if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn't try to write fiction. It's not a grand enough job for you

• What are the telltale signs that you're stressed, that people don't generally know?  

using complete sentences and no emoji in texts, drinking Coke after noon, or running my fingers through my hair

• What are your guilty pleasures?  

breakfast for dinner, frequent hair appointments, and photo sessions with someone else's very handsome cat
• Who was your first love, and why did it end? 

to paraphrase Lisa Simpson: "he lied, he lied; it died, it died" - [like the video link I'd included here]
• When you were a child, what did you hope to be when you grew up? Why?  

I thought it would be nice to be a writer. Not a journalist (never that) but a story writer. An entertainer. An artist, with words.
• When's the last time you cried?  

Friday
• What's the biggest lie you've ever told?  

I have told my boss several times - when confronted - that I am "all in" and dedicated to this job. I don't see an alternative where honesty is a feasible option.
• If you won the lottery, where would you travel and why?

a quiet island, because I've never tried it and I think it would suit me well
• If you could be anywhere in the world right this moment, where would you be and what would you be doing?

as I write this, the choice is easy: talking, in bed. Probably wrangling about math problems vs. essay questions. Holding hands. Definitely laughing, likely gasping in mock outrage, and occasionally cooing with schmoopy adoration. Periodically napping.

• What makes you feel connected or disconnected to someone you care about? 

people are like puzzle pieces. They only fit together if their combinations of tabs and blanks align. No matter how well you like someone, there is no connecting with someone who's not right, a piece that does not match.
• If you were able to work in any other job for a year, what would it be?  

if I could stand to do it, I would like to work an incredibly lucrative job for a year. Just buckle down and earn, earn, earn. Work 100-hour weeks, never take vacation, slave away, and watch my account balances rise. At the end of that year, I would gratefully resign and get back into a normal job and enjoy the rest of my life.

    It seems like a good plan until I think about how short life is, and how much I would regret it if I knew I'd wasted a moment on something so mercenary.
• What's stressing you out the most this week?  

work, off the scale. I work with some vile people and they are exceeding previous records lately.
• What's your biggest goal for the next 10 years?

I would really like to have my (15 year) mortgage paid off in 10 years. It is highly unlikely, but sort of a dream to be able to head into retirement essentially debt-free. There are philosophical arguments to be made about the preference for [smart debt + investing] vs. ["investing" in no debt]. These are not always financial debates so much as psychological ones, about risk tolerance, liquidity needs, lifespan "expectations," and about the type of person one is and wants to be, prehaps.
• What is the one thing you want to be remembered for?

if I am remembered for an "external" thing, it would be lovely for that to be something I've written or a photo that I've taken. I would be honored for that part of me to live on.  

[from here, paraphrased; the title quotation is by Flannery O'Connor]