just five more...

Fives, from The Survey Place, via Sweet Memes:

5 facts about me on love:

1. I'm in it.
2. I often wish I didn't care about it so much.
3. It brings out the excessive in me.
4. I've been there before, but not nearly as much as I'd thought before this current situation began.
5. I don't know what it means.

5 facts about me on sex:

1. I would rather poke myself in the eye with a fork than talk about it with certain people.
2. My abilities in this area have been, er, 'reviewed' in rather extreme manners by surprisingly candid individuals.
3. Is it presumptuous or worse to say that I love it?
4. Hearing other people...through thin walls...is mortifying.
5. What I am not willing to write here is making me laugh aloud.

5 facts about me on school:

1. I miss it. The whole shootin' match. Homework, tests, lectures. Miss it.
2. I was good at it.
3. My best subjects in K-12 were science and math.
4. My post-HS degrees are in History and Law.
5. I saw my favorite teacher of all time at Thanksgiving and he joked about affairs with students.

5 subjects I enjoyed taking in the course of my life:

1. In junior high, I loved Science. Specifically, nomenclature in Chemistry.
2. In high school, I had a Government class that was taught by the most irreverent, goofy guy; I adored him and learned so much.
3. In undergrad, my favorite class was Historical Attitudes Toward Death. A close second was Moral Theory. (Philosophy was one of my Minors.)
4. In grad school, anything that involved WWII, Hitler, or Neutrality was right up my alley. That being said, I loved History of the Reformation.
5. In law school, my favorite is a tie between First Amendment Law (taught by a lecherous pothead) and Intellectual Property. 1st Am was just "fun", and Intel Prop was harder than Hell.

5 facts about me on my driving:

1. I drive too fast. Always.
2. My dad thinks I drive too close to the curb.
3. I drive a manual, but I probably shouldn't because I have a tendency to do more than two things at once and sometimes I get a little distracted. It's not dangerous, exactly--it's just kind of...rough.
4. When there's something on my mind, I go for a drive to clear my head. Once or twice I've driven more than 100 miles in an evening, just within the borders of the county in which I live.
5. Driving to the Large City to the East by myself for the first time, and then around it (and getting lost) with a friend from out of town, was a life-changing event for me. There is immeasurable benefit in learning that the [metaphorical] river can be crossed.

5 facts about me on my view on politics:

1. My other undergrad Minor was Political Science.
2. One of my classmates in a grad-level class (American Presidency, I think?) once called me a Nazi. That's just so wrong.
3. I have voted in every election in which I was eligible since I turned 18.
4. To my knowledge, no one in my extended family has ever run for political office.
5. Fervent political views are something of a turnoff for me. No, that's not quite it--what I mean is, political views, too fervently expressed, turn me off. My philosophy runs more along the 'live and let live' line.

5 songs I currently like:

1. "I Believe (When I Fall in Love)" by Stevie Wonder
2. "You Are My Joy" The Reindeer Section
3. "Sunday Morning" Maroon 5
4. "I Hear the Bells" Mike Doughty
5. "One" Tina Dico

5 bands/performers I detest:

1. Keith Urban.
2. Celine Dion.
3. "Actresses" that "sing"
4. Athletes that "sing"
5. John Mellencamp. [Makes me want to punch the radio.]

5 foods I love:

1. Salty rippled potato chips.
2. Fresh peaches.
3. Roast beef and mashed potatoes and gravy.
4. Angel food cake with White Mountain frosting.
5. Lasagna--mine.

5 facts about my family:

1. My dad has three older sisters, two older brothers, and two younger brothers.
2. My mom has two older sisters, two younger sisters, and a younger brother.
3. All of my grandparents are deceased.
4. I have 43 first cousins, four of whom are deceased.
5. I haven't seen the majority of my extended family since my wedding.

5 facts about me on dealing with kids:

1. I rarely deal with kids.
2. I try very hard to keep my 'unmarried-marriage-counselor' opinions to myself.
3. Parents who reward their kids for shitty behavior should be bitch-slapped.
4. I babysat, as a job, for roughly a week when I was 18. I was not a good fit.
5. Very small kids, one on one, scare the crap out of me.

5 things about me on my job:

1. I'm the best there is at what I do. [at least on the very small scale]
2. That big shiny ego is necessary to deflect the arrows of criticism that regularly fly toward me from the boneheads with whom I work.
3. My boss at my second job taught me everything I know about being diligent and responsible. If I am a decent employee, it is to her credit. (Any fault is mine.)
4. I am better at solving small problems than big ones, but I'm not so bad at big ones.
5. Meetings with me can be torture. I don't say much, but when I do, it is often either sarcastic or scathing.

5 facts about me on money:

1. I am a financial moron.
2. I would be well-served to have a financial monitor.
3. I don't earn enough money to live the way that I do.
4. I would rather spend what I make on other people (or to enjoy it with other people) than strictly on myself.
5. I am terrible at making change, but I can figure tips in my head easily.

