wildcat

Ganked from Joy from sometime earlier in the month, but I was suddenly hungry for online quizologies to tell me who I am. Who am I? Who am I? The cherry blossoms begin their annual tawdry unfolding and I am occasionally birds.

1. The phone rings. Who do you want it to be?
I have a love/hate relationship with my phone, and it entirely depends upon my mood if I even want to talk to people on the stupid thing or what. Text messaging is more removed and consequently easier. But: Joy, because regardless of how much I might hate the phone, we can talk for hours with seemingly no agenda between us. The Accomplice, as well, especially if I've been out drinking with people and I'm waltzing home in the dark.

2. When shopping at the grocery store, do you return your cart?
I generally avoid the shopping cart, as it is too large and I don't want to buy more than I can carry home. There's something luxurious about them, though, and I find grocery shoppers with carts languidly strut down the aisles, taking up as much room as possible, their asses turned ever so slightly up at the air. And an abandoned shopping cart has romance about it, desolate romance like some empty-eyed fifties romance comic. Typically, I use a basket, but will occasionally forgo this to walk those aisles with a heap of food in my hands like a crazy person with too many cats. Often I drop things and I pile things on the ground while I take advantage of the bulk food bins in a most unseemly fashion.

3. In a social setting, are you more of a talker or a listener?
I'm quite shy or socially incapable if I don't really know the people around me, and consequently a listener by nature but if you get me talking I can go and go. I stutter, though, and suffer frequently from a dry throat or inarticulate thoughts and I have trouble maintaining appropriate eye contact, either breaking it off or staring outright, as if people's eyes were transparent and I'm trying to figure out which neurons they're using.

4. Do you take compliments well?
I blush, usually, or feel awkward because there's too much attention being paid to me (or not enough, oddly).

5. Do you play Sudoku?
I look at them periodically and get a headache.

6. If abandoned alone in the wilderness, would you survive?
I know we like to talk about how prissy I am but I actually think I'd do a pretty decent job. I probably wouldn't eat anything because if I don't know what it is I'm not putting it in my mouth, but I'm the stubborn sort that'll walk in a given direction for hours at a time on the off-change that it might lead me to civilization. I wouldn't even go insane from loneliness, either, I'd just monologue to someone in my head.

8. Did you ever go to camp as a kid?
No.

9. What was your favorite game as a kid?
Probably Four Squares or Superheroes. I could never decide which superhero to be. Also, walking in circles around those four trees in the front yard with the stone circle around them, telling myself stories in my head while the neighbours started to assume my parents had a weird child.

10. If a sexy person was pursuing you, but you knew he/she was married, would you?
No.

12. Could you date someone with different religious beliefs than you?
They'd have to be able to argue about it with a sense of humour, because I love arguing about belief systems or philosophy. And he does, even when I exasperate him.

13. Do you like to pursue or be pursued?
I tend to pursue badly but better than how I am when pursued. I often find that when things start with someone, there's usually some debate over who made the first move as a result.

14. Use three words to describe yourself?
Moody, neurotic artist.

15. Do any songs make you cry?
No. Movies occasionally make me cry and some comics have been known to do it, some books, but I don't think I've ever cried to a song.

16. Are you continuing your education?
I'm going to do a Master's Degree in Creative Writing in a year and a half if everything goes well. Otherwise I'm just reading and writing every day.

17. Do you know how to shoot a gun?
God, no! It's going to be blunt force trauma or nothing else.

18. If your house was on fire, what would be the first thing you grabbed?
Well, assuming my apartment wasn't instantaneously disintegrated from sheer volume of paper products going WHOOMP, well, priobably the 1931 Remington typewriter Michael gave me one year.

19. How often do you read books?
Every day, although the speed varies. I usually to be able to eat an entire book in one day but these days there's too much going on.

20. Do you think more about the past, present or future?
Stuck in all three at once. I should be three people. I am three people, maybe more. I obsess over mistakes and quiver neurotically over future events. Actually, now that I think about it, I have a real problem with not being in the moment.

21. What is your favorite children's book?
Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurie Sendak. If there ever was a children's book that so perfectly reflected my inner life.

22.What color are your eyes?
Blue, officially, although I think they're more a grey-blue.

23. How tall are you?
Five-nine, or five-ten. Haven't measured myself lately.

24. Where is your dream house located?
Lush apartment in Paris, yes, with a room for Michael to do his computering and photographying stuff in, a room for me to do my writering in at my little writing table. A kitchen with enough counter space and a little, creaking bathroom with cracks in the linoleum (peeling at the edges) and a naked bulb hanging over top, with a very large bathtub and a shower spout coming out of the ceiling.

27. Have you ever taken pictures in a photo booth?
I took some with Samara a couple of weeks ago, bottom of Bay Centre, although I was terribly impatient on the wait afterward. They were adorable.

