1. What were you afraid of as a child?
a better question is what wasn’t i afraid of? the list is long and includes the dark, dead things, vomit, spiders, helicopters, and stairwells. several of these still torment me in stupid ways.
2. When have you been most courageous?
august 15, 2005. the day i packed up and moved myself to canada to live alone in hotels, working with people i had never met, doing i job i had never done.
and i only cried saying goodbye to ivan. he was especially snuggly that morning.
3. What sound most disturbs you?
the sound of someone retching.
4. What is the greatest amount of physical pain you’ve been in?
for any boys reading, feel free to skip ahead to the next question because i’m about to get into the ugly details of girliness.
i have one night per month of such excrutiating pain that i often hallucinate. the worst part is that it’s so predictable that i know about when to start looking for the symptoms and i can tell around noon that it’s going to be that night.
maybe this is why i don’t want to have kids. more pain than this is unfathomable to me.
5. What’s your biggest fear for your children?
…having me as a parent, i suppose. i imagine i’d be especially distant until somewhere in their teens. i just have no idea how to approach and interact with children, and i have no real interest in learning.
6. What is the hardest physical challenge you’ve achieved?
the month of backpacking in europe was exceptionally taxing, although i have to admit, i helped make it that way. there were times when dayton begged me to take a cab to our hotel but i intended to prove to myself that i was in fact backpacking. it wasn’t easy, but it was entirely worth it.
7. Which do you prefer: Mountains or oceans/big water?
i like mountains, and i enjoy the occasional tram-ride up jay peak, but let’s be honest. i’m a rhode islander. it was named the ocean state for a reason. for the 6 months that i was in canada, i stayed very close to lake ontario, and there is absolutely no comparison between “big water” and the ocean. new england coastal inhabitants are simply a different breed of humans. that’s the best way to express it.
8. What is the one thing you do for yourself that helps you keep everything together?
day trips to my parents’ house. i think it’s the only place i can really breathe deeply.
9. Ever had a close relative or friend with cancer?
both of my grandfathers died of lung cancer.
10. What are the things you count on your friends for?
to need me as much as i need them. to be patient with my neuroses. to occasionally shake me back to reality.
11. What is the best part of being in a committed relationship?
i can’t remember what it was like the last time i was in a committed relationship. i can only imagine that the ample opportunity for sex would be a good part of it.
12. What is the hardest part of being in a committed relationship?
the commitment part, i’d imagine.
13. Winter or Summer ? Why?
either. both. it doesn’t matter to me. i just like the variety of it, and looking forward to some new seasonal highlight, like new leaves and sunlight on my back, the first snowfall, cascading leaves, loud late-summer nighttime bug noises, the silence of a winternight, and how fresh snow at midnight can diffuse light so effectively that it almost feels like daylight.
14. Have you ever been in a school-yard fight? Why and what happened?
not exactly. i just got picked on and clotheslined in the hallways by my brother.
15. Why blog?
why not? i have thoughts and ideas, and i foolishly believe sometimes that others would like to share them with me.
16. Did you learn about sex, and/or sex safety from your parents?
i think i remember a book. there were gruesome depictions of a woman giving birth, which was a bit of a deterrent, if you ask me.
17. How do you plan to talk to your kids about sex and/or sex safety?
if i planned on having kids, this would be a much more pressing question.
18. What are you most thankful for this year?
new friends, new possibilities, new opportunities.
