Screaming Meme, or, Riverbella Jabbers (More Than Usual)
So, here's the meme:
1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like your favorite lyric to your current favorite song. Or your favorite kind of sandwich. Something random. Whatever you like.
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. Update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.
Comment me and I'll be happy to ask five brilliant, interesting, and insightful (okay, maybe just not totally dopey) questions.
And here are the questions I was asked (by kimonkey7, who does it good):
1) Do you have a signature dish? Something everyone always requests you cook? What was your biggest cooking disaster?
2) 30+ years is a long marriage. What’s your secret?
3) One night of passion with Dean Winchester, or one night of intense and honest conversation with Dean Winchester? Why?
4) Ray Bradbury - genius or competent work horse?
5) Tell me about chewing gum.
And here are my answers, under the cut. Here there be jabber! Enter at your own risk!
1) Is this fair? Looks like three questions in one to me! But, okay. I am nobody’s idea of a domestic goddess. I hate housekeeping, I don’t decorate, I can barely manage sewing on buttons and my gardening mantra is “let nature take its course.” I do like to cook, though, and I especially like to bake. (I also like to eat. Maybe that’s related?). We eat a lot where I work. We celebrate birthdays and new hires and terminations and holidays and the ACC tournament (well, not me so much, but any excuse to do something other than work!) When I volunteer to cook I am usually asked for either Brown Sugar Cake or Lemon Cream Cheese Bundt Cake. I also make a mean oatmeal scone, puckery-tart lemon bars, and buttery almond shortbread cookies. So, are you drooling yet? At home, my husband’s most frequent requests are Tarragon Shrimp Fettucine, Welsh Rarebit or Cherry Pie. If you’re ever in Chapel Hill, drop by for dinner!
As far as cooking disasters go, boy do I have a winner in that category. When I was about 16, my Mom was working on her 30 hours above her Master’s degree and had to go work at the library on Thanksgiving Day. She asked me to put the turkey on. She had it all thawed, had pulled out the giblets (hah, bet you thought that was where this was going!), and had the stuffing made already. How hard could it be? What could possibly go wrong? Yeah, well, here’s what went wrong. I stuffed the neck and cooked the turkey upside down! Seriously! I wondered at the time why I couldn’t get more stuffing into the damned thing. I gotta tell you, though, the breast meat was really juicy and tender. I have never managed to live this down.
2) Talk, listen, play, and never take each other for granted. It’s not always easy, but it is totally worth the effort. Helps if you have at least some basic things in common and if you can avoid the temptation to take the other person’s lack of interest in the things you don’t have in common personally. If you meet someone you can talk to and you accept each other the way you are, warts and all, you’re more than halfway there. And it isn’t about the gestures-the cards and gifts and flowers and remembrances-it’s about how you treat each other every day. There’s an element of luck in it. And, hey, enjoying each other in bed is kinda essential! (And, btw, marry the right guy and you won’t even have to give up your propensity for aesthetic appreciation, so to speak, of other hot guys!)
3) This is a seriously tough question. Dean Winchester is walking, talking sex appeal. He is gorgeous, complex, fascinating, sensual, funny, and so very hot. (My favorite description of Dean comes from an outsider POV story by eighth-horizon in which the outsider labeled him “brutally gorgeous.”) The idea of a night of passion definitely has its appeal. Ultimately, though, I would probably go for the intense and honest conversation. Because…the memory of a real, deep, emotional connection would last a lot longer than the memory of an orgasm or three (or, you know, however many), and he would be a lot more likely to remember me long term that way, too. Also, you didn’t say there couldn’t be hugging!
4) Ray Bradbury, huh? Before I give you my answer, I have to qualify it by saying that it has been a good many years since I have read anything by Ray Bradbury. I “discovered” him when I was in high school and read a lot of his work-and formed my opinions thereon-back then. With that in mind, I would say I fall on the genius side of the line. Why? Because I remember Bradbury as one of the first writers who demonstrated to me the power of restraint in writing. I remember his writing as spare and clean, evoking strong images and characters with no wasted words. To this day, it is an ability I admire tremendously. (It is not, clearly, an ability I have ever attained myself!) My favorite Bradbury story was “All Summer in a Day,” which broke my heart. My favorite novel was “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” which was creepy and atmospheric and rich in elements of character, family and friendship. (Hmm. There might be an idea for SPN fanfic in there somewhere!)
5) Chewing gum. I chew on lots of things. I chew on pens and straws and the earpieces of my sunglasses. I chew on my husband (as much as he’ll let me anyway!) . I chew on ideas, too. (Okay, not quite the same thing.) I would say I have a reasonably well developed oral fixation. But I don’t do chewing gum. Hate the stuff. Quit chewing it when I was a kid and got braces on my teeth and never started again. Thing is, when I did chew gum, I’d keep on chewing it long past the point where it had any flavor or texture left at all (don’t ask me why-just didn’t like to see anything go to waste, I guess). And you know what? At that point it is seriously disgusting. Give me a nice plastic pen cap (or maybe a nice ear lobe), and keep your freakin’ chewing gum!
