Sunday Stealing

(Link in meme-roll)
The 5000 Question Meme, Part One

1. Who are you? I am Cat.

2. What are the 3 most important things everyone should know about you? I'm fairly boring, fairly intense, and fairly literate.

3. When you aren't memes like this one what are you doing? Memes like those other kind. Or sleeping. Sometimes I work for pay, but really that's just more meming.

4. List your classes in school from the ones you like the most to the ones you like the least (or if you are out of school, think of the classes you did like and didn't like at the time). Really? I graduated with a Master's Degree 24 years ago, and with all that education I'm suppose to list all my classes over time and rate them all? Yeah, no. I liked history, English, Spanish, and art history; science and math were not favorites though I did all right in them. Hated gym. Wasn't fond of management/business/"information science" type crap.

5. What is your biggest goal for this year? To survive it. Actually, in all seriousness, this year my goal is to get Sparky off to college safely and get him rolling in the right direction.

6. Where do you want to be in 5 years? Right here. Maybe about 25 pounds lighter, and with no dye in my hair. We'll see.

7. What stage of life are you in right now? Middle middle-age.

8. Are you more child-like or childish? I am occasionally child-like, but try REALLY HARD not to be childish.

9. What is the last thing you said out loud? "Bath." Question from Beast about whether I'm going to bed or taking a bath first.

10. What song comes closest to how you feel about your life right now? "Punky's Dilemma." It's been running through my head since my niece quoted from it on Facebook earlier this week.

11. Have you ever taken martial arts classes? No. I sat through a few of my son's tae kwon do classes, but I doubt that counts.

12. Does your life tend to get better or worse or does it just stay the same? Yes.

13. Does time really heal all wounds? Only if they are properly treated to start with.

14. How do you handle a rainy day? Well, today we stayed inside until mid-afternoon when we went to run errands and ended up in the middle of a hailstorm, whereupon we ducked into a drive-thru lane at a bank. Isn't that the norm?

15. Which is worse...losing your luggage or having to sort out tangled holiday lights? The former is horrendous. Really fucking annoying, start to finish. Our holiday lights are never tangled, because I live with an OCD person who carefully replaces them in their original packaging every January.

16. How is (or was) your relationship with your parents? I always got along very well with my dad--honestly, I don't remember ever getting verbally bashed by him (and he wasn't a hitter, not with me anyway). Mom--not so much. We went at it hammer and tongs for a good ten years, and I never, ever felt like I could really talk to her.

17. Do you tend to be aware of what is going on around you? Oh yeah, I am, unless I am extremely comfortable in my surroundings. Like right now, I'm not paying much attention to anything but this, but if I were using my laptop in public somewhere, I'd be hyper-aware of where people were and what was going on.

18. What is the truest thing that you know? The situation around you will change.

19. What did you want to be when you grew up? Grown up was pretty much sufficient for me. Independent, far away from bossy family members, free.

20. Have you ever been given a second chance? Over and over and bloody-over! I'm very lucky that way.

21. Are you more of a giver or a taker? Depends on the circumstances and the subject.

22. Do you make your decisions with an open heart/mind? Well, I try to. Doesn't always happen.

23. What is the most physically painful thing that has ever happened to you? Childbirth was out of this world. I was basically awake but passed-out for about 4 hours that day. The pain was so intense that I have no memory of those specific 4 hours beyond endless pain and panting and weeping and whining at Beast.

24. What is the most emotionally painful thing that has ever happened to you? The three years from June 1994 to June 1997 were absolutely horrendous: we moved out of state, I quit working and stayed home with Sparky (and delivered newspapers for pin money), I developed serious allergic issues, my sister Ellen died, my father died, I nearly died, we were on an incredibly tight budget, Dean (Ellen's husband) was involuntarily hospitalized from alcohol poisoning, my sister Jean was diagnosed with Parkinson's, and I started a new part-time job. I ended up in therapy, cried constantly for much of that time, had no clear idea of where my future lay, and generally got very lost. It was the worst period of my life, but fortunately I had a wonderfully supporting husband and an adorable little boy to keep going for, not to mention great friends and in-laws. I would not be here if not for them.

25. Who have you hugged today? Beast and Sparky, Sarah, Jess, Annie, Anne (I think) and Grace (I think).