5 Questions Meme
Nov. 22nd, 2022 10:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naomikritzerI got five questions from Julian. If you want five questions from me you can reply and I'll try to think of some good ones!
1) How're the kids?
They are both now officially grown-ass adults. The older one is 23 and is working for Americorps doing college-admissions-help stuff for kids at a Minneapolis high school. Living at home because Americorps pay is Not Great but really enjoying the work. The younger one is 19 and getting over a bout of the flu (only the second time in her life she's had it, I think? the first time was H1N1, every other year the vaccine worked). She's a college freshman and seems to be mostly enjoying college with the notable exception of DEEPLY missing home cooking. Anyway, in general: they're both doing very well, I am really delighted by the adult people they have become, and I'm excited to see what they do next.
2) What did you want to Do With Your Life when you were 16 or so?
By sixteen, I'd decided I wanted to be a writer. I'd spent some time in earlier years as a theater kid, thinking I wanted to be an actor, but by 16 I was more focused on writing and had started submitting stories to magazines. (They were all rejected.) I had also put in some thought about earning a living and I can't remember if at that point I was thinking doctor, lawyer, or something else.
3) What do you find beautiful?
A lot of the same things as everyone else, probably. Sunsets, fall colors, lovely scenic vistas, the faces of my children.
4) Do you do religion/spirituality? How, if so?
Boy, that's a complicated question. I'm Jewish but not very observant. I'm also really interested in religions in general and always have been (I majored in Religious Studies in college in part because I found religion, as a thing people do, so broadly interesting). I have participated in other people's religious rites and experimented with belief systems and practices in various ways and fundamentally I believe in something transcendent, I have both affection for and deep frustration with the overall Jewish community, and I hit up St. Anthony of Padua whenever I've misplaced something, which is definitely not a Jewish tradition. Also we have a Christmas tree. (I'm intermarried.)
5) When was the last time you said "Oh, no, not again," and why?
Oh, this one's easy. Earlier today, when I attempted to google "Envy apples" from the grocery store (to see if they were tart or sweet) and my phone data didn't work. Back in October my phone data just randomly stopped working. I did hours of troubleshooting with Google Fi and hours of troubleshooting with Motorola and then shipped the phone off to Motorola (because it was under warranty) and they said it wasn't broken and shipped it back to me and it STILL DID NOT WORK and after another go-round with phone support I sent it to them AGAIN and this time they were supposed to just send me a replacement and instead they sat on it for a week and various people insisted that no, it really was working just fine, there had to be something wrong with my SIM card (which worked fine in my backup phone) and oh. my. god. Anyway they finally sent me a replacement phone. Which immediately worked FINE. But then today it stopped working again and yeah, I just could not even face the prospect of calling customer service again. Either customer service.
I complained about it over dinner tonight and Ed said, "Have you done the system upgrade? Android 12?"
It has been nagging me to upgrade it and I've ignored it because I just got the phone and was thinking "ehhh maybe tomorrow..." Ed had been doing the same -- and then his phone stopped talking to data, and started working again when he upgraded. Anyway. I upgraded the system and now it's talking to the data network again! THANK GOODNESS.
1) How're the kids?
They are both now officially grown-ass adults. The older one is 23 and is working for Americorps doing college-admissions-help stuff for kids at a Minneapolis high school. Living at home because Americorps pay is Not Great but really enjoying the work. The younger one is 19 and getting over a bout of the flu (only the second time in her life she's had it, I think? the first time was H1N1, every other year the vaccine worked). She's a college freshman and seems to be mostly enjoying college with the notable exception of DEEPLY missing home cooking. Anyway, in general: they're both doing very well, I am really delighted by the adult people they have become, and I'm excited to see what they do next.
2) What did you want to Do With Your Life when you were 16 or so?
By sixteen, I'd decided I wanted to be a writer. I'd spent some time in earlier years as a theater kid, thinking I wanted to be an actor, but by 16 I was more focused on writing and had started submitting stories to magazines. (They were all rejected.) I had also put in some thought about earning a living and I can't remember if at that point I was thinking doctor, lawyer, or something else.
3) What do you find beautiful?
A lot of the same things as everyone else, probably. Sunsets, fall colors, lovely scenic vistas, the faces of my children.
4) Do you do religion/spirituality? How, if so?
Boy, that's a complicated question. I'm Jewish but not very observant. I'm also really interested in religions in general and always have been (I majored in Religious Studies in college in part because I found religion, as a thing people do, so broadly interesting). I have participated in other people's religious rites and experimented with belief systems and practices in various ways and fundamentally I believe in something transcendent, I have both affection for and deep frustration with the overall Jewish community, and I hit up St. Anthony of Padua whenever I've misplaced something, which is definitely not a Jewish tradition. Also we have a Christmas tree. (I'm intermarried.)
