1. What was your first job and what did you learn from it? Roofing was my first job and I learned to study hard in school because roofing was too tough for me.
2. How long have you been in the real estate or related service industry? I have been in real estate sales for about 12 years. I started my career in the midst of the Great Recession.
3. What is your biggest fear and what have you done to try to conquer it? My greatest fear is jumping out of an airplane and that is even WITH a parachute. The closest that I ever came to conquering it was going ziplining in Maui. Now, even that would have been a bridge too far, but I won a free trip to zipline and I am so cheap that I did not want to waste my winnings. I know what you are thinking. If Ray won a trip to go skydiving, he would do it. You would be wrong, though.
4. What would you do if you knew you would not fail? Jump out of an airplane!
5. What is a habit you would love to eliminate or change? I would love to control my caloric intake.
6. What is your favorite meal (forget about calories or what you shouldn’t eat) Anything cooked by my dad, especially his specialty, Mexican food. The meal would consist of his turkey enchiladas (a Thanksgiving staple in our family), chili rellenos, chili verde, fideo de sopa and margaritas! #5 us much easier to understand, isn't it?
7. What is something you wish you’d done? Continued with my accordion lessons. Well, maybe not playing the accordion, but some form of musical instrument. Singing is out of the question for me, but to play a guitar like Santana, that would be something.
8. Who has been most influential in your life? My mom and dad. They both taught me so much.
9. What are your favorite business-related books? The Richest Man in Babylon, Freakonomics, Super Freakonomics, the Millionaire Next Door, most Malcolm Gladwell books; Outliers, The Tipping Point, What the Dog Saw, Blink, David and Goliath.
10. Other than business books what are your favorite things to read? Anything by Dean Koontz. I love science fiction, Dune, The Foundation trilogy, and The Martian Chronicles. The Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich can be hilarious.
11. What are your top 5 favorite movies? The Shawshank Redemption, Alien, Monte Python and the Holy Grail, It's a Wonderful World. Honorable mention, Jacob's Ladder.
12. If I came to visit your city for one day what is the one thing I must do or see? Join me on the Sacramento River for fishing and exploring the Delta. Hurry, we will be selling our boat soon.
13. If I came to your city to visit for one day what is the one restaurant you would recommend? Without a doubt, Todo un Poco, and I am buying!
14. If I was going to relocate to your area what advice would you give me that is unique to the area? Be prepared to explore the surrounding world class destinations like, Lake Tahoe, Napa Valley, San Francisco, The Sierra's and so much more. You will never run out of things to do.
15. Do you have any special talents? No, but I like to cook and sometimes I come close to showing talent int that arena.
16 Do you have any quirks? I like to tell dad jokes!
17. What is your best character trait? Loyalty.
18. Have you ever done anything you would never do again because it was too hard or too dangerous? When I was young, I stepped across very deep chasm to a rock area that rose from the depths of the Grand Canyon. Never again! It still makes my palms sweat. My friends and I also used to jump off the 75' cliffs at Angora Lakes, near Lake Tahoe. Youth is definitely wasted on the young! It was exhilarating!
19. What is your favorite thing to do in your spare time? Play pickleball! ! !
20. If you could live anywhere in the world where would you want to live? I would love to live in Monterey or Aptos, near Santa Cruz.
21. What is something that we don’t know about you that would surprise us? I have my black belt in Mixed Martial Arts and I love birds. A bucket list item is to see a male Resplendent Quetzal one day. I did get to meet a female Quetzal at Excaret once.
Notice, she would not look at me. She was playing hard to get.
Thank you, Carol Williams and Kathy Streib for this month's ActiveRain Challenge. It was fun!
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