Getting to know me...well, a little better anyway....

A little over 2 months ago, I received this survey. I thought maybe since I was semi new here, I'd dust it off and share...

1) Do you believe in till death do us part? - Actually, I do believe in this theory, although in this day and age it may seem a bit outdated. Even in my first marriage, as bad as things got when she left, if she would have been willing to at least try to work things out, I would have stayed with her. Even if "Til Death Do Us Part" meant I wished I was dead. But seriously, when I fall in love with someone, its generally a deep love that I never want to give up. I suppose that’s partly what brought me to polyamory.

2) Do you believe in love at first sight? - Ahh...yes I do! I have experienced it twice and then some! In 2000, I remember the day I went to meet someone for the first time, I knocked on her door and when she opened it I found myself gazing into the most beautiful set of eyes I’d ever seen. I became lost in them immediately and we must have stood inside the doorway for the longest time as we just looked at each other, touching each other’s face, and hugging. About a year later, when I met Nettie it was much the same. I remember being at a party when she walked in the door wearing a red dress. She had just come from a wedding with her family and she was absolutely stunning. She literally took my breath away with her bright smile and her laughter. I thought no way she’d be interested in me, but later on in the swimming pool when I caught her eye I knew we’d found something special.

As a side note to this, I’ll ask you this and then I’ll explain - Have you ever just known you were meant for someone before you actually met them? I have. It’s actually how I came to be with my current girlfriend. I kept having mental images of us being together come up whenever we would talk though at the time, I knew it couldn’t be right because she was not into the lifestyle that I was and that she was married. I didn’t act on this and so I became content to maintain a friendship with this person instead. Until a few months ago when she learned more about my interest in polyamory. I truly believe that our being together now is the work of fate.

3) Would you date anyone you met online? - Yup. Been there, done that. On several occasions, in fact! People will warn you that you don’t know what you’re getting when you meet someone online. How do you know if they’re being honest with you about who they are? How do you know if they’re not some psycho? Well...my answer to that is you take the same risk if you meet someone in a bar, in a restaurant, at a party...its all the same. You take the same risks. The difference here is that the bar, restaurant, party, whatever...is much bigger. In fact, I’ve personally found that its much easier to open up to someone online than it is in person. I would also advise people to use the same cautions with online folks as they would with people they meet out in public. If you’re going to meet someone, make sure someone knows where you’ll be. Set up a code word and for God’s sake take a cell phone with you so that a friend can call you and "check the weather" so to speak. Don’t make yourself an easy victim!

4) Do you believe in God? - I believe in an afterlife and a higher power, if that’s what you mean. I have a very difficult time with religion these days, thanks to all the corruptions of the "Holy Word" and the various interpretations of it by man. How much of it is true and how much of it is altered perceptions is unknown. My philosophy is to simply live my life in a fair and honest fashion and be good to my fellow man and it will all work itself out in the end.

5) Like Thunderstorms? - Oh yes, I LOVE thundestorms! Especially at night, I could sit and watch the lightning for hours...For years, I’ve had a fantasy about making love in a thunderstorm. Check out Chapter 12 of the Erotic Adventures of Steve and Brooke if you really want more info on this!

6) Do you take walks often? - Probably not as often as I should. It’s not that I don’t like to walk, its just that there always seems to be something going on. Or maybe its just that I don’t necessarily prefer to walk by myself. Having the company of someone special when I walk would certainly encourage me to get out and do it more.

7) Do you know a 2nd language? - LOL, yes, I speak perfect Hendricksian! There is currently no translation dictionary available, but if you spend enough time around me, or Nettie, you too will be uttering Hendricksian phrases such as nudidity and confuzzled while adapting to our language’s pronunciations of English language words like remote (the "o" is short, the "e" is long) and knife (the "k" is hard, the "i" is short, the "f" takes on a "v" sound, and the "e" is long).

8) Who would you like to see right now? - Ed McMahon standing at the door with one of those giant checks with my name on it would be nice right about now. But I would be just as excited if I could see my Special Someone too. And my mother. She was taken way too soon.

9) Have you ever driven a tractor? - OK, place your bets on this one folks. I’ll wait. All done? The answer is.....YES!!! I have driven a tractor. It was an older one, when I was back in high school. We had one on the farm we moved to in Southern Missouri from California back in 1978. It had one of those hand crank starters on the front and I used to fire that baby up and drive it all over the 15 acres of land that we owned. Yeah, we didn’t have internet or video games or even cable tv to keep us occupied back then so we did what we could.

10) Are you from the country? - Originally, no. I was born in southern California and grew up in Lakewood, CA (on the border of Long Beach). We lived there until I was 14 when we moved to the Missouri Ozarks (Mansfield, MO, pop 2,056 and home of Laura Ingalls Wilder! Woohoo!) I have to say that I while I missed my city friends for quite some time after we moved, the country does grow on you and I really enjoyed my time in Mansfield.

11) Milked a cow? - Why must this survey begin and end with my ex-wife? (Yeah, I went there....) Seriously though, you would think that after spending my teen years in southern Missouri that I might have learned this skill, but no. I’ve never milked a cow. I tried once, and thought I was getting somewhere, but my uncle yelled out the back door for me to get away from the bull.

Now it’s your turn. Pick any one of the above questions and answer it in the comments below!