Amanda over at The Last Mom on Earth is one of the best writers I know. Or don’t know. I don’t know how the fuck cyber relationships work. And it’s more that I admire her. Not that I know her in the first place. ANYWAY. She routinely wins first prize over at the Trifecta writing challenge (and she should – dear JESUS the woman can write).

The point here is that she got tagged in a meme, and she, in turn, tagged everyone. I’ve been resisting this meme for awhile, though I don’t know why since I’m a huge quiz fan. Maybe I just like Amanda’s questions better or something. I give you a picture, ten random facts, and the answers to Amanda’s questions.

Picture:

Ten random facts:

1) My favorite word is fuck. But you knew that. I suppose that hardly makes it random, but there you go.

2) I wear my lucky underpants when things get stressful. The current pair has Mickey Mouse on them, but they are getting ready to wear out, and sometimes it’s ages before I figure out which pair the luck passed on to.

3) I grew up in the country but moved to the city. I wish for the country but know I couldn’t hack it anymore. (Also, I wrote the opposite of what I meant at first. Dumb fuck me.)

4) I am a nerd and proud of it.

5) I love my children and husband deeply, so deeply that I have no idea what I would do if I lost one of them. But they don’t complete me. That’s writing.

6) I am absolutely shitty at words with friends. If you want to win all the time, play me. (Though you’ll have to wait awhile between moves. I only have time a few times a week to play.) Sometimes, an awesome word will yield me an awesome score. Far more often, I’ll sacrifice points to make a really cool word that just feels pleasant on my tongue and under my fingers. Not to mention strategy was never my thing.

7) I loved Little Women as a kid. I hate it as an adult, though I am comforted that Louisa May Alcott wrote it knowing it went against all of her philosophies and largely so she could make a living. I hate Little Men even more.

8 ) I always want nifty socks for holidays , but I can’t understand why other people besides me would consider socks an exciting gift. I already know I’m easily amused.

9) I want to retire to Naples or Bonita Springs, Florida.

10) I can’t wait for my kids to get better at video games so we can really kick ass in Lego Star Wars together.  Or whatever is popular when they achieve Wiimote mastery.

 

#3 – Amanda’s Questions for Everybody:

1. What do you regret?

Grad school. I wish there was some other way I could have met Scott. We spent our lives living within an hour of each other. When I got lost in Cincinnati so badly that one of my mother’s friends had to rescue me, I drove past the Hardee’s where he worked getting to a pay phone. And we did not meet.  When I was in community theater, he was a prof at the college where we performed. But we did not meet.  It took grad school in a city two hours away to bring us together.

And I hate that. Grad school was one of the worst periods of my life. I should have been institutionalized (yes, really) but instead had to muddle through bipolar (with complications from a bad reaction to all birth control pills) and hateful routine by using my usual coping mechanisms which scare the shit out of other people. And I did that for two reasons. First, I couldn’t stand the thought of letting down people who loved me. I did not get those degrees for me. I mean, I went to Lexington because I thought I wanted them. But I realized it was going to take my writing away from me within a semester and wanted to quit.

So I got the degrees for my parents, who are the LAST people who would EVER force something like that onto a person.  And I got them because I was secretly grateful to Lexington for introducing me to Scott, and I wanted to say I got something besides my MRS in Grad School.

Now? I regret them, because without the financial stability of the backup career, I would be writing full time.

2. Are you happy, most of the time?

Yes. But when I’m not, oh baby take cover.
3. Tell me about one of your quirks.

I have a hard time keeping my opinion to myself. It’s not a nice quirk. But you didn’t say it had to be.
4. Top 5 musicians you want to bone.

I grew up with a rocker father, and that shaped my perceptions of musicians. I never looked at them as sexual objects. Seriously. I vaguely think of all of them as my Dad. Even the girls.

5. Do you feel like a lot of people know you?

No. Not enough. I want to be known by lots and lots of people. I had three friends in childhood. Two until I met Rachel in Science Fair. It left me Indelibly convinced of my inability to make and keep friends.

6. What are you reading? Is it good?

Stephen King, Full Dark, No Stars. And the reviewers who disliked it are fucktards. It’s great.

7. What did you go to school for? Was it a good choice?

See one. No, that’s not fair. I went because I wanted a backup career to being a writer, and I thought graduate degrees would give me that security. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

8. Are you in a lot of debt?

No. Scott and I both went through school on scholarships. That means we had no student debt to speak of. (And student debt is a pernicious thing.). We’re savers. We’ve got a mortgage, but that’s our only debt we don’t fully pay off at the end of each month.

SO that’s a good thing, right? It IS a good thing. I just wish it bought me room to do the thing I know is mine.

9. Where do you go on vacation?

Vermont, where Scott’s Mom grew up, and where a lot of her family still lives.

Ohio and Indiana. Family, friends.

And Naples, Florida, where I will someday live.

10. What makes you mad?

Many things. Here’s a few:

Injustice, adults who dumb things down for kids, that people I admire die before I get to meet them, that I am not a famous author, this damned house we live in (I have a love hate relationship with it), when my son gets up at 5AM and won’t go back to sleep, people who don’t listen to me or blow me off, that gel shit they call green slime and market as a toy.

I tag nobody. Unless they want for tagging. In which case, they can tag themselves and post as they wish in the comments.

Oh yes. The things I ask of the people I have not tagged.

1) What’s the craziest place you’ve had sex

2) Elvis walks by you. It’s really the REAL Elvis. You’re sure of it. Do you blow his cover?

3) Do you have a pet peeve?

4) Do you have a pet?

5) What is the most evil thing that has ever come in direct contact with you?

6) If you could afford it, what’s the first impractical thing you’d run out and buy?

7) How do you feel about zoos in the US? Outside the US?

8 ) Do you like or hate your hair (or its absence)?

9) Do you dream in color and of flying? (even if not at the same time)

10) Favorite mixed drink (pref. with recipe)

 

About jesterqueen: Jessie Powell is the Jester Queen. She likes to tell you about her dog, her kids, her fiction, and her blog, but not necessarily in that order.