The Mustache, The Loud Family, And The Halal Burger

You can learn a lot about someone from the way they talk about family, food, and the job they chose when nobody was watching. I’m joined by Dom Baglier, an admissions counselor at Baldwin Wallace University, and we start where every serious life conversation should start: mustache loyalty, loud Italian households, and the kind of family stories that never die at Thanksgiving.

Then we shift into the real substance behind Dom’s work in higher education. He breaks down what college admissions counseling actually looks like, from covering a huge recruitment territory to reading applications, answering emails from high school sophomores, and walking families through financial aid questions without making them feel lost. Dom also shares why he left staffing and recruiting, what “purpose” means to him now, and how being a first generation college student shapes the way he shows up for students who need a guide, not a sales pitch.

We also hit soccer, travel, injuries, and the moment your body starts sending those “check engine” signals, plus a Cleveland love letter with an East Side vs West Side vote and a couple must try Cleveland restaurant recommendations. If you care about career clarity, the college search process, or just want a funny, honest conversation with real Northeast Ohio flavor, this one delivers.

Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a laugh or a nudge toward purpose, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

All music brought to you by former guest of the show Speedo

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Transcript

Welcome And Set The Scene

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home Rants Podcast. This is, as always, your host, Mike Bono. I got a great guest for us today. He is coming to us from Baldwalla up in Cleveland, Ohio. He is the admissions counselor out there, and that is Dom Baglier joins the show. Dom, thank you for joining. Yeah, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

To be here. I know we've had some of my colleagues, but I'm excited.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Yeah, excited to have you on. Excited to get to talk to you here a little bit. But there's a little rumor going out that you've been voted best musician in Cleveland six years in a row now. That's I could we're gonna talk about that for sure. Like, how did that how did you achieve such an honor for your mustache out there, FYI? This is a running joke between Dom and I uh with uh Pitty. So that he had to have this the when we were coming up with the outline. How what get I need to start with the stash, man?

SPEAKER_01 0:58

You know, I I think that there are just kind of some genetic factors that play into the whole the whole facial hair structure, right? Yeah, and uh I can't grow a beard, so it's kind of it's kind of all I'm working with here. And I think I I started I been with my girlfriend like four and a half years, and when I started seeing her, I had a mustache, and it was just it just kind of stuck. She told me one time that she had a nightmare that I like lost it, or you know, it like fell off. So I don't think I can really I don't think I can really let it go. I think it would be a problem with the uh with the lady, but it's it's um, you know, I've I've definitely definitely had a lot of people say it a lot of the time it's people with a pretty bad mustache are like, dude, that is a rocking mustache. All right, hey, you know what?

SPEAKER_00 1:51

As as someone who can grow facial hair without even thinking about it, like yeah, yeah, that's a great stash.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

That is looking at the improve it in the future, you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

I mean, six years, six years running, best mustache in Cleveland. I mean, that's that's yeah, yeah, I think you gotta prove, man. Uh, I mean, for the beard, I mean you gotta check out Buddy's beard care, one of my great sponsors of the show, man. Like, don't get don't don't get that thing coming in nice. I'm just letting you know. Give him a shameless plug at the beginning of the show. I got to what I like is topical comic buddy of mine, Buddy Holly, out of uh Newark, Ohio, started his beard care company, been helping him get the name out there, and I mean that it's the stuff's phenomenal. My wife, but I get it with the facial hair and the significant other. My wife said a quick way to divorce is for me to shave this beard. So I get it. Like that that's a serious thing with the ladies for sure.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Like, yeah, it's jarring for everybody. I remember one New Year's Eve, my dad came downstairs. I was probably nine years old. My dad came downstairs, no facial hair. I almost started crying. It was it was a very jarring experience. Strange man to my kitchen, you know.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

It was uh see, my dad has always had the handlebar mustache, the foo man. Like, as I mean, I'm 37 and I can't remember him without it. There was one time that he was supposed to shave it. He's worked in the steel mills his entire life, so but like, and they had to refit them for like respirators and that, and they're like, You know, you gotta shave that off. He was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. He just like trimmed it down real, real fine, and like to the point where it's like it was just stubble, but it was still like, Oh, don't do that. Don't ever don't don't don't take that mustache off your face, man. It's it's jarring. Like it's people see old pictures of me when I was swimming in college and you know, hairless, and they're like, Who is that? I'm like, That's me, believe it or not. Like, it it takes like 10 years off of my age, like instantly, if I were to shave the beard. But yeah, my wife, I keep telling her in November, I'm not gonna do no shave November, I'm gonna do Mo Vember, and I'm just gonna rock the stash for men's health awareness and uh prostate cancer for November. And she's like, Yeah, I you'll you'll look so weird. Please don't do that. Like, not everybody can rock the stash, and you pull it off phenomenally.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Well, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. It is it is partially out of necessity, and and I think you know, I'm kind of I'm kind of stuck with it at this point, but but I'm happy. I'm happy about it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

That's all that matters, brother. That's all that matters. Also heard an um another rumor that your dad may be a world's most interesting man. What is that like to have your dad be the world's most interesting man?

