Sunday Stealing

It’s early and I’m on my first cup of coffee, so I figured I’d do one of these occasional quizzes from Sunday Stealing. (The quizzes are weekly, it’s my participation that’s occasional. Roger participates every week!)

Here we go!

1.    What was the best toy you ever owned?

Goodness. You know, I oddly can’t recall a favorite or “best” toy. I did have some great stuff as a kid, though. There was something called, I don’t know, Treehouse Family or some such thing; it was a big plastic tree where the leaf canopy (basically a big inverted green bowl) lifted up to reveal the “house” inside, and you could then play with the little people in their treehouse lives. Or the battery-operated mine car thing that ran on a track and picked up “coal” (little black plastic balls) and dumped them off elsewhere on the track.

You’d think I had a ton of Star Wars toys as a kid, but I didn’t, really…just a few here and there, though I did have more space toys with which I supplemented my Star Wars play. Yes, in my 6-year-old 1978 head canon, there was a ship in Star Wars that looked a lot like the space shuttle.

2.    When in your life have you felt the loneliest?

Wow, that took a turn for the serious. I’ll answer 2007, and I’m not going into why.

3.    What is your strongest emotion?

OK, after the toy question, this quiz has gone uber-serious on me. I find that sadness is always lurking in the corners, and I’m hoping that’s not just a creeping-age thing that gets worse. We’ll see, said the Zen master….

4.    When were you the most disappointed in yourself?

2007. Not going into why.

(Interestingly, Roger took the exact same approach to this question.)

5.    Which law would you most like to change?

Lifetime tenure for Supreme Court judges. Oh, and to hell with the Second Amendment.

6.    Who is the person you have hated the most in your lifetime?

I really don’t like admitting to hate. That said, I find myself pining for the day that our 45th president can only be spoken of in past tense, and I make no apology for that. The man has done nothing at all in his years on Earth but pervert everything he touches.

7.    What has disappointed you the most?

The formation of a gigantic cult around our 45th President.

8.    What’s the best possible attitude toward death?

It’s gonna happen, why worry about it? (I try to maintain this attitude. I am not always successful.)

9.    What’s been the longest day in your life?

November 28, 2005.

10.  What is the biggest coincidence in your life?

Honestly, I’ve no idea.

11.  What’s the oldest you’d like to live?

If I can reach a relatively active and dementia-free mid-80s, I think that’s good.

12.    Who is the most amazing woman you know personally?

That one. [points at The Wife]

13.    What was your best experience in school?

I joined Band in 5th grade, mainly for kicks because the band teacher (Mr. Beach) asked me to. I didn’t take it seriously at all, and it showed in my effort and results…until sometime in 7th grade, and I don’t even recall when this happened, when I decided to start taking it seriously and work at it.

14.    What’s the most meaningful compliment you’ve ever received?

A boss of mine once had to sit me down for a real “Come to Jesus” moment, because I had genuinely been kind of rudderless at best and spiraling downward at worst. (To my credit I had already recognized this and was already striving to turn that shit around, but it hadn’t really manifested yet outwardly, and a single individually-mild screw-up on my part was sufficient for the “WTF is wrong with you?!” discussion behind a closed door.) Less than a year later he sat me down again to tell me that I had really turned that shit around and to keep it up. This happened more recently than I like to admit.

Also, a few times in my life I’ve had people who I know to be better writers than me tell me that I’m a good writer. That always feels good.

15.    What is the most you’ve spent on something really stupid?

Well, I’m really glad that it didn’t turn out to be the camera that I dropped a chunk of money on last year! It might be a pair of overalls that I paid honestly more than I should have to discover that they didn’t quite fit, despite the sizing tag. There were also a couple of computers I’ve bought, one a desktop and one laptop, that I bought out of necessity when a previous machine died, neither of which I was really happy with. I suppose it’s good that while I do spend more money on stuff than I should, I don’t tend to blow it on shit.

OK, that was way more introspective than I expected!