March 27, 206

Monday morning you sure look fine.

I have been selected to join the Writing Womyn group, which has me quite certainly geeked. If you wonder why, just check out the list of members and explain to me how I qualify to be among them.

So! One of the first tasks of new members is to fill out the "20 questions" questionnaire.

Writing Womyn: 20 Questions

where ya from, sweet thing?

New Gloucester, Maine - currently exiled in Arizona.

"Mainiacs away from Maine are truly displaced persons, only half alive, only half aware of their immediate surroundings. Their inner attention is always preoccupied and pre-empted by the tiny pinpoint on the face of the globe called Down East. They try to live not in such a manner that they will eventually be welcomed into Paradise, but only so that someday they can go home to Maine."
-- Louise Dickinson Rich

who lives there with you? (human or otherwise)

My husband Calvin;
My daughter Marie;
Her friend Mo;
Gypsy the Beagle;
Gadget the Mini-Pin;
Oz the Bengal cat;
A male bearded dragon that I want to name Slartibartfast but am not allowed;
A male Chinese Water Dragon that will probably get named Ruffles as soon as we confirm that it is indeed male;
A female Chinese Water Dragon that, regardless of yet-to-be-confirmed gender, will probably be named Rock Eater (ala The Neverending Story) because that's what she does;
A Ball Python named Cali that really adds no drama at all to the household unless it's feeding day;
In May, Mo will be moving out and my son Michael, his wife Lilly, and their boys Robert (2), Devlin (1), and Roman (newborn) will be moving in. Then, the humans will finally outnumber the critters in the household.

who was your childhood heroine, and why?

I believe all of my childhood heroines were the triumphants of the books I read - Anne of Green Gables, Emily of New Moon, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Jo and Meg and Beth and Amy, Harriet the Spy, Trixie Belden, Meg of the "Wrinkle in Time" books, Polly Pepper, and on and on.

name three people who influenced your outlook on life.

My Grandmother. She raised me from the age of 8, and taught me about responsibility, hard work, sacrifice, and patience. Plus cooking, financial management, cleaning, and a myriad of life lessons that are unquotable and intangible. The sad thing is, I never really realized HOW much she taught me until after she was gone.
My neighbor Beth. I was best friends with her son until he passed away (to this date I think this is the most meaningful entry I've ever written). After he died, I spent many many long mornings and afternoons visiting with Beth, and we'd talk about everything under the sun. She was the mother I never had, the generation-gap-filler between myself and my Grandmother. She taught me about perseverance, finding the joy in life even among the tragedies, and the importance of having roots in your life.
Candy, a woman who boarded her horse at the same stable that I boarded mine. She is a veterinarian and now owns her own stable, and taught me a lot about caring for horses, riding technique, competition, and how to survive the snobby and unfair horse world surrounding a cash-poor teenager.

recommend two books everyone should read, two albums everyone should listen to, and two movies everyone should see, and tell us why they’re so awesome.

Good Gawd, if you've seen my (sorely un-updated) reading list you wouldn't ask me to try to choose just two books! I would say that the two books that brought me the most enrichment growing up were "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach, and "Danny Champion of the World" by Roald Dahl. The first because the metaphors about life and living are so wonderful, and the second because as a little girl growing up in the sticks I fully understood the absolute requirement to have an active imagination. But then there's "Where the Red Fern Grows" and "My Side of the Mountain" and fifty million others, too, so I'm hard pressed here.

Two albums... I'd say Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" because from beginning to end it's perfect. Also, Ben Fold's "Rockin' the Suburbs" for pretty much the same reason.

As for movies, "Love, Actually" is absolute perfection in a movie, personified. And, to go in a completely different direction, I laughed my ass off at "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle". "Waiting" is right up there, too, as a recent fave.

how did you get started keeping a journal online?

Well, I'd kept a hand-written journal from the first grade on up, so the tendency to write every damn thing down was there all along. Then one day, while looking for books on-line during a fit of work-induced boredom, I came across John Scalzi's website and his story, Agent to the Stars. That lead me to read his Whatever journal, which mentioned another on-line journaler, Shelley of "Shelleyness" (who doesn't write anymore and I still mourn). She mentioned another journal, "First Person Particular" by Viv (also no longer on-line). "Viv" (who is Jill of Debut) and I established a fast e-mail friendship, and when I expressed interest, she told me how to go about creating an on-line journal. I took a couple of HTML and web creation classes, and the rest is history.

your journal – is the name meaningful? why’d you call it what you did?

A friend of mine is actually mostly credited with the name. He and I used to exchange e-mail conversations at work, often responding to one another with "snort" or "smirk". One day he responded to some wise-ass comment I made with "snerk", which was according to him both a snort and a smirk combined. Since "snerk(dot)com" was already occupied, I modified the name to "Snerkology", which is of course the study of all things that make one snort and smirk. Well, I thought it was an amusing construct at the time.

what’s your motto/mantra/philosophy?

Everything happens for a reason, and everything will come about as it's supposed to.

what do you do when you’re not writing? (job/family/hobbies/etc.)

