Interview Me

A few weeks ago, Melissa/Green Girl in Wisconsin posted an interesting challenge. Basically, let yourself be interviewed by someone via five questions and then post your answers on your blog. Excited to see a meme where I don't have to answer the number of times I've been skinny dipping or what color my favorite socks are, I told her I was game. Little did I know how tough it would be...

Here are the rules:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions. (If you don't have one, you can send me your answers and I'll post them here.)
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.


Here goes nothin':

1. What childhood personality trait did you outgrow or give up since becoming an adult? Was there a reason for doing so?

I was painfully, painfully shy as a child. I still am extremely shy around most people at first - I've maybe gotten it down to one "painfully." So, I wouldn't say I've outgrown it completely, but am more conscious of it. I don't know if it's a trust issue with me or what - because I'm much more outgoing with people once I've gotten to know them. But it takes me a long time.

One of the many reasons to give up that trait (besides the obvious) is I've had people tell me that when they first met me they thought I was mean or a bitch. And while I certainly can be those things at times, I am not inherently either and would never want anyone feel that way.




2. Describe 3 daily rituals that you never miss taking part in.

One: Sadly, checking the internet is probably the biggest one. So much of my life is completely dependent upon it that it's ridiculous. I am not a tech junkie, but I am an information junkie and if I have a problem or question I like to find the answer myself. Now, because of the internet, if I have a question it is answered for me almost immediately. And when that can't happen, I come completely undone. Like I said. Very sad.

Two: NPR. It was always on in our house growing up and it used to bore me senseless. Now I can't live without it and can barely stand televised news.

Three: I have this weird OCD thing I do where I rub my feet together as I'm trying to go to sleep and when I'm waking up. I know. Too much sharing. There's a line in the movie High Fidelity where John Cusack's character lists the little things about his girlfriend that he finds charming or irresistible and one of them is when she's trying to fall asleep she rubs her feet together in even numbers. When I heard that I'm pretty sure I gasped aloud in the theater. "OMG! Someone - even if she's fictional - is as weird as I am! How great is that!"

Anyway... moving on...

3. Have you become the person you thought you’d grow up to become? What part of adulthood is markedly different from what you believed when you were young?

The easy answer to the first part of that questions is "not really." As a child I was always very serious and mature for my age and frequently told that I was born a 30-year-old, or was 3 going on 30, or 13 going on 30, etc. and I think I just always had it in my head that when I got to my 30s I would have it all figured out, finally be the person I was supposed to be and stop feeling like an alien. So I lived it up in my 20s (well, for me anyway) and just waited for it to all fall into place. Not surprisingly, it has been quite the opposite of that and, I have to say, it has not been my finest decade. By a long shot. I have high hopes for 40 though. Hope. Not expectations. Hope. But we'll see. I'm going to keep an eye on Jennifer Aniston and see how she handles it (ha!).

As for the second part of this question... the biggest difference in adulthood is that it is so much more work than I thought it would be. It's just a never ending list of crap to do. All of these balls in the air that you have to keep going with time and money and there is never enough. And I don't even have kids. I think about my friends who have kids - and even the ones where there are two parents in the house - and I think "how?" How is this possible that you are my age - or usually even younger - and you are able to juggle all of this and I'm just impressed when I get my water bill paid on time and there's more than Diet Coke in my refrigerator. I also look pretty young for my age and have been realizing lately that when people find out how old I am the shock is no longer just because of how young I look - it's because I should be waaay more together than I am. Anyway... like I said... high hopes for 40...




4. Given no limitations, what would be your ultimate vacation?

I would buy a plane ticket to Istanbul with a return flight from London one month later and no other reservations or plans made in between. Well, except for a reservation when I first arrived in Turkey. Somewhere on the beach to sleep off my jet lag. I would spend a couple of days in the Grand Bazaar, then stop at a UPS store to ship back everything I bought, and then with whatever amount of money I happened to have left I would just wander in a general northeasterly direction.

I took a two-week trip to Europe by myself once with what I thought was a fairly flexible schedule only to find out exactly what a Type A Control Freak of an American I really was. And Europe - at least the parts I was in - will beat that out of you pretty quickly. I did an OK job learning to "go with the flow" but I know that my trip could have been a lot more interesting if I'd stopped trying to force an agenda on myself. So, my ideal trip would be to try it again, but give myself a longer amount of time.




5. Write your first sentence/paragraph for NPR’s “This I believe.”

This is a good one. I love listening to these on NPR and have wondered what I would write if I ever did one. I usually don't get much past singing that REM song, "I Believe," in my head though: I believe in coyotes and time as an abstract / explain the change and difference between / what you want and what you need / there's a key...

But, Green Girl didn't ask for 80's indie rock lyrics.

