Keeley profile picture

Keeley

A day late and a dollar short, but taking it in stride.

About Me



"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved." – Helen Keller
I am very busy with training, so I have VERY limited time to tinker around on MySpace. I appreciate all of your support, comments and messages, and will reply as soon as time allows.
Now for just a little info about me: I will do my best to bridle my thoughts to make them flow smoothly, but I make no promises, so bare with me. Copyrighted photos have been used with the permission of Tonya Melton Photography. Tonya is one of my dearest friends, and an incredible photographer. Tonya, thank you for your friendship. Now, sit down, shut up, and hold on cause here we go:
I am residing in Atlanta, GA for a few weeks and then most likely will be living in New York City. The past four years, I have lived in north central Alabama, and for about 13 years before that, in Knoxville, TN. My educational background is in animal science and business- a far cry from what I am doing now. I currently work for Delta Air Lines, one of the best companies in the US, and most certainly the best airline. Some of you may not share that sentiment, but that doesn’t change the fact that I, and many of my colleagues, bleed widgets. Sure, Delta has its ups and downs, but who doesn’t?
As for what makes me tick: I wish I could be profound and insightful here, but alas, I am a relatively simple guy, with a simple life. I have matured a lot over the past few years. I credit that to God working in my life. Although I was reared in a loving home, had a good childhood, and attended church regularly, I still had some character flaws that were down right horrible. I guess it could be summed up that I was a self-righteous, manipulating, lying, cheating, abusive, foul mouthed, bigoted, hot-headed jerk. For a long time, I blamed my actions on everything and everyone but me. A few years ago, I guess God had enough of my hypocritical Christianity, and he slapped me across the face, and made my world fall apart, and I am so glad he did. We can not control what others do or say, but we can 100% control how we react to others….if a person can learn that, the rest will fall in place. I am very spiritual, yet I firmly believe in the separation of Church and State; if we don’t separate them, how can we expect extremists to make the separation? I will post some more of my thoughts about religion on my blog, as I could fill up quite a bit of space on the topic.
I am sentimental and love to reminisce about childhood….about the wonderment of sea monkeys, the miracle of watching a jar of tadpoles turn into frogs, the amazement of an ant farm, the entertainment of Legos and Lincoln Logs, the innocence of playing in the sprinkler in my underwear, my first crush on Bo Duke, actually wanting to get up early on Saturday mornings, peeking out the window in the middle of the night to see if it was snowing, the simplistic idea that fireflies (or anything else for that matter) could live happily in a mason jar and eat nothing but lettuce. Eventually, we all grow up and quickly learn that there is much more to life than lettuce and mason jars. I am a southerner, I grew up in the city, but I am a country boy at heart. I am rather shy, which sometimes gives people the false impression that I am stuck up. I love nature and animals. I love to laugh, love to make others laugh, and tend to be drawn to someone with a good sense of humor. I am a lousy housekeeper, but a great handyman. I am optimistic, loyal, trusting, and receptive. I am a good listener and I try to keep in mind that my pragmatic thinking may not always be the best elixir for one’s emotion. I am open-minded, and although I may not agree with another’s ideology, I can respect them and ask that they respect me. Diversity is the spice of life. I am very introspective, and feel that the better we understand ourselves, the better equipped we are to understand others and vice versa. I am a fairly well rounded person with a wide variety of interests, so monomaniacal thinkers work my nerves. I am very compassionate and tenderhearted, and try to be succoring to others. I recently went on a mission trip to Nicaragua, and it was a true eye-opener. Most of us don’t come close to comprehending how good we have it. We get caught up in not knowing WHERE to eat, and there are so many that don’t know IF they will eat. I am concerned about what is happening to our planet, and am perplexed that few seem to care at all, or only care about one aspect of the problem. Too often we are scornful and attempt to solve an environmental problem though theory alone. How quickly do we condemn the bushmeat hunter, but offer him no alternate means to provide for his family? How many of us teach our children about global warming yet leave unnecessary lights on and throw the daily paper in the trash? So, take a second, get your butt up and go turn off a light!!

