so far, so good: interview #1

These interview questions came from The Cat. (You had to know that she would be first, right?)

1. Who do you want to be in 5 years? Me, only different. I will be 43 then (wow!). Wouldn't it be lovely if I were "settled" by then? Attached in some meaningful way to a career (not a job), a home (not a cube in which to store my stuff), a life (not an assemblage of random life-like habits and routines), and perhaps a man (not a man-like boy whose main focus could never be me)? My loans will have been paid for four years. I will have held my license for 14 years. (oh God, that is so fucking depressing) Really, the rest of it doesn't matter. The stuff, the "where", the details? They don't matter. I only want to be happy.
2. Which one person currently in your circle of friends/family would you be able to tolerate seeing every single remaining day of your life? You can set up whatever stipulations you want, but you have to spend a chunk of time with him/her daily. That is a surprisingly easy one: no one. If I've learned nothing else from the events of the past five or so years, at least I know that I am far too independent to intentionally put myself under the spell of another person that way again. Vacations - whether literal or metaphorical - are VITAL to the health, strength, and depth of a relationship. Yeah. I love y'all, but it's good sometimes to be by myself.
3. When you close your eyes, what do you see? Colors? Shapes? Black nothingness? I see black, with shadows. It's kind of like my dreams, which are often colored in a weird, psychedelic fashion; much of what I see is black-on-black, or dark blue in vague shapes. Whatever it is, it couldn't be accurately described as "nothingness." There's always something. Never a dull moment - rarely a dull day.
4. Describe a typical day in your life 25 years ago. 25 years ago, I was 13 years old. I was a third of the way through 8th grade. Um, this is a little weird; exactly 25 years, 6 days ago, I was enjoying my first kiss. That was a quantum shift in my social and psychological lives. Before the kiss (BK) I was just a sort of shy dork who *really* liked Duran Duran (I was a special fan of Simon leBon, unlike all my friends who went for the more obvious John Taylor) and played volleyball. Since the kiss (AK) I have realized that there is much more to life than music and sports.... A typical day went thusly: Awake around 6:30, I would eat breakfast while reading the newspaper. Having showered the night before, I would throw on whatever crazy 80s outfit I'd chosen for the day (yes, I was a superbig devotee of pegged jeans and baggy shirts that camouflaged my just-appearing, er, physique) and floof my hair up as much as possible. Which was never enough. Because my hair is unapologetically flat and floofless. It pretends to floof, but only until I've left the building, at which point it careens back its lifeless nature. So. Anyway. The bus came at 7:30. I was one of the first 5 or so kids picked up, so it was a l-o-o-o-n-g ride. If my friends (neighbor girls, a set of twins my age and their 1-year-younger sister) were riding, too, then we'd usually just chatter all the way. If I was by myself, I would scrunch down in my seat with my knees up on the seat in front of me - braced in - and sleep the whole way. I was paranoid about sleeping through my stop, but by that point it was too noisy to miss. School was fun for me, but it was socially complicated (of course). I loved learning, reading, doing math problems, nomenclature in science, conjugating verbs in Spanish.... And I was microscopically skinny and socially awkward and interested in boys but had no clue what to do with them. Classes came and went. I probably spent the majority of the day blabbing with my idiot friends about whatever idiot boys by whom they (and I) were obsessed. There were intermittent periods of learning along the way. After school, I would pop over to the East building (my junior high was in two buildings separated by a North-South street), down to the basement to the GLR (girls' locker room), and change into my practice clothes for volleyball. I wasn't great, but I got by and played in every game. At the end of the season, I was voted "most spirited" by my teammates. Yeah, can you imagine?! At 5:30, we would break from practice. I would shower, change, and dress for the ride home. I rode "the late bus", which was a weird abbreviated route. Though I rode the one that went directly past my house, I could have caught any from that company (in the state in which I grew up, busing is a private concern and not at all run by the schools); their HQ was about 1/2 mile from my house. Once home (by probably 6:30 or 7:00) I would eat something (leftovers or cereal, probably) while starting my homework. There would be any number of phone calls from friends (and the occasional boy) and some TV. I would gobble a few hundred more calories while finishing my homework and before I headed to bed (no PJs, even then) around 11 or 12.
5. Why are you collecting Coke Codes? What are you saving for? Why? Because I drink enough Coke to float a boat. Because some genetic weakness (on my mother's side, thank you very little) makes me especially prone to "free stuff" - even more when it's an intangible "stuff" that I may or may not need. Because it's there. What fer? I'm every so slowly assembling a "this is your life" photo album (via Kodakgallery.com) for my niece. The final chapter (of this book!!!) is her son's first birthday. There is the slimmest chance that it could be finished by Christmas....

Thanks, Cat! Keep 'em coming, people!