charm was a scheme for making strangers like and trust a person immediately, no matter what the charmer had in mind

1. What was the warmest welcome you’ve ever received?  

    it may not sound warm, but.... I had not seen the person with whom I was involved for a month or so, because of their work schedule. Upon arriving for the weekend, I came upon a locked door and no answer to my knock. I heard music playing, though, so I knew they were home. I let myself in by the alternate route (totally acceptable). As I was putting away some groceries, they came into the kitchen and discovered my arrival. That smile and the subsequent long, hard hug, were everything I could have wished for.

2. What was the best thing about your youth? 

    playing outside with my siblings, the neighbor kids, or my cat

3. Who is the most interesting person you’ve ever met. 

    D.

4. What is the least you’ve ever worn in public? 

    ha ha ha ha ha! - that's need-to-know, and VERY few people need to know

5. What was the worst vacation you ever took?

    first summer after we were married, the former spouse and I drove to visit my sister. It was a 9+ hour drive straight south, into the real South. I was dreading it, for reasons that did not become clear for several years. That resulted in me taking some chances that I shouldn't have taken and spraining an ankle. I sort of thought that we'd cancel the trip, but instead, the ex drove the entire way. (We had a stick, so I couldn't drive on the gimpy foot). I bitched the whole time about how much my ankle hurt; he bitched the whole time about having to drive the whole time. We arrived on our anniversary - happy goddamned anniversary - and, after disappearing for an hour and leaving me alone with those people, he returned with a present for me.

    It was a basket of flowers stuck into florist foam. Decorated with gingham ribbons. It was, in the style of every piece of jewelry he ever got for me, not my thing.

    We were there for a week, maybe longer. It was miserable, we were fighting, they were fighting, it was hot and buggy and profusely boring. I remember very little of the actual day to day except standing in their kitchen with my then-brother-in-law, watching my sister and my husband smoke cigarettes on their deck. He didn't even smoke.

    My ankle was still sore when we left. He drove all the way back, too.

    Worst. Vacation. Ever.

6. What room in your home do you spend the most time? 

    office for work (7:30-5 most days), living room or dining room afterward and on weekends, and bedroom for sleep and sometimes when my temporary cohabitator needs schnuzzling

7. Who made the strongest first impression on you? 

    Reed, my former attorney/lawyer crush. 

        [Note: it was not an entirely positive first impression.]

8. What was the most surprising action you’ve ever taken. 

    there have been a few contenders. Going to law school (my high school classmates are still flummoxed by that one); initiating a divorce; moving back to my hometown after [bleep] years away; buying a car by phone, sight unseen; selling my house over lunch at the coffee shop; quitting my job with the very good benefits....

9. When was your life most out of control? 

    junior year of college. I have very little recollection of anything from that year. I was going out drinking 4-7 nights a week (I was 19- or 20-y-o), eating not much more than Snickers or macaroni & cheese, working 2 jobs totaling more than 50 hours per week, taking an overload of classes, living in a rat-hole apartment with 3 other people, entering and departing from relationships at a good clip, having trouble making rent because so much of my money went to booze and books, and pretending to be a good kid when I had breakfast with my parents and sibling every Sunday.

10. What would you be best at, were you to change careers? 

    I am increasingly certain that I was born to be a spoiled girlfriend

11. What is the cruelest thing a person has ever said to you? 

    "I want to sleep with anyone - I mean ANYONE - in the world other than you."

12. What is the best thing you ever won as a prize? 

    a Montblanc pen

13. What is your strongest argument against capital punishment? 

    it does not, cannot, make the victim whole again

14. What have you been most ignorant about in life? 

    math

15. What would you most hate to be pierced? 

    my significant other

 

[from here and adapted; the title quotation is by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., from Breakfast of Champions]