ten ways (the he version)

You know the drill by now. Here are 10 ways I'm the same as I was 10 years ago, and 10 ways I'm different.

same:
-I'm still socially awkward. Luckily I have built-in friends at home. And given enough time to get used to people, I do alright having regular human conversations out in the wild.
-I dress the same. Seriously, if I hadn't lost so much weight (see differences below) I'd probably be wearing the exact same clothes. I don't care about fashion or trendiness. I just want to wear what's comfortable and doesn't look terrible. Fairly casual polo or button down shirts for work (mostly lumberjack style shirts lately). Jeans, cargo shorts, t-shirts for not-work. I guess I have more t-shirts without words on them now.
-I still don't like shaving. I've finally found the solution, though.
-I still can't help following politics even though still not one politician represents my views on most topics.
-Pizza is still pretty great (although my toppings are different, see below).
-I spend large portions of the day thinking about math. Really, I spend large portions of the day thinking, period. I'm still pretty quiet and introspective. I also think about my kids, my family, the future, books I'm reading, music, how to solve the world's problems. But math definitely occupies a larger share of my thought-space than it should for a normal person.
-Quotes from Friends, The Office, and Homestar Runner still pop into my head frequently. At least I say fewer of them out-loud.
-I am equally good at juggling. Which is to say, I am still not good at juggling. Lucas likes to watch me, but my (lack of) skills have led to him thinking that juggling is just throwing a bunch of things in the air and watching them all land. He sometimes comes into a room with his hands full and says, "Let's juggle!" and immediately throws it all as high as he can, making no attempt to catch any of it.
-I'm probably too judgmental of people for what appears to me to be lack of thought, reason, or logic, or for other flaws, when I don't know their life or what they go through. And of course my list of flaws is just fine too, thanks, and while (contrary maybe to popular belief) I don't think it's wrong to think things are wrong, it's not my job to find and catalog all of the ways in which other people fail. I'm supposed to love people like Jesus and let Him handle the rest.
-I would still marry Sharayah in a heartbeat. Just because she went first doesn't mean I stole this one. There's no one else out there I could do life with. We are still perfect for each other.

different:
-I'm not balding anymore. I'm just plain bald. I actually think this is an improvement. I'd rank hair amounts as follows: 1: Hair. 2: Bald. 3: Balding. I think balding actually looks worse. What can you do with hair that's still trying to cover your head but obviously failing? It's much better to just be done with it and have a regular bald-guy hair style. I've come to accept my baldness. Turning 30 helped.
-I sleep less, but on a more normal schedule. I spent most of college never sleeping (alternating with crashing for long periods). Most semesters I was on a 6-nights-per-week plan (one semester was 5-nights-per-week), but I made up for it by crashing for over 12 hours most weekend nights. Now I sleep every night, but only 5-6 hours per night.
-I have a real job. I spent too many years to count as a student worker while going through my who-knows-how-many years of education. Near the end of grad school I was essentially doing the same thing I do now, but now I'm officially faculty instead of a grad student. Teaching isn't exactly lucrative, but it's a good job with flexible (though plentiful) hours so I can spend a lot of time with family and we can afford what we need.
-I eat differently. We never eat fast food. Sharayah cooks most days. I eat vegetables. Not all of them, but as far as vegetables go I ate pretty much just corn, peas, and potatoes before, so I've changed a lot. I actually like some vegetables, and I even eat some of the ones that I don't like. You won't find me eating a salad, but still. I also only eat fish and poultry on the meat side. That was actually barely even a conscious decision. Sharayah doesn't want to eat or cook the other meats, and we so rarely eat out, that it sort of just happened.
-I weigh a lot less. I think I'm backwards from the normal way, but my lifetime high weight is actually my wedding weight. I was 215 then. I had been about 205 through most of college. In the first year or two of marriage I dropped to 165 and I've stayed near there ever since. I've never hit 180 again. I didn't really try to lose weight, I just stopped eating at Saga since I wasn't a student and started eating home-cooked meals every day. Probably paying for my own food also helped.
-I don't really spend time on music anymore. Don't get me wrong, I still know enough on my guitar to lead a worship service (key of G, anyone?), but my guitar skills have really atrophied. I guess having successfully woo-ed the girl, I spend a lot less time trying to impress her with my music. This is one of my few changes that I'd like to undo, but having kids has cut out what little guitar time I was spending, so we'll see. I also had been listening to a lot less music, although I've been working on that. I haven't had time to go find new music, but I'm re-listening to my old stuff. Most of it is still good.
-Beard.
-I no longer drink soda or caffeine. I don't know how I did it. I was assuredly addicted to caffeine. All those 2-liter mountain dews didn't drink themselves while I pulled all those all-nighters in college. After we got married, I just decided (maybe she suggested it? I really don't remember) not to buy it anymore. I fall asleep a lot easier, my migraines are gone (though I still get approximately weekly headaches, they're not even remotely comparable to before), and I no longer crave green acidic beverages.
-I'm a much better (picture book) reader. I didn't notice this change, but Sharayah says I wasn't very good at it at first. Now I do voices and everything. It's very dramatic.
-I'm a dad. This is such a deep and profound change that I don't even know how to talk about it in summary form. Like Sharayah said, it gives an entirely new perspective on thinking of God as a Father. It changes all of my priorities. When you're a parent, you wake up every day and decide to put someone else before yourself over and over and over. Obviously as a husband I try to put my wife first, but she doesn't depend on me for her very survival (much as she might argue that point). Kids need you so fully and so innocently, and you are responsible for them in every way. I had no idea what being a dad was until the day I held Lucas. I know I was a dad for a while before that, but Sharayah really took care of all the parenting before he was born. The joy, stress, love, worry, pain, and elation I feel every day from being a dad is quite the emotional roller-coaster for a guy who used to be so even-keel that I wondered sometimes if I even had emotions.

Now I'm supposed to announce our next 10s topic.
Up next: 10 nouns.