My Interests

Animals, caves, walks in the woods, horseback riding, poprock candy, sunsets, a roll the windows down drive fast song, the smell of cedar, bats, a fresh haircut, a cold beer, the smell of creosote on a fencepost, ponds and bullfrogs, Times Square, card games with lesbians, fried squash, sheets dried on the clothes line, cobalt blue, buttermilk and cornbread, mint juleps at Churchill Downs, a good cup of coffee on a rainy day, auctions, the beach, sitting on the porch swing, fresh vegetables, homemade ice cream, dill pickles, old barns, picking blackberries, barbecue chicken, fishing with my grandmother, tree houses, CNN, feeling butterflies inside, a full moon, soft puppy dog ears, Christmas lights, antiques, Fruity Pebbles, homemade quilts, hearing cows in the distance, yard sales, the smell of new leather, a prayer that gives you goose bumps, power tools, dinner bells, ferns on a creek bank, tears of joy, sushi, a funnel cake at the fair, the smell of freshly opened sweet feed, fresh chicken eggs in the nest, thunderstorms, the velvety feel of a horse’s nose…..I could go on forever.

I'd like to meet:

God has given me the most incredible circle of friends. In particular, my church family and my coworkers are very special to me, and words can not express how much I love them and how much they have touched my life. I am a very very lucky guy as far as friends go. However, one can never have too many friends, so I am always open to making new acquaintances and building new friendships. Some of my friends are listed or pictured on my page, some are not, but they are all very close to my heart. I must confess there are a few famous folks I would like to meet: Oprah, Dolly, Ellen DeGeneres, Brad Paisley, Jeff Corwin, Jack Hanna, Tim McGraw, Bill Clinton, and Neal Armstrong...the list could continue, but so what, I have found that the greatest people are the ones I already know.
Ultimately, I would like to meet prince charming, and live happily ever after, until then, I will just continue to work on the happily ever after. Life is good but it would be so much better if I had someone special to share it with. I tend to have a strong limbic resonance, and hope Mr. Right will as well. I know he is out there somewhere.

Music:

I have very diversified taste in music. I grew up in Nashville, so country music is kind of ingrained in my being. I also like dance, club, classical, gospel, bluegrass, rock, pop, top 40s….you name it. I don’t like it all, but I will certainly give anything a chance. I have about 80 hours of music on my computer right now, and have recently been told, it was nothing but an oversized MP3 player. We all have our favorites, mine consist of, but are not limited to: Alison Krauss, Gwen Stefani, Dolly Parton, Nat King Cole, The Eagles, Chicago, Tim McGraw, Huey Lewis, Brad Paisley, Anita Baker, Billy Dean, George Strait, Janet Jackson, Jason & deMarco, Casting Crowns, John Mayer, Michael Buble, Judy Garland, The Judds….the list could go on forever!!!

Movies:

Here again, I have a wide range of favorites: The Color Purple, Silence of the Lambs, Blood Diamond, Gone With the Wind, The Ghost and the Darkness, Seven, Crash, Sordid Lives, The Wizard of Oz, Where the Red Fern Grows, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the new one is better than the old one in my opinion), Ghost of Mississippi, Steel Magnolias, Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, A Christmas Story, Oklahoma….yada yada yada.

Television:

I am all about nature programs, documentaries, news, lots of the shows on TLC, The Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, any sort of do-it-yourself stuff….I love My Name is Earl, Dirty Jobs, Myth Busters and Six Feet Under.

Books:

I am into books about nature, history, biographies, home improvement, animals…I think you get the picture.

Heroes:

There are lots of everyday heroes in my life. My friends are my heroes. My cousin Ellen is a hero and a great inspiration to me. She is on my friends list…look her up, she is awesome. We don’t get to see each other much, but I think of her often.

My Blog

Answered Prayers

Wow!! What an amazing few days!!  I am not ready to go into detail just yet, but I felt it necessary to say that so many of my prayers have been answered in the past few days.  Long awaited ...
Posted by Keeley on Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:13:00 PST