SPEAKER_01 4:43

You know, it's kind of um it's inter it's interesting. He's an interesting guy, I'll say.

The Mustache Origins And Beard Talk

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Growing up, I think he was like, he's a chef, right? So he's had a lot of jobs that have kind of kind of made his outside of work life a little bit of a mess. Um, and so I didn't get to see so much of the the interesting side of him for a while because he was so like he was always at work, you know, he worked at strange hours and things. But as he got older and he kind of he kind of like leveled off a little bit, my mom says she thinks his his testosterone dropped and he got he got a little more mellow. But he's picked up a lot of hobbies. He does a lot of like I came home when I was in college. I came home one weekend and I was in the garage and I was like, what are you uh what are you doing? And he was he was throwing knives, just it was like the weekend he decided decided to build a knife throwing rig, and I was like, it's it's cool, it's it's something to do, but you can't hit anything if it's not like exactly 10 feet away. So it's more of a more of a hobby than like a practical skill. But he's he's a guy that does uh does a lot of things like that. So he's definitely he's a real specific dude. You know, he I don't know. Most interesting man is a pretty is a pretty serious title, but he does he's an interest, he has some interesting habits and some interesting sort of he's he's pretty stuck in his ways with a lot of things. Like you're Italian, right? Like my dad's Sicilian, my mom's Italian, so yeah, they're they they do a lot of shouting. It's a good time, though. It's really fun to be around my family. I'm I'm feel really lucky to you know to have the family that I do because sometimes I hear people talk about going home and it sounds like kind of a headache, but I stop home all the time. I go hang out on the patio with them, and we we have a good time. I get it.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

My dad's the family Sicilian as well. Mom's half slow block, half Italian. So I I get the dynamic. Like that's a hundred percent. My dad, you know, retired year year ago now from the still mills, and I I've seen the testosterone lower since he's been out of work. I I see with my nieces and my nephews and all that. I'm just like, who's this guy? Like, what who's this softy that's being good with the grandkids? Where's where's the hard ass that I grew up with? Where's he at? Like, where'd where'd he go? But yeah, he's always fussing with his pool, always cutting his grass. Like, that's just I feel like it's a very Italian thing to do. I grew up in a little town in West Virginia, nothing but Italians. Everybody was cutting their grass like every other day. It's like it doesn't need cut, y'all. Like you take a day off, you know what I mean? Like, it's just a very specific thing that you see them do all the time. Like, he calls me all the time. Get that grass cut at your house. It's been 100 degrees and no rain. It's brown and dead. I'm not cutting it. It's not, it doesn't need cut. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

No, I uh my dad spends a lot of time in his garden. I think that's his his biggest current hobby. It's kind of become his his big thing, but he's very, very specific about the seeds and this and that. I like I had to watch their house. They went and moved my sister. My sister, she has an internship in Boston for the summer, so they took her down there. And I I watched the house the other weekend, and the instructions for watering were really very, very particular. And I was like, you know, you're not gonna know. You're not gonna know if I follow these instructions. I mean, I get it, uh, but two days, it'll be okay. I'm gonna water the plants. Yeah, he's he's still working, so you still get a little bit of like he'll come home and he works in like an office full of women, and he's like the he's the chef, and it's like all women, and like they seem to be very nice, but he still wants to be like crazy kitchen kind of environment. So he gets really worked up and he comes home and he's like, Well, Janet was and and then I just she just looked at me, and I always know that he's probably exaggerating when he says, and she just looked at me.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Anytime he ends uh ends a statement with that, I'm like, I don't I don't know if it was that intense, but um we're embellishing a little bit of the story, just a smidge. We're dramatic people, we're dramatic people. I get it, I get it. Chefs are I've I I've known some people that were chefs, they always have that kind of like if nobody's yelling like something's

