Ready or not

After taking some time to process, I am now ready to let everybody know that my position at Microsoft was one of the 1400 that the company eliminated in late January.

I disagree with their decision at a philosophical level. With the current economy, I find it unconscionable for a company that has huge cash reserves and that is still making a substantial profit to eliminate jobs. It seems to me that they have contributed to the problem without even attempting to find other ways to lower operating expenses. And, judging by my coworkers' responses to my layoff (which ranged from bafflement, to outrage, to sobs, to one hugely generous offer to jobshare), the employees at the company are more than willing to tighten their belts. I think it's a shame Microsoft didn't give us the chance to try that first.

But that's business. At a personal level, I am certainly sad and stressed that my sweet job is going away. But we are okay. I get a good severance package, plus Microsoft offers lots of resources and networking to help me find a new job, perhaps even within the company.

And we have personal resources, too, not least of which is my comfort with a self-employed/contractor lifestyle. As many of you know, I was very happy as a contractor and took this "permanent" position only because it was Just Right. The agency I used to work through is optimistic about my prospects for finding something new quickly.

Strange as it sounds, one of the things I have been worried about most is telling people about this. I don't want sympathy. I don't want you to worry. Informed of these things, one friend came up with the perfect response:

Well shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!

It made me laugh and spared me the burden of reassuring her that we are okay.

But we are. Frank and MJ and Chloe and I have taken a hard look at the worst-case scenario, and, honey, it just ain't that bad.

If and when there's more to tell, you will see it here. The earliest that I will start a new job is late March. In the meantime, I probably won't want to talk much about any interviews or prospects (unless it's that little fantasy of opening a dive shop on Grand Cayman), but you can rest assured that I am actively looking for work.

What unschooling looked like today

MJ asked me to report on her "good day."

She was on MySpace in the morning, and then she watched an episode of Buffy with Chloe. After that, they went to get a Monster at Safeway and to visit Frankie Fingers at the piercing parlor. From there, they walked to my brother's to visit cousin Chelsea. They talked with her about her day, then the three of them walked back to our house. They hung out for a bit, then went back to Safeway for tortellini. Then Chelsea and MJ watched "Fight Club" while Chloe hung out with the neighbor kids. After the movie, Chelsea and MJ walked back to Chelsea's to hang out some more. They watched that show where "that dude Bear goes into, like, wild places and brings a cameraman and does crazy, survival-tactics shit. He was in the Everglades and he was catching catfish by, like, letting them bite his fingers, 'cause they just clamp on. And then he killed one with his knife and ate it raw. And he also found, like, two washed-up shrimp boats and a house that got tossed around by a storm." Then MJ got a ride home, where she hung out outside with Chloe and the neighbor kids for a long time.

When she came back in, she took down all the photos that had been her wallpaper in her room. (She hasn't yet decided what to replace them with. In the meantime, it's freaking me out. It looks like she's moving out or something.) She all the photos in a box and started decorating the box with cutouts from the many magazines that take up big chunks of our shelves. She kept doing that while she and I watched "Accepted."

What she says she learned about:

• Economics
• Favoritism (Frankie doesn't make MJ pay for replacement balls for her nose rings any more)
• Social hierarchy in high schools
• Psychology
• Anarchy
• Multiple personality disorder
• Survival (At this point, she launched into a horrified description of how dude Bear peed on the catfish bites on his hand to sterilize them.)
• Interior decoration
• Arts and crafts
• Alternative education

Rating the blog

I tried the little blog-rating tool Mary featured on her blog. It gave me a PG rating for repeated use of the word "zombie" and one use of the word "torture."

Somehow it missed the post where I featured "fuck" and several posts where I used "shit" and a whole bunch of posts where I used "hell."

It'll be interesting to see what it thinks of my blog now. :-)

Update one minute later: Yep, that did the trick. I'm rated "R" now.

Money, money, money, mon-ey

This started out as a comment on an unschooling forum. I think it works as a standalone post too, and it's LONG, so I'm saving it.

