my yard. There I was, just a-stompin' away when the lower half of my body was afire with pain... So I ran inside screaming and my mom threw me into the bath tub.
When we moved to Florida at first we rented a house from somebody, so we had to find a place to call our own. It was fun running around the city in the realtor's big Cadillac and looking at other people's homes. My favorite place was this one house where the kids had a bunch of cool toys. Unfortunately, we didn't move there, we moved to a house in a neighborhood in the extreme northwest side of town. It wasn't as cool as the toy place, but I did find a really cool rubber cobra in the back yard. Eventually I met the neighbors. What a bunch of loonies!! Two boys lived next door to me: Jimmy and Billy. Jimmy was my age, and Billy was about 3 or 4 years younger than Jimmy. Through the years there were many good times, bad times, and other times that could not be classified as good or bad, just as "times."
The Joys of Adolesence: Ages 9-14
I'm going to skip over a whole bunch of stuff. Not that it's stuff I don't want people to know, but ages 6-9 are kind of a blur, and nothing too exciting happened there. Don't worry, there's interesting stuff ahead...
When I was 9 I was in Fourth grade at Talbot Elementary School. The first three grades of school were alright, although Kindergarten was the best. I had a really cool teacher named Mr. League for homeroom and Language Arts. I also had a not so cool haircut: a flat-top with a "rat-tail" in the back. I wanted to be just like the wrestler known as Sting. Nothing much happened in Fourth Grade, except an intense hatred for school started to form.
Fifth Grade was pretty cool. I had a "girlfriend" for a little while. It was a girl named Beth who I thought was totally hot, but she was really not nice person. The funny thing about Fifth Grade relationships is that they really aren't relationships, just ways of labeling each other. we never really spoke or anything, but I really liked her alot for some reason. Needless to say I was extremely upset when her friend came up to me and said, "Beth wants to break up with you." Really brave of her to send her friend to tell me, but anyway... I had a couple of pretty good friends in Fifth Grade, and another "girlfriend" named Michelle, and that lasted for about a week, because we didn't even really want to "go together" anyway. Probably the coolest thing about being in Fifth Grade was being a Safety Patrol, because at the end of the year we took a trip to Washington, D.C. The capitol was alot of fun. I liked walking around downtown the most, because I got to buy some cheap "Simpsons" t- shirts and handcuffs from the street vendors. It was also fun being away from my parents for the first time (sorry Mom, Dad).
Sixth Grade began in a brand new school. I reeeaaally did not like my new school, or many of the people in it. Anyway, I began going to Ft. Clarke Middle School, and alot of the kids I was friends with at Talbot dissed me in order to become "popular" and hang out with the kids who came from Hidden Oak Elementary. My first year at Ft. Clarke was pretty much spent getting used to my new surroundings and trying to figure out just who was not cool enough to hang out with me, yet cool enough to trick other people into believing that I was cool. It's hard being a short, shy, middle-class kid in a school filled with rich kids who are pretty outgoing. I guess one thing I got out of being quiet was that I got to watch people and see what I didn't want to become. I had a couple of cool friends who didn't care that I wasn't wealthy. I had a friend from Talbot named Ryland who I hung out with on ocassion. He's pretty cool, we wound up being co-captains of the wrestling team our senior year of High School. I also hung out with a kid named J.P. and his friend Jeff.
The summer before Seventh Grade I kinda made friends with my former "girlfriend"(see Fifth Grade), and we spent a lot of time talking on the phone. We talked for hours almost everyday for the entire summer. I really liked Michelle. It was nice having someone to talk to while my parents were at work and the friends who lived in my neighborhood were out of town. One person who I have forgotten to mention in this little bio-thingy is a guy who lived in my neighborhood named Ryan. He was 2 years older than me, and together we pretty much ran the neighborhood. See, when I was in my neighborhood I was alot different from when I was in school. I spent alot of time beating up other kids, mostly to prove that I was pretty tough, despite my small size. Ryan and I had alot of fun pushing kids around and making up insane jokes and stuff.
Seventh Grade was a little bit better than Sixth. I joined a group of about five other guys who weren't all that worried about not being popular. We had fun by puting nasty cafeteria food in each other's backpacks and making fun of everybody. We pretty much kept our sanity through the use of that thing called humor. Towards the end of the year I had a couple of little girlfriends that I traded with one of my other friends. That was silly. Yup, Seventh Grade was a little better than Sixth, thanks to my friends.
