An Interview

Coffee Bean over at The Righteous Buzz was recently interviewed by another blogger.

Interviews are voluntary which is nice, I think, since I know up front who will want to play. I happily agreed to be interviewed, and Coffee Bean left me a stack of questions.

RULES:
1. If you want to play, please leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions of your own choosing.

Coffee Bean provided an array of questions from which I selected five to answer. I think that was very generous of her.

1) What was your favorite toy as a child? If female, did you prefer dolls or stuffed animals?

My favorite toy was a mechanical tin bird. You wound the key and the bird chirped, turned its head from side to side, flicked its tail and flapped its wings. I played with it until it fell apart. My parents, I believe, were quite relieved when that happened. I searched for years until I found one on eBay a few years ago. I refuse to share it with my children. I'm so mean.

Dolls vs. Stuffed Animals: Interesting question. I'd have to say I played with dolls more, but my parents gave me a Steiff bear when I was three. I loved him so much most of his fur wore off, and I still have it.


2) Are you superstitious...ie: #13, cracks in the sidewalk, black cats, walking under ladders, etc., and in what ways?

I've never been one to worry about broken mirrors, black cats, and open umbrellas in the house, but I am superstitious with The Oracle's dreams. Sometimes his REM sleep tunes into things that actually do happen. It's creepy. My mother was much freakier in this arena, to the point where her dreams predicted my sister's death long before her diagnosis.

My only other superstition is (to The Oracle's dismay) the belief that by clinging to every baby-related item until I hit menopause means that I will not get pregnant. Being Catholic and devoted practitioners of the rhythm method, this idea has merit.

Alas, The Oracle voiced his displeasure over the notion of returning a bunch of baby items a friend borrowed & no longer needed to the already-overstuffed basement, so I left them on the lawn, labeled "Free," for the neighbors to grab. That was last March. I succumbed to his complaints about unnecessary baby clutter, and I'd bagged up a bunch of toys and clothes for the St. Vincent DePaul Society. Literally two days before I loaded the car, I learned I was pregnant. Baby #3 is due in a few weeks. (SEE?? I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!)


3) Do some people's mannerisms such as the way they eat or breathe ever bother you and what do you do about it?

I can't stand eating with someone who lets stuff like mayo or egg salad ooze out of the corners of his/her mouth. I worked with a lady who was so awful that she often allowed stuff to slime across her lips. If we were going out to lunch, I sat as far away (out of spittling range) as possible. I also put a screeching halt to a dating relationship after the guy took me to Dunkin Donuts for coffee. Watching him eat a powdered jelly doughnut left me sick to my stomach. Sure, there are messy foods out there, but that doesn't give you the right to not wipe your mouth even once during a meal.

My daughter REFUSES to cover her mouth when she coughs and sneezes. It's so bad that we're actually screaming at her about it. She also refuses to blow her nose, and when she has a cold her nostrils are constantly glistening while we're constantly nagging. Yuck, yuck, yuck.


4) What is your favorite movie of all time? Wow. I can't pick one. There are several that I'll watch time and again without complaint, even when I know the script backward and forward.

The African Queen, Rear Window (James Stewart), High Society, Charade, Frenzy, Camelot, The Fugitive, Presumed Innocent, North by Northwest, anything created by Monty Python or by Mel Brooks. Oh, and even though it isn't a movie, I religiously watched reruns of The Carol Burnett Show when I was a kid, and it's still one of my favorites ever. I see clips now and they're funnier than ever since so much of that humor went over my kid brain.


5) What is your greatest fear?

Next to losing a child, it has to be either me or The Oracle dying before our kids are grown. Knowing I'll be 60 when #3 graduates high school makes this seem possible.