"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. " -Helen Keller

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Answers to Your Questions

Thanks to those of you who came up with questions to ask me. It was a lot of fun answering them...even the ones I thought would be difficult to answer.

From Mrs. Gamgee:
  • Coffee or tea or neither? While I like tea, coffee is my lifeblood. Coffee deserves it's own food group. I must have coffee!
  • Chicken or Ribs? Hmmmm, that's really hard. I have chicken dishes I adore but I'd take a dish of nice, tender, fall off the bones ribs any day, especially with a smoky barbecue sauce.
  • When it comes to Marty and Joey, are their personalities what you thought they'd be? In comparison to who they were as toddlers/preschoolers? While I can't pretend to have anticipated it all, both boys are very much like I thought they would be. Even when he was tiny, Marty always seemed older than he was. He was the type of kid people would describe as being an old soul. Despite his goofy side, Marty always had a very serious, precise, almost ordered personality and that is him today. And, Joey...Joey always had a stubborn streak a mile wide, even as a tiny baby. That stubborn streak showed up when he taught himself to ride his bike without training wheels. He fell and got back up and fell and got back up over and over until he conquered it...and he was only 6 when he did that. Joey was also always my social kid when he was little and he still is much more social than Marty today.
  • What kind of person do you envision Gabe to be when he's older? My little wild child is going to grow up into a fascinating young man. He is so smart and absorbs so much knowledge that it sometimes stuns me. I know he's going to have a hellaciously funny sense of humor. He's going to have the brains to do whatever he wants. And, I'm a bit scared of the effect he's going to have on girls. Any child who looks at you and tells you how you make his heart super happy and that you are so pretty and on and on and on has the potential to turn into a sweet talker of a major degree.
  • If you could take your boys on one big trip... money being no object... where would you take them and why? I would love to take them on a trip through Europe and Asia. I'd want to both stay in fine hotels and camp and hike. Living in the US, it's hard to really get a sense of the long history of people because we are such a young country. I would love to be able to take them to all the historical sites and the modern marvels. I'd love to take them to the places the geniuses of the past like Da Vinci and Gallileo and Newton worked. I'd love to take them to see the artistic masterpieces and the sites the artists created in. I'd also love to visit historical sites related to politics, war, and religion. And, I'd love to bribe/talk our way in to see things like the CERN Hadron Super Collider. I think a trip like that would teach them both how small a single person is and, yet, how massive the contribution of that one small person can be.
From Justine:
  • HOW do you DO it?! Everything you do. Which seems like pretty much everything. Honestly, sometimes I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water. I often don't sleep all that much (and end up having to catch up later) and my house is chaotic to say the least. I'm not trying to be modest but I really don't feel like I do anything that remarkable...but, thanks for saying that it seems like I do pretty much anything.
From St. Elsewhere:
  • Do you believe in first impressions? Mostly, but I do believe (almost) everyone deserves a second chance if they get off on the wrong foot. There can be extenuating circumstances.
  • If I put you on a strict diet of eating only one thing for three meals for a whole year, what would you choose, and what would you never choose? Hmmm, if I could only eat one thing for all three meals for a year, I'd want it to be something with a lot of variety...maybe a salad with chicken and fruit and sunflower seeds and a nice vinaigrette. It's something that could either be served traditionally cold or warmed and slightly wilted. The only thing I would totally avoid choosing is something with no variety, with only one or two ingredients. That would bore me completely.
  • Any funny boyfriend story you want to share? Does the story about getting caught in my boyfriend's bedroom in my nightgown by his mother yet still convincing her that nothing was going on count as funny?
From Lavender Luz:
  • For you, what was the first PG movie you saw? Or R?  The first R rated movie I remember seeing was Blue Lagoon with Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins. I remember watching it over and over again on HBO and thinking how wonderfully romantic it was.
If anyone else has any further questions,  the floor is still open.