How long has it been since I've done a survey? in survey time

A very very long time! I borrowed this one from Orange Sorbet-

How old will you be in five years?
58. OMG. How in the hell did THAT happen??

How tall are you ?
Well, all my life I thought I was 5’ 9 1/2. Then found out a few years ago that I’m more like 5‘8. I’m still a little shocked by that.

What are you looking forward to most in the next six weeks?
Christmas. In Charleston. Our new tradition. Not that Baker B and I don’t love his family… but we love spending Christmas walking around a gorgeous historical city, drinking beer and eating shrimp more. Okay, okay, not more. Well, maybe.. NO. No, not more. But come on. It’s beautiful, it’s peaceful, it’s WARM, there is NO SNOW, and we aren’t bored out of our minds. This year his nieces are being very cooperative and they are all showing up at his mom’s house after Christmas, That’s very exciting, since our selfish plans won’t be interfered with.

What’s the last movie you saw?
What good timing – we’ve gotten to where we hardly ever watch movies, oddly enough. We keep getting hooked on TV series, and don’t ever seem to have time for movies. But last night we watched Star Trek- the kind of recent (well, 2009, recent for us) one that I dimly recall wanting to see when it was released, then forgot all about it. JJ Abrams, Creator Of Lost, was the director, which was quite good timing too since we just got finished watching Lost. Yes, the ENTIRE SIX SEASONS, which took forEVER. We of course watched it all when it was actually airing, most of them more than once, but it’s been a long time and we’d both forgotten a lot. A whole lot. Anyhow, Star Trek was very good - I really really liked it, even more than I expected to. It was kind of a pre-quel to the original series, which I looooved as a kid. And I have just discovered that there’s a second one, and it’s already on DVD. Wow. We are so not up to date.

We were very entertained by spotting all the Lost parallels. Like a ship named Kelvin (… I think it was a ship. Something was named Kelvin) and noting all the times people got the holy hell beat out of them, mostly by other people hitting them in the face repeatedly. And the use of cliffs/other-things-way-up-in-the-air-with-massive-distances-to-the-bottom-and-people-fighting-right-on-the-edge.

Are your parents together?
My mom died five years ago, but they were together until then. She had Altzheimers, and Daddy took care of her until she had to go into hospice, three weeks before she died. The odd thing is they were not the kind of people who did everything together and had all sorts of things in common. They really didn’t seem to have anything in common. But they’d been married over fifty years, and were actually married for 13 before they had kids, so obviously it worked out for them.

What color are your eyes?
Kind of changeable, but blue/grey.

Where would you go if you could go anywhere?
I’d go back to England right this second. And stay there.

Do you tan or burn?
I used to get a wonderful easy tan… but now I just get freckles. And not the cute little teeny ones across my nose. No, I get great big weird age-spot ones. So now I wear sunscreen. Lots of sunscreen.

What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child?
I’m not sure exactly what it was, but something was going to get me. I remember being in my room, and wanting to go to the kitchen, where I could hear everyone talking and laughing, but being so terrified of the dark livingroom I’d have to pass through to get there that I’d slap the lightswitch in my room to turn it out and then run as fast as I could through the house. (And it was a VERY small house) (And I had to turn out my light because, hello, energy crisis. Better to risk the monsters getting me than my parents wrath at wasting electricity.) I also remember being afraid to let any body part go over the edge of the bed at night. I still don’t want my arms or feet to go off the edge of the bed.

I also remember having a terrifying dream about … tropical fish all over the wall that my bed was against. Yes. Tropical fish. I couldn’t sleep facing that wall for years. Because I might see… tropical fish. I really do not know what was wrong with me as a child. Let’s just say I had a vivid imagination.

How many pillows do you sleep with?
Only one. We have a pretty small bed.

How many states/provinces have you lived in?
North Carolina, Georgia, and Washington DC. Which is not a state or a province, but is a district. And as a district had bizarre issues with the cable companies so that as I recall we could not get cable there. This was back in the mid-80s so I’m sure it all got sorted out eventually.

Do you prefer shoes, socks, or bare feet?
Bare feet, although when it’s cold I have to have socks or I freeze. But I hate having to wear them. I don’t like shoes in the house at all, and kick them off the second I come in.

I remember being very excited about starting school when I was six… then finding out that I would have to wear shoes. I changed my mind about going to school after that.

What is your favorite dessert?
Anything with chocolate. I don’t see much point in dessert if it’s not chocolate.

What is your favorite kind of soup?
I love tomato soup if it’s not sweet, but it’s very hard to find not-sweet tomato soup unless you make your own. And I love mushroom soup, and potato soup, and veggie soup. I really love pretty much any kind of soup.

Do you like coffee?
Only in the sense that I like breathing air.