Loud Italian Family Stories That Stick

SPEAKER_00 9:22

going wrong, uh yeah, kind of so I get that, and then you would then you sprinkle in the Italian in there, and that just amps the volume up even more. So yeah, I I definitely get it. That's just that that's hysterical to me that that that's it would like it's just similar, but like a little bit opposite because my dad now from working in the steel mill since he was 18 till nah, I mean he's in his 60s now, uh like around all that heavy equipment and all this other stuff. Like, I could be sitting right next to him. You would think he's talking to somebody across the room. Just the volume, it's because he he he just can't hear now, like because he's around all that heavy equipment. And if he's not yelling, like we're like, okay, something's wrong with Pops because like the volumes come down a little bit. Like, why is the volume down? Like, that's that's that's scary when his voice drops and then it doesn't go up. It's like, no, what happened? Something happened because he's normally got a lot of like my wife. When we first met, she was just like, Do you have to like yell all the time? I'm like, What are you talking about? She's like, like, you you're yelling. I was like, Oh no, no, no, no, no. This is not me yelling. Like, I got another couple octaves, like I can get up there. I just come from a very loud Italian family. Like, that's this is the only tone when I was like, nobody's ever said, like, huh? What'd you say, Bonna? I didn't hear you. Because there's no there's no way they didn't hear me because of the volume. They just weren't listening. That's the only way they didn't hear me, or anybody in my family. So I definitely get that with the with the volume and everything like that for sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Yeah, my my girlfriend often often she she just puts her arm on me, on on puts her hand on my arm, and I know that I'm being really, really loud. Yeah. Or she's like, you're yelling in my ear, and she just doesn't even bother to say it because she'd be saying it all the time. So she just there's a there's a physical, uh, physical kind of behind the scenes check so that uh I can I can check it. But yeah, we're I mean, my mom's one of eight, so growing up, and my dad's from Youngstown, but my mom lives in the house that she grew up in. So it's been a couple generations in the family here. And the her sisters and her brothers are we're always overgrowing up, and those are really loud people. Seven, seven really loud people in there, mostly loud, significant others. So Christmases, the holidays, really, really crazy times. But always, always, you know.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

I I I had to ward my wife the first holiday she was coming over to to my family's for I think it was Thanksgiving. And I was like, all right, you haven't met everybody, you've met mom and dad. You have not met. There's 16 of us in the in the immediate family that's gonna be here. Everybody's gonna be talking, they're all gonna be having different conversations, it's gonna be loud, nobody's upset, nobody's arguing. This is just the tone of voice we have. By the way, everybody is gonna hug and kiss you like they've known you your entire life. Like that's like she was like, and my wife, like, not a real big huggy, kissy kind of she didn't grow up in that kind of family, full Irish, too, as well. So you you mix these two together here for with us. Yeah, she was just like, What do you mean? I was like, I I should have warned you before we parked in front of the house, but we're here now. So this is this is this is the room we're in. We're gonna we're gonna we're gonna do this together. But yeah, yeah, everybody's gonna hug and kiss you like they've known you your entire life. Just go with the flow. When it gets quiet, that means we're eating. Because about my dad makes a joke every holiday, it's always loud, you can't hear anything. I'm sure surprised the neighbors haven't called the authorities thinking somebody's you know that like something's wrong because there's that much volume, and then it just goes dead silent. And my dad just looks up and he's like, We're eating, we'll talk later, and then just goes back to eating. Like that's that's the running joke in my family that when it gets quiet, it's like, ah, the bottos are eating. Okay, I got it.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Yeah, no, I did it, I did it all in in one. I had her come to a family reunion, and I was like, Look, it'll be we'll be moving around a lot, you know. We don't have to, we don't have to stick around too long, but you'll be able to kind of break the ice, meet, meet all the aunts and uncles. And there are a couple that I really had really had to warn her about. My uncle Joe's a really uh really interesting dude. And I was like, look, man, he's he might stare through you, he might be spitting hot dogs on you while he's eating, but he's a good guy. He's just it's just the way he is. And I guess his buddy, it was funny. I she met everybody who went pretty well. It was it was all right. And I was saving Uncle Joe for last, and he was heading out, and I was like, Oh, hey, Uncle Joe, you are you leaving? And he was like, Yes, and I was like, Awesome, this is my girlfriend. You know, we've been together for a year, yada yada. And he goes, Hi, uh Google, Google, and he starts pointing at the phone, and he's like, Google uh Bob Salem News, and I was like, uh don't Google that. Like, I was like, Don't go. We're not gonna go. I'll do it, I'll do it, and nothing came up, and then he was like, Google Bob Salem News peanut. I guess I he was so I so I pull up the article, right? There's an article that he's clearly going for. He was like, His buddy Bob Salem pushed a peanut up pike's peak faster than anybody had to that point, which is which is like a mountain in Colorado. And I was like, That's great, Uncle Joe. That's awesome. And it was really cool because he said faster than anybody before, which tells me this guy wasn't the first guy to do it.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

Not the first attempt.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Like yeah, this is he's like the third guy to do it. He said, And he's gonna do it again next year, and Planners is gonna sponsor him, and he makes good money too, and he just left. He didn't say anything to my girlfriend other than I Google this, and I was like, dude, that is the Uncle Joe experience. That was perfect.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

That's that's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

He's the man, it is she's you know, she's fully she's been she's been baptized uh into the into the family. So yeah, um, she's uh she's she's got a good track of what's going on now. She knows everybody's quirks and things, what to expect.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

