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Friday, January 09, 2004

if I were...

This is a survey I found in someone's diary. I found it hard to keep from answering with what I like instead of what I would be, but I tried. :)

If I were a month I would be: October

If I were a day of the week I would be: Sunday

If I were a time of day I would be: sunset

If I were a planet I would be: Jupiter

If I were a sea animal I would be: a gull

If I were a direction I would be: West

If I were a piece of furniture I would be: A clunky and homely but comfortable couch

If I were a sin I would be: Sloth

If I were a historical figure I would be: An eighteenth-century midwife

If I were a liquid I would be: Diet cherry Coke :-Þ (or milk)

If I were a stone, I would be: Slate

If I were a tree, I would be: A ponderosa pine

If I were a bird, I would be: A duck (bien sûr!)

If I were a flower/plant, I would be: A daisy

If I were a kind of weather, I would be: pouring down rain, thunder optional

If I were a musical instrument, I would be: A piano

If I were an animal, I would be: A horse

If I were a color, I would be: brown

If I were an emotion, I would be: cheerfulness

If I were a vegetable, I would be: Yellow squash

If I were a sound, I would be: rain on a tin roof

If I were an element, I would be: Carbon

If I were a car, I would be: a Volvo

If I were a song, I would be: a flute concerto by CPE Bach

If I were a movie, I would be directed by: Meyers and Shyer (do they direct, or just produce?)

If I were a book, I would be written by: Jan Karon

If I were a food, I would be: Meatloaf

If I were a place, I would be: home

If I were a material, I would be: Calico

If I were a taste, I would be: Buttery and sweet

I was a scent, I would be: fruity and floral

If I were a word, I would be: "Happy"

If I were a body part I would be:
arms

If I were a facial expression I would be: a smile

If I were a subject in school I would be: English Literature

If I were a comic book character I would be: Dennis the Menace's mom -- only not so slender

If I were a shape I would be: a sphere

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Wednesday, December 31, 2003

the gender genie

OK, according to the gender genie, I write like a man. Overwhelmingly like a man. Apparently it's because I use the words "the", "as", and "in" a lot. wha? It must not look for words like "husband", "period", or especially "austen"... although I did use the word "sex" in I think yesterday's entry -- maybe that threw it off.

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Monday, December 22, 2003

100 OTHER things about me

Really you ought to also check out the original 100+ Things About Me; those are, I think, more interesting than these, on the whole. I tried hard as I was doing these not to duplicate any of the original ones.

1. My eyes are light brown, with darker brown flecks in them like freckles.
2. I am 5'8 1/2" tall. I reached this height in the eighth grade. This was not as much fun as it may sound.
3. I have lost 25 pounds in the past four months, on my way to a total loss goal of 44 lb.
4. I have spider veins in my legs.
5. I was born at 12:15 a.m.
6. I am far, far more in love with my husband now than I was on my honeymoon (and that's saying a lot).
7. My favorite classical composer is Mozart, but my favorite era of music is baroque.
8. I have one older brother. I always wanted younger siblings but never got any.
9. I had a very happy home life growing up. We never had a lot of money, but we had enough love and good times to make up for the unhappy time I had outside of my home.
10. I was book-smart but socially inept as a child.
11. Most of the time I still think I'm socially inept and I frequently try to get out of going places where I'll be around people who know me, but not very well (e.g. Bible study meetings, sometimes the grocery store, that kind of thing). I always think people will discuss how idiotic I am after I leave. I am most comfortable around my own family, or around total strangers.
12. I talk too much. I am always mentally kicking myself and telling myself to shut up.
13. Some people say I talk too fast, but I think most people talk too slowly. Sometimes I think they do it just ... to ... bug ... me.
14. As my dad would say (and has said!), I would lose my head if it weren't bolted on. It is like a disease with me; I set something down and lose it instantly; it takes me half an hour to find it again.
15. I have never been in an airplane. I had a five-minute flight in a helicopter once, though.
16. For a long time, I swore I would never have an online diary/weblog/journal. oops.
17. I wiggle my feet in a specific rhythmic way when I'm going to sleep. It's like a comfort mechanism; I've done it as long as I can remember. If I notice I'm doing it, I stop, but as soon as I stop thinking about it and start drifting off to sleep, it starts up again.
18. I have never had a surprise party, although I've thrown them for other people.
19. Whenever I watch an orchestra perform I get this jealous kind of feeling. I want to be down there playing, not up here watching. It doesn't last, though.
20. I can't draw, except I can make a passable-looking horse if I try really hard and erase a lot. Beyond that it's strictly stick figures. I can't even make a straight line or an even circle.
21. I make a mean pecan pie, though.
22. I grew up in the 80's but a lot of the pop culture references (like the cartoon-related ones) go right over my head, because we didn't watch a lot of TV.
23. In a similar vein, I have never watched even a single episode of a "reality TV" show, and frankly I think the idea sounds way over-hyped.
24. I also didn't watch any coverage about the OJ Simpson trial. I would have made a perfect juror in that case. When he was arrested, I heard about it on the radio and turned to my husband and said, "Who's OJ Simpson? Didn't he play a sport or something?"
25. For my nineteenth birthday I got a boxed set of the eight books in the Anne of Green Gables series. I read them over and over, starting with Anne of Green Gables and going all the way through to Rilla of Ingleside, and then starting back over at the beginning. I read the entire series fifteen or sixteen times that year. It was like an obsession for me.
26. I am extremely easy to amuse. I think it has something to do with living so rurally. When a high-school "party" is a bunch of your friends getting together and going for a walk in the middle of the night, you know it doesn't take much.
27. I haven't been sick enough to have to stay in bed, with the exception of recovering from surgery which doesn't really count, more than twice or three times since I've been married. The whole household (the whole COUNTY, it seems like) will be sick and I'm just fine.
28. I don't like Scarlett O'Hara.
29. I like reading about Jane Eyre but I think I might get tired of being friends with her.
30. I like the smell of diesel, if I don't have to be stuck behind the vehicle for miles but can just catch a whiff as it goes by.
31. I also like the smell of gasoline, and of new pavement.
32. When I was in high school I wrote an execrable poem (OK, a lot of them, but this is a specific example) with a line that went "couples dancing with their orange passion." I thought that was the best thing ever. Why nobody killed me in my sleep I still do not know, but I'm grateful.
33. I have never done any illicit drugs. I just never saw the need.
34. I have a scar on my forehead from when I slammed my bicycle into a pole when I was 5; one on my shin from when I jumped off a bus-stop bench (visiting a friend in a place civilized enough to actually have bus stop benches) and smacked my shin into a fire hydrant; one on my hand from when I was washing dishes as a teenager, put my hand inside a broken glass, and it sliced off a chunk of skin from my pinky knuckle on that hand.
35. I never put my hand inside glasses to wash them now.
36. I once stepped into a cattleguard at full walking speed. That doesn't feel good at all. (If you don't know what a cattleguard is you need to get out of the city for at least three years and then report back to me. Thank you very much).
37. I think I have pretty much confessed all the bad stuff I did as a teenager to my parents by now. (There would be a whole journal post all by itself, to go into those)
38. The only celebrities I have ever met or seen in person are authors.
39. I have a pointy chin.
40. I take the shoulder pads out of any clothing I get that has them. My shoulders are huge enough without them.
41. I walk very fast. Again, like the talking thing, though, I tend to think that I walk at a normal pace and everyone else dawdles.
42. I bring a book with me almost everywhere, especially if I'm going to be without children, just in case I get stuck waiting somewhere unexpectedly.
43. I remember smells so strongly that I can trick my brain into thinking I'm smelling a thing, and I can actually smell it at will, sort of.
44. I wear a size 12 (American).
45. I read very fast. I used to read a 300-page book each day when I had less to do (i.e. before I had children).
46. I hate centipedes and millipedes. Other than that I don't have any phobias.
47. I like to get a different kind of shampoo every time I buy it.
48. My favorite perfume is "Pleasures" by Estee Lauder, but it's too expensive to buy regularly, so most of the time I wear "Sand and Sable" instead.
49. My favorite place to visit is Morro Bay, California.
50. I live in a major tourist destination. The population of our small town mulitplies by more than 10 in the summer, if you count the people staying in the hotels.
51. My best girlfriend lives 2500 miles away from me. It makes it difficult to shop and "do lunch" together.
52. The first car with my name on the title was a 1966 Dodge Polara.
53. I get about 200-300 emails a day. That's less than it used to be.
54. Every year I try to read Jane Eyre during the first protracted spell of gray weather.
55. My husband calls me "Ducky". But absolutely nobody else does or is allowed to.
56. I do not have any furry pets, just fish, and I'm getting tired of those.
57. I had a horse from the time I was 9 until last year when she had to be put down.
58. The last furry pets I owned (never really considered my horse a pet, she was livestock ;-) were two cats named Chloe and Chelsea. They had litters within a month of each other, Chloe first. Chelsea was a poor mother so Chloe adopted her kittens. We gave them all away when we had our first baby.
59. Two of my grandmothers are still alive.
60. My husband's great-grandmother is still alive. One of her nieces is Tanya Tucker, the country singer.
61. I was raised on country music, REAL country music, and I roll my eyes at a lot of the modern stuff that gets called "country," even though I very rarely listen to that genre anymore.
62. The first computer I owned, other than the Atari 800 my family had in the 80's, was a 386 33MhZ (I think) PC with 2M RAM and a 256M hard drive. It was a really fast machine and my friends were extremely jealous that I only paid $400 for it. This was in 1993.
63. I sing alto.
64. I got an F in analytic geometry in high school, my junior year. That was the class where my extremely poor study habits finally caught up with me. Before that I was able to pull As, Bs, and the occasional C just by doing well on tests and quizzes even though I very rarely did homework in most classes.
65. I play the flute and the piano, but not often, and consequently, not very well anymore.
66. My 4-yo daughter looks a lot like me. My 7-yo son looks a lot like my husband. We joke that we cloned ourselves.
67. The woodstove is the only source of heat in my house. I like it that way. Wood's a lot of work but it's free, and it feels so cozy to have a fire.
68. We are still using the towels we got as wedding presents.
69. I wanted to try having red hair for years, so finally in late 1999 I tried it. Well, I tried auburn. It didn't look good on me.
70. We always put up our Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving, and we generally try to take it down on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.
71. Three of my parents' five grandchildren were born on the day after a holiday: my nephews on the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Valentine's Day, and my middle daughter on the day after Christmas.
72. I have a black thumb. Any plant I own, from lawn grass on up, is doomed. This is largely because I am a loser and I forget to water things. But even when I do water things, somehow, I kill them.
    
