it is part of my creed that the only poetry is history, could we tell it right

April 6: pescatarian

Among the more odd home-state stereotypes I've encountered recently, someone recently told me that "everyone" from my home state eats fish, and that even vegetarians are really pescatarian because fishing is ubiquitous up there. Oh, really?

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1. What is your dream career, and what path do you plan to take to get there?
   oh, I certainly cannot imagine anything more dream-like than what I'm doing right now. No, sir.
2. Who do you aspire most to be like?
   
   just me, only with some of the sharper edges honed down a bit.
3. What do you like in a best friend?
   
   intelligence, intuition, steadiness, humor, affection (for me, for themselves, for what they do, for what they have), bravery
4. Do you currently have any squishes (people you really want to be best friends with)?
   
   nope, I'm good.
5. What is your ideal platonic relationship?
   
   I've got several good male friends with whom I'm not—nor have I ever been—romantically intimate, if that's the point of this odd question. And I also have a number of close female friends (with whom the same caveat stands). The platonic-ness of the relationship is really not the essence of it, though, and so to determine its 'ideal' would be difficult, if not pointless.
6. Best late night IM conversation story.
   
   So there was this guy.... I was in love with him, and he lived a couple of time zones away. He would call sometimes, or text, after I'd been asleep for hours, while he was driving home from playing poker in the next state over. He would call just to talk, to hear my sleepy voice and so I could keep him awake while drove (all right, after a couple of drinks). We would chat, and eventually he would start telling me the story of the night's poker hands, how the games had gone. What he'd held, what the other players had held, how everything had played out. 
   I didn't have the first clue what he was talking about when he did that, and it would turn into a sort of mumbling mantra of cards and plays and bets, but I wouldn't trade those nights for all the money and power and everything else in the world. Or, as Edna St. Vincent Millay put it: 
               Love is not all; it is not meat nor drink
               Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain,
               Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
               And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
               Love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath,
               Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
               Yet many a man is making friends with death
               Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
               It may well be that in a difficult hour,
               Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
               Or nagged by want past resolution's power,
               I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
               Or trade the memory of this night for food.
               It may well be.  I do not think I would.
7. List one person you’d like to wear the sweater of, one person you’d like to bake cookies with, and one person you’d like to drive around and get lost with. (can be celebrities or fictional characters, has to be three different people and not all the same person)
   
   so many rules, little quiz-maker! But, fine. I will play by them. For now.
   • I would like to wear the sweater of the Mumbler, because he smells better, on average, than any other human I've smelled in my adult life.
   • I would like to bake cookies with Anthony Bourdain. Why? Because he's married, and so many of the other things that I'd like to do with him are inappropriate, and baking cookies tends to lead to the sharing of confidences.
   • And I'd like to drive around and get lost with Everett Chance from The Brothers K. I feel like I've known him for half my life anyway.
8. Describe your current best friend(s).
   
   see "intelligence, intuition..." above.
9. What is a strange, little-known fact about you?
   
   although I am reasonably fond--in an avuncular way--of my dentist, I have moderate crushes on both my regular doctor and my eye doctor....
10. What is a career you wanted to have when you were younger, and still kind of want to have now?
    
    I sort of wanted to be a writer, once....
11. If you could have tea and pleasant conversation with one person, who would it be?
    
    Fluffy. She's the tea-est and pleasant-est person I know.
12. If you had a time machine, what era would you go to?
    
    no, thank you. Continuity is difficult enough.
13. What celebrity or historical figure would you love to have as your best friend and why?
    
    meh. I'm fond of the work of various actors, musicians, writers, and athletes. I admire politicians, artists, and intellectuals. But wild birds cannot live in cages, and Jean Reno isn't supposed to be "best friends" with a woman from my home state, transplanted in the Flat. It's just not right.
14. What fictional character would you love to have as your best friend and why?
    
    wait, haven't we...? Whatever. Anyway, just to be different, I'll go with Jon Snow, from the Song of Ice and Fire series. Why? intelligence, intuition, steadiness, humor, affection, bravery--and he's hot, to boot.
15. If you could have one wish, what would it be? (cannot be related to romance or sex)
    
    more money. I'm perpetually hovering at the edge of fear.
16. If you were trapped on a deserted island and could only take one item, what would it be?
    
    the Internet.
17. If you could pick one career other than the one you are pursuing/plan to pursue, what would it be?
    
    what would it matter? Do what you love, or waste your life.
18. What is your best memory you have with a friend?
    
    there was an extensive email exchange with a good friend who's a gifted writer, where we sort of shared the writing of a few scenes from what would be a lovely (and sexy) story. He's a truly brilliant person and so any communication with him is a joy anyway, but those messages were something special.
19. Do you have any peculiar interests that most people don’t know about?
    
    probably not: I tend to blather about things that interest me, just like everyone else does. Lately I've been into psychology more and more. I wonder what that means?
20. What were your favorite childhood toys? Do you still have them?
    
    most of the building toys are still at my parents' place, for the grandkids (and any other varmints who may show up needing distraction). I have a few of my stuffed critters with me, though, including Randy (the green mouse).
21. Favorite baked good?
    
    depends on the day. I would probably choose cake more than anything, though. Cupcakes are SO DONE, though.
22. If your best friend were here right now, what would you do with them? (cannot list best friend as your romantic/sexual partner)
    
    I'm fairly certain that my best friends are all asleep, or getting there. It's late! They're tired! And it's been a long week!
23. Who would you love to play video games with?
    
    I'm not a player.
24. If you could visit any country, which one would it be?
    
    I'd like to go to Italy with The Cat, to spend some time with Molly. Not to mention getting to see a fascinating country.
25. Are there any friends you miss having around?
    
    sure. Loads of my friends live nowhere near here. Funny, though, what they say about how the roads (and phones, and letters) go both ways.

[from The Cat, who got it here; the title quotation is by Thomas Carlyle]