8 Questions

Jamie tagged me in her 8 Questions post, and now it's my turn to answer her eight questions. This is good news for you, readers, because now that my job actually entails writing, I don't really feel like doing it after hours. It reminds me of the days when my roommate babysits after she works a 10-hour day at her preschool- she knows she loves kids but can't quite remember why.

1. What are your top 2 cities in the world?
Top city is London- the culture, navigating the Tube, shopping at Covent freaking Garden... love it all. I went when I was sixteen and am convinced that if I went as a legal adult that could enter the pubs I'd never come home.

Second... a tie, between Seattle and Nashville. Totally silly because those are the last two cities I've been to but I love the charm of Nashville (southern but not SOUTH) and the chill vibe/walkability of Seattle.

I'm 100% certain that if I ever go to Austin, TX, it would be my favorite city of all time. It's on the top of my to-visit list.


2. Are you doing what you love or doing what you have to?
How appropos! Just started a new job and even though it's early in, I really am doing what I love. After a year and a half in an entry level role at a small agency, I've landed a corporate gig, writing internal/external communications and executing social media channels. In this job market, it's hard to be picky... so I had stayed put and started to give up the ghost on writing as a career. My freelance fairy godmother and countless others reminded me that it's never okay to settle and through some old-school networking, I found a position that fits my skill-set and personality. Still pinching myself.


3. Coffee or tea?
Coffee. I went through a rough patch about a month ago, but I'm back and better than ever. Soy lattes, hot or iced, are the true loves of my life.


4. Describe the moment in your life when you felt the most loved.
I'm not not so good at the gush and I'm very poor at quantifying love... but I'm positive that the last month has collectively been the most loved-up month of my life. Parents are checking in constantly re: the new job, and congratulating me like a three year old in toilet training each time I check off a new accomplishment. BF, the easy going ying to my frazzled yang, has reminded me everyday that life is worth slowing down for. When I sometimes refuse this advice, he gamely joins me under the storm cloud without once mentioning that I need to learn to batten the hatches. Mare's homecoming has breathed new life into my previously stagnant social life, and time with my girlfriends has never been better. Roomie tap dances with me at 11 PM, until we collapse on the couch and chair wheezing from laughter. And I spent four glorious days with JSP in Nashville; I didn't (much to his chagrin) blog about this trip because in the end... every attempted post didn't do it justice. We're better now than we ever were in Wisco because we're confident in our decisions and life plans but at the same time, there was a wistfulness that threaded through our trip as we realized that we'll likely remain a plane ride away from one another for quite some time. And possibly forever.

Oh dear. I guess I am good at the gush, after all.


5. Who do you think had the single biggest impact on your life so far?
My mom. I've never met anyone who is so gifted in the social sphere. Everyone, everyone, loves my mom. As a child I realized that if someone didn't think she was the greatest person alive, they weren't worth knowing. I still follow that rule; it's never failed me.


6. What song lyrics say exactly what you're feeling right now?
Ray LaMontagne's whole new album is speaking to me, especially the song Old Before Your Time:

It took so long to see
That truth was all around me
Now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold
And like the sky, my soul is also turnin
Turnin from the past at last and all I've left behind
Could it be that I am finally learnin?

Oh gorgeous, bearded man, I love you.


7. Pro sports or college ball?
Depends on the sport. Pro baseball, college basketball, pro football but I love Badger gamedays with my Wisco alums in town.


8. What book do you really, really want to see made into a movie?
Charms for the Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons. It's my favorite book of all time, and no you can't borrow it because I like to read it about 3x a year. My dream cast (assuming that because it's in a dream all these people don't have to be age-appropriate now, or even alive) is:

Katherine Hepburn as Charlie Kate
Ashley Judd as Sophia
Kyle Chandler (smokeshow!) as Mr. Baines
Rory Gilmore as Margaret
Ryan Gosling (double smokeshow!) as Tom Hawkings

I've been casting this movie for something like 8 years in my head, so unless they can bring back Kat from the dead, they'd better not make it and ruin my life.

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I'm tagging my as-yet-untagged blogging BFFs- KC, ProntoPup, LH, Joel (ahem), Sara, and Teresa and anyone else for my 8 questions.

1. What's one obscure-ish website you visit?
2. What's your go-to catchphrase?
3. Worst job you ever had? (T- please share at length the summer of Come Back Inn. It's why I included this question. A thank you!)
4. One moment you'd like to relive- to change something
5. One moment you'd like to relive where you wouldn't change anything
6. Favorite alcoholic drink
7. I think the majority of you are, like me, born rule-followers. What's one time in your life you broke the rules, and how did it turn out?
8. At weddings, do you participate in the Electric Slide, Macarena, and Chicken Dance? Why/why not?