1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like your favorite lyric to your current favorite song. Or your favorite kind of sandwich. Something random. Whatever you like.
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. Update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.
Comment me and I'll be happy to ask five brilliant, interesting, and insightful (okay, maybe just not totally dopey) questions.
And here are the questions I was asked (by kimonkey7, who does it good):
1) Do you have a signature dish? Something everyone always requests you cook? What was your biggest cooking disaster?
2) 30+ years is a long marriage. What’s your secret?
3) One night of passion with Dean Winchester, or one night of intense and honest conversation with Dean Winchester? Why?
4) Ray Bradbury - genius or competent work horse?
5) Tell me about chewing gum.
And here are my answers, under the cut. Here there be jabber! Enter at your own risk!
1) Is this fair? Looks like three questions in one to me! But, okay. I am nobody’s idea of a domestic goddess. I hate housekeeping, I don’t decorate, I can barely manage sewing on buttons and my gardening mantra is “let nature take its course.” I do like to cook, though, and I especially like to bake. (I also like to eat. Maybe that’s related?). We eat a lot where I work. We celebrate birthdays and new hires and terminations and holidays and the ACC tournament (well, not me so much, but any excuse to do something other than work!) When I volunteer to cook I am usually asked for either Brown Sugar Cake or Lemon Cream Cheese Bundt Cake. I also make a mean oatmeal scone, puckery-tart lemon bars, and buttery almond shortbread cookies. So, are you drooling yet? At home, my husband’s most frequent requests are Tarragon Shrimp Fettucine, Welsh Rarebit or Cherry Pie. If you’re ever in Chapel Hill, drop by for dinner!
As far as cooking disasters go, boy do I have a winner in that category. When I was about 16, my Mom was working on her 30 hours above her Master’s degree and had to go work at the library on Thanksgiving Day. She asked me to put the turkey on. She had it all thawed, had pulled out the giblets (hah, bet you thought that was where this was going!), and had the stuffing made already. How hard could it be? What could possibly go wrong? Yeah, well, here’s what went wrong. I stuffed the neck and cooked the turkey upside down! Seriously! I wondered at the time why I couldn’t get more stuffing into the damned thing. I gotta tell you, though, the breast meat was really juicy and tender. I have never managed to live this down.
2) Talk, listen, play, and never take each other for granted. It’s not always easy, but it is totally worth the effort. Helps if you have at least some basic things in common and if you can avoid the temptation to take the other person’s lack of interest in the things you don’t have in common personally. If you meet someone you can talk to and you accept each other the way you are, warts and all, you’re more than halfway there. And it isn’t about the gestures-the cards and gifts and flowers and remembrances-it’s about how you treat each other every day. There’s an element of luck in it. And, hey, enjoying each other in bed is kinda essential! (And, btw, marry the right guy and you won’t even have to give up your propensity for aesthetic appreciation, so to speak, of other hot guys!)
3) This is a seriously tough question. Dean Winchester is walking, talking sex appeal. He is gorgeous, complex, fascinating, sensual, funny, and so very hot. (My favorite description of Dean comes from an outsider POV story by eighth-horizon in which the outsider labeled him “brutally gorgeous.”) The idea of a night of passion definitely has its appeal. Ultimately, though, I would probably go for the intense and honest conversation. Because…the memory of a real, deep, emotional connection would last a lot longer than the memory of an orgasm or three (or, you know, however many), and he would be a lot more likely to remember me long term that way, too. Also, you didn’t say there couldn’t be hugging!
4) Ray Bradbury, huh? Before I give you my answer, I have to qualify it by saying that it has been a good many years since I have read anything by Ray Bradbury. I “discovered” him when I was in high school and read a lot of his work-and formed my opinions thereon-back then. With that in mind, I would say I fall on the genius side of the line. Why? Because I remember Bradbury as one of the first writers who demonstrated to me the power of restraint in writing. I remember his writing as spare and clean, evoking strong images and characters with no wasted words. To this day, it is an ability I admire tremendously. (It is not, clearly, an ability I have ever attained myself!) My favorite Bradbury story was “All Summer in a Day,” which broke my heart. My favorite novel was “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” which was creepy and atmospheric and rich in elements of character, family and friendship. (Hmm. There might be an idea for SPN fanfic in there somewhere!)
5) Chewing gum. I chew on lots of things. I chew on pens and straws and the earpieces of my sunglasses. I chew on my husband (as much as he’ll let me anyway!) . I chew on ideas, too. (Okay, not quite the same thing.) I would say I have a reasonably well developed oral fixation. But I don’t do chewing gum. Hate the stuff. Quit chewing it when I was a kid and got braces on my teeth and never started again. Thing is, when I did chew gum, I’d keep on chewing it long past the point where it had any flavor or texture left at all (don’t ask me why-just didn’t like to see anything go to waste, I guess). And you know what? At that point it is seriously disgusting. Give me a nice plastic pen cap (or maybe a nice ear lobe), and keep your freakin’ chewing gum!