to know and feel all this and not have the words to express it makes a human a grave of his own thoughts

1. Would you rather have a candle scented like blueberries and creme or butterscotch pecan pie? blueberry
2. Which ones are fruits and which are vegetables:
   Banana - fruit (actually, berry)
   Cucumber - fruit
   Tomato - fruit
   Apple - fruit
   Carrot - vegetable
   Eggplant - or aubergine - fruit
   Cherry - fruit
   Pumpkin - vegetable
3. Does it annoy you when people talk loudly on their cell phones in public? not usually, if it is truly "in public." People who talk on their phones at work are a constant annoyance, or at the library or someplace else that is literally designed to be a quiet area. But there are all sorts of reasons to be talking on the phone, so being reasonable seems...reasonable.
4. Is love a commitment to one person, or can you love more than one person at the same time? I do not believe that romantic love for more than one person at the same time is possible, feasible, or fair. I think it is selfish, delusional, and immature. Every person who has ever talked to me about "open relationships"and being in love with more than one person at the same time has, in some way or another, been a liar.
5. Cover or original: "Smooth Criminal"; is it better by Michael Jackson or Alien Ant Farm? "Blue Monday" better by Orgy or New Order? "I Want Candy"; is it better by Aaron Carter or Bow Wow Wow? "Love Song"; is it better by 311 or The Cure? "It's My Life"; is it better by No Doubt or The Talking Heads? Professional covers are distinct from the originals and ought to be considered separate songs on their own merits.
   
   FWIW, the Bow Wow Wow version of "I Want Candy"was a cover, too.
6. What is the most uncomfortable feeling? Chewing aluminum foil, or having a fingernail bent backward.
7. Do you like Maroon 5? Some of their stuff is pretty good. A lot of it is over-processed. If they trusted themselves to sound all right without all the tricks, they'd probably be terrific.
8. Would you ever go on a blind date TV show? never
9. How much of your wardrobe is dry clean only? maybe 15% - including one of my absolute favorite sweaters
10. Whose arms would you like to crawl into? he knows
11. What the Hell is your problem? I'm sad, my knee aches, and my finances just took a big hit. What the Hell is your problem?!
12. Look around you. What is the most beautiful thing you can see? the beam of a street light is shining through the cut glass of the front door, sending indistinct, glittering orange rays through the room
13. What is the most beautiful thing you can't see? the Atlantic ocean. The love of a friend who's gone. Music.
14. Take a deep breath. Yawn deeply. Do you appreciate the things most people take for granted, like breathing? yup. Oxygen is key to keeping the headache monsters at bay.
15. Do you appreciate breathing more when you have a cold and you're all congested and can't breathe right? it's not healthy to look at it that way, but it's natural to think about what you're missing, yes
16. Is congestion a positive thing because it helps you to appreciate breathing? no. Never mistake hardship and pain for opportunity and education in disguise. That's just asking for more of it.
17. How is your life like a work of art? under different circumstances, I mentioned earlier this evening that I am an acquired taste
18. Do you feel that your life influences and is influenced by many other lives? of course - "No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main" [John Dunne]
19. Has a smile ever made all the difference in the world to you? uh, sort of? Or at least what the smile represented.
20. Have you ever looked at a tree and considered how the roots could be miles long, trailing and entwining with other roots underground, all of them holding the soil together? no. The soil holds itself together. The roots just feed the tree.
21. Do you notice the little things in life? yes. Sometimes to an extent that is distracting to noticing the big things, the ones that matter to most everyone else.
22. Do you feel, as Jung did, that deep down, underneath our individual personalities we are all the same? not hardly. We're all like chalkboards. Is the board the sufficient part? Necessary, yes, but hardly sufficient - that is what's written on it. The content is the personality, the writing and doodling and figuring that appears over time.
23. Do you feel a great oneness with the universe? only when I'm stoned
24. When was the last time you decided to really enjoy yourself? last night. I had an extraordinarily lovely conversation.
25. When was the last time you set yourself free and acted without caring at all what someone else thought? last night, some? And pretty much anytime I'm with D.
26. Have you ever held someone and appreciated how delicate and fragile all life is and felt that they were even more precious and beautiful because one day they would die..and so will you? I had that thought once when I was very young and my cat was sleeping in my lap. I was dozing in the yard, while she purred and twitched and dreamed. All at once it hit me, the enormity of the love I felt, the fragility, my fear for her, and I was sobbing - as quietly as possible, so that she would not wake and move. I was overcome by future grief.
27. In ten years someone else might own your house and the room you are sitting in now. Someone else might be standing right next to where you are sitting now. So that means you could be standing right next to someone but you can't see him or her because they are ten years away.
    Ever look at life like that? ugh, no. That could be paralyzing.
28. When was the last time you:
    Soaked in a bubble bath last week, maybe Tuesday?
    Read a good book outside dunno, it's been a while. I only go outside when required
    Held someone's hand August
    Felt truly joyful earlier this week
29. What do you bring to this world that no one else can? my DNA? My ego? My history and stories?
30. Do you feel that you are part of every living thing in this world and that all those things are part of you? no
31. Are you more afraid of death or not completely living? death, I suppose? Though more accurately I've become afraid of dying.
32. What was the last thing you wanted to do but didn't or couldn't do? last Thursday, I really wanted to sleep for a few more hours when my alarm rang in the morning. The desire was stronger than it's been in a long time.
33. Why don't you try and do that thing now? sleep? I plan to, in a few moments when this is posted.
34. What is the most wonderful thing happening right now in the world? I just had an impromptu FB conversation with one of my best friends, about bolo ties and monkey toes
35. Name 7 things going on around you that you normally wouldn't notice:
    
