"YOU ARE LAZY!!" Referee to me after he raised my hand in victory...

[Tuscano]

And he was right. I grew up in a neighborhood where there was no time you were not in danger. Someone just waited until you were too tired or weak. I ALWAYS held something back. During wrestling season the track coach happens into the utility room. I am on the parallel bars. We are on a circuit, I jump on and pump off my required ten. The "tracK" coach is not impressed. And he shouldn't be. He calls me out in front of everybody! I climb back on the parallel bars, He drives me! "One more", One more!". ASS! I could do these all day. I fake fatigue. He walks from the room, I look at my teammates and jump back on and pump another dozen! Message to my teammates, don't fuck with me!
My mindset, no one my size should be able to beat me. when they did, I was focused on them totally. I watched ALL their films. I would not be beaten a second time.

So the time the referee called me out...My coach asked me to move up a weight class for the team. Me? I don't care. And my brother will be wrestling in my place in the lower weight class. LOL, another hilarious story, that doesn't go well for the other team. I am wrestling "up" and I am injured, wearing a knee brace. I have intel on my opponent. He has an in for me. I torched him in football.

He moves in aggressively, and I passively resist. I make VERY subtle position adjustments. Boldly he moves in for his signature move...HIS COACH SCREAMS!!! too late..I have him where I want him, match over! I score enough points on that one move to win the match. I then do the wise thing, go pure defensive. No risks.  This is why the referee called me lazy. Not the first time he had seen me do this. In his opinion I was lazy, I could do more. In my world, I had already done what I had to, I feared what was behind the next door. That was my world.

[Tuscano]

So I had offers...Wrestling mostly, there was no $$$ in wrestling at the time and not even today. Football? My love! the most I got was "feelers". My size. So the US Navy stepped up! 
 Me and Officers Candidate School, OCS! There was a movie!  A California beach boy, OCS tried to drown me! I was one of 400 that passed that test. 15 of us moved on...don't ask. let's just say, if you were to plot my "temporary" duty assignments...governments fell. Totally a series of coincidences.

During my time with the navy, I only earned two significant medals...Hand-to-hand combat and expert in small arms... That said, should you meet me, and see my scars, they were earned on the streets of San Francisco!

[bats]

You just can't beat Tuscano's drunken stories of his athletic glory days. This shit is golden.

As for me, I could do the parallel bars. What I could not do was climb that fucking rope. God damnit. lol

[Tuscano]

Grazie Bats. More personal and relevant to now! My mother was laid to rest on my 71st birthday. Sometimes it is a burden to be the famigia, golden boy...
I am the first born...I have five siblings VERY close to my own age. And, they all have very sharp knives!
But during this dark time, my eldest sister laid on me the gift of laughter! Her son, like less than thirty, I refer to as "the Prince". He seems to have all the gifts. Handsome, athletic, and ALWAYS brings the HOTIST women as his dates to family parties...No less this time. while under the influence, my sister calls me out! makes the claim the "Prince" looks like me more than anyone else in the family! And? It is true! I respond, "Yes, he is gorgeous!". The room bust out! His girlfriend ---OMG! Her reaction was priceless.