73. I like the smell of brewing coffee but I can only tolerate the taste if it's blended with milk and stuff.
74. I taught myself HTML when I wanted to make a family webpage in 1996.
75. My husband's and my tenth wedding anniversary will be on March 19th, 2004.
76. My absolute utter money-is-no-object dream vacation would be a world tour on the Queen Elizabeth II. Assuming, that is, that I don't get seasick; since I've never been on the ocean in a boat, I don't know if I do or not.
77. My enormous forehead requires me to wear bangs. I grew them out once, and tried going without them for one school year. It was not a good thing.
78. My daughter inherited my forehead. Fortunately, she looks adorable with bangs.
79. Most of my female friends are people I've never met in person.
80. I dislike dark chocolate, except as chocolate chips in cookies.
81. I eat too many carbohydrates.
82. I am a Raiders fan by default. Before I was married I liked whatever football team was trendy (like the 49ers), or just didn't pay attention. However, becoming a Raiders fan was practically a written prerequisite for marrying my husband. ;-)
83. I love to watch ice skating, although I've only ice skated a few times myself.
84. I am not a sporty type. I don't throw well or catch well, or even run well, and I definitely don't jump well.
85. There's no such thing as too many books; there are only too few bookshelves.
86. I go to the same church as my parents, brother/SIL/nephews, and grandmother. It's like a mini-reunion every Sunday.
87. If I Google my name, I find a bunch of stuff about some woman about my age who lives in Illinois, and a few newsgroup posts from me, from the days when I wasn't so careful about putting my full name all over the Internet.
88. I do not like my feet.
89. I have worn glasses since junior high, although I didn't start wearing them constantly until I graduated from high school. I get bad headaches if I go without them.
90. I have never had braces.
91. My handwriting varies from extremely neat (but still not as neat as my mom's) to pretty messy (but not as messy as my brother's), depending on my mood more than on how quickly I'm writing.
92. When I was 15 I took a handful of Tylenol because I wanted (or, more accurately, I wanted people to think I wanted, if I am to be totally honest with my angst-y teenaged self) to kill myself. Having one's stomach pumped sucks. Don't ever try it just on a whim, OK? There are other ways to get your point across. Also, this incident left me with a distinct lack of faith (which endures to this day) in psychologists and the mental health industry in general.
93. I did a lot of stupid things as a teenager, but #92 was the stupidest.
94. I am a possessive, jealous type of person by nature, but I'm better about it than I used to be. When I was younger I would get irrationally unhappy (although I had the sense to at least try not to show it) if my close friends were close friends with other people as well. Same went for boyfriends -- if my boyfriend was friendly with my friends, it bothered me. I've improved a lot. Still, it's a good thing that I married a man who is similarly inclined.
95. On one side my extended family is quite dysfunctional. On the other it's the most normal family you could possibly imagine, for the most part.
96. I love swimming, although I am not very good at it; I always manage to look as if I were about to drown.
97. I am not picky about misspellings or grammatical errors in chats or casual emails, but it really bothers me to see them in purposefully published materials. I could go on and on about this. (just tonight I saw "post hold digger" in the "tools needed" list for a project at Home Depot and I had to physically restrain myself from shuddering).
98. I have really awful periods. My friends are all aghast when I tell them about them.
99. I don't see how it is that people think classical music is boring. A great deal of classical music makes me cry, it's so beautiful.
100. I get a new stuffed duck from my husband every year in the top of my Christmas stocking.

