Normally I'm much more Philinte than Alceste, bot boy oh boy, these last couple days are tipping the balance. One of the less...calming aspects of my job is how little private space I have: the conference room five feet from my desk that has been filled the last three days by a boisterous group who would not keep the door closed; the person who 'borrowed' the Kleenex off my desk and then 'asked' if they could take it; my boss walking up behind me to take something off my desk rather than asking me to hand it to him; the gal who rifled through my Dilbert desk calendar and then whisper-simpered "I just want to take a peek at your calendar." I am ready to do violence.



Note to self: finish your business plan. Man, opening my coffee shop can not happen soon enough for me. At least then when people come into my space, they'll be giving me money.

Leave me a comment saying anything random, like your favorite lyric to your current favorite song. Or your favorite kind of sandwich. Something random. Whatever you like.

I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.

You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions, if you like.

You will include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.

When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.





From noelfigart



1. Is more true if it makes you laugh or makes you cry?



Hmm..I'd say neither are an indicator of truth with me. If you're asking which indicates greater emotional significance or impact, I'd have to say crying. I laugh pretty easily.



2. Do you have a food you would be sad if you could never eat again?



Heck yeah! Pretty much everything I like. But to give a credible answer, I'd have to say sushi or a good medium-rare roast beef. And I don't plan on giving them up, but I am in good conscience going to cut-down on some foods--those with production methods that are comparatively destructive or damaging to the environment. (I am reading Jane Goodall's Harvest for Hope and it's making an impression).



3. Do you have an art or arts you practice? What do you do?



The short answer is no. I played the sax (alto and bari) in school, and I purchased an alto (lease-to-own) through a local music shop last fall with the intention of getting back into playing. My practice schedule has fallen by the wayside this summer...but I'm still making payments rather than returning it, because i do have the intention of playing regularly. Other than that, I'm an inveterate doodler, sketcher and cartoonist.



4. How did you and your husband meet?



Ha! We met through the internet. We were both living in Seattle at the time. I was a single mom so the match.com and similar sites were how I met potential dates. Matt had posted an ad on some site (I forget--it wasn't one of the big ones) and I came across it in a casual browsing session one evening in February. It caught my eye--combination of a pic of a cute gent with long hair and something about the whimsy of the words--but I chose not to respond. I was dating a fellow--a minister--at the time and I wanted to see where that went. I did save the ad on my computer, though. Fast forward some six months and--no longer dating Mr. February--I came across Matt's ad again. It seemed familiar and I remembered it was the ad I had made note of the previous winter.



I emailed him, he emailed me back (expressing surprise--he'd gotten only one other response from the ad, shortly after he'd placed it, and had forgotten about it). We tossed emails back and forth for maybe four or five days and then agreed to meet at a coffee shop (natch). He was waiting outside the coffee shop as I approached; he spotted me as I waited to cross the street and made a courtly bow. I remember thinking "Okay, this guy's probably a geek. I know from geeks. Good." We ordered coffee--I was a bit nervous and forgot to request 'decaf' for my mocha (I always order decaf mochas). We sat and chatted for awhile, then walked around the neighborhood. I think I may owe my marriage to ordering a caffeinated mocha by mistake--the caffeine on top of the 'this blind date has possibilities' energy had me in a bit of a whirry-buzz and I was *very* animated. Matt later told me that his impression of this was "Cool! Someone who has as much energy as me!"



We parted ways, had a few 'is this a date or isn't it?' dates and then did a quick slide into dating, nesting and marriage.



5. For that matter, how did you and Monkey meet?



Ah, I met the monkey in college, at the school newspaper (the CPJ). He'd been the business manager of the paper the year before I met him, during which (in the course of an academic year) he brought the paper into the black for the first time in years and years and years (oh, there's an amusing story there--ask him sometime when he's feeling chatty). Monkey was comics-page editor the year I worked at the paper (I answered an ad to be an ad salesperson--I was one of two and the other gal quit right away). My best friend (and roommate at the time) Cat had a comic strip running in the paper. She encouraged me to draw a strip and I started doing so.



The first time I really remember meeting Monkey was when the paper moved offices (from a large closet to a decently large office space). He walked in to talk to Diane (the faculty advisor) and I remember thinking "cute!" (This was *not* a unique reaction around the CPJ offices, let me tell you.) I speculated, of course, until I became aware of The Girlfriend--no, *gasp* The Fiancee, K. Cue the "oh well" reaction. ;)



We became casual friends, socializing occasionally through paper- and cartoonist-social events (there was that fun party with the whip cream...). I left Evergreen after two years, and he & K moved down to Oregon after he graduated. Through some accident of circumstance and common interest we stayed in touch and became better and better friends. I am *so glad* we did.

It’s been a medically eventful week for my family. Got a call from my mom Monday evening (or rather Matt did—I was out with the kids—and he met me at the door with his ‘bad news’ face when I got home). My Aunt Ann (my mom’s sister) had been in a car accident and had died. Called mom back and got more details—Ann was driving back to Spokane from a family reunion some distance away with three of her grandkids in the back seat; she had crossed the center line and collided head on with a wheat truck. She was dead at the scene, the kids had been airlifted to a Spokane hospital. All three kids were (are) in PICU; all three suffered some nasty injuries; all three will recover. (Yay for living in a first world nation.) Family suspected that Ann might’ve had a stroke or heart attack (she was not in good health); autopsy results confirmed it was a heart attack.



N.b. I wasn’t that emotionally involved with/invested in my aunt. I’m sorry she died, mostly for my mom’s, her kids’ (my cousins) and her grandkids’ sake.



That was Monday…Wednesday evening I get home from running errands with Aaron (having left Matt at home to madly complete his last assignments for the courses he’s taking in an insanely abbreviated four week quarter this summer) to find Matt reporting some difficulties with proprioception. Oh, and typing (related, I suppose). This was a curiosity and I googled ‘proprioception problems’ until he also mentioned having difficulty thinking of (or saying) the right word. Right. Decrease in fine motor control, mild aphasia…I googled stroke symptoms and called our friend Paul if “he could come up and watch the kids. I’m taking Matt to the doctor.” Paul was there in about five minutes and we were off to the ER.



Two and a half hours, some questions and one cat scan later, Matt was diagnosed with a stress-induced atypical migraine. They sent us home, telling him to take some Tylenol and “relax.” First, yay (that diagnosis beats a whole host of others in its lack of bad-nastiness). Second, weird. The migraine symptoms I’ve heard of include a horrible headache, light sensitivity, nausea and occasionally vision problems…never heard of them causing motor or speech problems. Oh, and he didn’t even have a headache until we got to the ER.



Here’s hoping next week is less eventful.

Spoke with a pleasant, concerned mom on the phone today. She has a 20yo that just graduated with a bachelors degree and expressed some late breaking interest in a masters. She was inquiring about application deadlines, and what materials were required. In the course of giving her the information, she laughingly related how glad she was that her son wanted to pursue an MA, since he wasn't really sure yet what he wanted to do (with his life--that last part was silent, but still easy to hear). I told her that grad school was a decent option for a 20yo with a 4 year degree who hadn't decided on a path yet--but that IMO travel was an even better one. Buy a plane ticket and a rail pass, and off you go for several months or more. I know she won't pass that advice along--it's not safe enough.



One of the quirks of our culture that frustrates me is how we artificially extend adolescence--though perhaps childhood would be more apt in this instance.