be con­scious and aware enough to choose what you pay atten­tion to

18. If someone you knew had a hygiene problem, how would you tell them? 

    no clue. It hasn't come up for me before, and it seems pretty awkward. I'd need to know someone extremely well before I'd even think of doing something like this!

19. Do you mind moving between apartments often?

    nah, I'm comfortable with it and find it (relatively) easy to move household. I suppose it helps that I'm old and lazy enough now that I would rather pay someone else to do the work than to try and "do it all myself"—which really meant "begging and cajoling everyone I know to strain every muscle and waste a couple days for a paper plate of sloppy joes and effusive (verbal, not monetary) thanks."

20. Is there anything besides your phone that you always carry with you? 

    phone, keys, wallet, sunglasses (when I drive). When I walk, it's a house key, phone, and sunglasses. I don't love carrying a purse and when I can avoid it, I leave that at home. Unlike several (most?) women, I own few purses—black, brown, red, and tan—and would rather not carry them.

    And, unlike Dwayne Johnson, I don't have a fanny pack.

21. Do you think the music you listen to affects you on a subconscious level? 

    yes, though I accept that it affects me on a conscious level, too. For instance, I still have and listen to CD mixes, since I have a CD player in my car. I keep a handful of CDs in the car at all times, and listen to each a couple of times before swapping them out for another bunch. I know that some of those mixes will remind me of certain people or times in my life. Some of those reminders are happy, and many are bittersweet or outright sad. I accept that immersion into those memories means, to some extent, deliberately plunging myself into those emotions. Avoiding them, though, doesn't make the memories—or the feelings—disappear.   

22. What’s the longest book you ever read? 

    literally or figuratively? There were a few in grad school that were almost too large to be bound in one volume - 1500 pages, prehaps. Literally? It took me a year, at least, to read Three Junes by Julia Glass for the first time. It starts soooooooooooo slow! But once I was really into it, months after starting it and after numerous attempts, I was finally engrossed and couldn't stop until I was through it. Painful irony, for one of my favorite and most remembered books. 

    (And the longest audio books, by far, were the George R.R. Martin Song of Ice and Fire series, most in the 40-50 hour range.)

23. Do you like carrying cash? 

    love it. "It spends like money."

24. Do you think that inspiration plays an important role in your line of work? 

    ugh, not at all. My specific path in through the legal field is exceedingly straight and narrow. Two careers ago though, my life as a cataloger was wonderfully creative and packed with puzzles that needed solving. I loved it, and I was really good at it.

25. What’s the most useful thing you learned at school? 

    the rules of evidence. How to write succinctly. How to study, read fast, and take good notes. Chemical nomenclature. Diagramming sentences. Getting along with people, particularly extroverts with low social awareness.

1. Why are you friends with your best friend?

    because I stuck my chin out and argued rather than keeping quiet, and wrote a memorable thank you note. And because they sent a thank you note for a thank you note that ended in ellipses.

2. Do you know of any schoolmates that went to prison? 

     to my knowledge, none of my schoolmates (at any level) has been convicted of a felony

 

 [from here; the title quotation is by David Foster Wallace, from a commencement address at Kenyon College]