I work for a company that I have dubbed "AcronymCo", because I learned the lesson of Dooce and do not wish to limit the duration of my career. I am what they call a "Buyer", which means that I, uh, buy stuff. Me likey to buy stuff. I've worked there for coming up on eleven years, and have established quite a few skills in my corporate "tool box". Prior to becoming a Buyer in April of 2005, I have been (in reverse chronological order) a Manufacturing Systems Engineer, an Industrial Engineer, a Shop Floor Controls Engineer, a Project Coordinator, and an Admin.

I am currently going to school to earn a piece of paper that says I know stuff and therefore am qualified to earn more than I currently am.

My family occupies the best part of my time, and will occupy even more when "the kids" move back home in May. Michael has been in the Marines for the past five years so it's about damn time that he comes home.

The most time-occupying hobby of the day is Herpetology, or the acquisition and care of various lizards. These critters take a LOT of care, time, and attention. Much more so that we originally thought when we first got into the "lifestyle" (heh).

And then, there's the aforementioned reading. I read and read and read and read and read. So much so that my husband thinks my habit is effecting the successful functioning of our household, our life, and our relationship. So at the moment I am trying to cut back. That all goes out the window, though, as soon as Laurell K. Hamilton's next book comes out in June. Sorry, Calvin. The siren call of hot vampire sex is my downfall.

where do you see yourself in five years?

Everybody else hates this question, right? In my dreams, I see Calvin and I living in Maine and living a simple life full of the consumption of lobster. In reality, I'm sure I'll still be living in Arizona, still be working at AcronymCo, will have finally finished my (fucking) degree, and will have probably gained five more pounds.

if you could give your teenage self one piece of advice, what would it be, and why?

Don't give a fuck about them. They don't know anything, anyway.

how about them dodgers?

Not a huge sports fan. I watch the Olympics when it's on, and Suns games and Patriots games with half an eyeball while surfing the net.

what are your hot button issues? human rights? animal cruelty? kids? what makes you get up and get vocal?

Generalized statements about countries, cultures, and genders piss me off. Not all Arabs are terrorists, not all black people and Mexicans are criminals, not all Japanese people are out to take over the US, not all women of power sleep to the top, not all men are philandering bastards, not all American Indians are drunks, not all Persian Indians smell funny... you catch my meaning.

two trains are headed toward each other. one is traveling from chicago and the other leaves los angeles at the same time. if they are both traveling at 75 miles an hour, at what time would you care if they crashed or not?

I did this problem once, and I got it right! But no, as such, I don't particularly care if they crash, pass each other as ships in the night, arrive on time, or derail.

name five random tidbits about yourself that we haven’t already covered.

I love to cook. One of my favorite passtimes is concocting some new dish in the kitchen with Calvin, while drinking wine and listening to some good tunes.
Though I live in Arizona, I have never been to Mexico or Las Vegas, and I have only visited the Grand Canyon once. It was pretty, but I was not emotionally overwhelmed like some are.
My behavior and personality trends toward the geeky side. See this entry. As another example, I redesign my website and blog when I'm bored.
When Michael and Lilly bring the grandkids back to Arizona, I intend to take a nap in the hammock with each one of them in turn.
My favorite kind of day is when it's rainy and I can sit next to an open window, covered in a blanket, sipping tea and reading a book while the cat is curled up and purring at my side.

give us a quote, a song lyric, a stanza of poetry or something similar that speaks to you.

I don’t get many things right the first time
In fact, I am told that a lot
Now I know all the wrong turns, the stumbles and falls
Brought me here

And where was I before the day
That I first saw your lovely face?
Now I see it everyday
And I know

That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

What if I’d been born fifty years before you
In a house on a street where you lived?
Maybe I’d be outside as you passed on your bike
Would I know?

And in a wide sea of eyes
I see one pair that I recognize
And I know

That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

I love you more than I have ever found a way to say to you

Next door there’s an old man who lived to his nineties
And one day passed away in his sleep
And his wife; she stayed for a couple of days
And passed away

I’m sorry, I know that’s a strange way to tell you that I know we belong
That I know

That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

--"Luckiest" by Ben Folds

some fluff: what’s your favorite television show and if you don’t watch it, what’s your favorite book?

I am OBSESSED with Gray's Anatomy. Patrick Dempsey is my secret boyfriend. However, if there happens to be a re-run, my favorite book and the one that I've had to re-purchase twice now because it keeps falling apart is "The Lady" by Anne McCaffrey.

how far would you go for a loved one? meaning: if it came down to you or them, would you sacrifice yourself for them?

I would go to the absolute ends of time, space, and life for my loved ones.

tell us one happy memory. (unless it’s something we’d have to plead the fifth about later because it involves a missing s.o. and a deep lake.)

That one time when Calvin and I went to San Diego for his birthday. We stayed in a bed and breakfast, walked along the beach, got tattoos and piercings, got raving drunk, and had fantastic sex on a balcony overlooking the ocean (sorry, Marie).

what is your passion?

To draw as much enrichment from every experience in my life. Good or bad, pretty or ugly, fun or boring, extraordinary or ordinary. We are the sum total of our experiences, and I strive to be a well-rounded person.

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©Laura Charon 2000 - infinity.