Our kids are 19 and 20. The older one doesn't live at home right now but soon will again. We support both of them financially. Come September, they will both be in college, which we are paying for right now but which will eventually need to become a group effort. They each get a weekly no-strings allowance, which they don't have to do chores to earn and which they spend on whatever they want.

That's our situation.

Our philosophy is one of cooperation and sharing, with a healthy dose of ignoring society's arbitrary, different-from-country-to-country rules about the ages by which kids **should** be doing certain things like driving cars, paying their own way, moving out, and so on. Society doesn't get to decide those things, we do.

The ways this philosophy has paid off are many, and somewhat immeasurable.

Where to start? The biggest benefit has turned out to be that they get a modicum of relief from the pressure they are under -- that ALL kids are under, no matter what their parents say and do -- to become independent adults. Our kids talk to us, so I can see that this pressure is staggering and probably worse than any "gotta earn a living" pressure they will feel later in life. ANYTHING I can do to ease that pressure and give them a little breathing room to "figure this shit out" is a good thing. We reassure them repeatedly that there is no hurry. They don't cost more now than they did at 13 or 15 or last year. We know we can afford this lifestyle, just as it is, which means we can joyfully continue to be a safe haven for them as long as it takes them to find their paths.

Do I think I will still have kids living with me five years from now? Judging by their personalities and by what their older unschooling friends have done, the answer is, sadly, no. I'm on Empty Nest Watch whether I like it or not.

The other benefits are more, well, ordinary, and the reasons we went with the no-strings allowance to begin with. They got to practice budgeting and math and learn what it feels like to have money on payday and be broke by the end of the pay period. And Frank and I got to stop always being the bad-guy money decisionmakers. "Can I have this?" they still ask, and all we have to say is, "It's your money."

If you want a little friendly feedback, your setup [kids do chores to earn allowance, with commentary about kids beginning to pay their own way at 16] sounds pretty stressful and somewhat adversarial! All that keeping track. All that wondering about where YOU should draw the line. Don't draw any lines. Figure out what the allowance is, hand it over with a smile, and then sit back and watch *them* figure out where the lines are and how to make the most of what they have. I bet they'll surprise you. (I should tell you sometime about the $5 megaton of candy the girls bought.)

When they make mistakes -- and they will, we all do -- I make purchasing mistakes all the freaking time *g* -- don't say, "See! I told you this wouldn't work!" Instead, recognize that it HAS worked. Mistakes lead to learning. If they buy too many potions and lose them [on a gaming site where cyber items are purchased for real money], they will learn how yucky it feels to get nothing for their money.

I have lots more to say but this is a novel already. Here are a couple of relevant posts from my blog:

http://zombieprincess.blogspot.com/2010/06/stuff-and-money-and-space.html

http://zombieprincess.blogspot.com/2010/05/date-with-reality.html

Now we're cooking

The house is full of the aroma of roasting beef, heavy on the onions and garlic. This is the perfect accompaniment to our overall sense of accomplishment: Today, we finally (finally!) took real steps toward cleaning out our house in preparation for either renting it out or selling it at the end of the summer. Huzzah!


But we **almost**didn't. We **almost** wimped out again. Frank and I had resolved earlier in the week to, at the very least, make a bit of progress on Fridays and Saturdays, our habitually emptiest days. Great plan! And then suddenly this morning we realized, oh shit, TODAY is Friday. Feet dragging, we started making lists and scoping things out (aka, stalling). But, lo and behold, a plan did begin to form, and we found ourselves not only laying some necessary groundwork but actually implementing the plan. Wow! Wondrous!


Today's steps: (1) rescuing from the garage those few items that aren't outright trash, and (2 and the part that happily snuck up on us) putting a bunch of other dump-bound stuff into the garage, where that "one big pile of garbage" can await a Designated Dump Run Day(tm). These efforts have made a measurable and therefore highly encouraging visual difference in our home. We're happy!


To cap off all this goodness, I just tried on an old pair of size 10 505s AND THEY FIT. My time at the gym since January is paying off!! Feels great!!


