OF A GOLDEN AGE

Marty followed my lead on this one, so I’m posting my answers here also.

1. If I’m at home, I’m probably knitting.

2. I spend most of my time alone, by choice, and most of the rest of my life is very compartmentalized.

3. Whenever you see me, I probably have a lot on my mind, in both a good and bad way.

4. I carry five or six kinds of medicine in my purse. Maybe more. Probably more.

5. This year is the second in a row that I’m applying to get my Ph.D. in English. Last year I only applied to two schools and they were way out of reach.

6. Ten years down the road I see myself living in a college town and teaching English. I want to embed myself in a community like that.

7. Sophomore year of college, my beloved math advisor was leaving to go back to his old job in California, and I stood crying in his office while he told me that I did not devote enough energy to math to succeed at it. He was right: my interests were divided, but I still refuse to see that as any kind of liability.

8. My favorite people are the smartest ones I know. Intelligence is by far my most valued quality.

9. Certain music reminds me of the people who introduced it to me, and this is my strongest lingering sense memory.

10. If I’ve ever known you or we’ve ever been even casual friends, I probably think about you still.

11. There is a lot of injustice and illogic in the world. This frustrates me more than anything else. So many parts of our lives can never make sense, and when people willingly do stupid things, it makes me angry. Why throw away the few choices you actually get to make? (I don’t buy into free will, but that’s a story for another day.)

12. In more than a year and a half since college ended, I have read very little and I feel stupid and guilty about it. The fluctuations of my mental energy disappoint me and I really can’t concentrate enough to read most of the time.

13. Relatedly, I’m a chronic multitasker and usually have trouble focusing if there aren’t several things happening at once. I am easily bored, mostly because if my attention isn’t engaged I start thinking too much about unrelated things.

14. I don’t know that I want to get married or have children. At this point in my life I really don’t want children at all, but people tell me that will change and they’re probably right. I have a brand new niece, born last night, so I can be a cool childless aunt if I want.

15. If you outfox me at something, I love it when that happens.

16. In the past I’ve played the piano, clarinet, and bass clarinet. I played volleyball, basketball, baseball, and softball, and I was a swimmer for many many years.

17. I cry at movies all the time. I cry at engaging television shows or particularly calculated commercials. Did you ever see that Hallmark commercial where the old lady sends a jar of homemade jelly across the street? Oh man.

18. If you have an expertise, I want to know what it is and I want you to tell me about it in depth. I have a chronic urge to know everything that goes on. Part of what disengaged me after college was that I no longer had such a familiar relationship with where I lived and what I did. At Beloit I had a number of outlets for this kind of knowledge-hoarding and exercised it regularly.

19. Yes, I really do talk this way. It’s not a thing and I don’t do it on purpose. For years I was defensive of talking like a smart kid, and now I don’t care, I am what I am. If I tell you some fact or anecdote, it’s not to demonstrate that I’m so smart or something, it’s something I hope you’ll think is interesting too.

20. Also, I swear a lot, and it makes me angry when people suggest that swearing makes you sound stupid. No, it doesn’t. If you’re offended by it, that at least makes sense to me.

21. I still like the music I liked when I was 11, along with all the other music in between. One of my favorite pastimes is driving in my car with the music on, and Chicago has some of the best radio in the country. My taste has evolved and I like a lot of music now that I hated when I heard it first or when it first came out.

22. Most of the time I don’t feel very well. It’s not an emo thing, it’s more that I have a lot of mysterious health issues.

23. I adopt speech patterns of people I’m with. I don’t ever correct grammar or spelling unless someone asks me. I make up words all the time. And I don’t care if you’re a poor speller.

24. My space is always a mess. I could not care less.

25. Do you want to play cards?

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