She, yeah, my wife's the same way. She's she looks forward to certain aunts and uncles that are gonna be at the functions now, and it's always it's always the out-of-pocket ones that she's like, uh, is uncle Joel gonna be here? Yeah, he's my favorite. Like, she can't wait for him to show up. And it's just like, all right, so I know where you're gonna be. You're gonna be permanently attached to him and uh whatever, keep her company, unc. Just do you. She loves you, just have fun. The crazier you are, the more she's gonna hang around you, just so you know. Like, that's how it's gonna be. I consider talk family all day, but I do want to talk a little bit about what you do here, Dom. You're an admissions counselor at Baldwin University. How long have you been at BW? And tell us a little bit more about that and uh what you do.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Yeah, so I I started, it was December of 2024. I actually remember it was December 9th, because that was exactly two weeks before the winter break starts at BW. So perfect time to start. Got uh got a couple weeks in and got a couple weeks off and then came back in. But so it's been about a year and a half here, actually a year and a half to the day. But as an admission counselor, my territory is really like I cover Cincinnati, a lot of the kind of West Virginia bordering, you know, your your Cubanville area, kind of side of Ohio, as well as the Parma Schools. And I graduated from Brewery Mid Park High School, so it's about a 10-second walk from our campus, and that is that is a part of my territory as well. So I just, you know, I cover everything. It's it's easier to say what we don't do really. Cover cover applications as they come in. Um do a lot of reading applications in the in the fall, and then as you get into the the winter, financial aid starts to pick up. So we have those conversations with family, always just kind of being a face, you know, for BW and kind of being the first point of contact for students and families, because I mean we get kids as young as sophomores in high school that are emailing us, asking us about college. So it's really a kind of a full hand-holding process into the into the college church for a lot of a lot of families and students.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

Absolutely. I gotta say, going all the way out to Steubenville, that's my old neck of the woods back in West Virginia, right across the river and uh in Fallsby, West Virginia. So yeah, that's that's a big territory from Cleveland, though, going all the way to Steubenville and and in that area too as well. But good for you. I mean, you know, what what made you want to go to BW? What what was the allure to go work for BW?

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Yeah, so I I actually I grew up in the Berea area. So I'm I'm from Brook Park, where the new Brown stadium is going to be located. I think one of like five people in the world that's excited for it. I'll miss, I'll miss it, you know, I'll miss it on the lake, but my parents live pretty close, so it'll be a good good place to park a car and go to a game. But I grew up in the area. I actually went to Bereemit Park, like I said, and then when it came time to think about college, I was like, I have to go a little bit further than than 10 seconds across the road. So for my undergrad, I went to Kent State, which is a very, very different school. And it was a great school, it was a good time. But I've definitely seen, I guess, the the big school and the small school environment and kind of those those differences you have there. But when I graduated, I worked with somebody who ended up being a pretty good friend of mine, Kennedy. She was a we were recruiters together. We worked just a like a staffing agency doing a lot of kind of temp work stuff in the finance world. So it really wasn't wasn't necessarily for me. It just wasn't very fulfilling. It was a lot of calling people who had jobs and asking them to take a job that just objectively wasn't a great job. See if they were interested, kicking the tires on stuff like that. I mean, there are there are people that you know love that kind of work, but it just I it lacked, I think, purpose for me. So I actually left there and then Kennedy was she she left as well. She was working at BW and she was a admission counselor. She was like, hey, we've got an opening. So I ended up following her to BW and found a lot more, I guess, purpose in the work. Like I go to work and I'm excited because I know that I'm at I'm what I'm going to do is going to help somebody, which is kind of why I got into recruiting in the first place. And then I realized it wasn't so cut and dry as I I thought when I was, you know, 21. But but it does, it feels really good to, I guess, go in every day and and know that you're able to help people. I was a first generation student, so my parents were pretty lost when it came time for the the college search and things. So I I've been in that boat, and it's it's really cool to work in kind of the community I grew up into.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if if you like what you do, you're you're not working. You'll never work a day in your life. Like I I fully and wholeheartedly believe that,

