Sunday Stealing: Friends & Miscellaneous

From Sunday Stealing

Anyday Meme

1. What is your dream career, and what path do you plan to take to get there?

A. When I was a young lass, I told my mother I wanted to write for the local newspaper. I have done that for the last 30 years, sometime as a staff writer, mostly as a freelance writer. It's time to move on to writing a novel, I suppose. As for my path, it is a simple one: butt in chair, fingers on keyboard.
 
2. Who do you aspire most to be like?

A. The best me I can possibly be.
 
3. What do you like in a best friend?

A. A best friend should give good hugs and love me as I love her.
 
4. Do you currently have any squishes (people you really want to be best friends with)?

A. Um. No. I am friends with the people I want to be friends with. There are a few folks I would like to see more of, but everybody has a life. There is at least one person in my life who will probably become a closer friend in time, if that is what you want to know. You don't generally meet someone and suddenly you are best friends, after all. It's a process.

5. What is your ideal platonic relationship?

A. These are odd questions. But a platonic relationship should consist of (a) caring for one another, (b) frequent contact but not overly much, (c) lots of laughing, (d) hugs when needed, (e) listening and pats on the head if required, (f) understanding and compassion when one or the other has gone a little nuts, (g) some kind of shared hobby or experiences, and (h) singing Soft Kitty when sick, even if it is over the phone.

6. Best late night IM/phone conversation story.

A. Well, it's not really a good story, but about 20 years ago, I was in a chatroom with someone who was suicidal and had overdosed, and I and another chatroom visitor teamed up to get an ambulance there. This was back before cell phones were popular and my Internet tied up my landline (dial up), so I kept the person chatting online while the other person left the chat room (he was on dial-up, too) to call the police. Neither of us lived in the same state as the person we helped. I lost contact with the person who called the police, but I am still in touch with the person whom we helped.
 
7. List one person you’d like to wear the sweater of, one person you’d like to bake cookies with, and one person you’d like to drive around and get lost with. (Can be celebrities or fictional characters, has to be three different people and not all the same person.)

A. Sweater: Jesus Christ. Cookies: Eleanor Roosevelt. Driving: Ellen DeGeneres.

8. Describe your current best friend(s).

A. All of my friends are intelligent. Politically, they are moderate left. Two read fantasy, two do not. One reads alternative medicine books and offers advice, one is an empath who attracts strange people (and I include myself in that), one is a bit of a martyr, and another likes to figure out puzzles. Two are artsy.
 
9. What is a strange, little-known fact about you?

A. When I was in my 30s, I soaked up electricity and apparently threw it back out. Light bulbs blew when I entered rooms and alternators on cars went dead. I used to go stand in Best Buy simply to soak up the electricity because it made me feel better. I still do that sometimes. But it has been a long time since I blew a light bulb or a car alternator.
 
10. What is a career you wanted to have when you were younger, and still kind of want to have now?

A. I think it would be cool to be an archeologist. I have this thing about wanting to dig up places on the farm and see what's under the ground, because I'm pretty sure there are Native American artifacts buried under the land.
 
11. If you could have tea and pleasant conversation with one person, who would it be?

A. Melissa Etheridge.
 
12. If you had a time machine, what era would you go to?

A. I would go forward. My biggest regret about dying is that I won't get to see how humanity turns out. So I'd go forward 1,000 years to see if we're still here or if we've killed one another.
 
13. What celebrity or historical figure would you love to have as your best friend and why?

A. Mary Johnston, a writer from my own county who wrote the best selling novel To Have and To Hold in 1900. She was into philosophical things and was part of the women's suffrage movement. I would like to have had her as a best friend because we have similar interests and we could have supported each other in our writing efforts. I would have marched beside her in an effort to bring equality to women. Alas, she died in 1936.
 
14. What fictional character would you love to have as your best friend and why?

A. I would like to be friends with Christine Cagney of Cagney and Lacey because she was tough, but vulnerable. And I always thought she needed another friend besides Mary Beth.
 
15. If you could have one wish, what would it be (cannot be related to romance or sex)?

A. That I was healthy.
 
16. If you were trapped on a deserted island and could only take one item, what would it be?

A. A cell phone so I could call someone and say, "Could you get me off of this island, please?"
 
17. If you could pick one career other than the one you are pursuing/plan to pursue, what would it be?

A. I've mentioned writing and archeology, so let's add a third one and go with historian.
 
18. What is your best memory you have with a friend?

A. That's hard. When I was 17, my then-best friend in high school and I went to the haunted house at Halloween. We were scared out of our minds and a werewolf and a vampire tried to pick us up for a little after-haunting drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
 
19. Do you have any peculiar interests that most people don’t know about?

A. Yes, but I am not going to mention it here.
 
20. What were your favorite childhood toys? Do you still have them?

A. I liked to play with the little superhero dolls that were out (not baby dolls, but 6" figures of Captain America or Spiderman), or Johnny West dolls. I might have a few of them in the attic but for the most part I do not have any of my childhood toys.
 
21. Favorite baked good?

A. Chocolate chip cookie.
 
22. If your best friend was here right now, what would you do with her/him (cannot list best friend as your romantic/sexual partner)?

A. Well, depending on the friend, we might play guitar, or talk about books, or discuss health issues, or go out to lunch, or take a hobble around my yard and look at my flowers.
 
23. Who would you love to play video games with?

A. Nobody. I consider that a solitary activity.
 
24. If you could visit any country, which one would it be?

A. I would like to go to Scotland.

25. Are there any friends you miss having around?

A.  One of my dear friends is on a long vacation and I miss her. There are friends from high school that I think about. And I wish I saw my brother a little more. Well, sometimes. (Just kidding, bro.)


Read more answers to these questions at the Sunday Stealing link above. Join in if you want! The more the merrier.