If Sheryl and I could sit down at a little café and each have a half a ciabatta sandwich and a cup of chicken & wild rice soup together, we would, though I’m not altogether sure what kind of soup she likes best. I love soup. It’s one of my favorite foods. It’s hard to find a soup I DON’T like, though of course there are variations that are better than others, and I tend to prefer the cream- and broth-based soups over the tomato-based ones, but whatever, this tangent apparently has the bit in its mixed-metaphorical mouth and is running away with me. Mmmm…soup.
Back at the café with Sheryl, we’d eat our leisurely lunch and we’d talk and talk and talk and I bet there would be a lot of laughter and a lot of really great moments when I thought to myself, “wow! this woman is really a kindred spirit!” which I’ve done a zillion times already, even though we’ve never met in person. And I’d scribble things down, things I wanted to remember about that lunch, and things I wanted to remind myself to send her later, and all that scribbling would be done on a paper napkin. Because you don’t get linen napkins in Sheryl’s café, and who would want them anyway, what with all that ironing?
Sheryl gave me some interview questions and you can get some, too, from me; if you want some, just ask. She came up with some really hard questions for me. Good, but hard.
1. What is the best hundred (or so) bucks you’ve ever spent in your life?
This was HARD. I actually answered this question last because I couldn’t think of anything. I pondered material possessions, and book store shopping sprees and gifts I’ve given and concerts/shows I’ve seen and trips I’ve taken and couldn’t pin “the best ever” label on anything. But I think one of the very best things I spent a lot of money on was actually quite a bit more than 100 dollars: flying home to surprise my mom for one of her big birthdays some few years ago. That was great, and worth every penny.
2. If you could become fully enlightened instantly on any one subject, which subject would you choose?
Math. And I mean more than kitchen/basic math, which I’ve worked pretty hard at mastering over the years. I feel like a complete dunce too much of the time because math just does not seem to stick. Most of what I know is due to memorization and I wish it was easier for me to logically deal with mathematical issues.
3. What is something you really enjoy doing that is a chore or a bore for many people?
Washing dishes by hand. I LOVE it, and it kind of bums me out that I so rarely have the chance to do so anymore, having been seduced by the lazy way out offered by a dishwasher. There’s something very soothing about plunging your hands over and over into hot water until they’re so clean they squeak—as do the dishes you’re washing. What I like best about washing dishes though, is singing over the sink. There’s nothing like a good pile of dirty dishes and bubbly soapy water and some scrubby-dubbing to help strike up the solo mios!
4. Do you and Anders have plans to move to another country? If so where, if not, why not?
Actually, we DON’T have any such plans, though we HAVE discussed it many times. We don’t really want to move back to the States, and haven’t for years, though I DO wish my family were closer. In a relationship like ours, someone’s family is always going to be the loser distance-wise and for now, at least, it’s unfortunately mine. We’ve thought it would be great to move somewhere ELSE, not Sweden and not the U.S., where we can BOTH be the foreigner at the same time, but frankly, our lives here are too good to really consider uprooting them, though a temporary rotation would be considered. The bummer part of all that is that I moved a lot as a child and I think it did me good and I think it would be good for MY kids, too, so I would especially like to do it for their sakes.
5. If you could know one fact about every person you’ve ever met, what particular fact would you want it to be? (The other person would not know that you know it.)
Hrm…this one was really hard, too. Partly because I’m a fairly private person (ha HA! says everyone, pointing at the public forum, namely THIS ONLINE JOURNAL, where the entire world can see my thoughts and feelings and experiences…ah, but you see, you only see what I CHOOSE to put out here.) in a lot of ways and I value and respect other’s privacy highly. And also because frankly, I don’t care about things that seem to matter to so many people. I don’t care, for example, if you’re gay or republican or illiterate (though I’d feel really sorry for you in the last instance) or if you recycle or surf porn sites. The fact that you might choose to tell me something is what matters to me but it rarely affects the way I feel about you, if I know you at all. If you’re a complete stranger, I don’t necessarily want to hear all your dirty laundry, but my fundamentally underlying principle is that it’s YOUR BUSINESS. I guess the one fact that I’d like to know about every person I’ve ever met is whether they are trustworthy. The nice thing is that I can usually figure that one out on my own. 🙂
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The kids & I made a great dinner tonight: Creamy Crab Nachos. It’s an appetizer recipe that my friend Angie served years ago; in fact, I think we might have made it for one of the AWC cooking club evenings, and I’ve made it once or twice in the past but it’s been a long time. During all this trying to come up with dishes my children will both want to try and like when they do, I remembered this one and though I’d give it a go. They helped prepare the meal and we all scarfed it down. (Isn’t “scarfed it down” a hilarous phrase? It cracks me up every time I use it. So I use it a lot.) It was super fast and easy. I posted the recipe here if you want it, and trust me, you WILL. 🙂