And soon there will be roast beef. Life is good!

Privacy statement

I was just reading comments from a woman who finds it odd when OKP (other kids' parents) befriend her daughter on Facebook.

Oops.

Here I am, odd again.

Surprise, surprise.

Yes, it's true: I have lots of friends, on FB and MySpace and in real life, who are kids. Unschoolers, nieces, nephews, younger cousins. I'm even friends with my own kids. Shocking, I know.

About Face(book)

Part two of her comments was the revelation that her daughter doesn't want her to join Facebook. She didn't seem to mind much, and, to her credit, she doesn't see that request for privacy as a Big Red Warning Flag to start monitoring her daughter's Internet interactions.

But I found it kind of sad.

I do understand the daughter's wish for privacy. I am, after all, a daughter myself, and a niece and a cousin and a granddaughter. I understand that knowing family members are reading what one writes can sometimes cause one to feel a need to temper one's writings. For example, out of respect for my dad and Uncle Morrie and a few others, I have let out a mere fraction of my frustration with the Bush administration (yes, really, you've seen only a fraction). And I usually find other outlets (Hi, Steph!) for the petty frustrations that come with most human relationships.

So, yeah, I understand. Awareness of your audience can have a dampening effect—sometimes good, sometimes bad—on what you write. And maybe this kid wants a place to flirt with boys without her mom watching, or maybe she wants to swear without being scolded, or maybe she just wants to be able to pretend her audience is limited to the people she is writing for. I understand that, too.

The snark factor

In some ways, this whole Internet presence thing would be easier if we could pick and choose. I could say all the snarky things I want. I wouldn't have those wincing moments of discomfort for the snarky things I do let through the filters. "Oh, I read your blog all the time," a lurker reveals, and my instinctive reaction is, Oh, shit, what have I said on there lately?

The other day, I made a slightly snarky comment on Facebook about cops speeding down my street, kind of forgetting that my cop cousin's wife is one of my friends. "Should Bruce be offended?" she asked with a smile. Wince.

Hmm, yeah, sometimes it would be nice if the things I put out on the Internet got seen only by the audience I'm picturing when I write them.

But here's the thing. No, here are two things:

One: The Internet is not a private place. If you want privacy, this is not the place for you. You can't control the audience. For myself, for now, I'm choosing publicity over privacy.

Two: The Internet is not a private place! That's the point. It is all about community. Like it or not, that mom is part of that girl's community.

But if the girl doesn't like it, maybe the why not? is worth exploring.

One theory of Why Not
While sitting in the orthodontist's waiting room the other day, I read an article about parents spying on their kids. The "experts" in the article try to walk a line between "allowing" kids their privacy and keeping kids safe. "It's a given that you set limits on screen time, block offensive Web sites, and set up filters to block inappropriate spam," the author says. Really. That's a given? Says who? And it goes downhill from there, with commentary about checking kids' cell phone logs, reading their text messages and journals and e-mail, installing GPS tracking devices, and so on.

Let me tell you about my kids' privacy. They have it. Period.

MJ has kept a journal for years. It's a beautiful leather book she got from her Aunt Judy. Most days, it sits on our coffee table. It has no lock. Some days, the temptation to take a peek in there is HUGE. But I never have.

Do you know why? Because she leaves it on the coffee table. She trusts me not to snoop. I can't even imagine violating that trust. It hurts just to think about violating that trust.

If I did, maybe my kids would be asking me to stay off Facebook, too.

Predators and porno and monkeys! Oh, my!
So, what about safety? What about all the predators on the Internet? What about all the inappropriate content?

Well, folks, my kids do not live in a vaccuum. I could restrict them from the Internet completely and there would still be predators in their world. Kids were preyed upon before the Internet ever existed, people. There are predators in their neighborhoods, their schools, their churches, their workplaces, and sometimes even in their homes.

And the content? How ridiculous. If my kids want to look at pornography, do you really think they are too stupid to find a way to do it? In this culture? Give me a break. So, first off, I think it is pointless to even try to restrict what they see. And second off, whatever they see, I know they are equipped to handle it. They grew up in this culture. Their sensibilities are tuned to this culture. Words and images that cause me discomfort or disgust they can disregard with a quick eye roll.