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Monday, November 24, 2003

Friday Five. So it's a couple days late, so sue me.

I forgot to do a Friday Five on Friday. No biggie except it actually looked interesting. :) Don't miss the staggeringly brilliant entry from earlier today.


1. List five things you'd like to accomplish by the end of the year.

By the end of THIS year? Yikes. I'd like to...

• lose 10 more pounds
  
• become less addicted to the computer
  
• get into an exercise regimen
  
• get my house back into a "maintain" mode -- I have a schedule which works brilliantly for this if I will just use it...
  
• read two books I've never read before
  

2. List five people you've lost contact with that you'd like to hear from again.

• Kelly, who was my piano teacher in junior high
  
• Joanna, friend from school who moved to the UK
  

That's all I can think of, really!

3. List five things you'd like to learn how to do.

• knit
  
• scrapbook (it just feels WRONG that this is used as a verb). I will have to give in eventually.
  
• you know that braid, for hair, that looks like a rope? I'd like to be able to do the fancy French version of that in my own hair.
  
• I'd like to learn sign language, for fun
  
• Does it count that I'd like to take CPA classes and/or nursing classes? It'll have to, I can't think of anything else
  

4. List five things you'd do if you won the lottery (no limit).

• Build a decent house in the middle of a large piece of property, so as to keep subdivisions at least that far away from my home no matter what happened to the parcels around ours
  
• Have my husband retire at age 33
  
• give a lot of it to various charities and our local library
  
• set up a fund for families of sick children so that they could spend less time stressing about money and more time dealing with more serious problems and enjoying their children
  
• never have health insurance again. Never ever ever.
  

5. List five things you do that help you relax.

• read
  
• take a hot shower
  
• read
  
• vege at the computer
  
• read
  

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Wednesday, November 19, 2003

80's music quiz

I ordinarily do not post those goofy little quizzes here, but this is cool; anyone born before 1977 or so should go do it, now. :)

have fun! :)

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firsts and lasts survey

First kiss:
Fourth grade, with my "boyfriend" Brian, my brother's friend who lived near the paddock where we kept our horses. It was a little peck, very quick, very embarrassing.

First real kiss:
Ninth grade, with my first serious boyfriend, Randy.

First job:
I just did a long post about this sort of thing; first job was working in the church nursery as a preteen.

First screen name:
rachelellen (good old WBS chat!)

First self purchased album:
Def Leppard, "Hysteria"

First funeral:
My grandfather's, when I was in sixth grade

First pets:
A little black dog named Tipper and a slightly larger, shaggy black dog named Belle

First piercing:
Ears, age 6

First true love:
Probably Randy, ninth grade. Although that's stretching "true love" quite a bit -- but we were very emotional about each other and stayed boyfriend and girlfriend for a year and a half. What we had pales in comparison to real adult love, and we were way too immature for a relationship really.

First big trip:
Nine states in two weeks, summer before ninth grade.

First musician you remember hearing in your house:
I was going to say Roger Whittaker but I think I have memories of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, etc., from before that.

Last big car ride:
How big is "big"? It's about four or five hours to Morro Bay, and we did that last summer. Five hours to LA, did that three and a half years ago. Twelve hours to Washington, did that four and a half years ago.

Last kiss:
This morning as T was leaving for work.

Last good cry:
about a week and a half ago.

Last movie seen:
"The Princess Bride", a few evenings ago

Last beverage drunk:
milk on my cereal (about to remedy that one also, with a yummy Diet COke)

Last food consumed:
Crispix (it's crispy times two!)

Last phone call:
T just called me right before I started typing this.

Last TV show watched:
Don't watch TV. Probably the last one we watched was the Super Bowl. Oh, wait, we plugged in the antenna for war coverage too, so Evening News with Dan Rather, last March.

Last shoes worn:
black canvas shoes, $4 at Wal-Mart

Last CD played:
Evanescence, "Fallen"

Last item bought:
holy cow, we just did a ton of Christmas shopping. I don't remember what the last thing was. Oh, wait! I went grocery shopping yesterday, and the last thing I put in the cart was a 12-pack of diet Coke.

Last disappointment:
I'm trying to help a friend of mine figure out how to do a Make A Wish trip for her son and we found out that part of it probably isn't going to be able to happen.

Last soda drunk:
Diet Coke, Diet Coke, Diet Coke (sung to the tune of "Let it Snow")

Last ice cream eaten:
Generic peanut-butter cup, about two weeks ago

Last shirt worn:
I have one on right now, my uber-comfortable baseball-jersey-style sweatshirt, heather-navy with navy sleeves, about three sizes too big for me, so so cozy.

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Tuesday, November 18, 2003

every job I ever had

Daydreaming On Paper gave me this prompt this morning:


List all the jobs you've ever had.


Well, you know me, I can't just list, I have to discuss. Here goes. :)

1. When I was 11 or 12 I started helping out, for $3 a week, in the nursery at the Methodist church I grew up in. I wasn't going to mention this, but then I realized that it really did influence my life in a lot of ways. And it's shocking to see the near-adults who were once babies I cuddled and changed.
   
2. The spring and summer during/after eighth grade, I spent nights at the home of my great-great aunt who had Alzheimer's. At that point in time she was fine with just someone in the house with her at night; they just didn't want her to be alone, and I lived right down the road and knew her quite well. She had a different idea of who I was every night, and she always offered me raisin toast in the morning for breakfast. I can still remember the pleasant old-ladyish smell of her house, the strawberry shampoo she had, the letters I would write to my friends lying on her guest bed. It was while I had that job that I learned that I could just concentrate as I was going to bed on getting up at a certain time (I always forgot to bring my alarm clock over there) and it would work. I can still do that when I want to. This "job" paid $12 a night, and it ended at the end of the summer when Aunt Hazel's caretakers started having full-time professional nursing care for her. I got paid all at once at the end of that summer and bought my first "cool" expensive clothes for the next school year. This was also a huge lesson -- I could see why my parents shopped at bargain outlets once I put down a whole summer's work on about two outfits (including a red sweater! even then...) plus a pair of very expensive shoes.
   
3. Then during ninth grade I had a boring job at the local Frostee-type place, taking orders for hamburgers and fries, making milkshakes and ice-milk cones. It was my first time-card taxes-paid kind of job, and nothing interesting happened there.
   
4. The next summer, I babysat full-time for a local single dad with two little boys. It only lasted about a month; after that the dad remarried and I was no longer necessary. It was another job where I learned a lot about little kids, and it was my highest-paying job till that point at $5 an hour, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, under the table. The father worked in a shop right there at his house, and his assistant would pick me up for work every day as he drove past my house in his 1963 Dodge Dart station wagon. This is possibly the ugliest car ever created. It is at least in the top 3 ugliest cars.
   
5. The summer after tenth grade I worked as a maid in a hotel. This is simply not my kind of job. You don't mix with people, and you have to be so meticulous, and, well, I'm not and never have been.
   
