the night is full of stars, and the stars, blue, shiver in the distance

1. Other than when you're sick, have you ever spent an entire day in your pajamas? When was the last time? 

    it happens all the time when I'm working on a particularly engrossing project. I get a notification when I've got in coming mail (Informed Delivery is a terrific development) so a lot of the time I don't even go out to check the mail. I'm not proud of it, and always feel more productive and "normal" when I do get dressed in outdoor clothes—just accepting the reality that sometimes it doesn't happen.

    When was the last time? Well, as I write this (at 3:15 PM on a non-work day) I'm still in jammies, albeit in a lounge-wear sense as opposed to sleeping garb.  

    I do have a personal boundary about this. I won't leave the house in PJs, because I think it looks bad on me. Not even just to take out the trash or move the car.

2. What was the last thing that happened that made you think you'd dodged a bullet? Who was there? 

    so, there's this guy.... A friend from a former life, with whom I've always and only ever felt friendship feelings. When we met, we were each married to someone else. Those marriages have ended, and our friendship has persisted. However, he has some stronger, different feelings about me. I've had to smack him with the fact that those feelings are not shared and that the expression of them is completely unwelcome. The sad and frustrating part of it is that I've had to repeat that smack a couple of times, and avoid him sometimes, too. He just doesn't seem to get it. I dodged a bullet when I stood up for my own feelings, regardless of his unwillingness or inability to actually hear it.

3. What's your favorite Elvis song? Why? If you don't have one, why not? 

    "Suspicious Minds." It is quite different from the rest of his catalog, and the combination of Country and Pop appeals to my sensibilities. The story of why and how it was recorded is pretty cool, too.

4. Should all things Christmas be illegal until December first? 

    if not actually illegal, I think it would be fantastic if we could wait for one holiday or season to end before launching the next one. Whatever peculiar quirk of human nature makes this happen is warping kids into believing in a weird, unrealistic idea of temporal fluidity.

    For what it's worth, I think the rest of us should be able to kick anyone playing Christmas music before December. They are so damned smug about it, as if the rest of us are curmudgeons and they're completely reasonable.

5. What subject taught in school have you used most in life outside school? 

    English.

6. In what location would you most like to sleep under the stars? 

    have been thinking about this lately, as the seasons change. In my next (?) place to live, I'd like to be in a somewhat more out-of-town setting, so that I can leave windows open sometimes during the spring-summer-fall months. It's lovely to have windows open, get a cross-breeze, air out the homestead. I could do that where I live now, but there are a few drawbacks. The screens don't fit tightly in the windows, so it is an invitation for creepy crawly visitors. There is an unofficial path past my house, so it's not quite secure and can be unexpectedly noisy. Finally, I'm about half a block from a U.S. highway. It's a fairly busy road (for which I tried to find usage statistics but ended up in a rabbit-hole of DOT data that was both fascinating and useless to my purposes) and at certain times is quite loud.

    I'd like to live someplace quiet and peaceful, where having the windows open (especially at night) isn't an invitation for anything except nature sounds, wind, and a view of stars from my bed.

7. Do you like marmalade sandwiches as much as Paddington Bear does? 

    I'm not fond of marmalade, though I will eat it in a pinch. I prefer raspberry, blackberry, or strawberry jam.

 

[from 3000 Unique Questions about Me; the title quotation is by Pablo Neruda, from "Tonight I Can Write (The Saddest Lines)"]