1. Who in your extended family makes you laugh the hardest and why?
my mom's next-younger sister, from whom I got my middle name. She is a joyful, earthy, irreverent weirdo with a wicked sense of humor and almost zero filter. There is a photograph of her in an album at my parents', showing her laughing so hard that tears have pooled in her eyes, with one hand up as if to wave away the camera. Just thinking of that picture can make me laugh aloud. This aunt is the one with whom my mom has been closest over the years. The relationship was my example of how sisters could be with each other. The contrast with how my life turned out is so strong.
2. Have you ever sent a text to the wrong person that was about them?
never. I have to be careful about that sort of thing when communicating at work—some topics really are strictly confidential—and it's spilled over into my private life as well. Before sending anything, I verify the recipient.
3. What is your honest opinion about your first kiss? mild regret, I suppose, and a little smidge of dismay. If I could go back, I'd have saved it up for a better moment, and definitely a better partner, than the one I chose. It wasn't a terrible kiss, and the circumstances could have been way worse. I just wish it had been with someone I genuinely liked afterward.
4. What’s the funniest thing that happened at a family wedding?
this is funny only in retrospect!
I'd been chosen (i.e.
"volunteered") to serve punch at a cousin's wedding reception. Given my vast numbers of cousins, this wasn't a rare occurrence and I really didn't give it a second thought until the day of... which happened to follow a night of heavy drinking and heavy making out. I guess I didn't realize how heavy it all was until after I'd showered and dressed and then looked in the mirror, only to find what appeared to be a shark bite on my neck. After considering and rejecting various methods of concealment such as hair-over-one-shoulder, makeup, bandage, or jaunty scarf, I ended up with the classic turtleneck and shorts ensemble that's ever so appropriate on a Midwestern summer day. I looked ridiculous but did not look like I'd been doing what I'd been doing the night before. Success!
5. What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done for love?
besides going to a family wedding with a shark bite? Oh, God: it's the mix CD I made for the animal-brained lawyer, which is so mortifyingly direct that it still makes my cheeks burn to recall it. He, as always, responded with aloof amusement that approached indifference, and has not mentioned it since then. Gaahhhh
6. What’s the worst hairstyle you ever had?
there was a phase in maybe 8th grade where my hair looked like it came from another planet. It was probably not the fault of the stylist but a combination of a sudden burst of hormones, the terrible hair choices of the era (hello, Sun-In and tight perms), and my complete inability to style my own hair. My naturally light brown hair was a sort of orange-beige that does not exist in nature. My normally straight hair was wound into not-quite-poodle-tight curls that reached just above my shoulders. And my typically healthy, albeit fine, hair was dry and split. Liberal application of a high-quality conditioner could have resolved a lot of it, but it lasted like that for probably half the school year.
7. Describe the circumstances around the biggest lie you’ve ever told without getting caught.
I was involved with someone whose presence in my life I could only vaguely explain, because any clearer truth would have been abhorrent to the listeners and emotionally difficult for me. And the secret was not mine to tell. That meant I was constantly on the edge of saying too much, or the wrong thing—or holding back precisely what I needed to talk about. Courting danger.
8. What’s the silliest thing you have an emotional attachment to?
glancing around the room, I see many choices that would make good answers to this question. I think it's my tabletop groundhog. He sits on the bedside table in my guest room. He reminds me of friends, laughter, and being loved even long-distance.
[from
here, divided and adapted; the title quotation is from the movie
Groundhog Day]
No comments:
Post a Comment