When I was a kid, I was freaked out by the flying monkeys in "The Wizard of Oz." Those soaring simians saddled my psyche with scars. I mean, look at this thing:

(shudder)

I wouldn't let my kids watch "The Wizard of Oz" for years. And of course when they did they thought it was perfectly ridiculous and weren't scared at all. The Disney movies they had seen by then dealt with far scarier themes than monkeys with wings. Their culture is different from the one I grew up in, and I'm not talking about the unschooling culture here. The world is different than it was when I was growing up.

As with so many things, I trust my kids to handle themselves. I offer help, of course, and cautionary notes, and conversation, and the occasional—rare, really—hardly-worth-mentioning bit of unsolicited advice.

Beyond that, it's none of my business.

Thursday 13

My Thirteen Best and Worst Memories of Childhood* * That I'm willing to share The worst 13: 1. Death of my aunt and two cousins in the Mt. St. Helens eruption in 1980. 2. Saying good-bye to my dad every summer. 3. Learning my young niece had been raped. I guess I was 19 when this happened, but it feels like a childhood trauma just the same. 4. Flying down to San Francisco one Christmas when I was, oh, 10 or so. I got queasy and, even after a couple of increasingly frantic trips up and down the length of the plane, all of the toilets were occupied. I tossed my cookies right there in the aisle. I was mortified and still feel huge sympathy for the flight attendants and all the poor people who were sitting near there. Maybe someday I'll work up some sympathy for that poor 10yo. 5. When my best friend pulled away from me in high school because her boyfriend was jealous of the time she spent with me. 6. Coming home to find my (first) stepfather had taken my Irish Setter—a stray I'd adopted and really connected with—to the pound. 7. The drunken melodrama that occurred between some of the adults at my graduation party. 8. Getting in trouble for staying with the neighbor boy I was babysitting even after his dad came home. He had begged me to stay until his mom returned so he wouldn't have to be alone with his dad. Being forced to leave him... Phew! Still hurts. 9. Getting kicked out of choir for chewing gum in the fourth grade. I'd never been in trouble at school before and found it utterly devastating. 10. Getting sent to detention in middle school for letting a cat into the cafeteria. I wasn't any better at handling being in trouble by then. 11. When someone left a note in my locker in middle school that accused me of thinking I was "King Shit." Even at the time I was as puzzled by that as I was hurt by it. How could a girl be a king? And how could someone so self-conscious and desperate to belong think she was king of anything? 12. The trauma (no joke) of getting a B in Physics, second semester of my senior year. This was compounded by my counselor pulling me out of PE class when he learned about it. Instead of expressing concern and asking what was going on with me (because something had to be going on with me for me to get a B), all he could talk about was how I'd made his life difficult because he'd already told the principal there would be three 4.0 students at graduation and couldn't I please do better? 13. Getting spanked. I don't know if I remember every time it happened, but I remember a few times vividly. The best 13: 1. My mother scratching my back at bedtime. 2. Crashing our car into my stepfather's cop car. I didn't do it on purpose and I felt bad at the time, but the memory has sweetened with time. 3. Receiving a HUGE box full of dozens of Christmas gifts from our new grandparents in Nebraska. 4. Christmases in general. My mom really made them shine. Stockings. 12 days of Christmas gifts. Lights and angel hair on the mantel. 5. Halloweens and scavenger hunts. Anything that got us out running the streets in the dark. 6. Traveling with my dad. 7. Weekends with Cherie/going to the ballet. 8. Sitting next to my cousin Dave at graduation. He made it really fun (B or no B). 9. Crawlstrokes! (This was the code word for guys' buns. It's a long story.) 10. Dancing at Studio 59, a teen club in Everett where we had many adventures. 11. My friendship with my sister/running loose in San Diego. 12. Learning to SCUBA dive. 13. Playing in the woods near our house/making Matchbox highway systems in the gravel out front/playing Barbies. I need more than 13 for this one. :-)

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Featured quote

Category: Movie
Source: Accepted

Spoiler Alert!
If you have not seen this movie, stop reading now and go immediately out and rent it!

