everybody wants to be somebody fancy. Even if they're shy

1 When's the last time you had to give a speech? How did it go? 

    early in my last tour of duty at the financial company, I was part of a 3-person team giving presentations aimed at encouraging staff to take advantage of the 401(k). My co-presenters were the head of my department—also an attorney, and one of the most frighteningly extroverted and pointy females I've ever even seen—and the head of Human Resources. That person was approaching retirement, as motherly as can be, and skillfully hiding her sharp observational skills behind an air of mellow distraction. Needless to say, we made a peculiar group. They shared the first half of the program and I handled the last part. 

    It was nerve-racking, sleep-depriving, boring, time-consuming, annoying ... and it was a lesson in anxiety. Those restless nights of diffuse worry taught me that pre-panic is pointless. Though many of the presentations had awkward moments or did not go particularly well, a couple of them were flawless, well-received, and had the desired effect—and those good results did not correlate with the degree of stress I'd placed on them beforehand. Since going through that experience, I've been less prone to sleepless nights, preoccupied by imagining the worst. Even though I disliked the experience, and still don't think of speeches as a good thing, I'm less anxious now than I was before going through that. It was worth it.

     

2 What annoys you most about women? 

    when she, individually, is annoying. I'm NOT a fan or proponent or blind acceptor of gender stereotypes. 

 

3 What's the best thing you ever built or created? 

    this blog 

 

4 If you could wave a magic wand and stop any one thing, what would you stop? 

    Canadian (and all other) wildfires. As I write this, my view of the hills near my house is obscured by a layer of yellow-gray haze. It makes me angry and afraid, to imagine what it's like anywhere more near than I am to the actual fires. 

 

5 If you were offered free cosmetic surgery by the best plastic surgeons in the world, would you take it? 

    in a heartbeat 

 

6 When are you shy? 

    unaccompanied, in a social situation involving people I've never interacted with before 

 

7 When did you get your first traffic ticket? Share the details. 

    I've never, just two verbal warnings (one in high school, one during college) and one written warning (a decade ago). I'm not over-confident but also not timid, I know my limitations and work within them. 

 

[from The Complete Book of Questions : 1001 Conversation Starters for Any Occasion; the title quotation is by Donald Miller, from Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality]