Finally some fun! **A Game of Tag**

 

Rules –

1. You must post the rules (check!)
2. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post (check!)
3. Create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged (check!)
4. Tag (eleven) people with a link to your post (This question confuses me. Did they mean to say “their” post? If so then, check!)
5. Let them know they’ve been tagged (I will!)

Wonderful Wee Gee, from the blog How do you eat an elephant?, tagged me and asked me the following questions:

1. What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?

This might sound a bit pathetic, but I don’t know if I can remember any advice that anyone’s ever given me. I have a horrible memory when it comes to things people have said. Perhaps I’ll skip this one for now, and see if something comes to me while I answer the other questions.

**********

Okay I’m back (it took me a while to answer those questions!), and something comes to mind. My grandpa used to always say (in relation to food being served):

Always take the biggest piece.

Great advice, in my opinion.

2. Are you a dog person, a cat person, or some-other-kind-of-animal person?

I’m an animal person all around. I love dogs, I love cats, I love koalas, I love sloths, I love hummingbirds – I love all birds in fact-, I love wolves, I love baby lizards and baby frogs – I love baby anythings-, I love deer;  I even love skunks if you can believe it. The one animal I don’t like: Possums! (although baby possums are pretty damn cute!)

3. What is your opinion of mushrooms?

Umm… I’m going to tread lightly here having been predisposed to your opinion of them. I’m kidding, I won’t let that sway my answer. Honestly, I don’t have a strong opinion about them either way. I wouldn’t say I love them. I wouldn’t say I hate them. In some sauces they are good. But sometimes they are gross. That’s a tough one, because my view of mushrooms is really not all that interesting.

4. Could you recommend a good book please?

It would be easier if I knew what kind of books you like. Buttttt…. Since I don’t, I will just go out on a limb and say, Room by Emma Donoghue. I cried.

5. What’s your motto?

Hmm. You’re really making me think! Eesh thanks a lot! (kidding)

My motto would be this:

No one is better than anyone else. And… Don’t think that what you say or do doesn’t matter. You never know what kind word or deed might, unknowingly, change someone’s life.

6. Is it okay to lie to spare somebody’s feelings?

Yes. We lie inadvertently all the time in little ways anyways. We say we are “fine” when we are not fine. We say “good to see you” when it may be the last person you wanted to see. But when it comes to bigger issues, and conscious, planned lies, yes I think it’s okay when there’s really no harm done, and in fact telling the truth would only cause hurt. This only works though when we are “lying” out of genuine care and concern for the other person, and not to save ourselves from grief or hardship. I think often people lie about things, thinking it would be “best” for the other person not to know, when in fact the person lying has done something wrong and doesn’t want to face the consequences. This is not best for the other person. Honesty and genuineness are best.

But for example, if I knew my partner had an extreme fear of ladybugs, and went into a panic every time she even heard the word “ladybug” let’s say, and let’s say that I took a walk, and that on my walk a ladybug landed on me and that made me extremely happy, and when I got back she asked me how my walk was… Well, I probably wouldn’t tell her about the ladybug incident. It doesn’t hurt her not to know, and it would cause her much distress to know.—just for the record, my partner doesn’t have an overwhelming fear of ladybugs.—

However, to give another example, I started smoking again a few weeks ago. [This is unfortunately true, not a hypothetical] I hid it from my partner for several days. I would run into the bathroom and tried to hide the scent when I heard her arriving home. But even though it would distress her to know, I still felt like I was being deceitful, and it was avoiding her reaction. So I ended up telling her, and it just feels better that way, even though she’s not happy with the truth.

All that to say, these things are not simple and can have many gray areas!

Wow I can be wordy!

7. What’s the best thing about blogging?

Getting to know these amazing people through their blogs, and getting support and encouragement through others reading my blog.

8. Could you tell me a joke or share something funny?

I’m not so good with the humor, but let me see… Why do people drive on a parkway, and park on a driveway.

Oh here’s a joke:

So a tomato family was walking down the street. The baby tomato kept falling behind, and the mama tomato was getting frustrated. “Won’t you hurry up?!” she kept shouting to the baby tomato. But the baby tomato, being a baby and all, just wasn’t very fast and simply couldn’t keep up. So finally, exasperated, mama tomato walks back to where baby tomato is, lifts up her foot (in this joke tomatoes have feet), smushes the baby tomato under her shoe, and shouts, “KATCHUP!”

(sorry if this joke offended anyone – no baby tomato was harmed in the telling of this joke!)

9. Is there something that you don’t like but wish that you did?

Possums. I think people don’t like them solely because they are ugly (which they are), and I don’t think that’s really fair to possums. But I still don’t like them. Oh, and I wish I liked caring for plants. I like plants themselves, but I hate caring for them. Thus, every plant I own dies a slow and water-less death. Please don’t ever give me a plant as a gift: it WILL die.

10. What would you do if you found a ferret in the street?

That’s an “it depends” question.

1) I would approach it.

2a) If it snarls and bars its teeth, I would slowly walk away and leave it in peace.