The scene: Bartleby welcomes the students (in spite of himself)

The quote:

I know what it's like to be rejected. It sucks. Rejection blows. Being said no to. You know what, I'm sorry, you're just not quite good enough. You didn't have enough extracurriculars. You didn't play enough tennis. You didn't study hard enough for your scores. So you're not going to make it.

You know what? Screw that! Shouldn't we all have the chance to discover ourselves? Shouldn't we all have the chance to be said yes to?

At South Harmon, we say yes to you. We say yes to your hopes. We say yes to your dreams. We say yes to your flaws. So welcome. Grab a room, grab a friend, grab yourself, we don't give a shit. Welcome to South Harmon Institute of Technology!

x/69

I'm sick. I'm tired. I'm depressed. I'm supposed to be packed/ing to leave in the a.m. to go up to party with friends in Canada, but I don't have the energy. I'm worried I might have to disappoint said friends and my daughters by bowing out of the fun.

But all of that is too icky to think about, so I'm answering the questions I feel like answering from this meme that Frank did.

1. PICK ONE OF YOUR SCARS OUT. NOW HOW DID YOU GET IT?

I'm feeling rebellious, so I'm doing three scars:

- Forehead just left of my right eyebrow: chicken pox.

- Inner thigh just above my left knee: a normally very (very!) sweet neighbor dog bit me after being crushed by a car.

- Center knuckle of the index finger on my right hand: I failed to let go of a line I really should have let go of while sailing in the Virgins.

5. WHAT WAS YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE?

Two come to mind:

- MJ (who in the dream was also my little sister, Lynn) was in our basement, in terrible danger, and I couldn't get to her.

- My former stepfather (known around here as "The Asshole") and I were on opposite sides of a very tall chain-link fence. There was a rope tossed over the top of the fence, and he and I each had hold of it. In the dream it was very clear that it was My Rope, but he kept wheedling with me, trying to get me to share "just some of it" with him, and I didn't want to, but he wouldn't stop asking. Very stressful, and very symbolic.

13. DO YOU REMEMBER BIRTHDAYS?

If asked, I can recall the birthdates of most of the people (parents, siblings, spouses, children, nieces and nephews) in my immediate family and Frank's. But I am very hit and miss about acknowledging said birthdates in a timely fashion.

Ahem. Happy belated birthday, Daddy!

14. DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME YOU WERE BORN?

Early afternoon.

15. DO YOU HAVE A BIRTHMARK? WHERE?

I used to have one on my right thigh, but there's barely a trace of it now.

17. WHAT IS THE WEIRDEST THING YOU HAVE EVER DONE?

Define weird. Much of my life is considered weird by someone or other.

18. WHAT WERE YOU DOING BEFORE YOU STARTED FILLING THIS IN?

Feeling miserable and sorry for myself.

27. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ON SOMEONE (OPPOSITE SEX)?

Face and hair.

31. DO YOU GET CLAUSTROPHOBIC?

Small spaces bother me if someone or something is blocking the exit therefrom. Frank and the girls hear me say "Let me out" with some regularity.

32. COULD YOU EVER SEE YOURSELF MOVING FROM WHERE YOU ARE?

Yep. I have a love/hate relationship with our house. It's a great house and we've raised our babies here, but it represents so much responsibility and work. Everywhere I look I see chores.

33. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DISNEY MOVIE OF ALL TIME?

Beauty and the Beast. Nice to see the guy be the one to get rescued for a change.

34. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG OF ALL TIME?

"You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC has long been a favorite. But there are others.

39. WHO WAS YOUR FIRST CRUSH WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE?

Not positive he was first, but Jeff Wenzel gave me my first kiss. We were seven.

