meme of questions.

[seryn]

merle_ had this meme posted today.


1. What bill do you hate paying the most?
Mostly I don't like writing checks. It irritates me that I can't have my rent auto-deducted. It also irritates me when I have to pay my car insurance.

2. Do you miss being a child?
Mostly I miss the illusion that being an adult would suck less.

3. Chore you hate the most?
vacuuming!!!!

4. Where was the last place you had a romantic dinner?
um, romantic? Not hardly. We eat in front of the TV every night. If we go out, it's to the local Chinese place. I don't think my SO believes in romantic trappings. I sure know I'd be surprised if there were any and we've been together for ages now.

5. If you could go back and change one thing what would it be?
The temptation to choose something silly rampages through my brain...

6. Name of your first grade teacher?
I don't quite remember, but it was a misspelled animal name.

7.What do you really want to be doing right now?
It's rare when I am doing something I don't want to be doing, unless it's vacuuming.

8. What did you want to be when you grew up?
I think I was aware, even as a young child, that the vast majority of jobs were not the kind where you could name what you did. There was a Monster ad a couple years ago where the kid says, "When I grow up, I want to be in middle management." From my perspective as a child, that was what most non-fireman type jobs were. I knew I did not want to be a doctor and certainly did not want to be a nurse (and I was on the tail end of the "girls can't be doctors" rule), did not want to be a lawyer, didn't want to teach or be a ballerina. I didn't want to be "just a mom" either. But I never had a particular goal in mind other than having a career because "if you don't get a real job, you're stuck being pregnant forever".

9. How many colleges did you attend?
Three.

10.Why did you choose the shirt that you have on right now?
Er. It matches my underwear.

11. What are your thoughts on gas prices?
That if more people lived near where they worked, it wouldn't be a big deal.

12. First thought when the alarm went off this morning?
If you ask me tomorrow, I'm sure I'll have an answer. Tomorrow is an oh-shit day.

13. Last thought before going to sleep last night?
"I'm too hot to sleep." Yes, I can appreciate the irony.

14. What famous person would you like to have dinner with?
I'm not sure. I'd like to bend Matthew Stover's ear, but that'd be better via email or maybe IM because he's pretty into physical image/fitness and I'm squishy. I'd have to apologize for being me if we met in person and that would suck.
I wouldn't mind asking Nancy Pelosi WTF she was thinking when she promised there wouldn't be impeachments.
But if you're asking who I want to eat with, maybe that Barefoot Contessa woman. Or Mario Batali. But definitely not that Giardia woman who only mimes tasting her food and definitely not the Asian Iron Chef whose food is always freakish and fishy.

15. Have you ever crashed your vehicle?
er. define "crashed". not to the point that it was undriveable.

16. If you didn't have to work, would you volunteer?
Apparently not. I wouldn't mind volunteering, but I can't seem to find anywhere. Most of the places are like most charities, it's all about helping children (I hate children and think anyone who spawns one should take responsibility instead of waiting for society to fix it all. Willing to accept that those charities exist, but I'm not going to help them.) Many of them want a HUGE time commitment, like full time work. Most of them around here would be expensive to get to. It's hard to justify spending $12 commuting and another $12 on lunch to go work for no money. So I'd want something nearby that I don't think is immoral and where the work is interesting enough. No idea how one finds those things.

17. Get up early or sleep in?
I love being awake at sunrise. I can lounge around drinking coffee for hours before the indy grocery store is even open. The laundry room is never full. But those late nights are delicious. Trying to train myself back to being day-living so I can do more things.

18. What is your favorite cartoon character?
That's hard to answer. I like a lot of the old school cartoons and many of the characters' personalities shifted over the years.
More recent cartoons, I have liked the whole show, not really individual characters. Full Metal Alchemist, Batman Beyond, Mighty Max, Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys. I am not overly keen on anime usually, and certainly not the naked-women+mecha kinds.

19. Favorite thing to do at night with your guy?
How horrible are you going to think I am when I say "go to bed really late when my feet have gotten icy cold and then warm them up on his legs"? But with our sleeping schedules so mismatched, there hasn't been a lot of traditionally pleasurable activities. Not that I'd mention them anyway.

20. When did you first start feeling old?
Twelve.

21. Favorite lunch meat?
Ham.

22. What do you get every time you go into Wal-Mart?
merle_ said: "I do not go to Wal*Mart. It violates the tenets of my religion." I resemble that answer. The only thing that gets me more outraged is when they have commercials for $4 prescriptions and you know that means other pharmacies will go out of business but Wally has a corporate policy against contraceptives. So even if women retain legal rights, in practicality, they will not be able to exercise them.

23. Do you think marriage is an outdated ritual?
I am a little split on rituals in general. I think most social rituals do not hold meaning for me, but the kinds of societies without rituals end up being unable to define when people's situations change. For example, my mother told me that everyone can see what a pregnant woman's been doing, and since she'd also said that sex was sinful, it was pretty easy to see that you never wanted to be pregnant or you'd get stoned to death. But obviously my mother expected my brother's wife to get pregnant and didn't stone her or shout about Biblical damnation. So the ritual where my brother got married made sex okay to my mother. I think there is a societal need to define how people fit into categories. Yeah. I went to my high school reunion, and you couldn't tell who had been living together for years and who was the date-of-the-week and guessing incorrectly offended. Now, if you've been living together and share fiscal responsibilities, I think you're being stupid not to take whatever legal protections are available. But I view most marriages as contractual business.

So. Yes, they're outdated ritually, but I do think some ritual is important. If people just announce it to their friends, I think that would be sufficient ritual for me. But I think it would be useful to have a boilerplate contract defining the shared responsibilities.

What will be even more shocking is that I'm pretty anti-divorce. I recognize that people need divorces because my grandmother got one from her abusive husband. But I think a lot of people just don't have any sense of commitment.

I'd like it better if we could have a certificate of temporary cohabitation for those people.

And this doesn't have anything to do with sexual preferences or gay issues in my mind.

24. Favorite movie you wouldn't want anyone to know about?
Obviously if I tell you, then you'll know, right? I love superhero stories where the lowly person finds something heroic in themselves and saves the world, but not to collect fame. The Last Starfighter, Goonies, X-Men, the whole Batman mythos (but not any of the movies). It's my favorite theme. And I love it when it is played out with actually mundane people like in The Station Agent.

25. Radio station that is set in your car right now?
Whatever the pop station is, or whatever the 80s station is or whatever the indy rock station is. I kind of alternate between those... Of course the radio in the car is off, I turn it off before I get out of the car.

28. Sopranos or Desperate Housewives?
Neither. Ew.

29. Worst relationship mistake that you wish you could take back?
There have been a few, but I'm not sure what exactly I should have done differently in any of the cases.

30. Do you like the person that sits directly across from you at work?
er. yes.

31. Have you ever had to use a fire extinguisher for its intended purposes?
no.

32. Last book you finished reading?
Fortune's Fool by Mercedes Lackey.

33. Do you have a teddy bear?
yes. but not to sleep with.

34. Strangest place you have ever brushed your teeth?
I habitually brush them in the shower, does that count?

35. Do you go to church?
No. I am avidly non-Christian. I think going to church allows people to hypocritically believe they are better people than their behavior actually indicates. I also think that Christianity as a general religion has lost its ability to project tolerance in America. The churches wield far too much power for the societal deficit they leave behind.

36. How old are you?
Old enough that I'm not going to brag.