Memes + Food = Nirvana

Link:Friday's Feast
Title:Feast Three

Appetizer
What is your middle name? Would you change any of your names if you could? If so, what would you like to be called?

My middle name is Ruth. After all this time, I rather like it, although up until age 20 or so I hated all my names. Doesn't every girl want to be called something else? When I was a young teen (preteen?) I remember the name I would have chosen was Tina. Why? Guess there were a lot of cool Tinas in my world. On the other hand, I always thought I was Laura Ingalls Wilder reincarnated, because my name is close enough, right?
If I were forced to change one of my given names, I'd move to Jo, a shortened version of my mother's middle name (and of course in tribute to Little Women). I often consider dropping the last bit of my name, which is my husband's last name, and going back to just my maiden name (I'm more-or-less hyphenated now).

Soup
If you were a fashion designer, which fabrics, colors, and styles would you probably use the most?

Silk, linen, cotton. Natural fibers (except wool, which makes me break out in hives). Some natural colored, some dyed vibrant colors. Style: unstructured, unfussy. Somewhat tailored. Classy jeans and T-shirt kinds of things. No sequins, very few flowers, no tinybusy patterns of any kind. Throw in the occasional plaid... Oh. And no frills, bows or poofy stuff!

Salad
What is your least favorite chore, and why?

Everything that's on my list today: shopping, laundry, errands in general... :-) No, actually, it's anything to do with floors: mopping, sweeping, vacuuming. I wonder why...I really have no specific reason for this aversion.

Main Course
What is something that really frightens you, and can you trace it back to an event in your life?

A thing: spiders, the hairy kind. I like the little Midwestern American kind of house spiders because of their tendency to eat the "squeeters" and other pests. Not a fan of tarantulas. I remember a dream as a child where big hairy spiders were crawling out of my eyes.
Which brings me to the Amorphous Fear category: Fear of Blindness, Fear of Abandonment, Fear of Pissing People Off, Fear of Failing...there are probably more. Blindness is obvious from that dream and the fact that I'd lose the reading (I know about books on tape/CD). Abandonment is one I've recently put together with some stuff my oldest sister just told me this spring about my infancy. Pissing People Off is a girl thing I'm trying to work through. Failure...hmph, got that lock, stock and barrel from my parents and siblings. 'We don't fail. It's just not done' is the subtext in every one of our lives.

Dessert
Where are you sitting right now? Name 3 things you can see at this moment.[Whew! Well, that's less intense than the others! :-) Just three? OK.]

1.The Beast's Beast from high school (it's a plush toy, don't worry).
2. I guess the monitor is too obvious....? A picture of The Beast, me and the boy taken at Delphi. Our Christmas card from 2001.
3. Route planners from RAC and AA for the drive from Manchester airport to Wakefield for the wedding next month. [Next month?!?! Aaargh...]