all about risks of various types, in threes

• What makes a person worthy of your respect? Honesty. Fairness. Courage in the face of fear.
• Who are at least three people (dead or living) you respect? Why do you respect them?
  1. Harry Hopkins - he saved thousands of people during the Depression through his work as one of Roosevelt's head staffers.
  2. My friend E. He lived a complicated childhood and he turned into an amazing man.
  3. My niece. I had no idea what a great mom she would be.
• Who do you love? Oh, you know. The usual.
• What is the most random way you have made a friend? Perhaps when I plunked down at a table at last year's face-to-face meeting and said, "Hi. I'm ---."
• When was the last time you laughed non-stop? I'm sure it was Fluffy's doing. She can get me riled up easier than anyone, and she can make me laugh just as hard.
• So, tell me a joke you've heard recently. The only joke that I can tell worth a damn involves the word 'presumptuous' and is so vile that I would not share it in print. (If you really want to know, I'll tell you directly upon request.)
• What are three moments you kind of wish had lasted just a little bit longer?
  1. Anything with Steve from across the street.
  2. Everything in Miami.
  3. The world's largest pizza with college BFF & Brent.
• What do you like to do on sunny days? Sit in a park by a body of water with my face toward the sun. Preferably with my feet in the water and a cool adult beverage next to me.
• What do you like to do on rainy days? Sleep. Read. (Yeah, both of those would be indoors.) Walk. Kiss.
• What are three goals you have made for yourself that you know you will accomplish?
  1. Use my passport
  2. Leave this job before I'm double the age that I was when I started
  3. Pay back my student loans before I take out any new ones
• Do you sing in the shower? Nope - my mouth fills with water (and soap) and I choke.
• When will you dance? Maybe when the snow flies.
• What are three of the most beautiful things you have ever seen?
  1. Ulysses
     
  2. My niece as a baby, and my niece with her baby
  3. Kitty fur
• What makes you smile? Muscles in my face
• What's your favorite flavor of ice cream? Depends. Vanilla is always good. I've been in a Butter Brickle mood lately, too.
• What makes you dislike somebody? Emotional cooties
• What is your method of retaliation? Boomerang
• Do you enjoy arguments? I am an attorney.
• What are three things you do not like?
  1. Most things that are brown
  2. The cursive letter Q
  3. Mayonnaise
• What pisses you off? Self-righteousness (she says, self-righteously)
• What is the worst thing you have ever done? I've King Kong'd my way through a commandment or two.
• What are the three most recent illegal things you have done?
  1. Speed
  2. Acquired a greater quantity of allergy medicine than is strictly allowed by law (for use as allergy medicine, of course)
  3. [nothing else is popping into my head, but on my mind I do have Dennis Miller's skit about the amazing coincidence of there being an appropriate penance for every sin. "What, do they have some kind of penance conversion chart in that little cube? 'Father, I was at the petting zoo and went down on a young rhinoceros.' 'Let's see...blew a baby rhino...10 Our Father's...."]
• Have you ever been falsely accused of something? Um, yeah.
• Do you take pride in any immoral traits you have (i.e. dishonesty, greed, etc.)? I am an attorney. Next question?
• How many times do you have to be told to follow the rules? You can tell me all you want. I'll get it done my own way, in my own time.
• Do you ever play by the rules? Hee. Uh, sometimes. If it's convenient and not worth the bother.
• Who are three of the shadiest characters of your acquaintance? How are they so?
  1. A certain person who shall remain nameless, but who thought herself Queen of All She Surveyed. Until she retired. A year or so ago. How? She bamboozled a group of relatively highly educated people into paying big money for a product that isn't worth my leftover hard-boiled egg yolk from today's lunch, and she managed to split before the shit hit the fan.
  2. Nick. How? He lives in a cave.
  3. My ersatz friend Matt's friend Jason. Don't trust him as far as I could throw him. Weasely.
• What is the strangest thing you have seen? A college friend had no bones in her nose. You could squoosh it back into her face.
• Who are three of the most annoying people you know?
  1. Rob, salesman to the stars
  2. My neighbor, who watches execrable television and listens to music that would kill a weaker soul than I
  3. The new aide at my doctor's office. She spent 10 minutes during my last appointment (I was there for tonsillitis) telling me about her child's illness.
     I. don't. care.
• What is the worst thing you could imagine? Being truly alone.
• What is the best thing you could imagine? Feeling truly welcome.
• What goal(s) do you hope to accomplish by the end of today? Sleep without pain
• ...the end of the week? More work finished than when I started
• ...the end of the month? One big answer and maybe one other one
• ...the end of the year? Some financial reasonableness
• What are three things that comfort you?
  1. Toast
  2. Good music
  3. Touch
• Where was the last place you were hurting? Why were you hurting there? My head has been hurting for about 36 hours, off and on. Migraine. More esoterically, my heart's been a little lost lately.
• Do you have a plan for yourself? I'm more of an "adventurer" than a planner.
• What are three books that have influenced your life the most?
  1. The Brothers K
  2. Hamlet
  3. Rumi: The Book of Love
• What are three things you want to own, but don't because you're too lazy to get them?
  1. Potatoes
  2. A new bath brush (mine is starting to spontaneously disassemble)
  3. Laundry detergent
• What are three things you want to own, but don't because you're too poor to buy them?
  1. Chicago Cutlery steak knives that match my [forged] block set
  2. A new scanner/printer that will scan negatives
  3. Garnet (or ruby - ha ha) earrings
• Who are three people you want to hug?
  1. Dad
  2. Cat
  3. Ulysses
     
• Who are three people you'd like to know better?
  1. G
  2. Diz
  3. Asking Man
• Where do you go when you want to be alone? Home
• What do you think of your family? Why? Right now, I miss them very much, and they haven't been out of my thoughts for days.
• What are three things you have learned recently?
  1. Suez Canal has no locks.
  2. Grover Cleveland was the only president married at the White House. He was 49 and his bride was 21. And he was one chubby, weird-looking dude.
  3. Friends are never quite what you think they'll be. That's a sad thing, and also probably the most blessed thing of all.
• How do you process new information? In a blender
• Do you like to learn new things? No. I like to learn old things. Ergo: historian.
• What are three songs you can't listen to enough?
  1. "Grace is Gone" (Dave Matthews Band)
  2. "Your Heart is an Empty Room" (Death Cab)
  3. "Epiphany" (Staind)
• What do you think about death? It sucks, but overall it's better than the alternative.
• Do you take risks in your life? Yes
• Give three examples of risks you have taken:
  1. Marriage at 21
  2. Divorce with a crap job at 34
  3. Norman
• What do you want to do right now? Lie down on smooth, cool sheets next to someone who loves me, settle in face-down and get a very gentle neck-rub while hearing about his day (or whatever he wants to talk about while massaging my neck), and feel one kiss on my cheek as I'm falling asleep - secure in the knowledge that he'll be there when I wake.

[from The Cat]