What An Admissions Counselor Really Does

SPEAKER_00 21:23

and I will take that to my grave. It's why I got into comedy, and it's why I wanted to want to be a comedian. Because I know I'm I I've had so many people come up to me at the show and be like, dude, I had the worst day. Your 10-minute set just made this entire shit day just worth it. Like it made my day so much better. I'm like, you know what? That right there is better than any pay that I'm gonna get from this show. That that means more to me than anything. The most rewarding show I had was working with the company Slapstick Comedy out of. Columbus, Ohio, and we went to North Central Correctional Institution. We went and performed for the inmates. 400 inmates that were allowed to go. Biggest crowd I've ever performed for at the time. I've done a couple hundred, 150 to 200, 400. It looked like they're uh like looking out. I was like, is there like 5,000 people here? Like, I don't know, like I've never seen a room this packed, and I'm so excited now. So excited that I got nervous. But everybody, all 400 of them came up, asked for an autograph first and foremost. Never signed an autograph before. I signed 400 autographs that day. And every single one of them was like, You just gave me six more months of peace in here. And that I was I I I almost turned to the promoter and who was putting open slaps. He was like, Don't pay me because this is this is worth it, but I needed the money. So like the Italian kicked in at me, like, no, don't say that, baby. They will they won't they they won't pay you so, but like that to me, knowing I can help people by making them laugh. People are like, You drive all over the place, you're always on the road, you're always going here, you're going there, you never stop. Like, doesn't it get tiring? I was like, at times, I mean, yeah, I'm not gonna lie, but when I get one person after a show saying, Hey, you made my day, all that goes away. And it's like, when's the next show? Where my head to let's hop in the car and we're on the way. So, like, yeah, I get that the rewarding part of the work is what makes you want to do what you want to do. Calling people to to ask them if they want a job that's not a good job when they already have one. Absolutely no. Like, that's just no, like that nothing I would want to do. I I don't blame you for getting out of that for sure.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Yeah, it didn't, it didn't feel good. We were it was it was kind of like I still talked to all my coworkers from that job because it was such a a a bonding experience. I think there was a little bit of a little bit of trauma bonding there. Uh I had I had just turned 22 and I remember pretty early on, I had I'd hired a lady for a job, and she was like, hey, you know, the laptop they gave me, you know, there's something wrong with it. And I was like, okay, cool. This is my job to let them know, and we're gonna get this sorted out. And I let them know, and they were like, hey, actually, she's been pretty distracted during training, so we need you to fire her. And I was like, What? You're gonna fire, like, like, like, I mean, I was an adult at the time, but freshly out of college, I was like, I I barely even know how to have like a job, like a full-time, real, real position like this. So it was that that left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. And I really, we really didn't have much in the way of of concrete opportunity because the thing with something like finance is a lot of people who are accountants or want to work in finance, all all you need to do that is to have a degree that says you can do that. There's a lot of technical ability that goes along with that. So a lot of them are just fighting those jobs. There's a pretty pretty low rate of of open position and and unemployment in that particular area. So it was it was kind of fun, though. It was, you know, looking back, it was interesting, at least. It was an interesting stop, but certainly prefer what I do now. Even better. Like, yeah, like I've had a lot of those stops along the way.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Where uh I'll not I I I managed an any time fitness for a while. Like I and I I got one of my buddies a job at one of the other branches, and he just wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing. Like, memberships were like plummeting, like all this other stuff, and they were like, Hey Mike, I need you to go and fire him. I'm like, ah you gonna make me fire my homie? Like, is that is that really what we're doing right now? Like, yeah, they're like, Well, you brought him on. I was like, Yeah, no, I did. I vouched for him. Yeah, that's that's that's a thousand percent my fault. That's a uh yeah, you're not wrong. Uh yeah, I'll do it. Like it it molds you, it toughens you up pretty quick. And I gotta tell you, being a comedian, you gotta have thick skin as it is. You get hecklers all the time. So, like, I think that's part of the reason why they're like, Hey, yeah, you you can handle it, right? Like, you got it. All right, I I can I can. I don't wanna, but I can. So and I was even like 25, 26 at the time, and it was still, you know, old to be an adult, but like not feeling like an adult, you know what I mean? Like in that kind of transition where it's like, yeah, technically I'm an adult, but am I? Like, it's been that weird transitional period of that too, as well. But you also were a former soccer player in high school, and you play now in a in a couple soccer leagues, I believe. I always gotta check Pitty's notes here sometimes. I think it gives me like how did you get involved in soccer and and what makes you want to keep playing?

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Yeah, so it was actually uh it was actually my dad. He for some reason, so we're we're both. I think he's he's five seven. I'm five eight. I've got a little something on him, you know. Not not notoriously uh big guys over here, so he was a goalkeeper growing up and in a time that soccer really wasn't on the radar for a lot of people, especially being in in Youngstown, Ohio, you know, in in the late 70s, early 80s. So it wasn't it wasn't a big thing, but he played and and he really loved it. He was, you know, goalkeeper is just kind of a ridiculous position to be playing. If you're 5'8, 5'7, you're really uh really supposed to be up in the six-foot range there. But he played his whole life, so you know, growing up, my my parents wanted me to play some kind of sports. Of course, he wanted me to play soccer. I played baseball and I was really super bad at it. So they were like, all right, we're gonna try soccer here. And and it ended up working out pretty well. I played probably from the age of five all the way through high school. And then I played with a club, Samba Soccer Club. Really incredible experience with them. I got to go to like uh the Gathia Cup in Sweden, which is kind of like the the largest, it's almost like the youth world cup, right? Uh it's not a talent-based thing, but if you sign up, you can go. But it's the largest youth, maybe sporting events. It could just be a soccer tournament, but I I think it might be the largest sporting event for youth sports in the world. So we went a couple times and it was really great. We got to stay with like our our kind of opponents who we we got really close with the kids from Malta, which was was really cool. I mean it was it was a pretty formative experience. But yeah, I played played through high school and then college. I was like, I can't, I'm I'm pretty burnt out here. And at my my stature, it wasn't looking too good. I wasn't getting any scholarships. But I still love the game. Excuse me, sorry, I gotta let this this cat real quick. But yeah, growing up I I really uh really hung on to that and it was it was a big thing, you know, socially and and got to do a lot of cool stuff with my team. So I quit playing in in college and it was really I didn't miss it for a little bit, and then I graduated and started working, you know, really trying to find the balance, figure out how much time you have. And when I realized I had a lot of free time to fill, I was like, well, I should uh I should probably get back to playing soccer.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