Eighth Grade wasn't too horrible. It was my last year at an awful school with awful students. I started getting into Chorus, and I also tried my hand at playing the guitar. I soon learned two things: I could sing, and instruments don't really like me. That was kind of a bummer. I really wish that I could play guitar, piano, bass, harmonica, the triangle, something!! Oh well. Another thing that I started getting into towards the end of the school year was wrestling. Now, I don't mean the kind with Stone Cold, The Rock, or Sting, I mean the kind with atheletes such as Dan Gable, the Brands Brothers, Les Gutches, Kevin Jackson, and Dave Schultz. My dad wrestled a little bit when he was in high school, and figured that I might like it. Reluctant at first, I fell in love with it. It was a sport that I could actually compete in, being a little guy. It also had an appeal to me because it involves so much of the wrestler, and it's one against one. Nobody can take any credit away from you. Eighth Grade pretty much blew by me, because I was ready to get out of Middle School.
High School: Wrestling, Theatre, and Life Lessons... Ages 14-18.
Wow. So much happened in High School. I learned alot about myself and the world. Of course, my education had little to do with school itself....
GRADE 9
I began going to High School the summer after I "graduated" from Middle School. Like many Freshman, I took the required Life Management Skills as soon as possible, just to get it out of the way. Nothing like giving mouth to mouth to a dummy, let me tell you... Anyway, I got to expierience High School a little early and get used to the lovely campus of Gainesville High School. I also starting wrestling a little more, and practicing with kids who were on the team at GHS. Ninth Grade began ok. I hated Algebra, but that's about it. Soon after the year began, pre-season wrestling training began. The training that I went through was a complete shock to me. Even though I wasn't very big, I lost a lot of weight. I was in pretty good shape for a freshman. I weighed about 110lbs at the beginning of the season, which meant I was too light to wrestle 112, and too heavy to wrestle 103. I decided to try to cut to 103, but I was unable to beat a kid named Glen who was a sophmore, as well as my practice partner. I decided to suck it up and wrestle 112 even though I was light. My first match I was pinned in the second period, but in my second match I pulled off a come-from-behind win. I got my very first pin in my third match. I was pretty good for a first year underweight kid. In the middle of the season I began weighing less and less, and I naturally weighed about 103lbs, but I still couldn't beat Glen. Luckily for me, he got pretty sick, and I got to go down to 103, and I did pretty well. While Glen recovered we traded weight classes. I took third place at a pretty big tournament, and got a few more pins. By the time Districts came around, our coaches weren't sure what they should do: Here was me, a natural 103lber, who wasn't the greatest, but I was pretty good. On the other hand, there was Glen who was a little better than me, but was killing himself trying to make weight. They decided to go ahead and let Glen wrestle 103 at districts, but they also told me to be at that weight in case Glen didn't make it. So, Districts came around, and Glen barely made 103, and I weighed in at 102. Despite my lower weight, I had to wrestle 112. Needless to say I got killed in Districts, but still made it to Regionals. Glen was killed as well, and he made it to Regionals. The only difference between us was that Glen didn't make weight at Regionals. So basically I had to suffer weighing ten pounds lighter than everybody because Glen thought he could make weight. The real kicker was that Glen didn't make weight at Regionals the next week. Oh well. After the season I shaved my head and started getting my kicks by participating in "less than healthy" activity, and did "bad things" quite often. I also got a girlfriend, and she was the first girl that I really kissed. Awww, memories. We had a wacky almost-a-month relationship. I wound up being hurt, and did "bad stuff" even more. eventually my mom found out about what I was doing, and that kinda prompted me to stop. I spent most of my summer break wrestling in freestyle tournaments. I also took a typing class and participated in the high school Summer Musical Theatre program. What's that? basically, it's putting on a production in like 5 weeks and getting credit for it. That was the start of my love of theatre. We did the musical Once Upon a Matress. It was a lot of fun. I found out that in addition to singing, I can also dance.
