Questions for Me, Questions for You: Meme
- Leave me a casual comment of no particular significance, like a lyric to your current favorite song, or your favorite kind of sandwich, maybe your favorite game. Any remark, meaningless or not.
- I will respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
- Update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
- Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in your own post.
- When others respond with a desultory comment, you will ask them five questions.
I got my questions from
sm00bs.
1. Child birth or adoption and why?
Jack is my child by adoption. When I was 13, Nicolai Ceausescu was deposed in Romania, and the plight of the Romanian orphans was brought to American TV. I decided then that I was never going to be pregnant; I was going to adopt to build my family. This led to Max taking a longer time to propose to me than he might have if I had been OK with the whole bio kid thing. A post I really want to write is a list of all the reasons I never want to be pregnant.
We started out thinking that we would adopt from Russia. But my health made travel there very difficult, so we searched for a country that allowed escorting. Ethiopia was my first choice. Then Max said, "If we're going to adopt a black baby, couldn't we get one here?" And he was right. So we went private domestic. Our agency - Adoption Network Law Center - was AWFUL! But our son's birthmom was great! We're so happy to have Jack in our lives!
(Oh, and it turns out, it's a good thing I wanted adoption. In January 2003, a minor injury turned into nerve damage, and a disease called CRPS. I'm currently relatively pain-free, but I'm on drugs that are very bad for anything living inside of me.)
2. How many times in your life have you moved? Where was your favorite place to live?
From September 1975 until August 1993, I lived in the same house in Pleasant Hill, CA, about an hour east of San Francisco.
Then, I moved to college: Morewood Avenue, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
I moved several times in college: Beeler St. (sophomore year), Melvin Ave. (1st sem. junior year), 5th Ave. (2nd sem. junior year), Wightman Ave. (senior year). The summer before junior year I lived in Redmond, WA as an intern for Microsoft.
After college, I moved to a condo complex in Sunnyvale, CA, which I promptly vacated after realizing that my window opened onto the CalTrain tracks and I couldn't sleep at night for over a month. Then, we were in San Jose, CA (Kenson Ave).
Max, one year behind me in school, took a job in NH, so when I hated my job, I moved to Bay Ridge Apartments in Nashua, NH. A few months later, we moved in together at Forest Ridge, also in Nashua. We bought a house in Merrimack, NH. My health, my mother's health, and job availability forced us to move back to CA in August 2004. We now reside in Antioch, CA. We will likely not live in CA for the rest of our lives.
I really think that my favorite place to live was Kenson Dr. in San Jose. I liked the location, I loved my roommates, I really liked the house. I'd prefer it to this one, I think! Merrimack is a close second; it's not first only because of the extreme weather and the fact that the house itself was poorly designed.
3. Vegetarian or carnivore?
Semi-vegetarian. I don't eat mammals. I eat fish, chicken, and turkey.
4. Do you like to play board games? If so, which games are favorites to play? If not, why not?
Oh yes! Trivial Pursuit of (almost) any kind, Disney Trivia, backgammon, cards, Taboo, Outburst, Pictionary, Encore, Loaded Questions,...
5. How many years did you spend in college and what was the end result? Do you still use or plan to use the degree received?
I spent 4 years in college (though I have recently been dreaming that I either spent a fifth year or dropped out in my junior year and came back). I have a Bachelor of Humanities and Arts degree in Professional Writing and Performance Studies. This question reminds me of a neat story:
A few weeks ago, I was shopping (without Jack) at Trader Joe's. A woman stopped behind my car as I was unloading, and she pointed to my Phi Beta Kappa sticker. She asked if that was mine. I said, Yes. She asked where I went to school. I told her Carnegie Mellon, and she had actually heard of it. She said that her son had just graduated and had been inducted into PBK. She then asked, "May I ask what you do now?" I guess I must have sighed as I said, "I'm a stay at home mom." She said, "Good for you!" then we talked about how raising children is so important, and you can use your degree in non-standard ways, and so on. I then thanked her for her positive comments because my MIL and I, while talking about the amount of debt I'm in from so many student loans, exchanged the following comments - I said that my education was worth the debt, and she asked, "But what are you doing with it now?"
Yeah.
I'm starting a scrapbooking business - Meant to Be: Adoption Profiles, Lifebooks, & More - and I am relying heavily on what I learned at CMU. I wouldn't trade my degree, or my time there, for any amount of money.