All right, yeah, I mean I I get it. Former swimmer, I I I swam from the time I was eight all the way through my sophomore year of college when an unfortunate shoulder injury kind of put the put that dream to bed pretty quickly. And I I I get it, I mean I still miss it to this day. I can't do it like like I used to. I even tried coaching like a youth summer league around here where there were kids from eight to seniors in high school, and getting the coach them was was enough for me because there was at the end of the the summer season, there was a swimmers versus the coach relay. And they were like, We're gonna make it a medley relay. I was like, cool. I called dibs on backstroke because that's what I did. That was my stroke. After after a 50, like my shoulder was just screaming at me because I have one speed when I get in the water, like and like it all instantly came back to me when I jumped in the water and I had a cap and goggles on. Because like they they didn't think I was gonna take it that seriously, like he's gonna show up in like some board shorts, and we're all gonna be in our competition gear. We're gonna smoke them. And I showed up in my jammers. I don't know where I found them. I I found them like my old competition swim trucks from college that I have no idea how they still fit. I had my old cap and

Soccer Lessons From Youth To Adulthood

SPEAKER_00 31:49

I found a pair of goggles, and I was like, Yeah, you didn't think old Coach Mike wasn't gonna take this seriously. I did a 50 and I got out, like they saw me, like my arm was just like hanging because I went full tilt for a 50, and they were just like, You cool? I'm like, Yeah, I'll be all right. I'm just old. That's all. That's just what it is. Like, it's that was the that was the sign. I'm done, and the water's done for me. Like that was the telltale sign at like 34 years old. That the the world was like, Yeah, don't do that. Like, that's your that was your last hurrah. You just that's it, and I I still missed it. Like, my wife just is in awe, like when the summer Olympics come on, and I'm cheering for the swimming portion of it, like I'm there, and and like I'm watching a football game too, as well. And she's just like, You really do miss swimming. I was like, I do, I did it for two decades basically, almost. Like, I like I love the sport, I did it from the time as old as I can remember through college, like yeah, and so it's just like I get it with it. Like, if I could still get in the pool and mix it up, I probably would, but heck, I drive too long with this shoulder and it's just like start screaming at me. And it's just like, yeah, dude, yeah, we're not we're not doing any laps today, like that's not happening for sure. So I definitely get and I'd say do it as long as you can, man. Like, as long as you can keep playing, I would keep playing as long as it your body allows you. Because one day it's just gonna say, nah, you're done. Like, and it's the it's the ultimate, like, okay, that opened the eyes. Like, this is this is it for me. So I I never understood where then it's like, man, how do these athletes just retire? Like, when they're like you gotta be like in your prime, man. Like, how are you retiring? And it's like, I get it now. All right, I got in the pool and I did two laps, and my I'm done. Like, that was that was all it took for me to be like, okay, I I get it now.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

So yeah, I uh I've I've got a pretty bad ankle. Uh it's that's we're in the off season right now, so I'm trying to do a little bit of physical therapy to rehab in, yeah. Get it back, get it back, but it's something that one day, one day that that that'll probably be it. Uh, I've certainly certainly get humbled. Uh, sometimes just walking down the sidewalk, yeah. No, no particular reason, uh, roll the ankle. It's a very uh humbling experience.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

It doesn't get better, brother. I'm gonna tell you this now. At 37, if I sleep wrong, like the the day shot because my back shot. Like that's that's where I'm at. And people are like, you're so young, and like tell my body, because my body does not feel the same exact way. Like, I hit 30, and like that check engine light came on in my body, and it hasn't gone off since like I've done everything that I could think of, and it's just like I this is what it is. Like, yeah, we're here now. Let's not stop the ancient process. We're just gonna we're just gonna roll with the punches here, we're gonna keep it pushing. Sure. But you you mentioned there too, as well, you know, you've you've lived on both the east side and the west side of Cleveland, and I ask everybody that's from Cleveland this question on. So you're no different, Dom. Which side is better?

SPEAKER_01 35:11

I so so limit experience here. Limited experience. My I spent a year in Lakewood and then moved over just just past Bratnell here. So I've been up in North Collinwood. And uh I I really liked Lakewood personally. I think that's there's a lot to do, a lot to do on the east. I'm still kind of feeling it out. I've only been here for for about a half a year, so I'm still finding finding kind of new things to do, but I uh just know more people, I think, on the west side. And as far as commute goes, it's a little bit quicker for me, so less miles, less miles as well. Pretty big for the car. But I I think it's the west side, personally.

