Nuts About Southwest

Fun Facts

Languages

I took Spanish in college but I barely remember it. I can still ask people what they want to drink, but that's most of it. I'm planning on doing some extensive crash-course Rosetta Stone Spanish so that when we start flying to Mexico and Puerto Rico I

Hobbies

I tend to go a bit overboard with my hobbies. Luckily right now I basically have only one: Cold Hardy Subtropical Plants. I actually like a lot of different types of plants, but I really like that tropical look. I've got lots of cold hardy palm trees, bamboo, bananas, citrus, cannas, elephant ears, and anything else that looks exotic. In mid summer it looks awesome but after the first hard freeze most of my landscape gets flattened. It would be alot easier to landscape the way I want in Florida, but where would be the challenge in that? I used to count travel (the vacation kind, not the work kind) as one of my hobbies but with two small kids it's a challenge just to get out to Oklahoma City to visit with my wife's side of the family.

Family

My wife and I met back in '97 in flight attendant training for Southwest. We got engaged a year later and married a year and a half after that. We have two kids Kate (Katherine) and Forrest (Robert Forrest Garren, III). We've got a girl and a boy and now we're done (at least that's the plan).

Pets

We have a cat (Coco) and a Leopard Gecko (Sabrina). I got the gecko for free off of craigslist while my wife was out of town and when she got home she let me know in no uncertain terms that the gecko would be the last living animal that I am allowed to bring into the house. We have a fish tank as well but they are not pets to the point that any of them have names.

High School

I went to Ooltewah High School in...you guessed it, Ooltewah, TN. The locals pronounce the "LT" like a "D"...but no one knows why.

College

I went to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and after 5 years and a change in major I ended up with an English degree that I've never used.

Favorite Sports Teams

I used to row in college and enjoyed it, but I have no desire to ever watch it from the sidelines. I have absolutely zero interest in any sports whatsoever, but I fake it if my kids are on a team.

Favorite Travel Destinations

When I met my wife we tried to travel as much as possible before we had kids. We traveled to Costa Rica, Bali Indonesia, and Kenya early on. We tried to go to Turkey three times but first there was an earthquake, then the USS Cole, and then we were about to go again on...9/11! So...that didn't happen. We finally decided we couldn't keep putting off having kids until we hit all of our travel destinations so the only times we've gone out of the country since has been when we go to Newfoundland, Canada most summers where my mom is from and where my parents have a house.

Your Favorite Southwest Story

Well, there's probably a good story on every aircraft full of passengers but I do remember a really nice one. There were two older guys on one of our flights who recognized each other. They were both veterans from WWII and hadn't seen each other since they fought in the war together. They were so excited to see each other and talked the whole flight.