Even though I’ve decided to cut back on blogging, I’m still going to continue the “Deep Thoughts With Jerry” posts–he really loves writing them!

What is your favorite scent?

My favorite scent? I think of this in a couple of different ways. There’s smell, which comes from something natural like newly cut grass or freshly ground coffee. Then there’s scents like cologne or perfume. By far, my favorite SCENT is Love Spell from Victoria’s Secret. Katie wears it sometimes and it takes me back to the beginning of our marriage and floods me with all sorts of great memories. It drives me crazy, but in a good way.

If you could learn one professional skill what would it be?

Ha! As I’m typing this I realize how bad I am at typing. Really bad. I’m using each of my pointer fingers and my right thumb for the space bar. Furthermore, it drives Katie crazy.

Katie took this picture of me right now while she oh so patiently waits for me to write this post.

What did you name your first car?

I’ve had a couple of (old, very used) cars given to me, so I won’t count those. The first car that I bought was a 1993 Ford Probe. I was young and naïve when I bought the car. When I went to the used car lot to look at it there were two black Probes, both 1994. One was a GT and the other was just the SE.

I bought the GT–or so I thought. The owner of the lot said that it would be a couple days to get it because he had to take it to the mechanic to replace the O2 sensor. He stated that the car wouldn’t stay running when it was just idling and he was told that was the fix.

When the car was ready to be picked up I went to the dealership to pick it up and saw that it was the SE! The paperwork that I had stated that I bought the GT, but in the meantime, he’d sold that by mistake. I was left with the SE. Because they were the same price I agreed to take the SE and the paperwork was changed. I settled for what I didn’t really want.

Furthermore, the issue with the idling wasn’t fixed. The only way I could keep it running at stop lights was to throw it in neutral and keep my foot on the gas. I dealt with this for a couple of months until I went to Katie’s one day and I noticed a high pitched hissing sound coming from under the hood. It was faint but it was there. I asked Katie’s dad, who is an auto mechanic, for help locating the sound and we found that there was a vacuum leak and the repair would only be a couple of bucks and a couple hours’ time.

When that was complete the idling problem was magically fixed and I seemingly had a normal car! After the work was done, Katie’s dad stated that Probes were terrible cars to work on and always had problems. In fact, he’d warned me against buying the Probe before I actually bought it, but I wanted a “cool” car. So anyway, that’s when I started calling it the ‘Probelem’.

What was your least favorite food as a kid? Do you still hate it or love it now?

Vegetables. When I was a kid I hated vegetables. I hated the crunch of them and I hated the popping feeling you would get biting into peas or corn. When I met Katie I still felt that way. We went out to Red Lobster for dinner one time and she was talking up the caesar salad–she has never liked salad, but a caesar salad was the exception.

I was not a fan of salad, ever. I wanted to impress her so I just got it like it was no big deal. I LOVED IT! So good. The crunch didn’t bother me at all and the flavor was excellent. That broke the seal on my veggie eating. I’ve been eating them ever since. There are some that I still just don’t like but most of them I don’t mind and there are a couple that are just great. Sautéed onions on anything is awesome! Peppers on pizzas or fajitas are the best! 

Lettuce? Check. Onions? Check. Pickles? Check. Potatoes? Check. All good.

Which decade or era do you like the most and why?

Easy–the 90’s, no question. If you just consider music alone, it was the best and so evolutionary. The movies were also great. But, as an adult, I want the 90’s back because it was before social media.

The time just before social media seemed so much more peaceful. You were allowed to have an opinion and belief without having to constantly defend it with arguments rather than constructive in-person conversations. You could be an individual and not be forced into a box and define it. People didn’t get offended by every little thing.

When you voted politically, you kept it to yourself. It was America just before so many people became hateful and cold behind a keyboard. It was America before so many people felt like it was their right to judge everybody publicly. When people took care of each other and wasn’t divided by the media or government. The 90’s was the best because that was the last time America seemed “normal”. 

What is one thing people don’t know about me?

I am a hopeless romantic. I love the cheese and corniness of everything. I used to do really corny things for Katie–really cheesy stuff. The gifts were a little out of control. I’ve grown out of it for the most part, but I still like to do things now and then without going totally overboard. I don’t know how or why, but the boys have seemingly picked up where I left off.

Katie has given them some sort of direction when it comes to stating that girls nowadays would probably prefer the cheese and corniness of something handmade or thoughtful as opposed to the expense of something meaningless just for the sake of spending money. She loves thoughtful notes or something as simple as when I make her tea in the morning.

Katie used to eat a Dove chocolate every night, so one time I wrote little notes and tied one to each chocolate and put them in a jar. You can notice that the sixth one down on the left just says “LOVE SPELL!” The ones that look blank are just turned over because Katie wanted to keep the picture PG.

Popcorn or M&Ms?

M&Ms for sure. I have to be in the mood for popcorn, and when I am I always regret it. I end up with the kernel skins between my teeth or in my gums. M&Ms are always delicious. There are so many flavors but my favorite is peanut butter. And if you freeze them they are the best. I love M&Ms so much that when we were dating Katie’s nickname was M&M.