6. In eleventh grade I had another frostee-freeze type job, at a different little diner in town. This job lasted six months. I gained 20 pounds in those six months; I developed the perfect (but extremely calorie-laden) burger; I learned to mop a floor properly and to flirt and to ward off unwanted advances (which was a heady feeling at the time, since I'd been a definite ugly duckling all my life). I went home every day reeking of bleach, and when I unbraided my hair and stepped into the shower at home there was a definite smell of French fries and grease pervading the air. It took a summer of being strict with myself and walking six miles a day to lose all that weight.
   
7. After that one, during the summer after eleventh grade and the beginning of my senior year, I had a job at a Mexican restaurant which was actually a lot of fun. The cooks and dishwashers were bona-fide card-carrying Mexicans, who sang to the waitresses and hostess in Spanish. The food was amazing, although I had learned from my previous job that sucking on the after-dinner mints all day and skipping my free meal would do my figure a lot more good than snacking from the nacho bin and eating a full plate on my dinner break. There was one night when the cooks and dishwashers all failed to show up; the owner cooked, the waitresses bussed their own tables and took over my hostess job, and I, in my silk skirt and blouse, ended up washing dishes. It was a very interesting experience, and it completely ruined that outfit in spite of the apron I had on.
   
8. had another brief stint after graduation at the second frostee-freez-ish place. It did not go well and I did not enjoy it.
   
9. I was rescued from that job by a family I had done a lot of babysitting for over the years. (I have neglected telling about all the babysitting I did; there were three or four families who used me a lot. It was a fun feeling to have them booking me for New Years' Eve two months in advance, before another family could get dibs. I loved all the kids and learned more from those jobs, as far as stuff I use now, than I did from any of the others.) Their in-home daycare provider had to have surgery and they asked me to take over. Thus began the best two years of my job life -- from 6 am to 6 pm, three days a week, I was in charge of three kids. When I started the full-time job they were ages 2, 4, and 7. The oldest, a girl, was the flower girl in my wedding. I worked there until I was pregnant with my son; the mother of the children was laid off work for a time, and when she went back, their previous provider was able to take over again. I see the children around town now -- the flower girl is now a senior in high school and a star on the volleyball team, the middle boy is a freshman, and the littlest girl (whom I held all night one new year's eve as she was teething) is in junior high and is taller than me. *sigh*. The scary thing is that that's going to happen with my children too, just as quickly.
   
10. During and after the time when I worked for them, I did a lot of substituting as a teacher's aide and secretary for the local school district. This was also a very interesting job and really informative and educational. I was an aide in a special education class, and I went with various kids as they "mainstreamed" into the HeadStart next door or into an elementary school classroom. Between that and the stint as assistant secretary in the special education department, I learned more than I ever thought I'd know about the workings of that system, and began to cement the thought in my mind that any children I ever had would be educated at home.
    
11. When my son was a baby I had a very brief child-care job with another family. I also spent a few days as a receptionist/hostess at my in-laws' microbrewery. Neither of these jobs were the least bit enjoyable or interesting.
    

And that's it. For seven years my job has been raising and teaching my own children. The pay is very low, but the benefits are just amazing. Best job I ever had by far. ;-)

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Thursday, October 23, 2003

99 questions answered -- I am such a sucker for surveys. This one is less inane than usual.

WHEW. I borrowed these 99 questions from Emily. I've been working on them a handful at a time over the past week or so.

1. What is your name?
well, I'm known as hsing-mom at Diaryland. I've probably let my name slip in here a few times...

2. Where and when were you born?
December 25th, 1974, in the same small California town where I live now

3. Who are/were your parents?
They are the people who married each other, conceived me, gave birth to me (well, one of them did), and raised me. :) They're still married (32 years and counting).

4. Do you have any siblings?
I have a brother, 2 1/2 years older than me.

5. Where do you live now, and with whom? Describe the place and the person/people.
I live in a medium-to-small rented house with my husband, our 7-year-old son, and our 4-year-old daughter.

6. What is your occupation?
I'm a homemaker and a homeschooling mom.

7. Write a full physical description of yourself. Include height, weight, race, hair and eye color, style of dress, and any tattoos, scars, or distinguishing marks.
What, am I a wanted suspect or something? :) I'm 5'8 1/2" tall, 174 lb (and going down), brown hair, brown eyes, caucasian, casual dresser, no tattoos, small scar on my forehead from when I slammed my bicycle into a pole when I was maybe 5.

8. To which social class do you belong?
I would say lower middle.

9. Do you have any allergies, diseases, or other physical weaknesses?
(I like the way this is phrased, hee hee). No, I am invincible non-allergic mega-ox-woman. Very low maintenance. I actually envied my higher-maintenance friends in high school but now I've realized how superior I am ;-).

10. Are you right- or left-handed?
Right-handed.

11. What does your voice sound like?
Low-pitched, a little nasal.

12. What words and/or phrases do you use very frequently?
Like. I say "like" way too much. Also "freaking", which I said in front of my dad the other day without realizing it, and he looked at me like I'd said the Real Bad Word. Whoops.

13. What do you have in your pockets?
Nothing.

14. Do you have any quirks, strange mannerisms, or annoying habits?
I talk too much. I push my glasses up against my shoulder when my hands are full.

Growing Up 15. How would you describe your childhood in general?
Happy at home, unhappy at school.

16. What is your earliest memory?
I think it's from the national bicentennial but I'm not sure that's when it was.

17. How much schooling have you had?
High school graduate, some not-for-credit night classes.

18. Did you enjoy school?
Some aspects of it, very much. Others, not at all.

19. What was your favorite subject in school?
It varied year by year. I always liked music. I also liked drama, physics, chemistry, algebra, geometry, English, and French.

20. While growing up, did you have any role models?
My parents.

21. While growing up, how did you get along with the other members of your family?
Really well.

22. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A teacher. A mom.

23. As a child, what were your favorite activities?
Reading, imaginative play, playing with my brother, riding my horse.

24. As a child, what kinds of personality traits did you display?
I was pretty annoying, I think. I didn't think before I spoke, and didn't have a clue how to fit in with other people. And quirky is not OK when you're in elementary school -- at least, it's not OK with the other kids.

25. As a child, were you popular?
Not at all.

26. When and with whom was your first kiss?
Aside from some stupid experimentation stuff with my friends' brothers and stuff, my first real "love" kiss was in ninth grade.

27. Are you a virgin? If not, when and with whom did you lose your virginity?
I've been married 9 1/2 years, so virginity is pretty much out. I lost my virginity at the end of ninth grade, unfortunately, with my first serious boyfriend.

Past Influences

28. What do you consider the three most important events of your life so far?
My marriage (although really, the wedding was just the beginning of that, and it is ongoing), the births of my children, and becoming a Christian.

29. Who has had the most influence on you?
hmm. My parents, my husband, Jesus -- lots of people have influenced me whether I knew it or not. Even the kids who were mean to me in school influenced me.

30. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
My children -- that so far, they are loving, generous, friendly, capable young people.

