Mark Thomas

I just posted this for my "theater appreciation class" well this is the pre-edited version... but figured it will work well here :)

I’m a 6’5 fat guy, was born in Denver CO, lived there all of 4 weeks… being a military brat I’d lived all over, I’d spent more then ½ of my live overseas until I hit 24 years old… I’m now 27. I’ve been married to my high school sweetheart Kimberly for 7 years now (yes we started dating officially at Sr. prom (awww)... She’ll be finished with her head shrinking degree (psychology) this year with a heavy base in math and plans to start teaching middle school math next year. We have a little princess (or so she thinks) Camber Elise (yes camber as in the suspension geometry of a car and Elise as in the LOTUS) who just turned 4 and our little man Cooper (after the Mini cooper, no not the ones made by BMW... the kind used in the movie “Italian Job”) who will turn 3 by the end of the semester... if you can’t tell from my kids names I’m a huge car nut, but not the kind of cars most people would find appealing, I like the weird odd and unloved… yes including Yugos’ and Pinto’s… oh did I mention my dog?... pure bread sheltie, blood line from some grand champion from back in ’69… we adopted him a few months back (think you free list on craigslist.org), my kids love him… and love to torture him, he’s a good dog and goes by “turbo”… no I didn’t name him, honestly it wasn’t me.

I greatly dislike to properly use punctuation (or proper syntax fort that matter) the “…” is a far superior way of getting my thinking across as that is how I think…

I now consider myself a FL boy, I moved to Panama City back in ’96 and ended up married to a local and “got stuck” we finally got out of hell… er Panama City and made it over to the Milton/Pace area… life is good.

I’ve been slinging pies (delivering pizza) off and on for a long time… we’re back on at the moment, I had been trying to get a carpet cleaning biz off the ground but that is currently on hold till my wife finishes school... so… TIP THE PIZZA GUY… gas costs a ton right now… plus… he knows where you live ;-)

My current major is “manufacturing technology” should be interesting, playing with computer controlled machines that weld, cut, and do all kinds of other fun things… right up my alley… I did mention I’m a gear head right?... I also figured the psycho babblings of most liberal professors that I’ve experienced in the past would be severely limited due to the type of required curses.

Currently my motivation is… well I’m sick and tired of working at B.S. jobs… no matter where you are, to make decent money you either have to know something or someone, being that I don’t know anyone it’s high time I got to “knowing something,” pizza delivery only goes so far to provide for a family of 4… you are tipping right?... no “keep the change” isn’t a tip… if it jingles it’s not a tip.

My challenges are obviously… I can’t spell if it weren’t for spell check you probably couldn’t read most of this (thank you oh evil Microsoft for MS word)… my grammar is poor at best… and well I’m a serious procrastinator so it’s a serious challenge to get anything done before the last minute… sad but true… I also seem to have an issue of staying on task… anyone else notice this already?

My theater experience is limited, I played lead in a few grade school plays… amazing what happens when you are the ONLY boy in the school that can sing twinkle twinkle little star and not change keys ever other note… I did spend a lot of time around the thespian crowd while I was in high school and college... as a band geek and music major we are always in the same buildings… also seems if you are doing musicals you need to have a bucket to carry your tune with, what better place to learn some of the basics then music theory and ear training.

happiness... When my 1^st child was born I so wasn’t ready for it, no man is.  I suppose it’s a guy thing but it didn’t compute fully that I was going to be a daddy until the first time I saw her.  Any baby prior to that I’d always though was ugly and alien looking, but man she was the most beautiful little thing I’d ever seen, 10 perfect little fingers, 10 itty bitty toes, tiny little ears, that cute little smooshed nose, add a little more cheese to the story my mom was there, I didn’t know it then but she wouldn’t be around for my 2^nd childs birth. At the time she had colon cancer, she was lucky to be able to come down from Michigan for the birth and stay a week with us, she passed before Camber turned 1 year old, ironically we found out we where pregnant with our2^nd the same week we buried her…  Few things can make a guy want to get “right” then having a little one, when someone says you can’t explain the love you have for your kids they are so right, you’d do anything for them… before having kids being married is an entirely different ball game,  you just think differently.  You want to be everything you can for them… kids are amazing.

Sadness… I imagine few things in life could be harder for a mommas boy like myself then burying one of your parent’s,  I did just that a few years ago, Mom was in her mid/late 40’s, she’d found out she had colon cancer, she fought hard and fought well but it was just to far along before they found it.  I’ve managed to block out the exact date she died but it’s right around mothers day… not knowing makes it easier… something I need even 3+ years later…  Mothers day was the last day she was fully conscious and talking… we’d found out we where pregnant with our 2^nd child that same week, we didn’t tell her, we didn’t need to add any more pain. As I said before I was a momma’s boy, I miss her dearly and yes even now my eyes are full of tears writing this.  Much like having children wanting to make her proud pushes me to be a better husband and father… Her biggest peeve with me had always been my laziness, I’ve always been intelligent and excel at anything I want to, but I rarely finish anything, it’s time to finish something… I can’t wait to see her again one day, and I hope she’ll be proud.