16 questions

Following our narcissistic blogging theme, today we publish Artax's response to 16 questions, selected from personality and family history surveys.

1. What is your favorite color?

Probably orange, although depending on the day and my mood, I might pick any warm color.

2. What is your favorite holiday?

Today, I would say Independence day, because it is celebrated while the world is warm and green. At least in the USA.

3. Do you have a favorite number?

My favorite number is 22, because it is a nice shade of yellow. What is the color of your favorite number?

4. What is your favorite smell?

Rain on the pavement in the desert. If they made that into a perfume, I would wear it. Except that perfumes make my husband sneeze.

5. Do you remember your great-grandparents?

My mother's father's parents died in a car accident long before I was born. My mother's mother's mother died when my grandmother was a little girl. My mother's mother's father was Albert, and he and I shared a birthday. We have a very dark, blurry photo of Albert and me on my eighth birthday, and his eighty-somethingth. He lived in a house somewhere in this town of mine, but my parents haven't remembered where. I wonder if I would recognize it if I saw it?

My father's mother grew up without a mother as well, and her father was dead before I was born. My father's father's parents also died long before I was born. So I just had the one great grandparent.

Thinking about it, I'm feeling a little left out with this question.

6. Do you remember your first date?

I think his name was Kenny. I was pressured into attending Jr Prom, and my cousin lined me up. He was a nice guy, and we had some interests in common, but that one dance was the only date for us. No sparks. And I was painfully shy.

7. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I remember telling my 2nd grade friends how I would run the 2nd grade classroom when I was a teacher. In retrospect, five days each week of pajama parties probably wouldn't have worked out educationally.

In 8th grade, for a class project, I was supposed to research three careers that interested me. I chose illustrator, writer, and choreographer, classical ballet. I didn't grow up to be any of those things.

8. How tall are you?

I am 70 inches tall in the evenings. In the mornings, I am 71 inches tall. Most people only shrink about half an inch over the course of a day, but a few years ago, Tim and I measured, and yup -- my height varies an entire inch each day.

9. Shoe size?

11 womens, extra narrow. Kind of a tricky size for someone who often commutes by walking.

10. What color are your eyes?

Hazel. Dark blue on the outside, brown on the inside. Some days it blurs together to look dark green. My eyes are really cool. Wish they were a little bigger so you would notice.

11. What major illnesses or health problems have you had?

The regular migraines are the biggest problem, although I'm better now at managing those. The migraines often come with depression, which is not as easy to manage, but typically endurable, especially when I recognize it as part of a passing migraine. Most of the time.

That's about it. I'm lucky enough that I've never been hospitalized, except for childbirth and recovery. As far as I know, I haven't even broken a bone, although a doctor once suggested that my repeated sprained ankles probably started with an un-diagnosed break back in elementary school. No problems there now.

12. What do you do regularly for exercise?

I walk to/from school, and to/from work. Unless I bike to work. Then we count that. Sometimes, I like to play Dance Dance Revolution for exercise.

13. What are your hobbies?

Hobbies come and go. In a past life, I used to sew, and play the piano, and dance on my toes. I painted, with oils. I would take up oil painting again, if it weren't for the toxic chemicals and the huge mess to clean up. And the general lack of time. I guess I write this blog now, as a hobby.

14. Is there anything you have always wanted to do, but haven't?

Well, always is a long time to have wanted to do something, so I would have to say no. However, I have wanted, for example, to finish writing a novel for a long time. But lately I haven't really cared enough to do the writing. So still no. There are a few things I'd like to do in life before the end, but they aren't the always kind of things.

15. What was your bedroom like in the house you grew up in?

I shared a small room with two younger sisters. When I was about eight years old, I had the chance to move to my own bedroom, and I ruined it. I was afraid of the dark, and asked to move back with the sisters. Within a couple of years, I began rearranging the furniture to put furniture walls between my space and my sisters' space.

When I was about 12, my mother gave birth to a baby boy, and soon after I got to move into the sewing room with the baby. Within a couple of years, that baby moved downstairs and the new baby moved in. Then, when I was 16, we hosted an exchange student my age from Germany, and she and I shared a room. When she left, I kept the room on my own, all through my senior year in high school. I so much enjoyed having the room of my own that I lived at home for three more years in college. That was a mistake.

16. Is this post finished yet?

Almost. It turned out longer than expected, eh? I had meant to spend my free evening playing video games. Oh well. Perhaps there is something here for posterity. Or for an upcoming smear campaign. Whichever comes first.