the hand that hath made you fair hath made you good

Something that's holding you back from achieving your dreams: luck and coincidence. It's not a matter of whether it will happen, just when.

Something you think you could win an award for: making certain people absolutely choke with laughter by saying the most unexpectedly perfect thing at the most ridiculously inappropriate time, with an utterly straight face

Something you fear more than anything: being unable to escape from the disaster I'm currently a part of. I can't get into the details; the best I can say is that the smart rats are fleeing left and right...

Something you wish people would understand: 625 ILCS 5/11-901. (I was going to be a pain in the ass and just leave that on its own, but, nah. That's this state's law regarding four-way stops.)

Something that keeps you going everyday: caffeine and kitty cats

Something amazing that happened last summer: I don't remember last summer at all, as I think I mostly buried it under a haze of sadness and work. This summer has been amazing in lots of ways. I'm surrounded by people who care about me, I'm taking good care of myself, and what's not going well is at least under some vestige of control.

Something you hate that people say: "the reality is..."

Something you refuse to pay money for: pedicures. No one does it as well as I do anyway, but it would be ferociously expensive if I were to go in every three to five days, which is about how often I change my own polish color.

Something you wish you could have told that person that you never saw again: renewing our friendship was an unexpected blessing that lifted me in a way that I'd never anticipated. Thanks for being my friend.

Something that really stands out about last year: I look at 'love' now as a foreign concept. I love my family and my friends; I love reading and music. The idea of falling in love with another person, though, is not appealing at all. I just don't have it in me.

Something you like that everyone else thinks is weird: Circus Peanuts

Something you do when you're trying to calm down: just breathe

Something you do when you wake up at three AM: roll over and go back to sleep. Sometimes I'll take a drink of water from the bottle next to the bed, if I'm feeling really wild & crazy.

Something amazing that's happened this year: having anticipated this one without realizing it, I'll take another shot.

I've read some really good books lately--
The Exceptions by David Cristofano
Attachments and Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

Something you love doing on cold rainy days: enjoying the cold and rainy. I LOVE cold and rainy.

Something you listen to when you're in a really good mood: Vertical Horizon. No, they weren't in the top ten, but it wasn't for lack of trying--and I did agonize over it. In fact, I probably should have put Go in rather than Pearl Jam. Hmm...

Something that irritates you more than anything: people who don't do what they say they're going to do, or who do what they say they won't.

Something you're addicted to/can't stop doing: I drink more Coke than I should, I crack my neck like a snake, I read more than one book at a time, I speed when I drive, I don't floss often enough, and I swear a lot

Something that really stands out about you: big blue eyes, a smart mouth, and too much brain to the square inch

Something about you that's like everyone else: standard numbers/sizes of most body parts, a middle-of-the-road sort of existence, and vague dissatisfaction with some parts of that existence that could change were I to put a shoulder into it and, as the kids say, "give it some balls"

Something that makes you change the channel: the VW ad with the parrot. Were I ever to have made the mistake to want to buy a Volkswagen, this ad changed my mind FOREVER.

Something you think about every night before you go to sleep: Johnnie

Something that you don't think will ever change about you: I don't like broccoli

Something about you that you think will soon change: ZIP code

Something that broke your heart as a child: on my thirteenth birthday, one of my two kittens was killed

Something that really sparks your interest: the building of the Panama Canal

Something that truly disgusts you: needlework with yarn made of one's own animal's fur (which has been shed)

Something the opposite gender has complimented you on: most recently? My hair. A complete stranger, standing near me in line at a store, caught my eye and told me that my hair is gorgeous. I was momentarily taken aback and unable to respond, and turned a very deep shade of red, but eventually gathered my composure sufficiently to thank him and move on. It was a lovely moment.


[from The Cat, who got it here; the title quotation is by William Shakespeare, from Measure for Measure. Act III, scene i, and reads in its entirety: "The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good; the goodness that is cheap in beauty makes beauty brief in goodness; but grace, being the soul of your complexion, shall keep the body of it ever fair."]