Inspired by dabe of all people.........I think that fits in humor
I've got to thinking since Dabe posted her article, I've written plenty, but never much about who I am, so here goes.
My name is Ben, never Benji or Benjamin. I'm 29 next month. I'm married, nine and a half years now. Three cats, two of which are dumb as bricks, and the other one's smart, but mean as piss. He's my favorite. I live in Copperas Cove, Texas, near Ft. Hood.
I don't have much of a job right now. I'm trying to get hired by the killeen school district, teaching music, but in the mean time, I'm delivering pizzas, and doing the occasional odd job, like digging ditches, laying tile, or even (gasp) playing piano for money.
I'm a good musician for what it's worth. Which is not much, really. It's fun, but it doesn't generally pay shit. I've play electric bass, recorder, a damn mean blues harp, and I've studied voice and piano classically. But really I prefer to play blues, jazz, or just plain old roadhouse boogie woogie.
I grew up in Texas, went to college in Arkansas, and since I joined the army, I lived in Missouri for 3 months, Monterey, Ca. for 2 years, San Angelo, Tx. for 6 months, a couple of months at Ft. Huachuca, Az., Ui Jong Bu, S. Korea for a year, and back to Texas in Copperas Cove for the last 2 and a half.
I love my wife. Our marriage hurts sometimes, but I think it's worth it. She's a flute player (and piccolo), and she's good enough to do well in a decent size orchestra, but try to convince her that. We met in college. She loves horses, cats, Bon Jovi albums, and has an obsession with bad chick flicks and trashy romance novels. Her name is Joy. I will never divorce her or leave her.
I went to college at Ouachita Baptist University, and graduated with a B.A. Music in Dec of '99. I didn't really know what to do next, so I tried to buy time, and money for my masters by going into the Army. Whoops. Also, I hear my graduation was nice, but I don't know. I was in the army language school by then.
I hated being in the army. I worked hard at liking it for the first few years, but they finally beat me down. It delivers well in what it promises. They take care of you, there's a regular paycheck, you get trained well, the benefits are good. Mostly it was the lifestyle that got to me.
I hated the extreme hierarchial system. I hated the heavy authoritarianism. I hated being gone from my wife for half the time I was in. Korean's one of the few things I'm truly bad at, so I didn't like my job much either. (drawing is another)
I worked hard to be good at it, but I hated it. Don't judge the army by me though. I know many people that love it to death, and again, it does deliver on what it promises, usually. Also, my MOS has an extremely low retension rate. About 7% as compared to the army's average of 49% into a 2nd enlistment. I still don't know what I want to do with my life, just not that. I don't begrudge my time in the army, it just wasn't what I would want to do for another 20 years.
I've done a lot of things for work, a little bit of everything. I started working a regular job when I was twelve for my dad, in his warehouse. I did that 'til I was 17, driving parts around, inventory, warehouse stuff, and I built water chillers for dry cleaning. I worked summer jobs 'til I graduated college doing yard work, gas station attendant, fast food, waiting tables, and washing dishes.
Other stuff I've done for work include laying pipe, ditch digging, carpentry, car repair, playing piano, and being a soldier.
As to stuff I like to do? I've got a ton of hobbies. I switch some every year or two to something new, others stay with me. I've been an insatiable reader since I taught myself how at 3. Mostly sci-fi and fantasy, but I mix in lots of plays, some horror, the classics, modern novels. I'm a big fan of Steinbeck and John Irving, dickens, hemingway, steven king, sinclair lewis and plenty of technical type books that support my hobbies.
I watch a lot of movies. I'm aided in this by the fact that I stopped watching tv about 3 and 1/2 years ago. A lot of people find this strange, but I find it easy to keep up on modern events, and as to the rest of it? I prefer all the extra time. Some of my other hobbies are (or sometimes are) metalcasting (still do), blacksmithing (just starting), scherenshnitte (don't much), cross-stitch (do), foot hockey (don't), running (do, but I'm trying to get my milage back up), restore classic cars (on and off), glass painting (don't much), acting, (not much) opera (not much) and cooking (on and off).
My favorite color is yellow, with orange as a close second. I love Texas, but there are many other places I wouldn't mind living. I'm good with people, but not much of a leader. I speak Korean poorly but understandable, some spanish, I understand french and italian but can't say much of anything, I've forgotten all my latin, and I can say IED about 4 or 5 different ways in Arabic.
I have too many cars, but my favorite is my 73 Mustang Coupe. I've put a lot of blood sweat and tears into it. Now I need to put in an automatic C-4 transmission.
I'm a Dr. Pepper junkie. Psychotically obsessed with it.
I've run a marathon.
My wife thinks I'm manic depressive, but it's not true. I used to be manic all the time, and now I've just been suffering from depression on and off the last few years.
I've found I can do damn near anything I try to, and most of the time I'm good at it. But I have to be able to make a living, and I don't know what it is that I want to do, so a lot of the time it doesn't matter.
I like blogging, to express myself, or vent, or just make people laugh. I also like to flame people, although I know it's wrong. Most of the time, I like you guys, even when I disagree with you.
My next article will be my 200th. I'm going to bed. Goodnight.