Questions & Answers

Do these things ever get old? I mean, really.

Let's begin.


What's a job/chore you love to do?

Interesting.  I can think of a few of my friends.  Some people I know love to make their beds. I do not. Some people love cleaning their bathroom, because they're insane.   Here's one for me, and really, it is no chore at all.  Happy is the day that it is time to buy new stamps.  I go online and it is literally like a kid in a candy store.  I rub my palms together, perhaps drool a little, and if i cracked my knuckles, I would. And I begin. I peruse the forever stamps, then stroll through all of the more obscure stamps and finally after scrolling through page upon page, I make a careful selection.  These days I can't seem to not get the Gregory Pecks. What's more, Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. Who knows how long they'll be available?   I have to get them while I can.  Because as long as I'm alive, Gregory Peck will have a place in our home. I have some cool green USS Constitutions (the ship),   I also have some 20-cent George Washingtons, 5-cent teapots and 3-cent teapots (actually, one's American Toleware, the other is a silver coffeepot), and some 33-cent postcard fruits.

I can absolutely see the allure and run the risk of becoming a stamp collector myself, except not really because I use all of my stamps. With puh-leasure.  It is the final touch of the joy of writing a letter, and I relish that brief moment.  I re-ordered some the other day, almost completely out, and Sean said, "really? again?"  and I replied, "You knew what i was when you married me."   Except he didn't know that, but too late now!


Do you own guns?

 Seems an appropriate follow-up question.   Yes, actually. I do own a gun. It is a small handgun and when I make a target out of paper, I can totally get that nerf dart to hit the bullseye.  Sean got me these for Christmas because I think nerf guns are fun. But they are seriously powerful and a little scary, and I also kind of hate guns, so yeah, there's some cognitive dissonance there.  I rather dislike even using the word so in our house it's blasters, shooters, and if we're feeling extra cool/dangerous, phasers.


Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? 

Angry and disdainful would be more appropriate. Suspicious, vengeful. It's not the best approach, viewing the doctor as my enemy before the exam has even begun.  I'm working on it.  I hadn't personally visited the doctor since Julian's birth and the aftermath of that until a couple of weeks ago when Julian and I both needed to see the ENT for differing reasons. So it was a mommy and me doctor visit--yaaaay.  We both did ok.

As a side note: Know what i hate about seeing the doctor? One thing, anyway. That i have no clue and they know everything (so it would seem).  I am completely 100% out of my comfort zone and never went to doctor school which makes me doubt any thought I might have, and it also turns me into an enormous idiot. Like, he was sticking some gadget in my mouth to look at my throat, I suppose, but do i know that for sure? Do i? No, because he doesn't explain, he just does it. He asks me to open my mouth but then smile, or say "eee" or whatever. So, thinking I might need to hold this gadget in place, I bite on it, and then when he's trying to pull it out, it's a little bit stuck and under his breath he makes a small remark, "... don't need to bite it.." which, in hindsight, seems obvious and what the hey am i doing biting the scope/gadget thing?? why would I do that? BUT I DON'T KNOW! YOU'RE THE DOCTOR! I HATE YOU.    *counting to ten*


What do you think of hot dogs? 

I love hot dogs! I love everything about hotdogs! Except for the meat, of course.   Just kidding, I didn't say that, but Gwyneth Paltrow did, because she's super. Can't top that quote about hotdogs so I'll just use hers.

Favorite song?

I don't know, but while standing in line at a Party City the other day, Human by The Killers came on and I got re-excited about that one.  Last night I watched the video a couple of times and vocally analyzed why I liked the song so much. I was sorting it out as I went along and finally decided it was a combination of the following:

• Brandon's nice clear voice, one of the few voices I truly like in popular music these days
• The 80's digital/techno feel
•  The smooth and digital orchestral feel of the background music that only serves to highlight and enhance Brandon's nice clear voice. It doesn't interfere. It offsets it, but not in an incompatible way. 
• The whole thing almost feels like--and I couldn't figure out a better word-- a serenade.  The song itself isn't serenade-y--what the hey is he singing about?-- but that is irrelevant. 
  
  It's a nice song with a catchy and little bit clever melody and a nice voice, which at the end of the day, is all I ask for in life.  That and an 80's feel.

What kind of perfume do you wear?

Please, don't be crazy, I don't wear perfume. Who am I trying to impress?  My goal is not to smell good, but to simply not smell bad.

Do you like blue cheese?

Does the sun rise and set every day? Do babies cry? Do New Yorkers like pizza??  I didn't like it when I was small but this was before I began my journey on the path of the refined pallet. Blue cheese, or bleu cheese, is wonderful, and will always have a place in the Cheese Hall of Fame.

As a parent, what is something you do better than your own parents?

First of all, nothing.  Second of all, ok there is one thing.  I always saw a flaw in this particular method growing up and finally when I had offspring of my own, I could streamline it and see if it worked better and right now, it works like a friggin' charm.   It's the old "counting until they do what you want" tactic.  When Mom counts, you run, scrambling to do what she said.   At least, that's the theory.  Except my mom, along with many others, counted up.  But when i was young over time this lost its power because we never knew what the end was.  If it's 3 then, shoot, yeah you'd better hustle.  But was it? Consistently? I'm not sure. And if it's 10, that's way too long to care. You can be out the door and up in the tree and therefore unreachable by the time she gets to 10.  But I don't remember what our limit was.

So these days one thing I do that is amaaaazing is I count down for julian. 5-4-3-2-1.  First, it's reminiscent of a shuttle launch or something cool (hopefully there are no negative associations being formed) and second, you know that when I get to 0, it is GO TIME, or BLAST OFF.   There's nowhere else to go. And i feel 0 has a more powerful, threatening feel than 5 does. I'm sure i'm not the only one who has thought of this, but it wasn't how i was raised. In your face, Mom!

Other than that, I've got nothing on my mom, and never, ever will.