28. When was the last time you were at Olive Garden?
Uh. I think there's one in Vancouver, on Robson? I think the last time I was there, Matthew freaked out at the three of us there and went off to take a shower. I'm not terribly interested in going back.

30. Where was the furthest place you traveled today?
Samara and I walked down Government to the Empress and wandered through the Rose Garden while digesting the food from dinner. Because whenever I hang out with girls it always looks like a date.

32. Do you like mustard?
Yes! When I ate meat I loved leftover roast pork with mustard all over it.I still really love mustard on veggie burgers and such.

33. Do you prefer to sleep or eat?
Sleep's always been inconvenient. I'd much rather eat something flavourful and textured.

34. Do you look like your mom or dad?
I gather I look like my dad but I've got my mum's colouring.

35. How long does it take you in the shower?
I used to take these luxurious, thirty minute showers by myself but that's not terribly practical, so I've cut it down to about ten minutes or five if I really push it. Shortest shower I've ever taken was about thirty seconds, and that was because my bus to work ten minutes before I woke up. If it's with the Accomplice, well, probably about half an hour including teeth-and-moisturizer time.

36. Can you do the splits?
No. What a horrifying thought.

37. What movie do you want to see right now?
Nothing's really grabbing my attention lately although Pan's Labyrinth looks tasty.

39. What did you do for New Year's?
Japanese Village for dinner, then Vicki's cousin's apartment for too many drinks, then a leisurely walk over to the Bent Mast for Midnight followed by a ride on the bus that involved some drunk girl vomiting. Home and in bed by quarter to one.

40. Do you think The Grudge was scary?
Didn't see it.

42. Do you own a camera phone?
Yes, I make people sit still so I can take a picture and have it pop up with their name when they call me. Most of the time they look unimpressed.

44. Was your mom a cheerleader?
My mum was a smoker and I think one of the bad girls.

45. What's the last letter of your middle name?
N. I have a very conflicted relationship with this letter.

47. How many hours of sleep do you get a night?
Six, give or take.

48. Do you like care bears?
I liked them when I was little but resisted admitting it, which my dad loved to tease me about. Apparently I absorbed gender norms osmotically as a child, although I'd swear I had the most bisexual taste in cartoons there ever was -- Care Bears and Transformers and My Little Pony and MASK and GI Joe and Muppet Babies and Superfriends.

49. What do you buy at the movies?
Cocolate things, if anything. Junior Mints.

50. Do you know how to play poker?
Better at rummoli. I think the problem with me and poker is the same as me with most other games -- I lose interest very easily and choose to play as a Avatar of Chaos Theory. I'd much rather gossip.

51. Do you wear your seatbelt?
Yes.

52. What do you wear to sleep?
Pajama bottoms, usually plaid, with whatever little T-shirt is conveniently at hand.

53. Anything big ever happen in your hometown?
Sorry, nothing puts me to sleep like local history. They pumped a lot of pollution into the air.

54. How many meals do you eat a day?
Some days one, usually two, or three, or about a billion little snacks throughout.

55. Is your tongue pierced?
No. I get paranoid about infection with that whole region.

56. Do you always read MySpace bulletins?
No.

58. Do you like funny or serious people better?
Mostly funny people, although I like serious people too. Passionate people. I like passionate people.

59. Ever been to L.A.?
No.

60. Did you eat a cookie today?
No, but I drank a shocking amount of hot chocolate.

61. Do you use cuss words in other languages?
Schiesse, mostly. Blame Run Lola Run. I used to use stupid made up cusses from sci-fi comic books, like nass and grife.

62. Do you steal or pay for your music downloads?
Pay.

63. Do you hate chocolate?
No. And Chocolate loves me, too.

64. What do you and your parents fight about the most?
My awkward relationship with the extended family. My lack of medical access and tendency to forget to do things like call. Actually, mostly, my relationship with the parents has mellowed considerably in the intervening years.

65. Are you a gullible person?
No. I wouldn't say "gullible," although you can sometimes put one over on me so probably yes, I am. I'd prefer to say "dense," I am often dense. I'd actually have to say that I'm a bit dumb, if you pressed me on it.

66. Do you need a boyfriend/girlfriend to be happy?
I don't think so. He's really nice to have around and certainly makes me happier. I'd be very mopey if he went away, I think, but I can manage to make myself miserable with or without a boyfriend.

67. If you could have any job (assuming you have the skills) what would it be?
Professor of Creative Writing with an emphasis on Short Fiction at a Great Metropolitan University.

68. Are you easy to get along with?
I think the Accomplice finds me a little perplexing/frustrating at times but that's what keeps the relationship alive. Other people seem to think me rather amiable and easy to get along with, but this suggests that I'm very good at disguising my misanthropy. It depends on how people feel about cussing or crude sexual references, because I tend to be full of both. I'm not easy to get along with if I don't like someone although I can play the politics game if I have to.

69. What is your favorite time of day?
Early in the morning and very, very late at night. I am a creature of extremes.