Wednesday, March 19, 2008

More Than You Ever Wanted to Know

Here it is…the long awaited (or at least long winded) 2nd half of the “Farnsworth Tag”

Ten Years Ago-
I was senior at BYU playing baseball and majoring in health (minoring in pe/coaching…I insanely added drivers ed as a second minor years later).

Five Places I Have (not?) Visited-
I have been very fortunate when it comes to traveling the country. There are only a handful of states (literally) that I have yet to see or step foot on. 10 years of living on a bus and in hotels took me to some amazing places. Here are some of my favorite (and not so favorite) places that I have either lived or visited. I listed them by region since I know we all have March Madness on our minds. Most of my opinions are formed by the experiences I had at the ball parks, hotels, and hole in the wall restaurants (After all, what else in life matters?). Oh yeah, people matter too. I have met some amazing life long friends in every region along the way.
1. West (I may be a little biased but Utah tops the list…too bad I never took advantage of the mountains before we moved away)
Places to visit: Lake Powell (I am forever in debt to the Culley’s), La Jolla...home of my first attempt at surfing (Kajsa calls me the biggest poser but that’s ok, I loved it…all 15 or 20 seconds of it!!), and Las Vegas (there’s nothing like the sound of money hitting the bins as you enter the casinos…luckily I don’t drink and I’m too poor to gamble much or I’d really be in trouble)
Place to avoid: Adelanto, CA (Unless you like tumbleweeds and ending your baseball career!)
2. Southwest
Places to visit: Phoenix, and Houston (NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL, PGA, Tennis Masters, Major Universities, Spring Training, golf and tennis year-round, and great restaurants (especially in Houston)…need I say more
Place to avoid: The stretch of highway from El Paso to Houston!
3. Midwest…I loved the Midwest (the weather was crazy and I loved the people/lifestyle. I don’t know why but I am fascinated by farming and I couldn’t believe the first time I saw the sky turn green right before a crazy storm hit and tornado sirens were sounding).
Places to visit: Sioux Falls (I never thought I would say it but I loved living in South Dakota…but then again I also loved living in Price, UT so take it for what it’s worth!!), Minneapolis/St. Paul, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Lincoln
Place to avoid: Clinton, IA (it literally stinks there.)
4. Northeast…Although the West/Midwest/Southwest is more my style, it is crazy when you realize how much history there is in this part of the country. I also could not believe how green it was the first summer that I spent in Upstate New York.
Places to visit: Washington, D.C. (we are counting that as northeast), NYC, Boston / Foxboro (Ok so I’ve never actually been to Boston or Foxboro but I know they would make my list after taking in a Red Sox and Patriots game. I’ve seen the Patriots play in Miami, and the Red Sox play in Phoenix but I have not seen them play at home yet.)
Place to avoid: All freeways at rush hour.
5. South
Places to visit: Clearwater Beach, South Beach, Coco Beach, Key West, Myrtle Beach…see any pattern
Place to avoid:

I Enjoy (surprisingly these are not in any particular order)…
1. All sports (tennis is my sport of choice right now)
2. Playing the guitar (especially with friends)
3. The Outback Special…medium rare, sweet potato (with butter, sugar, and cinnamon), about 3 loafs of the bread, and salad with ranch
4. Learning (but I hate reading)
5. Music…Here are my all time favorites (this one is in order of course)
1. Counting Crows
2. 3 Doors Down
3. Toad the Wet Sprocket
4. Goo Goo Dolls
5. Pearl Jam (Ten Only)
6. Vertical Horizon
7. Jeremy Camp
8. Our Lady Peace
9. Phil Collins / Genesis
10. #’s 1-9 acoustic
6. Eating bowl after bowl of cereal before bed like I’m still in High School
7. Water and Sun (Water-skiing, surfing, swimming, the beach…I love it all)
8. Rain (Especially the laugh out loud, because you can’t believe how hard it’s coming down rain) 9. Ocean, Mountain, Forest, Lake, River, Farmland, Desert (or any other) Views that makes a location unique
10. A good burger
11. The 4th of July (It doesn’t get any better than baseball, barbeques, and fireworks)
12. A good laugh
13. T.V. (see #12)…Friends, Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Two and a Half Men and my new favorite…Rules of Engagement
14. Late night Donut runs
15. Listening to Kajsa play the piano (Don’t ask her though…she won’t play if you do)
16. Reading cd inserts to find other musicians’ musical influences
17. Fast Food…We currently live less than one mile from an In and Out Burger (A friend of mine likes to give me grief because I always give directions using fast food restaurants as land marks)
18. Being Mr. Mom
19. Doing things late at night
20. Brady’s smile/laugh