I've always assumed that the "I believe" was the same as "how I live my life" and in answering this question I realize it isn't necessarily that at all. For me the "I believe" is a goal. And what I believe in is acceptance. Acceptance of others and of situations. Instead of letting people or situations that aren't who or what I think they should be completely incapacitate me, I believe I should accept them as they are and then try to move on from there. I'm not saying that I believe we should accept things that are bad or dysfunctional. Not at all. I'm saying I've finally come to see that my biggest problems in life come from trying to force everyone and everything into whatever preconceived idea I had. I never fix the relationship with the person that's bugging me or fix a disappointing situation because I can't accept that it isn't what I want it to be to begin with. It's terribly unproductive. And I'm probably not making any sense. Here's the best way I can explain it: Mock me if you like, but there's an episode of Sex and the City (where Carrie needs money and has to take the side job at Vogue) and at the end she says that instead of dwelling on the bad and wasting time wishing for things to be what they're not,

"maybe the best any of us can do is play the hand we're dealt
and just accessorize the outfit we've got."

I find myself repeating that to myself sometimes "accessorize the outfit you've got, accessorize the outfit you've got..." Funny words coming from a girl who rarely even wears earrings. But it helps. And that's what I'm (trying) to believe.

Sooo.... anyone else game?

Week in Review / Top Five: The Sleepy Edition

No Rest for the Wicked: Having a bout of insomnia this week. Maybe it's because of the economy. Maybe it's because I finally started the refinancing on my house - because in addition to worrying about things when they are going poorly, I also worry about things when they are going well. I don't know. Last night I fell asleep on the couch sometime during ER with the light on and the dog door open in the mud room. I woke up at 2:00 am completely freaked out because I couldn't figure out at first what time it was, a bad storm was coming so it was all lightning and thundery outside (which scares the beejeezus out of me on a good day), there was an infomercial playing on TV with that guy who shouts, and one of my dogs was out in the yard barking at the thunder. Outstanding. I was so rattled that I didn't go back to sleep until 4:00.

from www.idiomsbykids.com

Lenten Update: The insomnia has left me some time to sort out the bin of photos. They are now in chronologically-ordered stacks. Progress. The plastic thing is going OK. The good news is that two good friends / coworkers have decided to join me in the no-plastic pledge. AND at the Ash Wednesday service I picked up a nifty little mite box from Episcopal Relief and Development to collect money during Lent. So I brought one back to work and put it in my office so that way if we do end up using a plastic container, we put money in the box.

After-work mixer at web designer's office + plastic cup of beer = two quarters in the mite box

Just how dumb do they think I am?: I mentioned in my last recap/top five list that I recently aced an Oscar dress quiz on People magazine's website. Well, I also aced a follow-up quiz this week about the jewelry worn by Sunday's Oscar attendees. But wait. Before you get all impressed with my useless knowledge, let me show you just how easy this quiz was. Test takers were shown an image of a torso featuring the jewelry in question but not showing the celebrity's face. Then you were given several names to choose from. If you even half paid attention to the Oscar's you could have gotten most of them right by identifying the dresses in the pictures. But no...

This was one of the photos:


The first option on the multiple choice:

QUEEN LATIFAH

No, I'm not kidding. I'll admit that this photo was the most challenging in the quiz. It's Madonna. She wasn't nominated, didn't present and I don't really even remember seeing her on any of the pre-shows, but the biceps would have helped to narrow it down even if I hadn't been given Queen Frickin Latifah to help me cull the field. Now, I know that People Magazine isn't exactly the New Yorker of weekly celebrity-centric magazines. Hell, it isn't even the Entertainment Weekly of weekly celebrity-centric magazines. But really. I think they might be underestimating their readers a bit.


Speaking of fashion (Part A): Can't forget the rest of the Oscars, can we? I think this was one of the best years ever. Everything had such a nice 1920's / Great Gatsby look to it - from the stage to the gowns. It was as though the producers sent out a memo to all the attendees letting them know what the set was going to look like so that they could plan their outfits.

My favorite:

She just looked great all the way around - hair, makeup, jewelry, and I loved the red bag (and I love that her name is Taraji P. Henson - because otherwise we might confuse her with the many other Taraji Hensons). I saw her shoes on TV and they looked fabulous too. Not that I'm any example of fashion (Gert's outfit today: trainers, Gap kahkis, long-sleeved white Old Navy layering tee under short-sleeved blue polo from Eddie Bauer. No makeup. No earrings. My purse is cool though...) but I did spot this as a Roberto Cavali dress - he loves those ragged unfinished edges. This same dress in the hands of a lot of other designers and she would have looked like a fancy mummy.

Other likes: Anne Hathaway, Tina Fey, Queen Latifah, Marisa Tomei, and Penelope Cruz. My Robert Pattinson looked rather dashing and fit the look of the 20's with the narrow-cut bow tie, lapels and pants of his Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo. It was so kind of the Academy to seat him so that he would be in the shot every time the camera was on Mickey Rourke. I considered sending them a thank you card.

Disappointing: Sarah Jessica Parker and Reese Witherspoon. They weren't the worst dressed by any means, but I just expect so much from them. Especially SJP. I adore her. I may not have on makeup or earrings today, but you can be damn sure I'm wearing her perfume.

Speaking of Fashion (Part B): LOOK who's on the cover of Vogue!

