Bonus Post: Thing 3

100 Things I've Always Wanted To Say But Never Did And Now Maybe Should Since The World Might Be Ending -->

Thing 3:

File this under bet you didn't know the influence you had over me ... but with just three days left until the end of the world (allegedly) and with my countdown winding up rather quickly and with my life flashing before my eyes (well -- maybe not "flashing" since I've been doing this for the past 97 days, so maybe more like my life is "plodding" before my eyes), today seems like a perfect day to thank the three guys in my life who helped shape me.  You see, I was born into a den of women (four older sisters in my first family), and lived many of my formative years in a bigger den of women (two sisters, two step-sisters and a half-sister, to be genealogically accurate) with a pretty distant father who was den master of both living arrangements, so it's no surprise that I looked up to a few people who had a Y chromosome like me once I got out on my own and starting fully forming my personality in the early 90's.  So to the three of them -- Jarrod S and Darren L and DJ W -- thanks for providing me with the guy POV as I went on my own journey from boy to man.  Not in some creepy Silence-of-the-Lambs way, but I did manage to take bits and pieces of each of you and work them into who I am today.  And for that, I am thankful.