5) When was the last time you said "Oh, no, not again," and why?
Oh, this one's easy. Earlier today, when I attempted to google "Envy apples" from the grocery store (to see if they were tart or sweet) and my phone data didn't work. Back in October my phone data just randomly stopped working. I did hours of troubleshooting with Google Fi and hours of troubleshooting with Motorola and then shipped the phone off to Motorola (because it was under warranty) and they said it wasn't broken and shipped it back to me and it STILL DID NOT WORK and after another go-round with phone support I sent it to them AGAIN and this time they were supposed to just send me a replacement and instead they sat on it for a week and various people insisted that no, it really was working just fine, there had to be something wrong with my SIM card (which worked fine in my backup phone) and oh. my. god. Anyway they finally sent me a replacement phone. Which immediately worked FINE. But then today it stopped working again and yeah, I just could not even face the prospect of calling customer service again. Either customer service.
I complained about it over dinner tonight and Ed said, "Have you done the system upgrade? Android 12?"
It has been nagging me to upgrade it and I've ignored it because I just got the phone and was thinking "ehhh maybe tomorrow..." Ed had been doing the same -- and then his phone stopped talking to data, and started working again when he upgraded. Anyway. I upgraded the system and now it's talking to the data network again! THANK GOODNESS.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-23 06:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-23 06:45 am (UTC)2. What is your favorite dessert?
3. You're about to get packed off to a cabin without Internet, and you can take five books along to read. They must be books you already own in some form but have not read. What do you grab off your stack to entertain yourself?
4. What was something you were absolutely resolved to do or not do, as a parent, when you had your kid? Did you succeed?
5. Your fairy godmother appears and offers you a boon of a significant improvement to any artistic or creative skill. The power is limited so you'll get more benefit the more narrow you go -- so for example, you could request an improvement to your overall drawing skills, but it'll be a significantly better improvement if you pick ink drawing, or pastels, or whatever. (The same would be true for composition skills or writing skills.) What do you choose?
no subject
Date: 2022-11-23 06:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-23 06:34 pm (UTC)2. What is your favorite flower?
3. You're about to be packed off to a cabin with no Internet for a week, and you can take five books along to read. They must be books you already own in some form but have not read. What do you grab off your TBR stack to entertain yourself?
4. Describe an object you own that is not sentimental but for some reason you've had for a very long time.
5. Your fairy godmother appears and offers you a boon of significant improvement to any skill. The power is limited such that you'll get more benefit the more narrow you go. What do you choose?
no subject
Date: 2022-11-23 02:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-23 06:40 pm (UTC)2. What is your least favorite household chore that you do regularly?
3. You're about to be packed off to a cabin with no Internet for a week, and you can take five books along to read. They must be books you already own in some form but have not read. What do you grab off your TBR stack to entertain yourself?
4. What is the first job you remember wanting to do, as a child or teen?
5. Your fairy godmother appears and offers you a boon of significant improvement to any skill. The power is limited such that you'll get more benefit the more narrow you go. What do you choose?
no subject
Date: 2022-11-23 02:19 pm (UTC)#4: Me too. (The interest, I mean.) I'm a legitimate religious omnivore since I'm Unitarian Universalist, but I never do seem to do Catholic saints.
#5: Oh, thank God. If it *didn't* work, that would just be UNFAIR.
Anyway. I might as well do one more iteration of this, so if you have the time and inclination, give me some questions?
no subject
Date: 2022-11-23 06:45 pm (UTC)2. If you could visit any city in the world on an unlimited budget BUT you only get 48 hours to explore it, where do you go?
3. You're about to be packed off to a cabin with no Internet for a week, and you can take five books along to read. They must be books you already own in some form but have not read. What do you grab off your TBR stack to entertain yourself?
4. When you did your college applications as a teen, what did you write your essay / one of your essays about?
5. Your fairy godmother appears and offers you a boon of significant improvement to any skill. The power is limited such that you'll get more benefit the more narrow you go. What do you choose?
no subject
Date: 2022-11-23 04:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-23 06:47 pm (UTC)2. What herb or spice do you grab the most often when preparing meals?
3. You're about to be packed off to a cabin with no Internet for a week, and you can take five books along to read. They must be books you already own in some form but have not read. What do you grab off your TBR stack to entertain yourself?
4. You get a free trip to any city in the world you haven't previously visited -- however, you cannot bring a guidebook or your phone, nor can you make contact with anyone you know there, you have to just explore it on your own. Where do you go?
5. Your fairy godmother appears and offers you a boon of significant improvement to any skill. The power is limited such that you'll get more benefit the more narrow you go. What do you choose?
no subject
Date: 2022-11-23 09:39 pm (UTC)