31. What is your greatest regret?
If it had been possible, I wish that I had known how to rise above the criticism of my peers when I was younger. But that's not really a regret, because I don't think anyone in that situation at that age can do that. I do wish I'd not had sex until I was married. It just made for uncomfortable embarrassment later on -- after all, I see my high school boyfriends and their families around town, and that's always between us -- that history of intimacy thrown away. I don't understand how people can have such a casual view of sex, I really don't.

32. What is the most evil thing you have ever done?
I haven't done a lot of evil things. When I was in high school there was a girl who was lower on the social scale than I was and I was kind of mean to her. OK, there's another one for my greatest regret as well.

33. Do you have a criminal record of any kind?
No.

34. When was the time you were the most frightened?
When my middle daughter was born.

35. What is the most embarrassing thing ever to happen to you?
I have answered this question in every single survey in this diary, it seems like. I don't know, it varies by what I think of as cringe-worthy, and it depends on whether the intention is to hear about an embarrassing gaffe I've made, or a moment when I was embarrassed by other people's unkindness. There are plenty of both, let's just say that.

36. If you could change one thing from your past, what would it be, and why?
See above under greatest regrets.

37. What is your best memory?
Oh, there are so many. My wedding, my wedding night. The births of my children, to a degree, although there was a lot of unhappy and scary stuff involved with those also. And I have a million happy memories of my life with my husband and children. As far as one thing that stands out, I'll pick one from before my marriage. It made me feel really special when I was about to turn 18, and my parents bought me this gorgeous red velvet dress I'd been eyeing for a while, and then my dad took us and my best friend out to a very fancy dinner at the Ahwahnee Hotel for my 18th birthday.

38. What is your worst memory?
There are also a lot of those, many of them from elementary school. Most of them are too painful to bring up right now. From adulthood, the loss of my middle daughter was very hard. The surgical births of my daughters (babies 2 and 3) were really scary -- one because she had serious life-threatening problems which we'd had no clue about until she came out of me, and the other because she exhibited some of the same symptoms as her sister, even though she had been checked for the same problems and found to be fine. Those were definitely the two worst days/nights of my life so far.

Beliefs And Opinions

39. Are you basically optimistic or pessimistic?
Optimistic.

40. What is your greatest fear?
That something awful will happen to my children or husband.

41. What is your greatest comfort?
My belief in eternity. Being surrounded by my loved ones.

42. What are your religious views?
I am a born-again Christian -- I believe the Bible in its entirety.

43. What are your political views?
I'm morally and fiscally conservative. In the US this means that I'm opposed to spending a lot of money on social programs; I'm aware that the money people earn is their own and hence a tax cut is not "a break", it's just realizing that people should get to keep more of their own money; I'm opposed to abortion because it is the cruel and barbaric taking of an innocent human life; overall, I think people should be more responsible for the consequences of their actions than they usually are, and that people should be responsible for themselves in general whenever possible. If it weren't for abortion and drug legalization (which is a pretty minor factor for me, but still there), I would probably be a libertarian. When I first registered to vote, I registered as an "American Independent" -- also called the Taxpayers' Party if I remember correctly -- because the Republican party was too centrist for me. Now I'm a Republican, because the party moved back to the right a bit in the mid-90's.

44. What are your views on sex?
Sex is treated far too casually in our society. We've bought into this whole humans-are-just-animals thing a bit too far, and now we're telling our kids that they don't need to try to resist their hormonal urges because they can't anyway. This carries over into adulthood also, obviously, to the point where you're a weirdo if you don't have sex by the third date. And I think this is all very destructive to our culture, to our lives in general. Sex is the coupling of two people. Popular thinking reduces it to a simple connection of body parts, and it feels good, so why not do it? But really, intercourse puts two people together in a very serious and inextricable way. It causes a lot of emotional (and physical, but I'm not even going INTO that) difficulties when the relationship ends and it's time to move on -- all that shared intimacy becomes something to be sorry and embarrassed about. It's a lot of baggage. People who say sex shouldn't be reserved for marriage because that would somehow be boring or repressive don't know what they're missing. Married sex -- when you know this is the partner for the rest of your life, you have years and years to learn to do things exactly the way your spouse likes them done and vice versa, you can truly and really let yourself go with this person because you know there will not come a time when you're going to wish you could forget all these intimate moments... it's phenomenal.

45. Would you be able to kill?
If someone was threatening the safety and well-being of my children, my husband, my parents, myself -- you damn bet I would be able to.

46. In your opinion, what is the most evil thing any human being could do?
So much evil has been done -- my inclination is to say something about abortion or mothers drowning their children or terrorism or the Holocaust, but unfortunately, humanity is certainly capable of evil beyond even those horrific situations.

47. Do you believe in the existence of soul mates and/or true love?
I don't necessarily believe that there is One Person out there, and if you're in the wrong place or whatever you'll miss that one person and never be happy. But of course I believe in true love. And when you love someone enough, and spend time with him/her, that person becomes your soul mate, so to speak -- you become part of each other in a very real way. I think of it like two trees planted very close together -- the roots become so intertwined that to pull one out, you'd have to pull them both.

48. What do you believe makes a successful life?
Figuring out what your priorities are and living according to them. Surrounding yourself with people you love, and people you need, and people who need you. Being able to get by in a life that is enjoyable for you, without giving up on important things. Obviously it's something that's different for everyone, in my book.

49. How honest are you about your thoughts and feelings (i.e. do you hide your true self from others, and in what way)?
I am really outspoken about my thoughts and feelings, except with people in that middle ground between super close and not close at all. Like, say, my in-laws, who don't know me well enough that I feel like I can be totally open, but some kind of relationship has to be maintained with them. With just casual acquaintances, I really don't give a hoot what they think and I'll just let fly.

50. Do you have any biases or prejudices?
Everyone does. A bias is simply a predetermined set of beliefs or preferences. Anyone who says he's unbiased is either kidding himself, or he's a jellyfish who changes his mind every time a new opinion is presented. As far as prejudices -- that's a little different, or at least the word has different connotations -- this implies that you have judged a person or a set of people (or whatever) before becoming familiar with him/them/it. I think we all probably have some of those too, but I'm not aware of mine.

51. Is there anything you absolutely refuse to do under any circumstances?
Put an apostrophe in the wrong place. ;-)

52. Who or what, if anything, would you die for (or otherwise go to extremes for)?
My children. My husband. My parents. My brother and his family. I don't know about anything else -- my inclination is to say that there are more, but I wouldn't know until realistically put in the situation.

Relationships With Others

53. In general, how do you treat others (politely, rudely, by keeping them at a distance, etc.)?
Politely. Overwhelmingly.

54. Who is the most important person in your life, and why?
The most important physical earthbound person to me is my husband, followed VERY closely by my children. For obvious reasons.

