I'm a mess here without you Ain't no pill for this pain

1. Where are they now?
   ...your first best friend in elementary school? about 35 miles SE of my current location
2. ...your first crush? he died 4 1/2 years ago
3. ...your first boy/girlfriend? I think he sells snowplows? Or maybe furnaces. An hour or so north of here.
4. ...your first love? he died 3 1/2 years ago
5. ...your first lover? he's one of the above
6. Do you have a lot of self pity? I wouldn't call it "a lot" - but I'm not without it
7. Have you ever had something really good come out of something really bad that happened to you? this past year has been an exercise in picking the lessons out of the ashes. In the end, there is something really good, without a doubt, but there are scars and bruises and scabs, for sure, and certainly aches to come.
8. Do you like Magnetic Poetry? I've had some strange experiences with Magnetic Poetry before--as a work-time diversion, a courtship ritual, and as a means to divert from other activities
9. If you could make a Magnetic Poetry set:
   ...what would be the theme? real poetry--longer, more interesting words
10. ...what would some of the words be? Stephen King would disown me, but I'd advocate for more adverbs
11. What is one of your secret delights? postcards. Send me a postcard and I'll wear a silly grin all day. Send one each time you travel and I'm like to lose a piece of my heart to you!
12. What gives you a cheap thrill? surprises - the sweet kind. A compliment, a lunch invitation, a favor granted. Green lights on the way home on Friday afternoon. A 'treat.'
13. What is your biggest guilty pleasure? phone calls
14. Have you ever misinterpreted song lyrics in a funny way (I used to think that 'wake me up before you go, go' was 'wake me up and buy me cocoa')? I don't think so?
15. Are you under pressure? yep
16. How well do you know yourself? probably too well in a lot of ways, but there are blind spots
17. Is 'soul' such an old fashioned word? not at all
18. Is 'love'? love is eternal
19. Name a person you love: Rupert
20. How do you love them? Let's count the ways... there is no limit. The curl of his whiskers, the flip of his tail, the vibration of his gravelly purr...
21. Does your place have a lawn gnome? never. EVER. ever.
22. Do you ever wonder, 'why me'? of course
23. When? every other Saturday
24. Is rap a form of poetry? yup
25. What's the difference between a player and a baller? if you have to ask, you'll never understand
26. What imagery do you get from the words 'woodsmoke and herbs'? fairy crap
27. How many days until your birthday? almost half a year (and that question makes me realize that today is a particularly lovely day for another reason)
28. Have you ever MEANT to hurt anyone? of course - I'm no saint
29. What are 3 things you don't know? what I look like when my eyes are closed, how I sound when I snore, and the true effect of what I say
30. Do you usually feel physically well or unwell? on a quantitative scale, I'm probably 5.5+ on the 10-point well scale more often than not. I've had a bunch of headaches lately, and for some reason one of my knees feels like it's not connected properly, but only at night. But overall, it could be worse.
31. Would you ever submit your picture to be 'rated' on one of those 'hot or not' websites? no. I'm way over the need (or the likelihood) for that sort of validation
32. Why are there hardly ever any fat people in movies? the writer of this survey has the mental age of a young teen
33. Is there any difference between what's real and what's for sale? is this a riddle??
34. Are you funky? nope, I shower regularly
35. Do apologies always make things all better? not hardly
36. Let's just say that there is a huge ass bomb that can blow up the Whole Planet..it is set to blow up in 100 years. You can push the button to stop it but if you do you Will die. You only have this one chance to stop it. Do you stop it? Random Capital Letters don't make things more Interesting or Dramatic
37. Let's say someone else found the button to stop it instead of you. Do you think it is their moral obligation to save humanity at the expense of their own life? it is the utilitarian view that the few have the duty to sacrifice for the good of the many
38. What's the silliest name you can think of? another unanswerable question, eh?
39. It's the middle of the night and you are home alone. Someone knocks on the door and says their car broke down and asks to use your phone. What do you do? I don't answer the door in the middle of the night
40. If a cop pulled you over and asked if he could search your car what would you say? "no"
41. Are you meek or nasty around cops? neither
42. If you were me and I was you then where would we be? that sounds like Hell
43. What has been the greatest invention so far? the printing press

[From the 5000-question meme; this is the third third of the twenty-sixth part (questions 2467-2500). The title quotation is from "Rescue Me" by Uncle Kracker]