GRADE 10
My second year of high school was probably my favorite year. It started out pretty well. At our school we have a thing called "Pageant" at around Homecoming where all of the clubs elect their "Sweethearts" and "Heart throbs" to represent them. The Homecoming court was also put on display. I was elected as the Thespian and Hurricane Players'(drama club) Hearthrob. It was really cool. I wore a tux with tails and a vest that matched my Sweetheart's dress. We were the same height and everything! I was taking Drama I and actively participating in the Drama club. While working to gain "Thespian points" I ushered at a place I had seen, but never been: the Gainesville Community Playhouse. I was introduced to a really great place. More on the GCP as this story continues... The wrestling season began soon enough, and being a second year wrestler, I had some authority. Thankfully, Glen didn't wrestle that year, although when he came to practice once or twice I took him down pretty good. I decided that since I weighed about 110 I would wrestle at 112 for the first half of the season, and 103 the second half. I did pretty well, although early in the year a lost a couple of matches that I should have won. The first time I tried to wrestle 103 I didn't make weight. I thought I was going to die. I checked my weight about 3 hours before the match, and I was 107. I was like, "Oh crap." So I had to run and do all sorts of other things to try to lose the weight. I got down to 103.5, but I couldn't go any further. I made sure that never happened again. I wrestled the rest of the season pretty well. I got only got pinned once at 103, by a kid who wound up winning state that year. At Districts I lost by one point in the semifinals bcause I locked hands two times. That was rough. I won the consolation round over my friend and acrosstown rival Nate in OT. I did really well at Regionals, too. I got two pins in the first and second round, and advanced to the semis. In the semis it was a different story, however. I wrestled a kid from Ed White High School and lost 9-2. Ouch. After that I wrestled in the consolation semis against a kid from St. Cloud and lost 6-5 in a very tough and controversial match. I missed State by one point. Oh well. Shortly after the season I hooked up with a girl who was one of our "wrestling managers." She was probably the best thing that could have happened to me at that point in my life. I was on the edge of getting involved in very bad things, and she made me see the light. We had some great times. We were together for quite awhile, and in the summer we did the Summer Musical together and had a blast!! I made some great friends and had one of the best summer's of my life, despite losing a friend in a car accident.
GRADE 11
Well, my girl(Sarah) and I stayed together, broke up, and got back together again throughout the summer and into the beginning of my junior year. The year began pretty well, I was still with Sarah, and I rekindled old friendships(without bringing back old habits). I was still heavy into theatre, and I was just elected co-captain of the wrestling team! I decided to wrestle at 112, because I only weighed about 120, and to a wrestler eight pounds is a cakewalk. Making weight was no problem, and I did really well. In fact, I was 7-2 with five pins, until I broke a bone in my wrist. The bone I broke is called the "scaphoid", and if a doctor ever mentions to you that something is wrong with yours, start crying. It is the most difficult bone in the body to heal, because it is located in a place that recieves very little blood circulation. Basically, no matter how much milk you drink or calcium supplements you take, it ain't healin'. I was told 10 weeks the first time I went to the orthopedic guy. I wound up having my arm in various apparati for about 10 months. Luckily I escaped a bone graft by getting an electrical stimulation unit that I had to wear for 10 hours a day. Thankfully the electrical stimulation unit worked, because the bone graft surgery would not have been fun. What they would have done was: remove a piece of bone from my hip, cut my hand open and fused the bone matter from my hip into the space in my scaphoid. The surgery would have also put my arm in a big cast for another couple of months, as well as stitches both on my hip and hand. Ouch! Well, now that you've gotten that little lesson about how much it sucks to break your scaphoid... About the same time I broke my wrist Sarah and I broke up. That wasn't so bad, until I found out that she started seeing somebody the day after we broke up. That kinda hurt. I then ran to a girl in the drama department, who had a boyfriend. She broke up with him to see me, and then broke up with me 10 days later. Talk about an emotional whirlwind. Then I began cahsing a little freshman cutie, and eventually got dissed for another freshman. Ouch. Of course she came back and asked me out a couple of months later. Of course I said, "Ok." We hung out and made out for a little while and had some fun, but eventually she stopped calling me, and returning my phone calls. Maybe it was the cast on my arm. Anyway, I decided I'd go after another girl. I told this to one of my friends, who in turn told her boyfriend, and he approached the girl in question and said, "Hey! I know someone who likes you!!" I guess she liked me, too, cuz she asked Sarah for my number and called me, and we started seeing each other. The summer came, and I was cast as Conrad Birdie in the Summer Musical Theatre production of Bye Bye, Birdie! The summer was pretty cool, the show was decent, despite my sparkley costume blinding the audience members. Example: for one scene I wore black tights with silver sequins down the legs and a silver sequined, skin tight tanktop. I was a human disco ball!! Anywho, I had some fun with Maggie (the aformentioned girlie) until she decided to break up with me over the phone with my while I was at work. How lame. Oh well, I basically cried for three hours. (big thanks to Susan, who gave me a cookie when she came to work!!) I then found out the Maggie wasn't exactly faithfull, and my feelings were hurt even more. The next day I went out to lunch and Toys R Us with my friend Roxy to kinda raise my spirits. Well, as I was backing out of the parking lot I hit a moving vehicle. Fan-freakin'-tastic. Oh, yeah. My parents were out of town and I was driving my dad's car, not mine. You can imagine their sheer joy when they got home.... Anyway, to punish me my mom made me CUT MY HAIR!!!!!!!!! Pretty horrible of her to do, since my hair is my liveliehood. I got a haircut which made me look like just a regular "dude." Blech. So, I contacted Maggie who had some hair clippers, and she came over and shaved my head. Pretty fun week, eh??