5 things I act like when I'm high:

1. I've allegedly never "really" been high.
2. When I'm drunk, I drive.
3. When I'm drunk, I get mouthy.
4. When I'm drunk, my face gets numb and I use that as a flirting technique. It might sound stupid, but it works.
5. When I'm drunk, I don't want to stop drinking. Ever.

5 facts about me on sleeping:

1. I used to sleep on the right [wall] side of the bed, but I switched about a month ago to the left side.
2. My bed cost more than a month's rent.
3. Three different people have told me it's the best bed they've ever slept in. Oh, reel in your tongue--two of 'em were my parents, who slept on it while they visited. I slept on the couch.
4. I've been known to wake myself up by snoring, but not lately.
5. On an airplane, I once wrapped myself around the person in the seat next to me entirely in my sleep, only to wake up snuggled against a complete stranger. A handsome stranger, I might add. I wanted to die, but my only option was to uncoil myself from his body and move the 10mm back into my seat, whereupon he grabbed a magazine and began to read...while we both blushed to high heaven.

5 facts about me on video games:

1. I'm not a big video game fan.
2. I used to like the silly arcade games like 'Dig Dug' and 'Q-Bert'.
3. There is a pretty fun, obsessive sort of role-playing-esque game on my Mac. That's one of the reasons that I haven't even booted up my Mac in a while.
4. I once played Tetris for several hours on New Years Eve with a guy on whom I had a monster crush.
5. I can't ever make game controllers work, so I always look 'like a girl' when I try to play with them.

5 movies I enjoy:

1. Casablanca
2. Top Secret!
3. The Professional
4. The Rundown
5. Trust

5 stores I buy clothes at:

1. J.Jill
2. Eddie Bauer
3. VS
4. Levis.com ('cause the ones I want are never available in stores)
5. Kohl's

5 things about my plans for the future:

1. I try to be more fluid about planning than I used to be. I used to be pretty buttoned-up.
2. I would like to travel out of the country sometime in the next year or two.
3. The idea of an advanced degree (OK, another advanced degree) pokes itself back into my brain every now and then.
4. More money, less work.
5. More love, less obligation.

5 worries I have:

1. Losing--no, pushing away--the friends who mean the most because of some failure on my part to do the necessary things to keep them.
2. A sudden, severe drop in blood sugar during meetings, long drives, etc. (Hypoglycemia is an ongoing issue for me.)
3. Major work fuckups that could have been prevented with some forethought.
4. Losing my ticket/ID/boarding pass/shoes/whatever at the airport.
5. Being paralyzed and conscious of it.

5 things I'm angry about:

1. Shiny Brown People in the Larger Work Environment.
2. Passive-Aggressive, er, individuals in the standard work environment.
3. People who drive slower than 65 in the left fucking lane around Mad-ville, and then, when I've changed two lanes to get around them, move to the center lane. What part of "Slower Traffic Use Right Lanes" is so goddamned confusing to you, asshole idiot?!
4. People who drive 115 mph in the dark and won't wait 1/8 second for someone going 85 in a 65 in the left lane to move to the right lane before they blast past on the right with their horn blaring and finger out the window.
5. Since I'm on the driving thing, people who drive in heavy fog without their lights on. It's not so you can see better--it's so other people can see you. Not bright lights, just standard low-beams. Especially if you're driving a white or silver car: those colors make you nearly invisible in fog!

5 things I'm excited about:

1. Christmas Eve with the L's, and whatever's to come with Nick, after.
2. Seeing E & the fam this week.
3. My brother. We talked on the phone tonight and it was hilarious. Seeing him Thursday, if not before.
4. [Local bakery] tomorrow. OhmyGodyum.
5. NYE.

5 things I'm dreading:

1. The drive back. It's about an hour too long, and my right leg is sore.
2. Shopping on Saturday. It's not my fault!
3. Work next week. It's not my fault!
4. Repacking all my Christmas decorations and cramming them back into my closets. Did they really come out of there in the first place?!
5. The continued job search. Will it never fucking end???

5 wishes:

1. A new job. I'm not asking for the moon, just my current salary plus maybe 5%, and a little more respect. A challenge would be good, too.
2. Stability on the romantic front. Not boredom, not stultification, and not the c-word. Just...less tumult.
3. Health for Fluffy. Health for T.
4. Time to write, inspiration, and somewhere to put it?
5. Direction (!) for the lovely H.

5 things I always do after I wake up:

1. Put in my contacts.
2. Eat breakfast.
3. Drink tea.
4. Check email & blogs.
5. Check weather outside to determine what to wear.

5 things I do before I go to sleep:

1. Write in my journal (nearly always).
2. Take out my contacts.
3. Check to make sure that phone ringer volume is at 2 or lower.
4. Put on tons of lip goop.
5. Put on tons of hand lotion.