SPEAKER_00 35:58

I gotcha. Right now, I gotta tell you, Alex, I will like keep it in a tab, and like we're split right down the middle. Like, so like there's there's no like solving this debate at this point in time. So we're what Penny and I are trying to do here. It's just like, okay, we ask everybody from Cleveland, and it's literally it's it's a dead heat right now. Like, we gotta we gotta figure something out to tip the curve. But like I do a lot, I've done a lot of shows up in Cleveland on both sides. I I can't choose, you know what I mean? Like I both crowds are great. That's what I'm going off of. Like, like is that you know, the crowds were great at both on the east and the west side. So I can't, I can't I can't even contribute to this either. But like we ask everybody, just that we're trying to narrow it down, and it's 50-50. Like that's that's where we're at. So Cleveland, just you know, everyone just go out and visit Cleveland. That's all I'm saying. Just pick a side. You you're not you can't go wrong at this point in time. Pick us pick a side. Regardless.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

What are some of your favorite places, places of the my by all time, I think, favorite, favorite cheeseburger. I'm really I've been spreading the good word about this establishment for a long time. Cleveland Grocery and Grill is is just an incredible restaurant and and grocery store as well. It is they they have two locations now. They'd originally opened on Snow Road, unfortunately were closed due to a fire, and then reopened. They've got a location in Strongsville, and then they've got a location on the east side on Carnegie. And that's that's the one I go to. They're actually inside of uh Rumi's Turkish market. So it's it's a halal burger and kind of burger wing, all kinds of all kinds of stuff, but really primarily, I think, more more famous for the burger. Incredible food, incredible people. It is it is I had a burger yesterday there. It's a place that I go to meet people, and like our buddy came in from Pittsburgh, and we were like, dude, you've never had this burger, you've got to try this burger. And so we sat down and and spent about an hour and a half in there just hanging out. It's a nice environment. So that's probably my my number one, I guess, burger kind of more more bar food kind of stuff in in the Cleveland area. Uh Palazzo is really good as well. Italian restaurant. They recently moved, I think. They used to be over by John Carroll, but that's that's a a favorite, favorite restaurant of mine as far as the the Italian food goes, I would say. I think I'm pretty spoiled with the Italian food since my my dad was a chef and and I was eating a lot of that. So I would I would give that a stamp of approval for sure.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

I I I gotta I gotta say I get it with with the Italian food. My wife hates Sundays because the the one the one tradition I told I know we moved away from the from the Pisons back in West Virginia. We're out here in central Ohio now near Columbus. Like we're two hours away. One thing I need, and that that's it, and that's Sunday sauce. That's that's I I need pasta and sauce on Sunday. That that's that's that's what it is. And I'm not saying she has to cook, I'm saying my wife likes to cook, and she she's been making the sauce for 10 years now, and she keeps like, all right, come here, I need you to try this. And I tried, I'm like, all right, it's good. She's like, is it? I'm like, don't get your feelings hurt. Like, I know where you're going with that question, and just don't get your feelings hurt. Like, you're gonna ask if it is a grandma's?

East Side Vs West Side Debate

SPEAKER_00 39:43

No, it's not. You're not gonna get to that level of full-blooded from off the boat from Sicily. You're not gonna get to that level. I love you to death. This is good sauce, it's good. Leave it at that. Just take the win.

SPEAKER_01 39:59

Yeah, yeah. That is that is a common conversation in my house for sure. Even even my my mom's side did something different for Christmases than my dad's side. My mom's side won out, you know. But my dad being a chef, he always wants to do something a little bit different. He wants to change the sauce a little bit, and my mom absolutely will not have that. So uh it's every year, every year around Christmas, the uh the debate heats up, but it is yeah, yeah, it's a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

That's a big one because I've been asking my grandmother like for the recipe, and I know it's not wrote down anywhere. I I know it's not, I know it's all locked up here for my great grandma. I can see I can see the aging process. I'm like, I gotta get this recipe before she absolutely forgets it and doesn't pass it down to somebody. Like, I need this recipe. But like, yeah, like my wife's like, well, why don't you just ask her? I was like, You go ahead, go ahead and ask grandma for the for the sauce recipe. Let me know how that works out for you. She'll step back into that old school Italian real quick. And should I I've always said, if my grandmother or grandparents in general, if they lose English and they go straight to Italian, that they're telling you they're no longer responsible for their actions, and like they have checked out and they've gone back to the old world, and you're gonna hear some stuff that you're not gonna want to see, but grandma's not giving up that recipe, like she it's gonna be on her deathbed, and then she's gonna whisper it to somebody, and like that's gonna be how it goes on. Yeah, I made sauce one time for my wife, and she was just like, How do you know how to do it? I was like, It's just in grinding us, like we just know how to make a sauce. Like,