42. WHO OUT OF YOUR CURRENT FRIENDS (SAME SEX) HAVE YOU KNOWN THE LONGEST?

A couple of kids from elementary school are my friends on Facebook (Janie Hansen being the one I've known longest), but from my friends-in-real-life it's a tie between Erin and Denise, I think, with Steph a close third.

43. NOW THE OPPOSITE SEX?

The Facebook/elementary school entry for this one is probably Brian Roberts. In real life, it's Chris, then Frank.

49. WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE MOVIES?

Asked and answered here.

53. WHAT WAS THE FIRST GIFT SOMEONE EVER GAVE YOU (OF THE OPPOSITE SEX)?

Aaron, my boyfriend in middle school, gave me a heart necklace. I might still have that somewhere.

56. WHAT KIND OF BOOKS DO YOU LIKE TO READ?

Romances. I used to be embarrassed to admit that but not anymore. Character development is key in those, and that is always my favorite thing to read about or see in a movie.

Plus, the writing in books that are more socially accepted is so bad sometimes. Or horribly depressing. Oprah's Book Club? Gah! Shooting myself in the head would be more cheerful than some of those.

Don't get me started.

57. DO YOU LIKE POETRY?

Some of it. I tend to like stuff that rhymes (Yes! It's a poem!), but I appreciate a lovely turn of phrase wherever I find it.

Here's a favorite. I also love this one.

Chloe and I were just discussing this one today. Is the reference to "nunnery" a jab? Is the protagonist full of shit? Interesting questions like that.

58. HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR COFFEE?

Three ways:

- At home: fresh ground, about 1/3 milk, two or three spoonfuls of sugar
- At Starbucks: caramel machiatto
- At other coffee joints: caramel latte

59. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE PHRASE TO USE?

"Anyway..."

60. DRAGONS OR DINOSAURS?

Dragons in books, dinosaurs in movies.

67. WHAT ANNOYS YOU MOST?

Most often: left-lane hogs.
Most intensely: things not being done my way. I suppose the left lane thing is a member of this group.

69. ANY LAST THOUGHTS?

Too many to list.

A taste of MySpace

Quizzes go 'round on MySpace with great regularity. I liked this one. Actually, what I especially liked was MJ's answers to it. My answers are next to hers, in green.

A
• Are you available?: indeed [for what?]
• What is your age?: fifteen [the answer to life, the universe, and everything]
• What annoys you?: stupid people. mean people. bad grammar. [GW Bush - a stupid, mean person who uses bad grammar]

B
• Do you know anyone named Billy?: i do. [I know some Bills (my dad for one!), and a woman named Billie. No Billy that I can think of.]
• When is your birthday?: september [May]
• Who is your best friend(s)? chloe [4-way tie: Steph. Frank. MJ. Chloe.]

C
• What's your favorite candy? what a difficult question. [Duds]
• Crush? exists and seems like it will for awhile [yep, for more than 20 years now]
• When was the last time you cried?: hmmm, when i finished a very sad book the other day called extremely loud and incredibly close by jonathan safran foer [two nights ago]

D
• Do you daydream?: all the time. favorite pastime. [Not really. I think a lot.]
• What's your favorite kind of dog?: great danes and irish wolfhounds [belonging to other people]
• What day of the week is it? mondayyy (MJ answered this Oct. 29th, I think) [Friday, baby!]

E
• How do you like your eggs?: over medium and made by my father or scrambled and made by my sister. [in a cheese-and-mushroom omelette]
• Have you ever been in the emergency room?: i have. [a number of times, but never as exciting as MJ's trip]

F
• Do you use fly swatters?: i avoid flies at all costs. [rolled-up newspaper usually]
• Have you ever used a foghorn? sadly, no. [no]
• Is there a fan in your room?: no, i live in the northwest, it's too cold for fans. [yes, 'cause even in the northwest the upstairs gets hot in the summer -- and no A/C]

G
• Do you chew gum?: for sure. [occasionally]
• Do you like gummy candies?: yep, but not constantly. my dad buys them all the time and i get sick of them. [occasionally]
• Do you like gory movies?: oh yes, so very much. [occasionally]