5 things I did today:

1. Drove to college to see friend, but couldn't find a parking space so I left. (Sigh, cop-out.)
2. Drove to cafe, drank tea and spent 1/2 hour waiting on owner, to chat for 10 minutes about "plan" to get together later this week.
3. Drove back to meet with Dad and his eldest sister. We spent about 7 hours over the last 2 days looking at photo albums and sorting out stories. "Who is this?" "When did they get married?" "What's her daughter's name?"
4. Rode with Mom & Dad to co-op, searching for gift for Nick's mom. (My parents dropped me off and went to fruit store.) I found tea, a chopstick rest, and a gift for Nick's sister, but nothing for Nick's mom.
5. Went with Mom & Dad to three stores to search for the gift for Nick's mom. Found some cool stuff, some funky stuff, and some just plain goofy stuff, but not the right thing. Sigh.

5 things I will do tomorrow:

1. Have breakfast in my car by the river, purchased from [bakery].
2. Go to up to 4 more stores, searching for the gift for Nick's mom.
3. Go to the card store (for cards & for a gift for D&R).
4. Go back to the college.
5. Continue writing out Christmas cards. 20 down; about 18 to go.

5 places I have visited:

1. Bethesda, Maryland
2. Atlanta, Georgia
3. Orlando and Miami, Florida (separate trips)
4. Houston, Texas
5. Lawrence, Kansas

5 things about my personality:

1. I am rarely confident.
2. My vocabulary exceeds my intellect.
3. I have a smart mouth.
4. I have, over the last couple of years, developed coping skills that I desperately needed earlier in life.
5. I don't consider myself lucky, but I must be because I'm not really very street-smart.

5 things I want to change about my body:

1. My hair color. (Next Thursday, I think.)
2. My fingernail color. (It's a Creative Nail Design shade, so it has a number rather than a name. It's in my makeup kit.)
3. My toenail color. (Ditto the above.)
4. I would be healthier and happier if I got more exercise.
5. Some of my clothes would fit better--which would in turn lead to me being happier, I'm sure--if one part of me were shaped differently. Am I doing anything about it? No. I am, after all, planning to have donuts for breakfast tomorrow.

5 famous people who I think are brilliant:

1. [high school boyfriend] (but not for the reason you might think).
2. Johnnie. Screw that "famous" edict above, I think it's cool just to know someone who's brilliant. That being said...
3. Louise Glück.
4. That husband of the friend of mine, of whom I wrote recently. (The Cat will get this reference, if no one else does.)
5. Tiki Barber. Going out on top is awesome.

5 bands I have seen live:

I refuse to answer this question, on the grounds that I will look like an uncultured idiot. Suffice it to say, I'm not a concert person. The fear of heights will do that to a person.

5 of the people I cannot live without, in no particular order:

1. E.
2. The D&Rs.
3. Rob.
4. The Cat.
5. Nick.

5 animals I think are cool:

1. Cats. I like Maine Coons, but I would love a British Blue.
2. Meerkats. ("That is no mere cat!")
3. The right dogs.
4. Zebra danios, with silvery sharks.
5. Tiny baby guppies.

5 things I am proud of:

1. Nick's new job.
2. My license. I don't use it, but....
3. Driving to the East, and all that came with it--and surviving intact.
4. Learning to cook.
5. Living alone.

5 things I am scared of:

1. Dogs.
2. Heights.
3. The Russ fate.
4. Getting to the party early or late.
5. Not getting the chance to explain.

5 facts about me on people and socializing:

1. I hate people.
2. Parties make me itchy, or twitchy.
3. I wasn't the class clown until law school, or maybe even after that. Now I am so sarcastic that I take meetings out of commission.
4. I would go to great lengths for my friends, and it is important to me that they know that.
5. I haven't been in a bar in almost a year.

5 of my hobbies:

1. Reading.
2. Writing.
3. Photographing anything that will cooperate.
4. Baking.
5. Making jewelry.

5 things to do in your city/town, by which I mean the one in which I grew up:

1. In the summer: swimming, fishing, camping, canoeing, hiking.
2. In the winter: ice fishing, skating, snowmobiling.
3. There are at least three museums that I can think of, off the top of my head. And 42 churches. And 41 bars. Several decent restaurants and some truly outstandingly crappy ones. An excellent public library. Two universities and a technical school. And the headquarters of one Fortune 500 company.
4. Thing to see, if you see nothing else: the River, of course.
5. Well, that and The Lookout.

5 beliefs I have about ghosts:

1. I like the Counting Crows album Films about Ghosts.
2. I like the movie Ghost, which was the first movie that I saw by myself at the theater.
3. My sister used to call those little styrofoam packing things that look like Cheetos, "ghost farts".
4. I went out as a ghost for Halloween several years in a row as (an unimaginative) child.
5. I read lots of books about ghost towns when I was in elementary school. I liked the idea of free stuff, so I thought that moving to a ghost town was like winning the lottery. I was kind of illogical, even then.