    1. there is a train running toward the East
    2. the quadriceps muscle in my left leg is faintly twitching
    3. my right foot is cold but my left foot is warm
    4. I took 2 showers today and now my skin feels really dry
    5. iTunes (running off my TimeCapsule) is terribly slow from my bedroom
    6. Staind reminds me of my old friend Ulysses P. Socrates
    7. there is a longer train running toward the West
36. Name three things you hate:
    
    1. cooked carrots
    2. unfounded arrogance
    3. the smell of grapefruit
37. Name one GOOD thing about each of those 3 things you hate. 
    1. they're not poisonous
    2. it isn't inherently dangerous
    3. I don't have to smell it very often
38. What do you tend to see in black and white, rather than in shades of gray? books in print, a friend's cat. Marshmallows in chocolate sauce.
39. Admit three things you do that you are ashamed of but shouldn't be:
    I contemplated this question for a very long time before finally deciding that I'm not ashamed of three things--or even one thing--that I shouldn't be.
    
    Take that as you will.
40. What qualities make a person “good” in your eyes? forthrightness, consideration, loyalty, affection, humor, tenacity, self-awareness
41. Do you have any of these qualities? yes
42. Are you willing to do what it takes to achieve what you want to? prehaps
43. Name one bad quality about someone you love: impatience
44. Name one good quality about someone you hate: financial success
45. Are you pro-life or pro-choice and why? that is not a black-or-white question for me. I am neither anti-choice nor anti-life.
46. If you are pro-life write a reason someone might be pro-choice. If you are pro-choice write a reason someone might be pro-life. faith, or lack of same. Experience, or lack of same. Life is hard, and it hurts us over and over.
47. Can you see the beauty in...?
    A bumble bee: yes, they are fuzzy and brightly colored and make a delicate noise
    A man skating: yes, they are powerful and graceful
    A woman combing her hair: yes, it is a combination of the prosaic and the aesthetic
    A box of tissues: no. Function is just function. They're not "ugly" but simply practical.
    Yourself naked: sure
    Light: yes--one of my favorite photographic subjects!
48. What are you most afraid of? being afraid
49. Whose life would you REALLY NOT want to ever have? Why? anyone famous simply for being famous
50. Can you come up with a reason why you might want their life? money is an obvious lure, but I'm still not tempted. Privacy is so much better, and sanity so much more important.

[this is from the 5000-question meme, of which this is the first section of the tenth part; the title quotation is from John Dunne]