55. Who is the person you respect the most, and why?
Oh my. That's a big question. I respect a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. (why is there always an emphasis on "most", I wonder?). I have a lot of respect for my grandmother for raising seven children on a shoestring and not losing her sense of humor. For my dad, for facing enormous physical pain every single day and maintaining a cheerful, positive, God-honoring outlook on his life. For my husband, for having the courage to leave behind a lifetime of very destructive beliefs and friends, to start fresh at 18 years of age and again at 23, and for maintaining the right course, and for being so different with his children than his father was with him. For my mother, for basically reinventing herself physically and emotionally through great strength of will, and for being the exactly the perfect kind of mother for me -- really, my parents were, by and large, the parents all my friends wished they had -- and they are the role models for my husband and myself as we bring up our own children.

56. Who are your friends?
I have a lot of friends, and yet I have almost no friends (the joy of the Internet, eh?). I am part of a very close circle of online friends in a mom's group; I have a lot of friendly internet acquaintances picked up in various ways; my best girlfriend is a woman who lives in Florida whom I've met one time but known inside and out for going on seven years. I have one friend who was my best friend in high school; we didn't contact each other for ten years but this past year we've reconnected and are quite good friends again -- but again, I haven't met her since we were teenagers. I do have some quite close friends who live near me, but there aren't many, and we never seem to get together and do "girlfriend" stuff. My very best friend is my husband -- and he was that before we "got together".

57. Do you have a spouse or significant other?
If you've been reading just about any of my answers you'll have gathered that the answer to this is yes. :)

58. Have you ever been in love?
Ah, yes. :)

59. What do you look for in a potential lover?
That wedding ring I put on his finger... ;). I'll change this into "What is about your spouse that drew/draws you to him," and I'll say: He and I agree on most things but disagree on others -- just enough for a healthy debate now and then ;-). Our priorities and values are the same. We enjoy each other's company; there's a megaton of that elusive "chemistry" everyone talks about between us, and there always has been. He respects me and I respect him; he doesn't talk down to me; he is my intellectual equal. He is a wonderful communicator, a good listener, my best friend. We complement each other in every way.

60. How close are you to your family?
Very close. We see each other multiple times every week and speak on the phone almost every day.

61. Have you started your own family?
Yes, I have two living children and a daughter in heaven.

62. Who would you turn to if you were in desperate need of help?
My husband. My parents. My brother. Beyond that, it depends on the kind of help.

63. Do you trust anyone to protect you?
Yes, I trust my husband and God. :) (and myself!)

64. If you died or went missing, who would miss you?
Lots of people, to varying degrees.

65. Who is the person you despise the most, and why?
Oh my. Most of the people I despise are public figures. Probably the MOST -- Hillary Clinton, sorry to the myriads of her fans. She is so intent on riding her husband's coattails to political success, while managing to push from behind at the same time. And of course I disagree with her on every possible issue there is, I think. Think of an issue, find her position on it, and chances are great that mine is the direct opposite. So she's handy that way, I guess. ;-þ

66. Do you tend to argue with people, or avoid conflict?
I touched on this a bit above in the answer about honesty about my thoughts and feelings. It depends on how close I am to the person. Super close or total strangers, I'll debate or argue (nicely and reasonably). It's the middle ground where I keep my mouth shut a lot because I don't want to offend.

67. Do you tend to take on leadership roles in social situations?
Um, not really. Well, sometimes -- like online, in certain groups. But as a rule, no. Only when I am fed up with nobody else doing it -- like, say, putting together a field trip for a homeschool group.

68. Do you like interacting with large groups of people? Why or why not?
Not in general. Only if I'm feeling more confident than usual. Which is not often.

69. Do you care what others think of you?
I care what people close to me think, very much. And I care enough about the opinions of total strangers not to go to the post office in sweats -- but not a whole lot more than that.

Likes And Dislikes

70. What are your favorite hobbies and pastimes?
Reading, spending time with my family, cooking (but not cleaning up), crocheting, Internet stuff.

71. What is your most treasured possession?
I don't know. Probably something sentimental. My grandfather's 1919 edition of the Oxford Book of English Verse maybe.

72. What is your favorite color?
It varies. It's usually a variation of blue -- cobalt, navy, dark dark teal.

73. What are your favorite foods?
A really good steak. Olive Garden's chicken scampi. Cadbury Roast Almond bars.

74. What, if anything, do you like to read?
I have discussed this a lot in various formats -- my first real literary love as an adult is the classical literature like Austen, Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, etc. My VERY first literary love was good kid-lit like Beverly Cleary, Laura Ingalls Wilder, L.M. Montgomery -- and I still definitely enjoy these authors even now. And I also like good modern literature -- Elizabeth Berg, Maeve Binchy, Sara Donati, Diana Gabaldon. But heck, I'll read the back of the shampoo bottle, if I'm stuck sitting still with nothing else to read.

75. What is your idea of good entertainment (consider music, movies, art, etc.)?
I like listening to good music (from just about any era). I like good movies -- not too many "arty" or obscure ones, I have painfully plebeian cinematic tastes, I'm afraid. I enjoy old movie musicals, old movies in general, romantic comedies, adaptations of classic novels, non-gory thrillers, and some deep important movies as well.

76. Do you smoke, drink, or use drugs? If so, why? Do you want to quit?
No, no, no, n/a, and n/a. :)

77. How do you spend a typical Saturday night?
At home with my family.

78. What makes you laugh?
My children, my husband, sundry (and a lot of other diaryland diaries), movies, books. I'm easy to amuse.

79. What, if anything, shocks or offends you?
Well, there's shock and offense, and then there's shock and offense. In a way, a lot of things shock and offend me, because they are not the way I think they should be (like, say, people applauding a graphic video presentation of a partial-birth abortion). But in another way, I'm not shocked by that, because it's what I expect in a world that's as hell-bound as this one is. Sad to say.

80. What would you do if you had insomnia and had to find something to do to amuse yourself?
Fire up this machine and stare at the happy blue glow. Probably discover a bunch of diaries I'd never read before. ;-)

81. How do you deal with stress?
Not well. I don't have a lot of it, so I don't have a lot of practice. I yell. And I know I shouldn't yell, and I always resolve I won't, but I do. And I get twitchy and very easily irritated.

82. Are you spontaneous, or do you always need to have a plan?
I like having plans, but I like spontaneity also.

83. What are your pet peeves?
Oh, there's a long list. Grammatical/word usage stuff (like skim/scan, misplaced apostrophes, overuse of exclamation points, public mis-spellings [I don't mind in chats, but please, if you're going to publish an ad or name a restaurant, for crying out loud, run it through a human spelling checker first...]) always comes to mind when I'm asked this question. Also common thoughtlessnesses like not using turn signals.

Self Images Etc.

84. Describe the routine of a normal day for you.
I get up in the morning around 8:00, supervise/fix breakfast for my children, and start school. School takes anywhere from one to two hours. I check my email and browse around online, do some housework, play with the kids, run errands. Make lunch. Make dinner. Clean up after dinner, get the kids ready for bed, and put them to bed. Then T and I have some time alone, and then I'm back on the computer until I feel like going to bed, generally around midnight. There are tons of variations, but this is the basic bare-bones weekday.

85. What is your greatest strength as a person?
I am very, very loving and dedicated to the people who are important to me. I am generous with my time and affection.