3 Bad Habits
1- I’m obsessive
2- I’m cheap
3- I’m stubborn

5 Things You May Not Know About Me

1- I’m a list maker…everything has to be ranked (I found out that this may genetic after I found lists upon lists in my Grandma’s drawer with things like: soups I like…soups I really like…soups I don’t like…etc)
2-I have recorded 2 acoustic cd’s (sort of)…One contains original songs and lyrics (which my friend Curtis and his brother Adam later took and added guitar solos, and backup vocals and gave me as a gift). The other cd contains covers of some of my favorite songs.
3- I have driven across the country twice without stopping for more than a couple of power naps. I did this once with a friend from D.C. to SLC and once by myself from Jacksonville to SLC…I do not recommend this unless you enjoy hallucinating and urinating on yourself because you’re too tired to realize your clothes are in the line of fire.
4-Since leaving for college I’ve had at least 25 addresses changes (only counting those that were for at least a month or longer). These changes included 16 cities and 11 states.
5-The only place I’ve been outside of the U.S. is Winnipeg, Canada.

5 Jobs I’ve Had
1- Office runner (Howells Systems)…A new family tradition
2- Construction (ok grunt) Worker…I still laugh at this because I am useless when it comes to fixing things and my co-workers had to play a game of charades every time they needed a tool.
3- Personal Trainer (Bally’s)
4- Assistant Coach (Houston Christian High School and BYU)
5- Head Baseball Coach / Health and PE teacher (Timpview High School)

I know it’s long but once I start on something (as you now know) I obsess until it’s done. Good luck to all of your brackets…except for you Kajsa…this is finally my year to beat you (unless of course you win the $500 in your office pool again like last year).
I tag Matt & Sara Staker and Curtis & Tami Sanders

6 comments:

Kajsa Farnsworth said...

Thanks for taking the time to do this. And sorry that I was a whole year off on when I met you. Woopsie! You know I'm bad at dates. Maybe you can make me a list ;-)

{jane} said...

Great tag! Now, I would like a copy of your CD's you did for the next Holiday, got it? I'm so impressed with how musical you are, I never knew!

Good luck with March Madness, I gotta get my brackets done today, Dusty's riding me on it...

and, I should have said this FIRST, but I really hope you make it to Boston and see a Red Sox game at Fenway before some crazy person decides to tear down the ballpark and rebuild.

Anonymous said...

Yo... very impressive you could fit that in between soaps! Thanks for the good laugh about my wearing a pink apron velour sweatsuits. I don't think I've laughed that hard in a while.
So... BOSTON... RED SOX... FENWAY... WHEN? I'm definitely in! I got KJ and I tickets already for the Angels series... Jane said that wasn't fair and got her and the girls better tickets (hard not to get better than top of the bleachers).
Finally, freaking love how you keep up on all this stuff... you're a good man brother... You are on top of it. It would take me a year to write that.

jenn said...

That was a superb man tag. Chris and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I can't believe you've lived so many places. 25 addresses? That's incredible! What great stories you'll have to tell your kids/grandkids.

I'm glad you could come with us to Lake Powell. It's such an amazing place that everyone needs to go at least once (although if you go once then you have to go back)! Fun times.

Sara said...

WOW! My first thought was HE IS SO THOROUGH! Not many guys, including mine, have the attention span to even READ a tag all the way through! Way to go! IMPRESSIVE! I enjoyed every bit!

My second thought was... how have I known Troy for over 20 years (WOW! Huh?) and never known you were musical enough to write your own music? Have you been hiding under a bushel or what? But you're totally OUT-ed now and I can't wait to hear it! :)

My last thought (upon finally making it to the end) was... SAD! that it is now Saturday and I am just now getting around to reading this (which you posted Wednesday). I guess I'm a little behind, but I will get going on it! Thanks for the Tag, friend! :)

Unknown said...

Very thorough Troy! I see you are a bit obsessive! I can appreciate that though!

I knew you were into music, but didn't know you recorded some! Do share!

Loved the post, love that a good hard rain storm gets a chuckle out of you! Love that you enjoy simple things. Love that you get the same thing every time you go to Outback.

Drivers Ed teacher? Didn't know that one! You are pretty crazy!