Eleven Things - Part One

My fellow friend and blogger, Katrina, tagged me in a post to answer eleven things. There is a myriad of rules and just reading through them all I got distracted. Being the unconventional soul that I am, I am doing it my own way. (Cue Frank Sinatra) Part One will answer the 11 questions Katrina had to answer and Part Two will answer the questions she posed to those she tagged. One day my rebel spirit is going to get me in trouble. But Katrina gave us the liberty to do as we wish, so on to Part One...

1. Would you rather be in prison for the rest of your life, or stranded on a deserted island with your closest loved ones for the rest of your life? (Assuming this is a tropical deserted island with plenty of food and such.) This is clearly a no-brainer. On a deserted island. I'm separated by miles from so many of those I love that if I could arrange them on a deserted island it would be one step from Heaven for me.

2. What was your biggest worry in high school? (Friends, grades, boys, acne, sports, something else?) High school is so far away in my memory that I truly don't remember. I would say that boys were a worry, though those closest to me wouldn't have dreamed that because I was happy go lucky. I never had a ton of worries in high school, but maybe that's because the worries I have now make those teenage worries pale in comparison.

3. If you had to be a character in a movie, who would you want to be? Ah, I love movies and see myself in almost every female character I watch. I need to segment this into animated and non-animated. For animated, I would want to be Cinderella, because I have always waited for my Prince Charming. Or, Belle from Beauty and the Beast. I just love her character. She loves to read and she has unconditional love for a very hard-to-love Beast that pays off for her in the end. For non-animated, I would want to be Maria Von Trapp. I'm not a nun in a convent...that vow of silence thing would get me...but I do try to devote my life to the Lord. Having a Captain fall in love with me as I cared for his mother-less children, all while singing along the way, is just about the coolest story ever. And Christopher Plummer was hot in that movie and is still quite the handsome man.

4. Would you choose an all-expense paid trip around the world (as many destinations as you want, for however long you want it to be, including your spouse and family if you want), or would you rather have $1 million cash here and now? As much as traveling is alluring, I'd probably take the $1 million dollars. I'd love to donate a portion to charity and invest the rest. Financial stress and strain is something no one wants to deal with. I'm so thankful how God provides, so having that windfall would be yet another provision from Him. Plus, if I invested correctly, I could take that all-expense paid trip.

5. If you had to go a year and eat only 5 foods, what would you choose? (Let’s assume your nutritional needs are taken care of by a vitamin of some sort.) 1. Qdoba - anything at the restaurant, 2. Nutella on Eggo Whole Grain Waffles, 3. Diet Soda (is that a food?) which could be Coke Zero, Pepsi Max, Diet Mountain Dew 4. Vegetables - I can't pick one, I crave certain ones, certain times, so my favorites available would be good. 5. Peanut Butter - My Granddaddy lived on this stuff way up in his 80s.

6. What is your favorite physical feature on yourself? My eyes and my lips. I'm sure you are asking yourself why I'm still single.

7. What is your very first memory as a child? This one is tough. I don't remember much pre-Kindergarten. The first memory that comes to mind is being in the church nursery and eating saltine crackers for snacks and doing splatter painting pictures. We had little screens that we would put over paper, then dip toothbrushes in tempera paint and scrub over the screens. I was a little Picaso.

8. If you had to move to another country, which country would you choose and why? One that provides excellent healthcare, which may be tough to find. One with beautiful scenery would be amazing too. Hawaii isn't another country, but sometimes it feels like it is and would be a fun place to live. My elementary school music teacher lived there for a while and I was enamoured by her stories that I always thought it was an enchanted land.

9. What movie can you watch over and over and over again? There are a lot of these, but just to name a few...Steel Magnolias, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, While You Were Sleeping, Sound of Music, Runaway Bride, My Best Friend's Wedding. I could go on, but let's just say that if I like a movie well enough, I could watch it endlessly.

10. What is one job that you’d like to do, but can’t or wouldn’t because of circumstances? (circumstances such as: it doesn’t pay well enough, the hours are bad, you don’t live in a place where there’s a great need for marine biologists, you don’t have the body type to be a professional figure skater…) I would structure a job that looked like this...I would be a daily columnist, writing my ruminations and reflections for the world to read. When not writing my column, I'd be working on various book projects. I'd teach as an adjunct at the college level, mentoring and guiding students that want to determine their career and life path. I'd lead more Bible studies and invest more in young women. My other alternate career would be a wife. Sounds simple and 1950-ish, but since I've been single for a long time, if God blessed me with a man, I'd want to devote my life to being his helpmeet. Planning meals, taking care of the home, and probably still writing that column and writing that book.

11. What is your secret phobia? (I’m not talking spiders or being alone or public speaking, I’m talking about the weird and totally irrational one that you don’t like to admit to.) I'm quirky, so I'll pick just one. I'm always phobic about someone following me home at night so I am very cognizant of the cars around me and following me when I'm driving. I've been known to divert my route to try and lose a car that I suspected was following me.