What do you drink in the morning?
Coffee. And then more coffee. And perhaps some coffee after that.

Do you like to cuddle?
I’m actually not a big cuddler.

Have you ever been to Canada?
No, although I was very close to it when I went to a church camp in Orr Minnesota as a teenager. We went on an overnight canoe trip that took us very close to the Canadian border. There was another several-night trip into Canada proper, but only the good canoers got to do that one. I wasn’t a particularly good canoer.

Do you know anyone with the same birthday as you?
I know a lot of people with the same birthday as me. June 3. One of my uncles, and a cousin’s kid, for starters. And all kinds of random people since then. I especially remember working at a restaurant in college where it seemed like 3/4ths of the people there were either June 3 birthday kids, or within that week. It was kind of weird. OH, and the woman who cuts my hair shares my birthday. Baker B nearly has my birthday - his is June 6.

Do you want kids?
I’d be leaving it a little late if I did, but no. I don’t want kids, and I never did want kids, so that turned out quite well.

Have you ever ridden in an ambulance?
I have, twice. Both times after a car wreck. The first time I was in college, and I’d gotten hit on the head. The entire ambulance ride, which was probably half an hour, I laid there remembering dreams that I’d had but forgotten all about. At least I thought I was remembering dreams I’d forgotten. Since I’d been hit on the head, I don’t really know if that was what really happened. Afterwards I couldn’t remember any of the dreams that I’d supposedly remembered. It was very strange, though- I just laid there listening to the siren and calmly recalling all kinds of dreams. And thinking, “OH! I forgot all about that one! And that one! AND that one…“

The second time was a couple of years ago, another car wreck (not my fault this time!). The airbag broke my arm and I also had a bloody nose so had an alarming amount of blood all over the place. No dream-remembrances during this ambulance ride, probably since I hadn’t been whacked on the head.

Do you prefer an ocean or a pool?
The ocean, definitely. I don’t really like to swim at all, but I do like hanging out in ocean water. Well, at least for a little while. I haven’t actually been swimming in ages, in either one. My favorite thing is walking on the shore.

What do you dip a chicken nugget in?
Nothing, because those things are very very nasty.

Have you ever run out of money?
Not in a long time, I’m happy to report. When I was younger I did, more than once. And I’ll say that I STILL think it’s great to have ten dollars in my purse. I’d say it’s a good thing to experience a serious lack of money when you’re young. You learn to budget and live off peanut butter and cornflakes.

What is your usual bedtime?
Way too late. I’m a serious night owl. When I have to work the next day I try to be in bed before midnight. I don’t get up until nearly 7, so that’s not as bad as it sounds. I have to be at work by 8 but I can get ready FAST. My perfect schedule would be going to bed at 2 AM and getting up at 9 or 10.

Do you read the newspaper?
I look at the New York Times and the Guardian online most days. I used to read the Charlotte Observer (closest actual big city to us) every single day, front to back (except the sports section which I generally skipped) but it got skimpier and skimpier and more and more expensive, and I finally gave up on it. When Baker B and I eat out (usually once a week) we buy an Observer, and I always find it lacking.

The NY Times and The Guardian are much better papers, but I do kind of miss the days of enjoying a real live paper. Reading online, I just read what I find interesting. When I read the Observer front to back (and when it was a good paper with actual news) I learned a lot more about what was going on in the world, vs. learning more about what I’m already interested in.

What was the last note you scribbled on a piece of paper?
I think it was Friday, when I scribbled notes about what to take with me to Asheville when we went to visit my dad. I usually scribble shopping lists on paper too. I love the idea of using my phone for everything… but in reality it’s WAY easier to scribble on a piece of paper.

When was the last time you attended church?
A long long time ago. I’m thinking it was right before my first husband and I got married. The minister in the church I grew up in did the ceremony (First Husband was Catholic and since I wasn’t going to convert to Catholicism, we couldn’t do it through the Catholic church). I grew up in a a kind of unusual church (linked in the last entry, actually), and I pretty much quit going in college. When I went back, I remember being shocked at how old everyone seemed. Old and .... plain. All the women were dressed in long skirts and mostly had long hair and no makeup. It seemed normal when I was growing up but was kind of a shock after I’d been out in the world for awhile.

What is the longest you have ever camped out in a tent?
....... wow, I’m honestly not sure. A few days, definitely, but I don’t think as long as a week at a stretch. I haven’t camped in years, but we did camp quite a bit when I was a kid. When I was 16 we drove from NC to New Mexico to visit my aunt and uncle, and camped most nights there and back (we did get motel rooms a few times). Our camping trips were usually just long weekends at most, though. I liked camping then. Now I like electricity and hot running water and the interwebs.

That’s why I have this luggage tag:

Last updated November 30, 2014