Five Questions

Christina posted 5 questions[1] for folks to answer and I thought I'd give it a go:

1. What do you value most in a friendship?

I value honesty and openness. I tend to live my life that way (bluntly honest and very open about pretty much anything) and value that in return from others. I also value having a long shared history with someone.

2. What’s your favourite thing to cook? Do you have a signature thing you’re known for making?

Historically my signature has been either fried rice of varying sorts. Since being at home all the time though I have gotten really into seitan. I tend to cook it two ways: bbq seitan or fried seitan (kind of like fried chicken). That has become the favorite to eat. I usually serve it with rice, often of a fried variety containing lots of garlic, onion, salt, pepper, and whatever veggies I have on hand. Speaking of which, I need to buy some chard next time I'm at the store. Or maybe som gai lan.

3. What was a neat toy from your childhood?

I do not remember any toys as being particularly neat or cool. Not looking back anyway. As a young child I liked He-Man toys a lot and star wars toys a bit too... My family did not really believe in buying new things much so we got a lot of second hand stuff that was often missing pieces or broken in some way. I dont have many memories of playing with toys though I am sure I did. I know I had Legos and such as well, though I dont remember playing with them much. That said, my memory for that time period is shot.

4. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine yourself being anywhere. Where are you? Tell me about the place, and why you see it.

I am standing under enormous oak trees. There is a rope hanging down from high branches of an oak that is growing almost sideways. The big branches coming off of the tunk low to the ground are almost like fingers reaching out paralell to the earth. You can climb up them easily almost like an oversized ladder and then shimmy out onto one. When I was younger (10+) we would get as high up on those branches as we could and someone below would throw the rope up. I'd put a foot in the loop, grab the rope, and jump. There was maybe 3 or 4 feet of freefall before the rope would catch and swing me out over the open space below. back and forth. Sometimes you could catch the branches again and go back to where yous tarted, other times you'd get off at the bottom. Thinking about the toy question put childhood in my mind and that kind of wooded area where all that would take place was a favorite haunt of mine throughout my youth. I still like to go there when I visit my Mom if I have time.

5. Tell me about a time when you made a distinct ( drastic?) change to your appearance. Why?

I have not made one of those in quite sometime... nothing more than growing or shaving a beard. From my early teens to my mid twenties I had long hair. Eventually I decided it was time for a change and cut it much shorter and moved the part from the middle to the side. I'm not sure why that moment was the time. I think maybe I thought my partner at the time would like it (they did, I think) and I just needed to move on from some elements of the past at that point. So that small reinvention felt good, though uncertain, at the time. Now I miss the long hair and cannot grow it anymore, lol. I have lost a lot of hair :( It was always so thick and full. Gotta love getting older. I mostly dont mind, but sometimes I see the bald spot (it is at the top/back so I cannot see it easily without a mirror) and it makes me sad, but then I feel silly for feeling sad about something like that.

1. Five Questions (christina)