essaying

Ganked fromdejablack:

1. What is your occupation?
Writer, publisher, student

2. What color are your socks right now?
No socks -- moccasins. Most of my socks are black. I have more unmatched black socks than any other human being, ever.

3. What are you listening to right now?
Nine: The Musical, the Antonio Banderas version. Quite wonderful.

4. What was the last thing you ate?
Lebeneh (yogurt drained until thick and cream-cheese-like) with olive oil and pita bread. Mmmmmmm.

5. Can you drive a stick shift?
Yes. I prefer to, in fact. But my spouse E has some trouble with muscle strength and coordination and needs an automatic, so I traded my Elephant (my beloved Honda Element) for a Subaru Forester, which I like fine but do not love.

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
My mother.

7. How old are you today?
Fifty-two.

8. Favorite drink?
Mostly pear cider, these days. Mount Gay on the rocks with lime when I'm feeling adventurous. My homemade ginger beer.

9. What is your favorite sport to watch?
I can't remember the last time I voluntarily watched a sport. I guess maybe watching friends playing softball on a warm evening.

10. Have you ever dyed your hair?
Oh hell yes. Essentially every shade of red, most shades of blonde, and, most recently, platinum. But these days it's au naturel.

11. Pets?
Kay the Labradoodle and Minnie the polydactyl tabbycat.

12. Favorite foods?
I love most food. Favorites would be lobster, caviar, raw oysters, lemon-y desserts, pecan pie.

13. What was the last movie you watched?
Across the Universe.

14. What's your favorite day of the week?
My life isn't tied very strongly to days of the week. These days I have to get up early on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so those are my least favorites, but that's only for a couple more months.

15. How do you vent anger?
Cry. Write.

16. What was your favorite toy as a child?
Spareribs, my battered old stuffed bloodhound dog.

17. What is your favorite season?
Summer. I am a solar-powered device.

18. Hugs or kisses?
Hugs. Not a huge kisser. Don't like having things up against my face.

19. Cherries or Blueberries?
Do I have to choose? I adore blueberries and spend the month of the summer when they're cheap eating them for every meal. But Rainier cherries are the closest thing to candy that grows on a tree.

20. Are you with anyone right now?
"With" as in "dating/hooked up with/coupled with"? or "with" as in "in the presence of"? These euphemisms, they hurt my brain...

At any rate, whichever meaning, yes: my spouse E.

21. When was the last time you cried?
A lot these days -- it's one of the ways I manifest exhaustion. Probably while writing the part about Amy in my column last week.

22. What is on the floor of your closet?
Sex toys, E's various braces and medical supplies. That's sort of creepy, now that I think abou it.

23. What did you do last night?
Watched stupid movies on TV, took Norco, iced my hip, complained.

24. Favorite smells?
Rain on a hot sidewalk. Lilies of the valley. Bread baking. Dry leaves. Baby-head. Powdered tempera paint.

25. What inspires you?
Great writing: E.B. White, MFK Fisher, the John McPhee food piece in the New Yorker a few weeks ago, Larry McMurtry at his best.

26. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers?
Pepper jack. Very rare. Mushrooms.

27. Favorite dog breed?
BIG. Great Danes, Mastiffs, Great Pyrenees et al.

28. How many states have you lived in?
Two: Pennsylvania and California.

29. Favorite holiday?
Not a huge fan of holidays. I like it better when the things that are supposed to happen on holidays -- gift-giving, gratitude, expressions of love, et al -- happen all on their own.