Intro to Rob 101

As mentioned earlier this week, this post is a tribute to my hubby. I love him madly and sometimes I love him mad-ly, but I always love him. Here’s a clue as to why (using questions from the Proust questionnaire & questions of my own).

-What quality do you most like in a woman?
Love the smart women, intellect, and a good sense of humor. Hotness helps (smiling).

-What do you most value in your friends?
A sense of humor, smarts, and loyalty. We spend much of our time together laughing our asses off.

-What is your principle defect?
Technology has made me one of the most impatient people on earth. It definitely causes problems. I'm used to getting it ‘now’. It just gets worse as I get older.

-What is your dream of happiness?
Having enough money so I wouldn’t have to work. Then I could be a more integral part of my children’s upbringing all day, every day, instead of just at night or weekends. The time is already flying by. Ryan is 5 and Tri is 1, I want to immerse myself in who they are. I want to keenly remember who they were at a given age as I watch them grow. They are truly fascinating.

-What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
There are the obvious – someone I love becomes sick, something bad happening to a family member. One of my biggest worries is that I myself would not be around to watch my sons grow up and be with my family.

-In what country would you like to live?
In the USA. That’s it, man. What else is there? Are you kidding me? We still kick ass.

-What’s your favorite color?
Green.

-Who is your favorite musician?
That’s hard! I have to pick one person? Ahhh, that has to be Joe. Joe Satriani, maybe Sevendust, ahhh, maybe Tool. Too hard. Dream Theatre….too many!

-Who are your favorite characters in history?
George Patton is one of them, no question about that. Chuck Yeager, Rick Rescorla, …I have a lot.

-How would you like to die?
A hero.

-What is your motto?
Well, it used to be ‘the never ending search for a good time,’ but now it’s got to be ‘I’m tired.’

-What is your present state of mind?
Stressed.

-What’s the worst decision you ever made?
It wasn’t a conscious decision, but I would have worked harder in school. And not going into the military. I wanted to do that.

-What’s the best decision you ever made?
Everything I have now stems from our relationship, so you are the best decision. The other decision that was key was waiting for those three losers who were pursuing you to blow themselves out of the water so I could swoop in unopposed.

-Do you have a personal hero?
My Dad. He is the epitome of a good parent. He cares deeply about his family (both my parents do – its really annoying (smiling)), works his ass off, came from very meager beginnings, put himself through college…these are things I don’t think I could have done. He gives great advice and has the best developed people skills of anyone I’ve ever met. He knows exactly what to say and how to handle people, which is why people seek his counsel. And I’m willing to forgive the fact that he’s a Democrat.

-Why McCain over Obama?
When you look at them on paper, they are not very different. Politically, I am a McCain backer. I think he is a good man in a storm and we Americans are definitely in a storm. Historically, he is a person that does the right thing, lives by a code of duty. There are plenty of talking points between the candidates, and I do not care for the negativity in our political process. Usually it’s based on nonsense, and notions of irrelevance that have nothing to do with the real issues. I find it funny that our candidates ‘have’ to have answers for how they are going to handle something when the rules of the game change from day to day. It’s easy to make a statement made days/weeks earlier seem foolish that is now not relevant. I tend to think moderates are what the country truly needs. These are people who are not married to a political party or ideology, but are willing to compromise on things to achieve something. McCain is definitely a moderate.

-How would you describe Bush’s presidency?
Conviction with a lot of missed opportunities. Took bad advice. He had some of the biggest challenges in history in a short amount of time and it’s unfortunate that we have passed judgment on him so early in history because as history plays out we may find a very different opinion of him. Definitely NOT a good salesman and perhaps the worst public speaking President we have ever had. He was quite a bit more conservative than I thought he would be, way more than his father, who I happened to like.

-Do you have a favorite U.S. President?
Reagan. Reagan was a great man. He made me feel safe, confident, strong.. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. However, as a child, Carter scared the shit out of me.

-Which party is responsible for the current economic meltdown?
Good question. I think everyone is complicit, but I don’t think it is all political. Americans tend to want to blame someone for their problems, and usually that is the presiding political party. I’ve heard good cases for laying blame on both parties but I think the blame lies with the moronic managers at these banks who swept aside risk reality in favor of greed. Let’s face it, the root cause of the current economic climate is bad business. You do not need a PHD in economics to know that a guy who makes 30,000 dollars a year should not have a 500,000 dollar mortgage. I know I wouldn’t accept that loan as a consumer knowing full well I could not afford it. Regulation can fix some of it, but another gap will be found in 5 – 10 years that will lead to another meltdown or scandal of some sort as new financial products are created.