 Reader Questions II |
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I sent a request to my notify list for reader questions. I'm going to make my way through them gradually. Here goes round two! (Round one is here.) Angie: Let's imagine you could go back in time to any day in your life to live over and to make a change in that day. What day would you choose and what change would you make? Caroline: What regrets, if any, do you have? These are both really questions about regret, aren't they? And I've waffled back and forth on the issue of regret for a really long time, between "forget regret or life is yours to miss" and "there's no such thing as no regrets, and baby, it's alright." I think I am definitely more in the latter camp as life goes on. So clearly, if I wanted to live a day over and change something about it, it would be because I regret something about the way it played out, or regret its result. And to pick a single day to change? That is tough. That requires brain and heart power that I just don't have right now. Of course I have little regrets that are easy to express. I regret that I didn't start brushing my dogs' teeth from the beginning, because now they simply will not abide it. I regret not labeling my videotapes in some semblance of an organized manner. I regret letting my refrigerator get so filthy that cleaning it seems an insurmountable task. Cathy: Do you have any family traditions? If so, what are they? Will you be carrying them over into your own family someday? Are there traditions you would like to start when you have a family? I think our family traditions are largely unspoken, so it's taking me a minute to actually think of any. My mom's frozen ice cream dessert with oats and pecans and caramel and ice cream is the main one that comes to mind. I guess another one of our main traditions is all of the damn singing. What with the singing machine and the piano and the guitars, it is always freaking song time in my parents' house. As far as what traditions I'd like to start when I have a family, that all feels so moot at this moment that I can't ponder that right now! What are your favorite comfort foods? If you had to host a dinner party for 8, what would you serve? Do you have any "signature" dishes, that you make regularly? My favorite comfort food is ice cream. It's funny that you ask about the dinner party, because I was watching Oprah After the Show the other night, and it was all about dinner parties, and it made me vaguely uncomfortable. Like, should I be throwing dinner parties? Should my friends? Because we totally don't. I have no idea what I would serve. It makes me nervous inside just to think about it. Is that wrong? I just don't feel grown up enough to be responsible for feeding and entertaining guests in such a formal manner. Like, if there can't be plastic bowls of skittles on the table and a keg, I'm not sure I can pull it off. As for signature dishes, I guess my brownies, both the rolo and butterscotch varieties, would kind of be signature dishes, as I make them the most and everyone seems to really like them. How long does it take you to consider a new pet "part of the family"? Do you immediately love them like your own, or is there a "warming up" period before you can't live without them? This question is funny. There is no warming up period. Strays who happened upon my house growing up were adopted by me, at least in my head, upon arrival, much to my dismay when their owners came for them eventually. I knew the second Zuko hopped into my car after a day spent volunteering at the animal welfare society that he wasn't a "foster" dog even though I tried telling myself and everyone else who would listen otherwise. The fierceness of my sense of protection of and affection for them is instantaneous with the moment I lay eyes on them. This is risky, and it's why I will never "foster" another animal while I've got four under my roof, because four is plenty. Robert: What's your favorite color? On walls, red. On eyes, blue. Everywhere else? Green and purple make me happy. What's Zuko's favorite flavor of ice cream? Peanut butter and chocolate, just like me. What's it feel like to be a southerner those times that you've come to visit NY? It feels like I'm a hick, but I'm increasingly more okay with that the older I get! I think the first time I visited New York as an actual adult, I only packed black clothes, and it was August and hot and I spent most of the time walking around in the sun, and I was like, "What am I doing?" Did I think I could fool people that I was some kind of a sophisticate by wearing black? What. A dumbass. If you could pick a song that sort of defined you right now (your theme song) what would you pick? Has the song changed throughout different periods of your life or has it stayed the same? If it has changed, what are some of the other theme songs? My theme song this year has been "Better Things" since the first time I heard it at a concert in May. I needed a song like this like I don't think I've ever needed a song before in the entire history of my life. I have totally embraced it and I can't imagine never having heard it now, if that makes any sense. It has totally infused my attitude, and I totally rely on it to bring me out of depressive funks into which I fall on occasion. There are several versions of the song out there, including the original by the Kinks and others by Fountains of Wayne and Dar Williams. Any version will do in a fix, but Dar's is my favorite. I wrote here about some songs that meant a lot to me at the time, and most of them still do. If I had to add any songs to the list in the entry linked above that have become staple songs for me (if not necessarily "theme songs") in the past few years, I'd add "The World Ain't Slowin' Down" by Ellis Paul, "Thunder Road" by Bruce Springsteen, and "When You Come Back Down" by Nickel Creek. They're not the only songs I've become obsessed with, but they're right up at the top of the list. I never get tired of them, and they essentially go on every mix CD I've made for the last several years.
© Copyright 2003 elb |
(Can you tell what DVDs I'm making my way through?) |
