oh, you liquidated her, eh? Very resourceful!

1. What if this is as good as it gets? it probably is. I mean, if it's not, wouldn't someone do something?
2. Have you ever dated someone mostly or completely because of their looks? funny, I was thinking about this very thing last night, and started writing a post that will come out sometime in the next week or so.
   The short answer: yes.
3. What should you never forget? to be kind
4. How many of the 7 dwarves can you name for us? seven
5. What animal does your mom resemble? 'human'
6. Have you ever had a palm reading? no, but I've always wanted to try it
7. What's a crazy thing you did that you got in trouble for as a kid? stuck my finger through the bottom of a milkshake cup on the way home from McDonald's. I haven't thought about that in many years and told the story this morning at breakfast, amazing even myself. I was such a dork.
8. What do you battle against? the need for solitude
9. Do piercings really make the pierced area dramatically more sensitive? they can, yes
10. If you had put aside some money for a trip and the travel agent said he had 2 trips available in your price range during the week you want to go, which would you choose:
    * a week in Hawaii in a luxury beach resort
    * a week in Africa helping the Red Cross distribute food and medicine? Hawaii
11. Have you ever played with a dreidel? no
12. Did you know that Kraft is owned by a cigarette company? Does that bother you? no, that does not particularly bother me. There is no nicotine in my mac & cheese, and even if there was, that would be a decision made of my own volition.
13. With all the information constantly rushing at you, how do you know what's important? discernment
14. How is your life unlike a movie? I sneeze, use the restroom, and make errors that are not later discovered to be clever
15. Where is the most beautiful place you have visited? the grand bay was a wonder. Miami is my spiritual home. Lawrence, Kansas is strangely soothing. I love spending time in Bethesda, Maryland. Santa Fe, New Mexico has astounding sky....
    It's not a place that is beautiful, but the experience of being there, and the memories of having been.
16. What is never going in your mouth? I don't keep a list
17. Are there really 5,000 different facts about you? at least. And if you can name more than 100 of them (without peeking at the blog) then you're out of the acquaintance zone. Congratulations!
18. Do you like banana bread? I do--but only the kind without nuts
19. Who are you the most gentle and tender around? good question. I know who I feel the most gentle and tender toward, but that does not necessarily equate to the person toward whom I behave the most gently and tenderly.
20. If electrodes were inserted into your brain and a button was put into your arm so that you could push the button and stimulate an immediate orgasm would you forget about life and sit at home pushing the button until you died? I suppose that's the choice that everyone has to make at some point, isn't it? Or, if not everyone, those who have figured out the location of the, er, Wizard of their own particular Oz?
21. Is there a difference between being scared and afraid? in my mind, 'scared' is an acute sensation, abrupt and more short-lived, and 'afraid' is long-term and ongoing
22. Are you scared and/or afraid of death? If yes, what is it about death? The pain? The separation? The unknown? The fear of nothing? I don't know that I'm afraid of death as much as the end of life
23. What is existentialism? the definition is here--but it's a sort of complicated concept to understand, and either you get it or you don't (I think)
24. A college girl (maybe you?) blows a tire and pulls off the road in an unfamiliar residential neighborhood. She is having trouble changing the tire when a man in his late thirties-ish comes over and asks if she needs some help. He changes her tire and offers to let her go into his house to wash her hands. She is dirty from trying to change the tire. Should she accept? no
25. She does accept and he gives her a tour of the house, including the upstairs. The staircase in the living room leads directly into the master bedroom. The view out the window is beautiful. What are you thinking about this situation? get out
26. Are you too trusting of others? some, yes. Others, prehaps not enough.
27. What's the difference between a den and a living room? the word used to describe it (which may be geographical)
28. Who is the hero of all kids? there is no such thing
29. Who do you tend to show more of your best side to, your family or strangers? acquaintances. My family probably sees the worst, and strangers don't see me at all.

[From the 5000-question meme; this is the first third of the thirty-fourth part (questions 3201-3232). The title quotation is from The Wizard of Oz.]