Monday, May 22, 2006

I play the game for the game's own sake. - Sherlock Holmes, in The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans

Swiped from Joke, who swiped it from Badger (who pilfered it from Karla):

1. What's in the glove box of your car? The folder with all the car stuff in it; a toothbrush; a box of tampons; a hair clip; a pen or two; a five-dollar bill; a few maps (Pittsburgh, PA, NJ); an extra clippy thingey for the car seat/seatbelt
2. Favorite classes in college (or high school):
High school: geometry, algebra, biology, calculus
College: Modern Novel, Shakespeare, History of Theatre
3. Shampoo brand: some sort of Herbal Essence – whatever’s citrus-y
4. Favorite piece of furniture you own: a tie between a red-oak Mission-style china cabinet and my cream-painted drop-leaf secretary/desk that my grandfather built. Although I do adore my bed. It's so cozy.
5. Idea of a really good first date: drinks, then a casual-ish dinner, then home or if it’s going really well, a coffee or a schlep around a bookstore. I hate seeing movies on dates.
6. Favorite fruit: oranges, lemons
7. Pick a passage from a favorite book:
Spring has come; windows are open. Green fire burns fiercely along the branches of every tree and shrub. A month ago the wild geese started flying north; over the lake, against a morning sky, the black-dotted wedge of their flying made lovely patterns. Birds have all picked out their house sites among hedgerows and tree-tops. They are hard at work discovering their own building material. Our neighbor’s bees are singing their spring foraging song. The little brown bee does hum – ho-hum.
Through the open window comes the sound of roller skates. Along the macadam road, where by law or caution they should not be, children dart back and forth like low-skimming swallows. Clump – chug – chirr – clump! Arms saw the air. The plaids and checks, the skirts and sweaters, make patterns. A red-head unties a skipping rope from around her waist and thrusts the wodden handles into two hands outstretched to receive them. In a moment she is going to show what can be done on roller skates with a skipping rope.
A solitary figure escapes the huddle. She chugs over to the curb and mounts it to the sidewalk. She stand sthere and shows what a strange little figure she is, different from the rest….
I knew her in an instant; although I had forgotten all about her for years, had forgotten she had ever existed. It gives me a shock to see her, looking so exactly as she should look, so everlastingly full of life andf still on roller skates. I put my head out of the window and call:
“Lucinda!”


from Roller Skates, by Ruth Sawyer
8. What would you eat for dinner if it were your last night on earth? A Bacardi cocktail; Champagne, fresh field salad with balsamic vinaigrette and olives, roasted duck, something blue-cheese-y (maybe in potatoes), and the coconut-chocolate (Mounds-bar-sy) pie from Gulliftey’s – maybe two pieces. With coffee and a cigarette. And then some Armagnac and a cigarette.
9. Free Will or Destiny: free will
10. What would you sing at karaoke? “Sweet Baby James” – James Taylor. Or “When I’m Sixty-Four”
11. Sweater or Sweatshirt? Sweater. Preferably cashmere, and roomy.
12. Paris, NYC, Tokyo, or Rio de Janeiro? Paris.
13. What do you wear to bed usually? Dilapidated t-shirts from long-ago fraternity parties and men’s pj bottoms from Old Navy
14. If you dyed your hair, what colour would you dye it? Auburn, and I usually do.
15. If you went back to school, what would you study? English literature, specifically during the Renaissance – the symbiosis of religion and the creation of literature
16. Gum or mints? Original Trident gum
17. Recurring nightmares? Trying to escape a house in which I am trapped with a psychopath – generally, it’s in my childhood home, and I have to get across the street to my neighbor’s house to call the police
18. Age & location of first kiss? 14, the haunted house ride at Clementon Amusement Park, Clementon, NJ
19. Describe your favourite pair of shoes: I hate shoes.
20. What movie/tv character do you feel like you relate to most? Lindsay on “Freaks and Geeks”; Natalie on “Sports Night”
21. First CD purchase: I can’t remember. Probably the Eric Clapton Layla boxed set as a Christmas present for my then-boyfriend
22. First concert: Amy Grant, before she went secular (it was the album with the traffic light on the front; “El Shaddai” was her big hit)
23. Do you like camping? Not really. Because as with all vacations, I wind up cooking and cleaning. And oh what fun that is at a campsite. Plus I hate all the spiders in the bathrooms, and it ALWAYS rains when we camp. And I am always convinced I am going to be mauled to death by an animal. See below, although THEY generally are not a danger at campsites.
24. If you were doomed to be mauled to death by an animal, what animal would you prefer that to be? A shark.
25. Do you/would you own a gun? No, no, no, NO.
26. What religion would you like to know more about: Judaism
27. Favourite food as a kid: Hershey bars, or those ice cream bars with the ice cream inside and the crunchy stuff, either chocolate or strawberry on the outside. You could buy them in the school cafeteria for 25 cents.
28. How many languages do you speak? Sadly, only one. I can get by in Italian, as long as all I need is change or the bathroom; I can stumble through reading in Spanish and Italian – meaning, I can get the general gist of an abstract or newspaper article (Three hundred dead in hurricane! President overthrown in military coup!), but certainly absolutely none of the details or nuances.
29. If you were a natural disaster, would you be a tornado, hurricane, or earthquake? Hurricane. I like the water. And I’m full of (hot) air.
30. If you could make one state in the US just go away, which state would that be? Texas. Sorry, Badger. I’d make sure you had time to evacuate.
31. How many prescriptions do you take? One daily, one as needed.
32. Lake or Ocean? Ocean (I am a Jersey Girl.)
33. What is the worst lie you've ever told to get out of work, (and don't say you've never lied to get out of work, because that my friend is a lie and you know it)? I said one of my kids was sick.
34. Do you carry a backpack, a satchel or "man bag", tote bag, brief case, or a backpack on wheels? A soft briefcase-y thing from Eddie Bauer, in dark green.
35. Have you ever been arrested/cited for anything other than traffic violations? Um, yes.
36. Would you ever consider spending some time at a nudist colony? As long as my husband weren’t there to comment on my stomach, yes.
39. Best thing you can cook? I bake like a champ. You name it, I can bake it. H would say my biscotti. I like my lemon-curd cake, or my Mexican pineapple cake.
And what happened to 37 and 38? Forty.
40. If you were going to donate 1000 dollars to a charity, what would that be? I’d split it between the public library and the Center for Organ Recovery and Education.

9 comments:

Badger said...

Them's fightin' words, missy!

(Evacuate HELL. I'd go down with the ship. And take a few others with me.)

blackbird said...

I find some of these questions unnerving -
I'm a sensitive blogger and cannot write about last meals and being mauled to death.

Paula said...

Arrested? Was it scary? I always worry I'll get arrested at a protest. I'd hate to have to call my kids for bail..

Caro said...

I enjoyed your list very much, especially the camping/stomach comments.

Joke said...

Badge,

That's when the guns come in handy.

-J.

Anonymous said...

Ummm. Regarding #35. Me too. If you tell me yours, I'll tell you mine.

Sarah Louise said...

#12: So far no one has picked Rio. I pick Rio! (I like NYC just fine, but if someone else is paying, Rio!) White sand beaches as far as you can see, the climate is delish...

Undomestic said...

What part of Jersey?

lazy cow said...

I loved that Amy Grant albumn. I think it was "Straight Ahead".