2b) If it smiles at me with its eyes and moves its little whiskers around in a friendly way (do ferrets have whiskers?), I would pick it up, cuddle it, take it home, and put up signs around the neighborhood saying “FOUND FERRET.” If no one claims it, I would happily keep it forever and ever and ever.

11. What should I ask if I really want to get to know you?

What am I passionate about? And… If time and money weren’t an issue, what things would I do before I die?

 

I also was tagged by Angel, penwoman of the thought-provoking blog The Mirth Of Despair, who asked me the following questions:

1) What is the one insect you absolutely can’t stand?

Ticks. (See question 11)

2) Which fictional world(s) do you wish were real?

I would enjoy being a hobbit and living in The Shire and being friends with Bilbo Baggins. One of my favorite things about the world of hobbits is their genuine appreciation of food and their “second breakfasts”.

3)Who is your favorite President/Prime Minister/Monarch/Whoever Has Been In Charge of Your Country in history?

Oy. Okay well I’m awful at history soooo… sadly I don’t know very much about the American presidents. And I don’t particularly like any of the ones who’ve been presidents since I’ve been here on this earth. I don’t want to say “Kennedy”, because I actually know very little about him besides the obvious, and besides it seems a bit cliché to say your favorite was Kennedy (no offense to those whose favorite president is Kennedy!). I’m actually going to change the question to: Who is your favorite partner/spouse of a US President. Hands down, Eleanor Roosevelt. The little I know of her, she seemed like an AWESOME and AMAZING woman. Open-minded, progressive, compassionate, down-to-earth, funny… Honestly, I wish she were still alive so I could know her.

4)If you were forced to be on a reality show, which one would you go on and why?

Well, I must put it out there that I hate reality shows. Except for Top Chef, and there’s no way in Helga I would be on that show, since I can’t cook to save my life. Is Who Do You Think You Are? considered a reality show? If so, I would be on that show, so I could learn all about my ancestors and genealogy. If not… arg this is an impossible question! Okay, I’ll go with Amazing Race, because I am very competitive, I love to travel, and I would win.

5) What is the one feature that your dream house must possess?

A pool with a water slide. I would never leave home again.

6) What is your guilty musical pleasure?

ABBA. I even dance.

7) What do you think is the most disgusting food?

Okra. I’d rather eat snot.

8) Do you smile with or without showing your teeth.

With. Especially when I’m genuinely happy.

9) Do you believe that there are aliens in the universe?

Yes. And I can’t wait to meet one.

[To all the aliens reading this out in space cyber space – I am only inviting you over if you are not going to hurt or kill us.]

10) Choose your own adventure books-yay or nay?

For me? Nay. (Unless you created it, in which case, I’m 100% Yay). For others? Sure, I can appreciate the idea behind it.

11) What is the funniest thing that has happened to you today?

Well this isn’t so much funny as it is horrifying. I went on an eight mile hike, partly through some grassy fields, and ended up finding five ticks on myself over the course of several hours after the hike. Yes, ticks. The kind that burrow under your skin and suck your blood and could give you lime disease. The funny(ish) part was the way I reacted when I found the last one… on my head. I proceeded to scream, and run in circles, and somehow I was able to get it off and fling it onto the floor, at which time I screamed to my partner, “get it out! get it out!” The reason I didn’t try to kill it was because they are virtually indestructible. I tried smashing one of the other ones and it literally just wouldn’t die. So she grabbed it with some toilet paper and flushed it down the toilet.

I don’t usually act hysterically but yeah. That was me acting hysterically. I’m sure if the whole thing had been videotaped (do people still say “videotaped”?), it would be pretty funny to watch. Well, funny for others anyways.

Okay, here are the 11 blogs I tag:

**Please don’t feel obligated to do this! It’s only if you want to!**

Just a thought… -From inside my head.

colour the day .

Deenakdrowln

kyllingsara

witheringtulip

The Life You Save May Be Your Own

Divided’s Room

my internal hammock

Finding My Missing Pieces

Not Quite Lost

buckwheatsrisk

Also:

The Mirth of Despair
and
How do you eat an elephant?

==========>  I’m tagging you back!

 

Here Are My Questions:

1. If we live on after we die, and we are able to take one object with us (not human or animal, sorry), what would you take and why?

2. Have you seen a good movie recently? (within the last year-ish) Please describe what it is about this movie that you liked.

3. If someone gave you $1,000 – or 1,000 pounds, or 1,000 euros, etc depending on where you live – and you weren’t allowed to “invest it”, how would you spend it?

4. Are you a morning person or a night person? Why do you prefer this time of day?

5. If you could have your dream job, what would it be?

6. If you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life (and have no other access to any other music), what music album would you choose?

7. Are you a fan of fireworks?

8. If you could have a painting of anything on your wall, what would you want it to be of?

9. Is there anything special you like to keep at your bedside?

10. What do you like to order when you go to Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts or [substitute another favorite coffee/tea place here]?

11. If you had the ability to be part human and part animal, and possess the best/strongest/most admirable traits of this animal in addition to the skills and traits you already possess, which animal would you want to morph with and why?