Grade 12
Well, school started. People were a little freaked to see that I had no hair, since the last time that they saw me I was wearing a ponytail. My senior year I dual-enrolled at Santa Fe Community College, which meant that I spent part of my day at GHS and part of it at SFCC. I began the semester taking a fantastic acting class at SFCC, which was taught by a guy named Gregg Jones. He is quite possibly the craziest-coolest guy in the world (except for me, of course j/k). Gregg's class opened my eyes to what acting is all about, Truth. I could go on and on about how much I learned, and how fun his class was, but that would take forever. Besides, there's more of Gregg to come... Anyway, school was going ok, and I was pretty much getting ready for the wrestling season. Oh yeah, once again I was the "Heart throb" for the Thespian Society. It was cool, but my "Sweetheart" was taller than me, and our outfits didn't really match. Anyway, getting ready for the wrestling season. I weighed about 125, so I decided that I would wrestle 119 and then try to cut to 112. Yikes! Anyway, 119 was easy for me to cut to, because it was only six pounds. I felt good, and wrestled well, too. I had one loss right off the bat to a kid who was pretty tough, but I was undefeated for quite awhile, until I got my nose busted open. That really sucked. It was in the middle of a tournament that I would have won. Plus the tournament was at my school! In previous matches, I got a 12 second pin, a technical fall, and a major decision over a tough kid. I was wrestling a kid who was tough, but young, and I would have beat him. In the beginning of the second period he reached back to cover my head, and his elbow introduced itself to the bridge of my nose. It didn't really hurt, but I knew it was bleeding. While the trainer was looking at my face I made a comment to my coach. I said, "Geez, Jim, I've never had a nosebleed before." He said, "Oh, your nose isn't bleeding..." As it turned out, the skin on my nose had been split wide open, and I needed like 6 stitches. That was not a fun thing. I had to wear an ugly face mask thing for the rest of the season. I tried to wrestle the next weekend, but at the tournament my headgear slid down and re-opened my cut. The thing really sucked was that I was beating the kid by like ten points, and there was three seconds left in the match, but all of my blood time was used up. I took a little time off, and wrestled a few more matches, but I opened my face up again at another tournament, wrestling a kid who I beat earlier in the season. In addition to messing my face up, I also severely pulled this muscle in my rib area. Eventually I kinda healed up, and I was able to finish my season. I destroyed everyone at Districts, having a bye to the semis, then sticking the kid in less than a minute. In the finals I teched the kid 18-3 in like three minutes. I felt bad because he prayed before our match. Maybe he was praying to me, I dunno. AFter that I went to Regionals and ate the kids in the first and second round. The next day when the semis came around, I was dehydrated from cutting way too much weight the night before without replenishing my fluids. I wrestled poorly, plus the refs screwed me. I have pictures from the match where the kid was flat on his back. Due to my fatigue and the sorry refs I lost my semifinal match. After the match I threw up like 12 times and was unable to move for like an hour and a half, due to dehydration. I then wrestled in the consolation semis and whacked some kid from Ft. Walton Beach, even though I still felt like crap. I then had a few hours to rest before my consolation finals match. I was pumped and ready to go when I wrestled the kid. Not only did I lose a match I should have won, but I spent alot of time puking in the bathroom, and I was ready for revenge. The kid I wrestled was pretty good, I guess, but he had no chance. One minute and thirty seconds into the match I yanked his arm out of the socket with a head-lever, then sank the tightest half in recorded history. He actually "tapped-out". I couldn't believe that. So the ref just gave me the pin. I then went to state and wrestleed poorly. That's all I have to say about that. AFter wrestling season I was cast as Henry HIggins in My Fair Lady. That was fun. Oh, yeah, and I went to the prom with an O.K. girl. Then I started seeing this one girl.
