Exit Interview a la stu
Exiting the month of July, my birth and marriage month, I subjected myself to this Men's Journal interview, since I bought my first copy at Publix grocery store only after reading this catchy subtitle: A Man's Guide to Meat, How to kill it, cure it, cook it, and devour it. Wow.


Stu, ninetyandnine's House Calls blogger, ex-fireman and now, ER nurse

What adventure most changed your life?
One Sunday morning I was driving across town to find a church I had found in the phone book, but passing by another church, I felt compelled to turn around and go there instead. I've been there ever since. The first sermon I heard: The Gifts of the Spirit. I was home.

How do you make your favorite drink?
Boil a few cups of water, drop in one Luzianne tea bag and one decaf tea bag, steep at least 10 minutes, add 2 x 2/3 cups (not full) of white sugar and water to make one gallon total, stir, serve over ice.

What's the strangest place you've ever woken up?
I woke up in the backseat of a firetruck, during the flood of '94, when we made one call after another responding to flooding and people trapped in homes, all night long until shift change at 7 the next morning. I slept while waiting for power crews to show up.

What's the best cure for a hangover?
Now, I get hangovers from working nightshift, and also noise hangovers from church. I drink mega glasses of H2O, and take 2 ibuprofen, for starters.

What's your biggest vice?
Caffeine, in the form of java.

What was your first car?
A metallic blue Olds Custom Cruiser, Mom's old car, and I kept that sucker vacuumed out daily, waxed it obsessively, and found out what top-end speed was for that car. After driving it a full year at high school, dad bought me a new one.

What song do you have to hear once a week?
Right now it's Newsboys Something Beautiful with that funky disco beat. I think I hear it once every time I crank up my car. I can make the windows rattle with the bass on that one.

Do you have a scar that tells a story?
I have a small cut on my wrist from when I was overhauling the hottest fire ever, and I was throwing insulation out the window and my wrist went down on a tiny piece of jagged glass.

What's your favorite place on earth?
My den, sitting next to my sweetie, talking about our day and watching the latest DVD, with a view of a half-mile-by-mile greenbelt out the picture window.

What's the best advice you ever received?
The trust you build in your spouse is by the consistency of good decisions you make (El Pastore).

-interview by sdk.