Enchanted's New Quiz

1. Do you like blue cheese?  Yes
2. Have you ever smoked?  Not habitually, but tried a few times
3. Do you own a gun?
 - Do water cannons count?
4. What flavor Kool-Aid was your favorite?  Possibly Cherry?
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments?
 - No. Never had health problems (knock on wood)
6. What do you think of hot dogs?
 - They taste weird and the texture is odd, but I'll eat chicken & turkey dogs.
7. Favorite Christmas film(s)?  Bad Santa!
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?  coffee or tea
9. Can you do push ups?
 - It would look bad if the PE teacher couldn't do push ups
10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry?  Black pearl pendant
11. Favorite hobby?
 - I don't think I can narrow it down to one.
12. Do you have A.D.D.?  No
13. What's one trait you dislike about yourself?
 - I don't give up, even when I should
14. Middle name: yes
15. Name thoughts at this exact moment?
 - I need to sleep more hours at night
16. Name drinks you regularly drink?
 - Tea, coffee, hot cocoa and water
17. Current worry?
 - Not being able to find a job (relatively) close to my boyfriend
18. Current hate right now?
 - Organ meats (probably why I don't like hot dogs) and okra
19. Favorite place to be?
 - Snuggled up in bed on clean sheet day!
20. How did you bring in the new year?
 - Most likely, one of my friends had a party.
21. Where would you like to go?
 - Prague, Great Wall, the Karakoram Range, Macchu Picchu... so many places!
23. Do you own slippers?
 - Several pair, and I wear them, too, because I'm always cold!
24. What shirt are you wearing?
 - Exercise bra top with two sweatshirts over it
25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets?
 - I've never tried, but I think they'd be too cold.
26. Can you whistle?
 - Only by sticking my fingers in my mouth
27. Favorite color?  Violet
28. Would you be a pirate?
 - No - I couldn't live on a crowded boat
 - Plus, I'm not really good at robbing and killing people in that fashion
29. What songs do you sing in the shower?
 - Old Michael Jackson songs
30. What's in your pocket right now? - Lint
31. Last thing that made you laugh?  - My housemate
32. What vehicle do you drive?
 - 2003 5-speed Mazda MX-5 Miata (used to be called EOS in Japan)
33. Worst injury you've ever had?
 - Possibly when I snapped my left fibula in the caves at Pinnacles monument
I had to crawl out of the cave with my then-11 year old nieces crying
and then hop up a flight of stairs so I could get to a place where the rangers
could put me on a stretcher and carry me down the hill
34. Do you love where you live? - Yes
35. How many TVs do you have in your house?
 - 1? I have none, and I *think* my housemate has 1
36. Who is your loudest friend?
 - Greg has a pretty voluminous voice
 - We frequent Peninsula Coffee Roaster
37. Do you have any pets?  - yes
38. Does someone have a crush on you?
 - I'm too ornery and ugly
39. Your favorite book(s)?
Mario Vargas Llosa's older books, Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman,
Snow Falling on Cedars (no, I didn't see the film)...
40. Do you collect anything? - I try not to
41. Favorite Sports Team?
 - Nope. I know, you'd think a PE teacher & former coach would be a big sports fan.
42. What song do you want played at your funeral?
My niece has instructions to scatter my ashes at several places around the world,
but I don't plan on having any kind of formal service.

Carnivora Canidae Canis Lupis

Surely, someone describing himself as the Big Bad Wolf in search of Red Riding Hood has much to hide and can only be trouble! Best to steer clear.  No problem, I'm a pro at avoidance.  Besides, he is on the other side of the world.

A comment here, a chat there. Then I am a one hour flight away, at least for two months. More chats. Hints of intelligence, depth, a few shared interests, and suddenly, I'm on that one hour flight.  I have a name and one photograph.  No backup plan.  Not doing well at steering clear.  What am I doing?!?

You are taller than I imagined! The lump in my throat restricts my breathing. I change my mind. You haven't seen me and are facing the other way. I can still turn tail. My mouth betrays my escape and says hello before my brain can stop it.

Now it's too late.  I am locked in for the weekend. Two weeks later, I lock myself in for another weekend.  The events are a blur, but I see you with clarity.  Clear, expressive, eyes that are kind one minute, and mischievous the next.  A somewhat serious set to your mouth that softens when we are alone.  The dimples that form as you laugh when you try to teach me to say "ich spreiche" and I fail miserably.

I return home reluctant to give up the happiness that has evaded me for so many years so soon. Plans to move halfway around the world take shape. They had been in the works before, but now they are much more appealing. Except they won't bear fruit for at least five months. A short visit at the four month mark provides some consolation.

Until then, you are again on the other side of the globe. I wonder whether I will be enough reason for you to end your search... and hope someone else won't in the meantime.

