Dedicated to Terminaldegree, who has discovered the evil lure of prizes.
1. IF YOU COULD BUILD A SECOND HOUSE ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD IT BE?
La Adrada, a small town in the Guadarrama mountains outside Madrid. We’re actually hoping to do this someday.
2. WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE ARTICLES OF CLOTHING?
Flannel pajamas. To work in, not to sleep in. A good day is when I can spend all day in my plaid flannel PJs.
3. THE LAST CDs YOU BOUGHT?
Do people still buy CDs? I haven’t joined the iPod mobs, but I do subscribe to MusicMatch, and that’s on pretty much all day. But to answer the question, I think the last CD was Manu Chao, “Clandestino.” He’s what I listen to in the car, most of the time.
4. WHAT TIME DO YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING?
6 am, or what my nieces used to call “the butt-crack of dawn.” Husband had to start teaching 8 am classes a few semesters ago, so I started scheduling mine then too, figuring if I was going to be on campus, I’d might as well get something useful done. Then we realized that traffic is lighter, we get great parking, and early classes weed out lazy students. We’ve almost gotten to like it. Left to my own devices, I’ll stay up till 2 am and sleep till 9.
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE KITCHEN APPLIANCE?
I don’t really have an emotional attachment to my kitchen appliances – that’s more Husband’s territory. He’s having a genuine love affair with our new extra-snazzy toaster oven, though.
6. IF YOU COULD PLAY AN INSTRUMENT, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Maybe banjo? I have a secret yearning to be Béla Fleck.
7. FAVORITE COLOR?
Totally depends on context, but I’m leaning towards pumpkin and pomegranate and paprika shades, lately. Maybe I just like colors that begin with ‘p’.
8. WHICH VEHICLE DO YOU PREFER, SPORTS CAR, MOTORCYCLE, OR SUV?
Bicycle! Combustion engines are evil.
9. DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE AFTERLIFE?
Kinda. I believe that the human brain is probably incapable of any real comprehension of most of the things in the universe, so I have my guesses, but nothing firm enough to call belief. I’m looking forward to finding out, though.
10. FAVORITE CHILDREN'S BOOK?
I really don’t remember much of my childhood, and I was reading grown-up books at a fairly early age. (Family lore has it that I was reading Shakespeare by the age of 5, which is true in that I spent an afternoon paging through Macbeth, but I didn’t really get any of it – I just liked the bits about the witches.) Anyway, the only children’s book I have any memory of at all was about a dog (named Henry?) for whom someone had knitted a sweater. The children’s books I like best now are the ones that Scott Simon and Daniel Pinkwater read on NPR. :)
11. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEASON?
All of them. I revel in spending time outside, though I don’t do nearly enough of that these days.
12. IF YOU HAVE A TATTOO, WHAT IS IT?
Joseph Campbell once spoke about “leaving space for the gods to find you,” and I always imagined that a physical symbol of that space for me would be a sort of upside-down omega, like a little cauldron. I haven’t gotten a tattoo, but that’s what I’d get if I did.
13. IF YOU COULD HAVE ONE SUPERPOWER, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
To eradicate idiocy and selfishness. Zap!
14. CAN YOU JUGGLE?
Not a chance. My brother can, though, and he used to work as a mime, too. I think he got all the circus genes.
15. ONE PERSON/PEOPLE FROM YOUR PAST YOU WISH YOU COULD GO BACK AND TALK TO?
A guy I had an extraordinary e-mail relationship with once, that ended under odd circumstances - we both sent e-mails to each other the same day, and both messages disappeared, so we each thought the other had stopped writing, and by the time we figured out what had happened, the magic was lost and we drifted out of touch. Sam, if you’re out there and this sounds familiar, drop me a line sometime.
16. WHAT IS UNDER YOUR BED?
You want to know, you go look. No way am I going under there.
17. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DAY?
Thursdays are good. I love looking forward to weekends, though when they come I usually spend them dreading Monday.
18. WHICH DO YOU PREFER, SUSHI OR HAMBURGER?
Mmmmm, both. Sushi from IchiBan in Omaha, burgers from Matt’s in Minneapolis!
19. FROM THE PEOPLE WHO NORMALLY READ YOUR BLOG, WHO IS THE MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?
I’ll carry on terminaldegree’s tradition of awarding a prize to the first. Ready, set, go!
20. ON WHICH BLOG DID YOU FIND THIS MEME?
Terminaldegree!
21. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FLOWER?
Why narrow it down? All of them, especially those that are hardy and natural – not the fragile hothouse kind. I don’t much like things that need to be coddled.
23. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MEAL?
Real Spanish tapas – little plates of manchego cheese, olives, patatas bravas, octopus, morcilla, chorizo, boquerones en vinagre.
24. DESCRIBE YOUR PJS.
I’m a fan of sleeping in a big old T-shirt worn soft with age. Current T is grey with a big piranha fish cartoon from New Orleans.
25. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BREAKFAST?
I don’t do breakfast most days. But on Sundays, I lounge in bed a little later than usual (sometimes as late as 9 am! oh, the decadence!), and Husband brings me coffee and toast while I read in bed. It’s the best.
26. DO YOU LIKE YOUR JOB?
Absolutely.
27. WHAT IS YOUR DREAM JOB?
Teaching “How to be a decent and constructive citizen and human being 101” to eager, curious students at a small, well-funded liberal arts college, in a city that feels like Seattle but is much farther east and doesn’t rain quite so much.
28. WHAT AGE DO YOU PLAN TO RETIRE?
When I no longer love what I do.
29. WHERE DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE OR SIGNIFICANT OTHER?
At a friend’s house, watching a soccer game in Madrid. I had absolutely no intention of dating anyone while I lived in Madrid, but it was very much love at first sight.
30. SOMETHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO DO THAT YOU HAVE NEVER DONE BEFORE.
Lotsa things. Walk the Appalachian Trail, learn Arabic, learn to dance, go to China, change the world.
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