H
• How are you?: groggy, kinda unhappy, missing people [sleepy but good]
• What's your height?: 5'3" [5'6"]
• What color is your hair? dark brown [salt-and-brown]

I
• Have you ever ice skated?: i'm horrible at it. [yes, very carefully]
• What's your favorite kind of ice cream?: chocolate chip cookie dough [rocky road]

J
• Have you ever heard a really hilarious joke? indeed. ["...major combat operations in Iraq have ended."]
• Do you wear jewelry?: two rings, a bracelet or four, a necklace, three earrings in each ear and a nose ring. [one pair of earrings and my wedding ring always, other stuff from time to time]

K
• Do you think kangaroos are cute?: absolutely. [absolutely]

L
• Love at first sight? maybe. [self-fulfilling prophecy maybe?]
• Lions or tigers?: bears, oh my. [tigers]
• Do you like black licorice?: kinda. [yes]

M
• Favorite movie as a kid?: beauty and the beast. [West Side Story]
• Ever shopped at Moosejaw?: never heard of it. and i wouldn't shop there cuz it has a ridiculous name. [no, but I would even with the ridiculous name]
• Favorite store at the mall? i like scorning hot topic, then shopping there anyway. [Cinnabon]

N
• Do you have a nickname? MJ, Mary Jane, Idgy, Marjie. [now? dragonfly, Miss V. from my youth? I don't wanna talk about it.]
• What's your favorite number? 15 [22]
• Do you prefer night or day?: nighttime. [both, but night wins by a nose]

O
• What's your one wish? it's a secret. if you ask i might tell. [that the Republican scientists are right (but I think we are all doomed to disappointment on that score)]
• Are you an only child?: siblings, i have. [no, I have siblings of many varieties]
• Do you like the color orange?: sure, why not? [some shades more than others, but yeah]

P
• What are you most paranoid about?: alien invasion. [nothing]
• Piercings?: 7 [2]
• Do you know anyone named Penelope?: i do not. [only in fiction]

Q
• Are you quick to judge people?: i get a first impression, then learn about them, then judge. not in a bad way or anything, god. [not too much except for certain "triggers"]
• Do you like Quaker Oats?: i like sugar with quaker oats. [occasionally]
• Quilts?: yes please. [often]

R
• Do you think you're always right?: it's a bad habit of mine. [about half the time]
• Do you watch reality tv? not on your life. [only by accident]
• Reason to cry?: sad stories. [what have you got?]

S
• Do you prefer Sun or Rain? both [sun]
• Do you like snow?: adoration [in moderation]
• What's your favorite season?: summer, winter, fall, spring. [late spring, early fall -- summer weather without the crowds]

T
• What time is it?: 11:55 [4:43 p.m.]
• What time did you wake up? nine? eight? ten? dunno. [half an hour too late]
• Any Tattoos?: not yet. [not yet]

U
• Can you ride a unicycle?: hahahahahahahahahahahahahaHA. [I don't know]
• Umbrellas?: once in a blue moon. [usually not]

V
• What's the worst vegetable?: asparagus. [canned peas]
• Did you ever watch Veggie Tales?: hell no. that's religious shit. i do like the pirates who don't do anything song, tho. [I might have heard of it once before this.]
• Ever considered being vegetarian? i am and have been for over a year. [not for long]

W
• Do you like water rides?: yeaaaa booooyyyyyeeeeeee. [on a hot day, oh yeah]

X
• Have you ever had an x-ray?: yes. [hmm, don't think so]
• Ever used a Xerox machine? i live for xerox. [maybe not an actual Xerox, not sure]

Y
• Do you like the color yellow?: adoration. [very much]
• What year were you born in?: 1992 ['65]
• Do you yell when you're angry? i curse a blue streak and yell myself hoarse. i don't have good temper control once i lose it. [it's been known to happen]

Z
• What's your zodiac sign?: virgo [Gemini, of course]
• When was the last time you went to the zoo? forever ago. i like the zoo, except for the fact that animals should be in the wild. [February 2007 in San Diego]