It's Fleet Week

Sitting in my office yesterday, trying to close out the third quarter nine days after it ends (my bosses have no sense of how much time it takes to collect all the data -- and they work on cash rather than accrual basis). Outside my window, four blue streaks overtake a commercial jet in the SFO landing pattern, making it look like it's suspended in place in midair. The Blue Angels are in town.

They must have touched down and taken right off again, because they circled back into the landing pattern again not long after. I have to admit, they are not all that interesting to me. Given that their sole purpose is to be a recruiting tool for the Navy and Marines (even though they are mainly seen as an entertainment group), I'm not their target audience, anyway -- I'm middle-aged, female and have poor eyesight. Oh, and sonic booms hurt my ears.

I kind of wonder what percentage of Navy and Marine recruits join up because of the Blue Angels' influence. Realistically, the chances of making the 6-man squad, or even the 110-man support crew, are pretty low. Maybe the alternative of serving on ships isn't all that bad.

Another Quiz from Raven...

1. If you could live at any time in history, when would it be?
Right now (I'm too fond of indoor plumbing and electricity)

2. If you were asked to do so, would you sing in public?
I already have

3. What are you passionate about? Education and intelligent city planning
What really moves you? Beethoven's Eroica, when well-played

4. If you won the lottery, how would you spend the money?
I'm not much of a spender. I'd probably stick the bulk of it in my investment portfolio, donate some to organizations I support and finish some repairs and upgrades on my house I've been putting off. Of course, if I only won fifty dollars, I guess I'd buy myself a tank of gas!

5. What is the craziest thing you've ever done?
Traveled on a whim to a country where I couldn't speak the language to meet a complete stranger without a backup plan in case things went badly. I am about to leave everything behind and move a continent and an ocean away from my home in part to be closer this stranger.

6. If you were throwing a party for five famous people, alive or dead...who would you invite?
I don't know! Maybe Richard Feynman.

7. If time and money were no object, to what causes would you dedicate your efforts?
Animals and education.

8. What is your favorite comfort food meal?
Dungeness crab cioppino

9. If you could pick one talent that you don't already have, what would it be?
I don't know!

10. If you could spend a whole day doing exactly as you wished with no demands and no responsibilities,and no limits what would you do?
Only one? I'd put the top down on my car, drive out to the coast and have breakfast at Ketch Joanne's at Pillar Point Harbor (the food is so-so, but it's just a comfortable place). From there, I'd walk down Highway 1 to the beach and continue down the beach for a bit. On the way back, I'd stop to watch the surfers at surfer beach (its 'real' name is something else, but I can't remember it). Then I'd walk out on Johnson's pier and visit Captain Dan on the Seabird and buy a crab or two from him, stop at the fish market to pick up some mussels, stop at the farm stands to pick up vegetables, go home to make cioppino, and eat it with warm sourdough.

Firsts - from the Raven Lady

I was going to post my answers in the comments, but it took up too much space!

1. Who was your FIRST prom date? Pedram. He was on the track team with me and held (possibly still holds) the national record in the 1500m run in Iran.

2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love? No, but I'm Facebook friends with the first boy I ever kissed!

3.What was your FIRST alcoholic drink? Wine coolers? Ahh... the eighties!

4. Who was your first kiss? Chris. I think I was eight, but it was actually just a peck. I don't remember my first REAL kiss, so it must have been bad!

5. Who was the FIRST person to tell you they loved you? David (we were engaged)

6. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning? My animals!

7. Who was your FIRST grade teacher? Ms. Butler, maybe?

8. Whose heart did you break for the FIRST time? Quite possibly David

9. Who was your FIRST best friend and are you still friends with them? Jill, no.

10. What was your FIRST sport played? basketball on the street. soccer was my first organized sport.

11. Where was your FIRST sleep over? Jill's, San Mateo, 4th Grade. And since Raven mentioned her first adult sleepover, I think mine was in San Francisco with Paul.

12. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today? I was chatting on IM with Lobo when it became today, but the first person I actually spoke with after waking up was Jon at the coffee shop.

13. Whose wedding were you in for the FIRST time? Possibly my friend Tracy's in New Jersey.

14. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning? Kissed the desktop picture on my notebook -- a photo of mi novio. I know, corny.

15. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to? hmm.... thinking....

16. FIRST tattoo or piercing? NONE! I'm the only person left with no ink and no added holes.

17. FIRST foreign country you went to for vacation? Japan, if you count the races I ran there. If not, then I think either El Salvador or French Polynesia.

18. What was your FIRST run in with the law? Moving violation, most likely.

19. When was your FIRST detention? Nerdy kids who play the violin don't get detention.

20. What was the FIRST state you lived in? California

21. Who was the FIRST person to break your heart? I was pretty hurt when David (not the one I was engaged to) broke up with me, but I don't know that we had enough invested in the relationship at the time to qualify as a heartbreak.

22. Who was your FIRST roommate? I had 5 housemates, not just one!

23. Where did you go on your FIRST roller coaster ride? Santa Cruz, or maybe Great America?