Saturday 9: The Waiting

1. Have you ever stayed online for a very long time waiting for someone?

It's been years since I did that. I remember waiting an hour for someone once--I can't even remember who, probably just one of my friends. Instant messaging was a godsend when I first had it because it cut down on the phone bills ten years ago, I was making minimum wage, and I type 106 wpm. Now it kind of annoys me. People can only IM me on Facebook.

2. How do you eat Oreos?

I don't, now. That would be like an alcoholic chugging antabuse. I look at packages of chocolate anything and all I can think is how sick it would make me. When I did eat them, I favored the Halloween ones and the ones with the chocolate middles. The fudge-covered ones were also good on those nights when you just wanted to test what insulin could and could not balance in the human body. I liked them with milk, and I just bit into the cookie and ate it like any other--no taking it apart or anything. Boring, I know.

3. Are you cocky?

I maintain a defiant well-worn level of confidence in my own goodness as a person, my intelligence, my writing skills and abilities as a photographer, and the fact that I am about as honest and straightforward a person as one will ever meet. About the way I look, I am so far from cocky as to be in another galaxy. Seriously, my self-esteem pretty much blows--what I am is strong-willed. Try to hypnotize me. Just try.

4. Did you have an imaginary friend as a kid?

Apparently as a little kid (preschool/kindergarten age) I had a number of them and it really freaked out the family I was living with at that time. This must really date me, as now this would be called IMAGINATION and hailed with all kinds of wonderful complimentary adjectives. In the 1970s in my family of origin, all it did was make me odd. As I got older, my best friends were in books and in my writing, so they were all imaginary. They were nice to have when real people (I had many of those friends as well) fell short. I'm so proud to be odd. Nerds are the chosen people--they can get stuff done.

5. What t.v. station do you watch the most? Probably A&E and Vh1. I also like TLC and Investigation Discovery, and Comedy Central. When I'm slumming, TruTV.

6. Have you ever seen the ocean?
I have seen the Pacific and the Atlantic. Mr. Salted and I did a helmet dive in Cabo San Lucas in the Sea of Cortez--way cool! I love the ocean like I love nothing else in nature. It has always fascinated me with its beauty and power.

7. Have you ever been hospitalized?

Several times. For a broken ankle, for my hysterectomy, and for my recent gastric bypass surgery. I had a couple of outpatient procedures too.


8. What's your favorite brand of rootbeer? If I could drink it--A&W. I also like the Diet Hansen's. There's a kind that comes in a brown bottle that is really good--is it Thomas Kemper? That sounds right.

9. Could you live without a computer?

I could, but I wouldn't like it. My friends live in there.