I actually gasped when I saw this. I can't wait to buy it and see the other pictures inside. It's going in my permanent collection along with this:

Is that five? I hope so. I'm going to take a nap. Happy Friday.

BTW

My new favorite fun thing to say for no reason: Blog fodder. (see end of yesterday's post)

If you use it just for the sound itself, it works well as a curse word substitute. Handy if you happen to have given that up for Lent. Or, it also works as a dismissive. Instead of "Whatever" or "Bygones." "Eh, blog fodder."

Nice, no?

It also takes the place of my former favorite Fun Thing to Say for No Reason: Coup plotter

As in, someone plotting a coup d'etat. I heard it in a news story on NPR a few years ago in reference to some former Soviet country. You can't deny how fun it is to say. And the fact that it's a term with fairly serious implications yet sounds kind of silly only adds to the enjoyment... coup plotter, coup plotter, coup plotter, coup plotter...

Anyway. One of the many things that endeared me to the show My Boys is that one of the characters has a similar fascination and as kind of a running joke will occasionally be heard repeating a word or two to himself while other characters are talking. It's hard to explain... let's just say it's nice to have a dorky role model on television and leave it at that...

I know. It's probably not inspiring you to watch, is it?

Damn. Blog fodder.

Do they have Lenten Disciplines at Costco?

Ahhh Lent. It always reminds me of Jon Stewart and something he said in a stand-up routine about us gentiles:

"Yom Kippur - we don’t eat for one day and all our sin for the whole year is atoned.
Beat that, Lent! 40 days to one day. See, even in sin you’re paying retail."

He makes a good point.

My former priest was always an advocate for "taking something on" rather than "giving something up" when it came to Lent. She thought "discipline" shouldn't necessarily mean sacrifice and punishment, but should instead be about learning and introspection.

She's no Jon Stewart, but she also makes a good point :)

I've tried the last couple of years to do one of each - give something up and take something on. I'd like to think it's because of the high spiritual plane upon which I reside, but I don't think anyone - including me - is buying that. No, really, it's more like hedging my bets. That MAYBE this way I'll succeed in following through with one of my choices all the way to Easter. Or at least Palm Sunday Eve...

So, this year I thought I'd give it another whirl.

Giving up: Plastic bottles and containers. I'm not a big consumer of bottled water, but I do enjoy far, far too many plastic bottles of Diet Coke. And I do try to choose an alternative to plastic containers when it comes to things at the grocery store, but I eat out way too much and that often involves a plastic container of some type. Case in point - I picked up a few slices of chocolate cake from a bakery for a little Fat Tuesday celebration in the office. Each slice in a separate little plastic box. Madness. Tasty madness. But madness nonetheless.

This picture is part of an amazing exhibit by artist Chris Jordan titled,
Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait, and depicts the two
million plastic bottles used in the US every five minutes.

Taking on: More than a year ago I got a little printer/scanner/copier combo thing. It's very pretty and does a really good job. Well, it would if I ever used it. One of the reasons for getting it was to scan in all of my old photos. But oh the time that would take. It's an overwhelming project.

This picture is part of an amazing display by Gert titled, Procrastination:
The Unfinished Photo Scanning Project and depicts the years between
her first Kodak Instamatic (ca. 1979) and her first digital camera (ca. 2005).
Not pictured: additional bin of photos-to-be-scanned-that-actually-made-it-into-photo-albums.

But it occurred to me... you know what else this little discipline could be? Blog fodder. So for this Lenten Season I hope to tackle a life's worth of photos AND take you on the journey with me.

That's right. For 40 days.

In this instance I think my priest might side with Jon Stewart.

...and Blessed are the Pancakes too.

Happy Fat Tuesday and/or Shrove Tuesday. Being a Southern Episcopalian we like to dip our toes into both traditions simultaneously.

Some combination of this

and this

is how we like it - because otherwise what kind of Episcopalians would we be if we didn't take advantage of all the available pomp, circumstance and opportunity to party in the name of a High Holy Day?

I haven't yet thought about what my Lenten discipline is going to be this year. I guess I should get on that. Right now my plan is to contemplate it after I stop by church to snarf down a plate of pancakes and sausage, drape myself in Mardi Gras beads and listen to one of our retired priests and his jazz band play while fellow parishioners dance off their dinner in festive hats and masks.

God is good.

Regardless of your faith on the matter, I hope your day is as fat, beaded, fluffy, covered in syrup and festive as you would like for it to be.

Happy Tuesday!

Blessed are the Chickens

If you can arrange it, I highly recommend attending a church where one of the members has an organic farm.

That way on Sundays you can pick up a little bread, a little wine, some forgiveness and absolution, and a dozen or so fresh, free-range eggs.

Not a bad way to start your week.

February Madness

Kentucky served my beloved Vols quite a beating on Saturday. At least I had some good company to witness the carnage. You might remember her from here and here.

"Go Vols!"

"Oh no! Eight minutes in and we still haven't scored!"
"When will it end?!? Just please let us lose by less than 20 points!"

"We lost by 19... but hey, look how cute I am in this shirt!"