86. What is your greatest weakness?
A lack of discipline.

87. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I would be more disciplined. :)

88. Are you generally introverted or extroverted?
Extroverted.

89. Are you generally organized or messy?
Messy. But I would dearly LOVE to be organized. I'm just too lazy to pull myself together for more than a week or two at a time.

90. Name three things you consider yourself to be very good at, and three things you consider yourself to be very bad at.
I am very good at: mothering, reading, and spelling. I am very bad at: washing dishes, working on cars, and writing.

91. Do you like yourself?
Yes, most of the time I do. And it hasn't always been this way, so I'm aware what a blessing that is.

93. What goal do you most want to accomplish in your lifetime?
I want to see my children grow into loving, capable, generous adults, with a solid faith.

94. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
The homeschooling mother of a 12-year-old and a nine-year-old, with a mortgage and some night classes under my belt.

95. If you could choose, how would you want to die?
The same way everyone says -- painlessly, as an old woman, with my family around me.

96. If you knew you were going to die in 24 hours, name three things you would do in the time you had left.
I would write a long letter to each of my children about my love and my hopes for them. I would do the same for my husband. I would call or email many, many people to tell them how appreciated they are.

97. What is the one thing for which you would most like to be remembered after your death?
For being a loving person, faithful to God.

98. What three words best describe your personality?
Insecure, optimistic, joyful.

99. What three words would others probably use to describe you?
That depends on how well they know me.
Family/very close friends: Happy, loving, talkative.
Acquaintances and strangers: Weird, talkative, and ... cheerful?

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Wednesday, October 22, 2003

Unconscious Mutterings

Yet another Friday-Five-ish prop for when I don't have the energy for a real entry:


Unconscious Mutterings

1. Country:: USA
   
2. G:: spot. (Sorry, you'd almost think I was male, wouldn't you.)
   
3. Offer:: refusal (that's more typically feminine of me, isn't it.)
   
4. Connection:: link
   
5. Quest:: game
   
6. Lighthouse:: stormy
   
7. Sycamore:: spiky
   
8. Inhumane:: cruelty
   
9. Sneer:: sarcasm
   
10. Weapon:: useless (where did THAT come from?)
    

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Tuesday, October 21, 2003

Yet another frequently-inane survey apparently written by a young person trying to appear wacky and witty

I borrowed these 100 questions from Peyton's Place.

1. Are you an innie or an outie?
I'm going to assume this refers to belly buttons -- isn't just about everyone an innie?

2. Have you ever worn bell-bottoms?
Actually, yes, many of the clothes I wore in elementary school were hand-me-downs and many of the pants were bell-bottoms. (this was the early-mid 80's so they weren't THAT old). This did not help with my popularity problems. I had one pair in particular that was utterly putrid -- orchid-colored. It would probably be fashionable again now. gag.

3. Have you ever written a song?
I don't think so. I did a lot of pretentious self-important stuff as a teenager, because I thought I was just the best and brightest and the first person to ever feel the way I did or think of the things I thought of (which, I came to find out later, is a really common affliction of teenagerhood, witness the many teenage diaries at diaryland for confirmation of this), and I know I wrote a lot of really. Cheezy. Poetry. So I may have written a song too, but I doubt it.

4. Can you make change for a dollar right now?
If I'm allowed to borrow from my son's money jar. He always has more money than I do.

5. Have you ever been in the opposite sex's public toilet?
I used to work for several different restaurants, and part of my job was cleaning bathrooms. So yes.

6. Have you ever smelled your own feet?
Um, who hasn't?

7. Do you like catsup on or beside your fries?
I dip in catsup. But if there's vinegar available I sprinkle that on top, with lots of salt. Yummers. Especially good with fish and chips but even just plain fries will do.

8. Can you touch your tongue to your nose?
No.

9. Have you ever been a boy/girl scout?
I was in Brownies and Juniors. Then my dad and brother were heavily involved in boy scouts so I was always hanging around that as well.

10. Have you ever broken a mirror?
Many, many times.

11. Have you ever put your tongue on a frozen pole?
No.

12. What is your biggest pet peeve?
Oh, wow, there are so many. Drawing one of the many at random, I would have to say... when people say "scan" and really mean "skim" (as in, "I just scanned it quickly, I didn't really read it carefully."). yarrrg.

13. Do you slurp your drink after it's gone?
No, that really gets on my nerves. Eating shouldn't make noise.

14. Have you ever blown bubbles in your milk?
When I was little.

15. Would you rather eat a Big Mac or a Whopper?
Whopper, whopper, whopper. McDonalds is like the British version of American food -- so bland.

16. Have you ever gone skinny-dipping?
Yes, in a scenic river by moonlight the summer when I was 17, with my best friend. It was fun. One of those things I would NEVER do again, but I'm glad I have the memory.

17. When you are at the grocery store, do you ask for paper or plastic?
Paper. We have a woodstove and the paper bags are great for putting your burnable garbage in and then just throwing in the stove.

18. True or False: You would rather eat steak than pizza.
Definitely, definitely true. No contest at all.

19. Did you have a baby blanket?
No.

20. Have you ever tried to cut your own hair?
I actually did, just before starting high school. It came out not well but not TOO badly. I don't know why I did it, though. And I always cut my own bangs.

21. Have you ever sleepwalked?
Once.

22. Have you ever had a birthday party at McDonalds?
No, barf.

23. Can you flip your eye-lids up?
I don't try.

24. Are you double jointed?
No.

25. If you could be any age, what age would you be?
I like the age I am, and I like the stage I'm at in my life.

26. Have you ever gotten gum stuck in your hair?
When I was little I did.

27. Have you ever thrown-up after a roller coaster ride?
No.

28. What is your dream car?
Either a Dodge Durango or a convertible Chrysler Sebring. Probably I would like to own the Durango, but rent the Sebring once, or lease it for a little while. Convertibles are a pain to own, from what I understand.

29. What is your favorite cartoon of all time?
I am not much into cartoons. Do VeggieTales count?

30. Would you go swimming in shallow waters where, one year earlier, a shark had attacked a child?
Generally sharks don't attack in shallow water, do they?

32. Have you ever eaten a dog biscuit?
I tasted dog food once when I was little, but no, I have never actually eaten a dog biscuit.

33. If you were in a car sinking in a lake, what would you do first?
Unbuckle the children, get the door open, and get them out.

34. Have you ever ridden in an ambulance?
No.

35. Can you pick something up with your toes?
Pencils and stuff, yes, can't everyone?

36. How many remote controls do you have in your house?
4. TV (which should also work the VCR and DVD player but it doesn't), VCR (which also works the TV but not the DVD player), camcorder, and DVD player.

37. Have you ever fallen asleep in school?
Not that I remember.

38. How many times have you flown in an airplane in the last year?
None. I have never been in an airplane.

39. How many foreign countries have you visited?
None. I almost went to Mexico once, on my honeymoon, but there was rioting in Tijuana that day so we stayed in San Diego and didn't go there.

