You’ve got questions, I’ve got answers. For lack of anything interesting going on in my life, I requested some help. A writing prompt, if you will. Thanks for giving me an easy post, this is fun!
Allison asked:
If you could be on any reality TV show, which would you choose and why? This is actually kind of a hard one for me, because I don’t really watch reality TV. I think the last reality show I watched with any regularity was, um, Flavor of Love. I know. *hangs head in shame* And I would rather chew off my own arm than get anywhere near THAT train wreck. Anyway, do shows on HGTV count? Because I would really like to have a room in my house redone.
What would be your dream vacation? There are so many places I want to visit, I’m not sure! But I would love to take a Mediterranean cruise. And one of these days, I intend to spend a few weeks touring Russia. Those are probably the two at the top of my VERY long travel wish list.
What is your favorite dessert? New York style cheesecake. Topping-free.
And Carol wanted to know:
Since Valentine’s Day is coming up: what is the most memorable Valentine’s you and N have had? Any plans for this year? Ah, Valentine’s Day. We are lame and don’t ever really do too much, especially since the kids came along. We did the whole romantic candlelight dinner thing while we were dating, then our first year of marriage he surprised me with flowers, a teddy bear and some DVDs of “princess” movies (The Princess Bride, The Princess Diaries). I’m sure we went out to dinner, too, although I don’t remember where. I think we’ve gone out to dinner exactly once on V-Day since. It was 2006, I know that for sure because I dug through our Flickr archives to find a photo of the pretty tulips he surprised me with. I love tulips:
What kind of work do you do? I work in the proposal department at a nonprofit corporation that handles research administration functions for my alma mater. Kind of hard to explain, but basically I’m responsible for helping faculty researchers prepare and submit their grant proposals. I don’t help with the actual grant writing portion (although I think I would enjoy that too), but everything else. The budget preparation, the application forms, making sure their text is formatted according to guidelines, that sort of thing. I know it sounds boring, but I actually do enjoy it. When it isn’t crushing my soul with the deadline pressure and stress, that is.
Related, what did you want to be growing up? Oh, I went through all the standard phases. Astronaut, doctor, vet, teacher. Unfortunately, I never actually landed on something that motivated me to stick with it so that’s why I have a very pointless degree in Sociology. I was convinced by an advisor that it is a good major for someone without a specific idea of what they want to do, but I realized a couple years in that I did not like it, and also you can’t really do anything with just a BA in Sociology. But I hated it way too much to even contemplate graduate school so here I am. Way to go, self.
And from Jen:
What are your top 5 favorite tv shows of all time? My absolute favorite is MacGyver, no question – consequently I own all of the seasons on DVD. I also love Charmed and Wings, although both of those kind of lost me in the later seasons. Charmed totally jumped the shark beginning in season 6 so I’m putting it on here with that one caveat. The two newest additions to the list are Arrested Development (I’m telling you, if you haven’t seen this – which I hadn’t until very recently – you are MISSING OUT. It is awesomely hilarious.) and NCIS. Generally speaking, I’ll watch pretty much anything with an element of action (like my movie genre of choice), but these are my all-time faves.
Kristine asked:
Your tattoo. How did you decide on it and its placement? Any plans for more? The placement didn’t require much thought on my part, it is just where I always wanted one. Who knows how my mind works. Anyway, as for the tattoo itself, there were a couple of reasons. N and I took a fabulous trip to Paris a few years back, and I just can’t stop thinking about how awesome it is and how much I loved it. So, kind of commemorative, but mostly I just like the way a fleur-de-lis looks. Plus it is traditionally used as a mark of royalty, so there you go! Currently I do not plan on getting another, although many people who have tattoos claim that they are addictive and you can’t stop at just one.
Baby timing. What prompted your decision to have your kids the space apart that they are? Ah, that implies that there was actual adult planning and decision-making at work. I guess there kind of was in that Miss T was planned, but AE made his surprise appearance just a little over a year into our marriage. Which actually was great, in that I probably would not have ever actually felt “ready” to have kids if left to my own devices. But as it happens, kids are really freaking expensive, so we honestly couldn’t afford to have another one until we did. Either way, I think the spacing is just perfect. AE is mostly self-sufficient and doesn’t require continuous monitoring (unlike Little Miss Acrobat Child). We only briefly had to pay for two in daycare, never had two in diapers, and if there is a thunderstorm I only have to worry that one kid’s sleep may be disrupted by it. I don’t think that they’ll ever really fight over toys or be jealous of each other (but that will probably be mostly due to gender differences, not age). So in short, I fully advocate spacing your kids out by at least 5 years. 🙂
Life is still pretty boring around these parts (but I am NOT COMPLAINING about the lack of illness in particular), so if you have any more questions, fire away!
