Response to ShellyStarks '35 questions about me' challenge
Here’s my answers to ShellyStark’s Friends List challenge - 35 things about me.
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1. If you're on my friends list, I want to know 35 things about you. I don't care if we never talk, or if we already know everything about each other. Short and sweet or long and detailed, all is good.
2. Comment here with your answers or repost the questionnaire on your own journal and reply there.
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01) Are you currently in a serious relationship? - Yes, I’ve been married for the past 11 years.
02) What was your dream growing up? - To be Clarence the Garbage Man (seriously … every kid in the neighborhood wanted to drive that big orange dump truck!)
03) What talent do you wish you had? - To play a musical instrument, piano or guitar
04) If I bought you a drink what would it be? - Diet Coke (or one of the good Brand X facsimiles)
05) Favorite vegetable? - I like them all … even weird ones like Brussels sprouts and turnip greens
06) What was the last book you read? - The Rise & Fall of Great Powers by Paul Kennedy
07) What zodiac sign are you? - Ares
08) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where. - Just a single pair of earrings.
09) Worst Habit? - That nervous run-on talking thing, which I usually avoid doing by avoiding people.
10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride? - would depend upon whether I knew you, it looked like you were walking for pleasure or to work, if I had a seat available in the car, the weather, and whether or not you looked like an axe murderer.
11) What is your favorite sport? - Ick! Non-sports fan (am a ‘sports widow’). Enjoy studying martial arts myself and watching my kids study gymnastics.
12) Do you have a Pessimistic or Optimistic attitude? - That depends. Used to be an optimist. Optimists get run over by Mack trucks a lot because they’re too optimistic to plan for bad things happening. So people nowadays think I’m a pessimist because I’m so careful about having a Plan B (and a Plan C, and a Plan D) for bad things happening. But … because I always have so many back up plans for ‘bad things,’ I’m actually quite an optimistic pessimist because I feel confident that whatever shit hits the fan, I’m prepared to handle it.
Everything except a gamma ray burst … haven’t figured out a backup plan for the entire planet being irradiated and the atmosphere burned off the Earth but … hey … sometimes you just need to be an optimist and say ‘what me worry…”
13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me? - Hope you took a shower this morning and didn’t eat cabbage and beans for supper the night before.
14) Worst thing to ever happen to you? - Dated a nice man I met at church. Two restraining orders, 57 trips to court, 7 times moving in 4 years, and a name change later, I finally got rid of the guy.
15) Tell me one weird fact about you. - My whole life is weird. Pick one.
16) Do you have any pets? - Two cats. Skittles and Sir Lancelot.
17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly? - Invite you in for a cup of coffee, warn you not to fall and break your neck on the kids toys and clothes strewn about the floor, and hastily wipe the slightly dried, sticky spilled juice on the kitchen table before you sat down so your arms wouldn’t stick to the table as we sat down and have a pleasant conversation.
18) What was your first impression of me? - Lusting after Robert Downey Jr.’s bones in whatever incarnation he’s in at the moment. Just like me. J
19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary? - Meh … never been big on clowns. Neither.
20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be? - Be 35 pounds lighter. The rest makeup and strategic clothing can fix.
21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience? - Both. I like to push the envelope, but not cross the line. My ‘risky’ friends think I’m too straight, while my straight-and-narrow friends (and husband) think I’m nuts.
22) What color eyes do you have? - Blue
23) Ever been arrested? - No. But I’m no angel. I did some stupid things as a teenager that would probably get you arrested these days.
24) Bottle or can soda? - Both. Bottle is cheaper and more environmentally friendly, so I drink it at home. But … it’s real easy to grab a couple of cans of$.25/cent Brand X soda on your way out the door so you don’t get stuck paying $2.39 for that same amount of soda at a drive-thru.
25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it? - The government would take half for taxes. The other $5,000, I’d invest it in one of the long list of home improvements I’d like to do. A new south-facing window. Or build a waterproof roof onto my screen porch so I can sit out there in the rain. $5,000 doesn’t go very far these days.
26) What's your favorite place to hang out at? - Home. In front of my PC. Preferably with ear plugs so I can’t hear my kids whining, fighting, screaming, or killing each other.
27) Do you believe in ghosts? - Met one once. Elizabeth. Was at a conference at this old mansion and out of the corner of my eye I saw this old lady walk in and sit in the chair everyone who’d been there before said “don’t sit in that chair … it’s Elizabeth’s!” (without telling me who Elizabeth was). Didn’t realize it was a ghost until I realized I was seeing things and everybody who knew she still hung around her old house laughed at me afterwards.
28) Favorite thing to do in your spare time? - Write my own original stories. Knit. Make ‘junk crafts’ from stuff other people throw out. All sorts of busy little craft projects.
29) Do you swear a lot? - Fuck, yes. I grew up around the Hells Angels. Try not to do it at work, though.
30) Biggest pet peeve? - Whining from people who just like to whine without fixing the source of the problem they’re whining about. I help people for a living and get great pleasure out of teaching people how to dig themselves out of their own hole and avoid stepping into it in the future, but there’s nothing worse than working with people who won’t help themselves. It’s like … you’re the gas station and they just want to pull up and suck your brains out of your head, draining you of all your energy with their whining so they can continue to feed their own personal little drama, without doing anything to address the underlying problem. I call them ‘emotional vampires.’
It’s like … dude … you’re standing in a pile of shit. See? It’s brown. It smells bad. There are flies buzzing around it. Your friends are all avoiding you because you reek of shit. Don’t complain you’re standing in a pile of shit or tell me you’re helpless to do anything about it. Step 1: Step away from the pile of shit. Step 2: Wash your feet with soap and water. Step 3: Get a shovel. Step 4: Get rid of it! Step 5: Don’t step in any more shit.
31) In one word, how would you describe yourself? - Lately … nasty and blunt.
32) Do you believe/appreciate romance? - I wish there was such a thing as romance (which is why I both read and write about romantic, strong heroes and heroines), but experience has taught me it’s a fleeting thing you only catch a glimpse of once in a blue moon. Enjoy it when you can either find it or create a little bit of it on your own, but don’t spend your life dwelling on it or you’ll just be really disappointed and unhappy in life with great big roller-coaster emotional ups and downs.
I emptied out my house of all the Disney Princess movies and replaced them with superhero movies with strong female characters … someday your prince is not going to come. He’s not going to kiss you and save you from the dragon. Prince Charming is going to avoid the helpless princess like the bubonic plague. A frog is a frog is a frog … doesn’t matter how many times you kiss it, the damned thing is still going to pee on your hand and give you warts. The only saving that’s going to get done is if you get up off your own ass and save yourself. -If- you’re lucky enough to find somebody willing to stand at your side as you fight your own battles, you’re doing pretty good. If they also bring you flowers later as you both wipe the blood from your swords and tell you how much they adore you, than that’s pretty darned romantic.
33) Favorite and least favorite food? - Favorite food … I like most anything, but pad thai, brownies, and my husband’s Sicilian tomato sauce all rank up there with foods I expect to find in heaven. Least favorite - sea cucumber. Blech! It’s like eating a salty, gritty jello-blob!
34) Do you believe in God? - Absolutely, but my ‘source of the all’ bears little resemblance to the crap preached about in nearly all of the major religions.
35) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you? - Sure.