40. If you were out of shape, would you compete in a triathlon if you were somehow guaranteed to win a big, gaudy medal?
Um, no.

41. Would you rather be rich and unhappy, or poor and happy?
I have been poor and happy pretty much all my life, to one degree or another, relatively speaking. (I mean, compared to a family in Africa, we're rolling in money. But compared to the national average, we've never been very well off). I would definitely choose that route over rich and unhappy.

42. If you fell into quicksand, would you try to swim or try to float?
I would probably try to tread water. Quicksand is where a spring is coming up under a sandpit, and the sand floats on top of the water. Interesting, huh.

44. Do you ask for directions when you are lost?
Yes. If I can buy a map, I do that first. Otherwise I just ask.

45. Have you ever had a Mexican jumping bean?
No, but there is a larvae that lives in our local oak trees that is similar.

46. Are you more like Cinderella or Alice in Wonderland?
Um, neither. I do not live a life of drudgery, but I love books without pictures.

47. Would you rather have an ant farm with no ants or a box of crayons with broken points?
Ant farm with no ants.

48. Do you prefer light or dark bread?
Medium. I don't like the REALLY dark stuff, like Russian rye, but I don't like plain white bread either. Although a good French bread is nice.

49. Do you prefer scrambled or fried eggs?
Depends on my mood. Probably scrambled most of the time.

50. Have you ever been in a car that ran out of gas?
Yes, a couple of times.

51. Do you talk in your sleep?
Yes.

52. Would you rather shovel snow or mow the lawn?
Mow the lawn, hands down.

53. Would you rather be bitten by a poisonous snake or constricted by a python?
Neither! But I suppose the bite would be easier to treat.

54. Have you ever played in the rain?
Frequently. I love playing in the rain.

55. Which do you think is more dangerous: an angry bear or a hungry white shark?
Angry bear. I'm generally not in the vicinity of a hungry white shark, but bears are a fact of life where I live (although generally they only attack garbage cans and dog food). (what is up with this survey? Was the person who wrote it obsessed with death?)

56. Would you climb a very high tree to save a kitten?
No, they'll come down on their own. Although if the tree was easy to climb, yes, I would, because I enjoy climbing trees.

57. Can you tell the difference between a crocodile and an alligator?
I think so.

58. Do you drink pepsi or coke?
Diet Coke.

59. What�s your favorite number?
I don't have one.

60. If you were a car, would you be an SUV or a sports car?
I would be an SUV. And not a new shiny one either -- I'd be like a 1975 Travelall or something -- clunky and ugly, but utilitarian and good to have around.

61. Have you ever accidentally taken something from a hotel?
I don't think so.

62. Would you blow your nose at the dinner table?
No.

63. Have you ever slipped in the bathtub?
Yes.

64. Do you use regular or deodorant soap?
I change every time. Right now we have Ivory. Before that we had Coast (the eye opener!)

65. Have you ever locked yourself out of the house?
Yes, a couple of times.

66. Would you rather make your living as a singing cowboy or as one of the Simpsons voices?
Singing cowboy.

67. If you could invite any movie star to your home for dinner, who would it be?
Ewan McGregor. He could sing for me, and he could play light sabers with my husband and son.

68. Have you ever gotten a truck driver to honk his horn?
Oh yes, we used to do this all the time. Trains too.

69. Which would you rather live with: a huge nose or crossed eyes?
Probably the nose.

70. Would you hang out with someone your best friend didn't like?
This is so high school. Yes.

71. Would you hang out with someone your best friend liked, but you didn't like?
I doubt it.

72. Have you ever returned a gift?
Yes.

73. Would you give someone else a gift that had been given to you?
Um, I did this once.

74. If you could attend an Olympic Event, what would it be?
Ice dancing.

75. How many pairs of shoes do you own?
maybe... 7?

76. If your grandmother gave you a gift that you already have, would you tell her?
No. In fact this already happens, squared. Both of my grandmothers get me a subscription to Reader's Digest every year. I called the company about this, and they said that what will happen is that every year, I'll get a two year subscription added to what I already have coming to me. I figure, eventually, they will die, and I will have years and years of Reader's Digest subscriptions to remember them by.

77. Do you sing in the car?
Yes.

78. Would you rather jump into a dumpster or into a vat of honey?
Ugh, neither. The dumpster, probably, though, because I could wash it off easier, and chances are I'd land on TOP of stuff and not IN it.

79. What is your favorite breed of dog?
This is a tough question. I like border collies a lot. But they are impractical where I live because of stickers -- short hair makes more sense.

80. Would you donate money to feed starving animals in the winter?
You mean wild animals? Um, no. Animals would all have died off thousands of years ago if God had not given them their own mechanisms for surviving winters. Although I'm not opposed to feeding birds and stuff, don't get me wrong.

81. If you were a bicycle, would you be a stingray or a mountain bike?
I don't know what a stingray is.

82. What is your least favorite fruit?
Raisins.

83. What kind of fruit have you never had?
I live in California; I think I have probably had most kinds at one time or another.

84. If you won a $5,000 shopping spree to any store, which store would you pick?
Barnes and Noble. Woo hoo!

85. What brand sports apparel do you wear the most?
Um, I don't wear sports apparel.

86. Are/were you a good student?
I was smart but I lacked study skills. So no.

87. Among your friends, who could you arm wrestle and beat?
Most of them. I'm a pretty bulky, muscular, ox-like, low-maintenance person, and most of them were skinnier and smaller than me, even some of the boys.

88. If you had to choose, what branch of the military would you be in?
The Marines, and I'd be in the band. (I thought about doing this).

89. Would you ever parachute out of a plane?
Only if necessary, never for fun.

90. What do you think is your best feature?
My eyebrows.

91. If you were to win a Grammy, what kind of music would it be for?
It would be a special award for saving the world from undue pain by never singing alone in a public place, I'm sure. Although I do decently in a choir.

92. What is your favorite season?
Early spring -- say, like February, when narcissus are coming up and the grass is green but it's still chilly. But I like crisp autumn days and foggy days and snowy winter days and pouring rainy days as well. Basically anytime that's not summer.

93. How many members do you have in your immediate family?
4 living.

94. Which of the five senses is most important to you?
I hate this question. I can never just choose one. As far as what would require the most difficult adjustment if I had to learn to live without it, probably sight. But never to hear Vivaldi again... ack.

95. Would you be a more successful painter or singer?
Singer, marginally, but I wouldn't ever actually be a success at either. Unless I could get away with painting houses, at which I'm no better or worse than the average person.

97. How many years will/did you end up going to college?
Zero. None. Zilch. I imagine I'll spend years at it when I do it though, going just at night for a long time before the kids cease to need me during the days at which time I hope to go full-time.

98. Have you ever had surgery?
Three c-sections and a tonsillectomy (not in that order).

99. Would you rather be a professional figure skater or professional football player?
Figure skater. But considering that I have a hard time walking across my living room without breaking my toes (literally), it's never gonna happen.

100. What do you like to collect?
Turtles (not live ones), bookmarks, and books.

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