Cleveland Food Picks And Sunday Sauce

SPEAKER_00 41:50

I was like, I've watched, picked up a few things here and there, and and I like to cook. I'm an Italian, I like to cook, I like to feed people, and it's just what I do. And she's like, How is your sauce better than mine? I was like, one, I'm about 75% Italian. If I can't make a make a sauce, like I I I need to give up my pies on card, is what I need. Like, if I can like so that's that's where we're at right now. So just don't judge yourself on that. Is is the biggest debate we have is every Sunday. Like, try it. Don't don't ask the stupid question because you're gonna you're gonna get your feelings hurt. Is it? No, it's not. I'm not even gonna let you fish it. No, the answer is no. Absolutely. But all right, Don, we are running down near the end of the episode here. I didn't even realize how long we've been sitting here talking, but I do got to get this segment in here. Otherwise, Fitty will kill me if I don't, and that is the fast fitty five, and it is five random questions from the wonderful manager of the podcast, Johnny Fitty Falcone. They're kind of rapid fire for the new listeners out there, but you can elaborate if you need to, Dom and Dom. These have nothing to do with what we've been talking about for the better part of an hour here. So if you're ready, my man, we can go ahead and get started. Good to go. All right, question number one Would you rather be Spider-Man or Batman?

SPEAKER_01 43:15

Spider-Man, real superpower. He has a real superpower. I don't think Batman does have a real superpower. He he does, he's just he's super rich.

SPEAKER_00 43:23

That's his superpower. Uh big Batman guy over here. Like that's what because when you're not him, you're billionaire Bruce Wayne. You know how who doesn't want to be that guy from a question number two which would be more terrifying? Seeing 20 feral cats running at you or 2,000 bunnies hopping at you.

SPEAKER_01 43:48

When I say bunnies, I think just sheer quantity, like biomass alone, you're talking about a much heavier, heavier wave of of Living thing coming at you. I think that's that's more concerning to me.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

I gotcha. Question number three. What's the worst place you've ever visited?

SPEAKER_01 44:15

Yeah, really. Maybe visit it. I drove through Wyoming and that was extremely unpleasant to me. I didn't like it at all. I'm sure there are beautiful parts of Wyoming, but I visited the stretch of highway that takes you through Wyoming on your way to California, and there was nothing interesting about that. I almost almost fell asleep driving.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

So I got you. Question number four. What are your thoughts on carrots?

SPEAKER_01 44:47

I'm a carrot guy for sure. I like a cooked carrot more than a raw carrot, but I like a carrot. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 44:55

Question number five, last question here.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

The best spread to put on toast is maybe just maybe just a bruchetta with a like uh balsamic glaze kind of thing going on there.

SPEAKER_00 45:11

Could definitely tell your dad was a chef and Italian. That's a very chef Italian answer. The bruchetta, like, yeah, that's that's absolutely the number one answer for that one for sure. That was the Fast Fitty Five. I'd like to say he took it easy on you. He didn't, and everybody he sends me these questions the day I record these shows. I don't get to read these until literally I get on here and we're getting ready to do this. He sends these to me. Like, I think he tries to make the comedian laugh, is what Fitty has been trying to do for the better part of six years that we've been running this show. But yeah, that I mean that second question, and the second the middle part of that was was the brutal part, and a very fitty question with the the cats and the bunnies running at you. Like that's that's if anybody knows them, that's that's a hundred percent Johnny. And I get I get these questions texted me at five o'clock in the morning every morning. Like he asked me these types of questions, and this has just been our friendship to the point to where we made a segment on the show here about it because we think it's phenomenal, just the way his mind works. But Dom, like I said, we are running down here near the end of the episode. I give every guest this opportunity to end up every show. I'm gonna give you about a minute if there's anything you want to get out there, whether it's about BW, anything else you got going on, or even if it's just a good message you want to pass along, like I said, I'll give about a minute and the floor is yours.

SPEAKER_01 46:43

All right. Yeah, I don't I don't think I have anything, anything in particular coming up, anything big to you know, plug or anything, but definitely, definitely keep an eye out. I would say Northeast Ohio in general, but but BW, of course. I'm here to go to bat for BW. Give it a shot. If you haven't been, come up, check it out. People, people do a lot of talking about Cleveland as if it's the armpit of the Midwest, I think, and that's just that's just not fair. We've got a lake. We've got a lake that if you look at it long enough, it it kind of looks like the ocean. So the lake's incredible. We've got three major sports teams. I'm a big Cleveland

The Fast Fitty Five Begins

SPEAKER_01 47:25

guy, so if you haven't haven't been, definitely come check it out.

SPEAKER_00 47:29

All right. I'm always good for people plugging Cleveland. I do a lot of shows up there. Cleveland is awesome. I'll tell you that right now and foremost. I will back that up. I love it when people have a message like that at the end of the show. I'm good with people promoting what they got going on or just the town that they're in. Even better for me, too, as well. But that is going to do it for this week's episode of the Ride Home Rands podcast. I want to thank my guest, Dom, for joining the show. A lot of fun to get to sit and talk with you. And as always, if you enjoyed the show, be a friend. Tell a friend. If you didn't, tell them anyways. They might like it just because you didn't. That's gonna do it for me, and I will see y'all next week.