Inquiring Minds Want to Know...

Today, having volunteered to participate in a meme that's making the rounds, I’ve agreed to answer 5 questions asked by one of my favorite bloggers, Chris, of Inane Thoughts and Insane Ramblings. Chris was one of the first people to comment on my old AOL blog, and I've been reading him ever since.

Here are Chris’ questions:

1. Other than family members, who has had a major impact on forming who you are today? My ex (who is one of my best friends) has had a major impact on forming who I am today. I was just 19 when I met him, and we were from disparate backgrounds, so it was probably pretty much inevitable that he would have a major impact.

2. You have done a lot so far in your life. What are some things that you want to do but haven’t done yet? I haven't traveled much, but I'd like to. I love adventure travel, and I'd like to travel the Nicaragua Route, covering the 110 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean across Nicaragua on the Rio San Juan, like Mark Twain (and 10,000 other passengers each year) did during the height of the California gold rush. And I want to go to Machu Picchu, and to trek Annapurna...and when I'm in my dotage, like Miss Lillian, I’d love to do a stint in the Peace Corps...

3. You have four kids, which makes for tons of wonderful memories. There are the obvious ones such as births, graduations, and marriages, but for each child, name a random memory, such as a field trip or just a funny moment.

ALEX: When Alex was little, we lived in a largely gay neighborhood in Chicago. I very much believe that a person’s sexuality is their own business, and I did my best to raise my kids with that attitude. Nevertheless, I admit I was rather taken aback one afternoon when Alex was 4 to realize, as we came out of our local Woolworth’s on Clark Street, that we’d walked smack dab into the middle of Chicago’s Annual Gay Pride Parade. I got a glimpse of two rather large, hirsute men, naked except for heavy chains wrapped strategically around themselves, before I realized this was no parade for a 4 year old (or for me, for that matter). I quickly turned Alex around and assured her that today, I was up for more time in the toy aisle.

“Wait, Mom, WAIT!” Alex said, trying to look over my shoulder as I scooped her up, “I think that’s a parade, and I LIKE parades!”

I bribed her with a Coke, and thought that was the end of it, until a couple of weeks later. A worked downtown, and sometimes he’d call us just before he was getting on the bus, and I’d take the girls downstairs to the front steps, to wait for him. That day, as we waited on the stoop, Alex had an array of Barbies and Kens spread out around her. A bossy little 8 year-old neighbor, Mona, who loved to try to tell Alex what to do, came over to sit with us.

As Alex tried to pull one of Barbie’s frilly fou-frou half-slips over Ken’s manly hips, Mona said sarcastically, “Alex! What are you doing?!?!?! Boys don’t wear skirts!”

Alex’s cheeks were pink with concentration at her effort, but she never wavered as I heard her say solemnly but firmly to Mona, “Some boys DO, Mona, some boys DO...”

KATHARINE: Mother’s Day, 1982. I was pretending to be asleep, enjoying the luxury of lying abed on a Sunday morning, listening to A and the girls (Alex, age 6, Katharine, age 3) busy making Mother's Day Breakfast in the kitchen. Eventually, the girls came bounding into the bedroom with a bouquet of flowers and a tray of food.

“Mom, LOOK! We cooked breakfast for you!” Katharine exclaimed as she climbed up onto the bed and plopped herself down beside me. I looked at the tray, and was touched by what I saw: Coffee, orange juice, scrambled eggs, bacon, buttered toast with jam...but before I could say a word of thanks, Katharine had grabbed the fork. She grinned up at me as she said, just before digging in, “Yeah, Mom, not only did we COOK it for you, it’s so GOOD, we’re gonna EAT it for you!”

MIKE: Christmas Eve, 2005. Punked at Christmas. This is the ESSENCE of my family, and of my (twisted) relationship with my kids...a joint effort, to be sure, but Mike came through with those tickets, that he designed...you can read all about it here...

CHRIS: When Mike and Chris were 3, I was trying to teach them to remember to say please and thank you. Chris loved pickles, and one day he came running into the kitchen and asked for a pickle. I opened the refrigerator and removed a pickle from the jar, but before handing it to him, I asked, “Now Chris, what do you say?”

Chris looked blank for a fraction of a second; then he grinned, pointed at the pickle, and exclaimed triumphantly: “That’s my pickle!”

4. Where have you lived other than Dallas? Rural Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois (Chicago), and Colorado (Aspen).

5. What is the best thing that happened to you in 2006? For so many reasons, accepting the contract job that led to permanent employment is definitely the best thing that happened to me last year.

OK, if you’d like to play, leave a comment asking me to interview you. I'll respond by asking you five questions: I get to pick the questions. You'll update your weblog with the answers to the questions, and you'll include this explanation with an offer to interview someone else in the same post. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you'll ask them five questions.