Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Tagged by the Coffey Girl

Been tagged - or like I'm saying today "waiting for inspiration and it came". Thought about what to blog today and had nothing on my mind. Too much stuff rolling around up there for anything clear to come.

So let's get to it!

Here are the 5 questions and my rambling answers.................

#1. You have close to 20 tattoos now. What was your first tattoo and what inspired you to get that first ink?

I'm pretty sure it was margarita's that got me to do that first ink. Either that or the girls that all had tattoos that were making fun of me for not having one at the bar that night. So I went and got a hundred dollars out of the ATM and went to the tattoo parlor with girls in tow.

Now before we get carried away with the girls thing - it was just some college girls and I knew their parents, so nothing nefarious going on there.

But we were hooting and hollaring and it took a while to choose what I wanted and where I wanted it. I finally came upon the chinese symobls and the girls all chose the one that represented "wisdom" and I said "cool!". Yes, boys and girls, once upon a time I actually had lots of wisdom..........

So I got it put on my back right at my left shoulder. This was 10 years ago. It was about 3 years later when I got the bug again. Have no idea why, but it seemed like a good idea to me to put my "five pillars of manhood" on my back. So in order, across the top of my back went the following tattoos in quick succession: Wisdom, Strength, Courage, Honor and then in the middle of my back was one that says Love. It's four times as large as the others and it took 6 hours of tattooing which I took at one sitting and then passed out from the pain.

Yea, for those of you that don't know - tattoos hurt. Bad. And that's part of the "fun" of them. Can't really explain that - but it's true.

Then others came as inspiration hit. Next up is a memorial tattoo of my dad. I've got lots of money invested in my body art which is why I no longer sit in the sun and brown myself. I'm white - but very colorful.

And you either like that or you don't. I keep all my tattoos in places that I can cover them with my clothes so I don't scare our customers when I make sales calls or presentations. You can be a bit of a rebel and still conform to societies expectations. I think.

#2. If you had to pick a theme song, it would be...........?

These are the questions that probably change all the time - but since it's today - I guess I'll have to think of one for today........hummmm.........thinking.........

OK, it's not the Mary Tyler Moore theme, I can assure you of that.

Too much punk and alt rock in this head for that - so for today I'm going with Iggy Pop and his song "Lust for Life" that was written in the late seventies with David Bowie and is now starring in the most bizzare way in a Royal Caribbean Cruise Line commercial on TV.

Music has had such a huge impact on my life, through the highs and lows, it is always there to soothe my soul or make my point. It allows me to describe what I am feeling by what I listen to. Which is why I'm saddled with 2500 albums and an armoire full of CD's.

But there are much worse vices and much more destructive tendencies that we could exhibit, so I think music is cool and I'm listening to my "theme song" right now!!!

#3. How did I meet my sweetness?

That's a great story. I met her around '95 and she was in my Sunday School class. Yep, how's that for depravity? I was her Sunday School Teacher.

Always had a connection with her. And I mean from the very start. We're very similar in some ways, such as our sense of humor - and yet very different in our view of the world. I'm a little less of a conformist than she is and it makes for the best combination in the world.

It took lot's and lot's of work for me to win her - because she's way over my head - but I wouldn't have it any other way.

She makes me want to get up in the morning............and she most assuredly makes me want to go to bed at night!!!

I love her totally and completely - and what else do you really need in life to be happy?

#4. What do I love best about this age? And, of course, what do you dislike?

Well, I've said on many occasions, that our hearts tell us we're at halftime but my head tells me I'm well into the third quarter..........

But with that said - I love this age. I'm still young enough to do whatever I want, but old enough to have the wisdom from prior mistakes that everyone makes and that I'm pretty much through with making all of those.

I actually do have that "wisdom" that I mentioned earlier in my tattoo rant.

I'm very self-confident. Although I always have been - but in the past, so much of that was bravado on my part with me praying that it would work out. Sometimes it did, but sometimes it didn't.

I'm through with all that now. I don't need to be the center of attention. I don't have to be the smartest person in the room anymore. I don't have to have all the answers. All I have to do is LISTEN. And it's amazing what you can learn when you sit back a little and let life just take it's course instead of trying to pull it by the horns the way you want it to go.

Plus, I can now walk away from a fight instead of insisting that it occur. I miss the fights and the testosterone that they produce, but all in all, It's a worthy trade for peace of mind, soul AND body!

Oh, and I almost forgot the most important one: I can now afford any kind of car I want. Yea, that's very cool.

Oh, Oh, AND - I can make love all night as a mature man instead of being a thumble-fingered kid trying to find the meaning of life. Can't let that one pass by - it's very important.

As for what I don't like about this age, the only thing I can think of is that my (once) incredibly athletic body has let me down. And in truth, it's been that way for a while and I just ignored it.

All my injuries from the balls-to-the-wall athletic feats have taken their toll. On a cold, rainy day, I can't hardly get out of bed and I creak and pop and ache. If this is a primer for "old age" then I won't mind being in the third quarter.

So I'm trying to fix everything and be a kinder, gentle person to myself and see if I can't get a few more miles out of this thing.

#5. If you could go back in time, what decade/city would you like to experience first hand?

Well, my first reaction would be in 1965-1969 in San Fransisco. Since I would have been only 4-8 years old, I missed that. But I did go in 1976 as a puffed up teenager for a while and I always felt like I missed out on the good stuff. What an amazingly care-free but unsustainable way of life.

But as I think of this more, I'm pretty sure I would go back farther. Maybe the 1920's in Paris - at the time of Josephine Baker and all that enlightenment and fun.

Or maybe I would like to go back to ancient Greece and sit at the feet of the great philosophers.

Or maybe go and take St. Peter's place at Jesus' side, we sound like the same kind of guy.

That must have been a great question since I've answered it several different ways. So I guess what I wish for would be a time machine so that I could do something different each day!

But if any of this meant I would have to do these things without my love, then I would respectfully say no - because right now is the best time of my life. And that's the God's Honest Truth.

So, thanks Beth for the questions - I enjoyed answering them. Now I think I need to do some work so that I can stay ahead of the game.

Peace.

4 Comments:

Blogger Cup said...

Excellent answers! I always enjoy your deep, thoughtful posts, so I hoped to get some of that on the page. May I just say that you're damn cool, and I'm glad you're my age?

2:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

WOW!!!

10:00 PM  
Blogger Marni said...

I'm glad Beth got to you first. My questions all seem lame now!

6:49 AM  
Blogger Dale said...

Those are such great questions and fantastic answers Keith. Where are all the tattoo photos now? I have one small one but often think of others I'd like. Although I'm a wuss and it hurt. A lot. Did I mention I'm a wuss?

10:12 PM  

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