Interviewed

I'm being interviewed.

1. Out of everything you have accomplished in life, excluding kids, what are you most proud of?
First off, thanks for excluding the kids. I love them and am proud of them, but they're people, not accomplishments.

This is hard. I can't think of any one thing I've done that truly stands out. In my late teens and early 20s, I'd have said getting through Air Force basic training, and that's still high on the list. In my later 20s to early 30s, I'd have said finding a career which fit in well with being a military wife in that I've always been able to find work wherever I went. In the second half of my 30s, I'd have said surviving divorce and being a single parent. Now in my early 40s (which I plan to be in until I turn 50 eventually), I'd have to say it's picking up the kids and moving them 3000 miles away from their father so that we could all get away from the poisonous culture that is rampant on the East Coast. It was really hard, even though I was coming home (albeit to a home I hadn't lived in for 20 years), and it gave me a whole new level of appreciation for my mom who did the same thing, moving us from Illinois to Washington in 1981. Maybe that's it, my best accomplishment is really truly gaining appreciation for everything my mom did and doing it early enough in my life and hers that I've been able to share my appreciation with her.

2. Where would be your dream place to live?
It's right here. I know you'll probably find me "provincial," but I've lived other places, and while I know they exist. I don't want to be anywhere but here. I've lived in the Midwest and hated it, lived on the East Coast and hated it, lived in the South by way of Texas and wasn't all that impressed (but not nearly as hateful as the midwest), I've lived in Europe (both Germany and England), and I've lived in tropical Asia (Guam which is an outpost of hell). None of those places is home. This is home. There are are other places, but they largely suck.

3. Besides hairy freaks, what kind of man would you pick as a partner (not marriage or anything, just a good relationship)?
It's so much easier to couch this in terms of what I don't want, but that's not the question, and it's not a healthy way to approach things. Hairy freaks notwithstanding, what I really want in a partner is a man with clear vision. Meaning someone who sees me as I am with all my faults and shortcomings and wants to be with ME, as I am. I want a man who will laugh with me and occasionally laugh at me when I'm being ridiculous. A man who understands that even if I share a house, a bed, and a life with him, I won't share a checking account or a bathroom. I want a man who likes my family and who's liked by them in return (that would be refreshing). He should be faithful, honest, respectful, and kind. I can't say looks aren't important, because they are, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And he can't listen exclusively to country music ~ I hate that shit.

4. What do you see as the biggest issue facing America today?
Is it the war? Gas prices/the economy? Immigration? Yes. It's all of those things, plus abortion rights, the health care system, global warming, the looming threat of the religious right, and any number of other things.

Truthfully, I'm aware of the issues, and I vote my conscience, but I don't watch the news beyond local issues and weather. Call me an ostrich if you will, but watching the news on TV and reading more than a few articles a day online doesn't improve my life one iota. And since this is the only life I have, I get to decide what's important to me. As a dear friend said to me fairly recently, "I'm very political, but I hate politics." That's me. I'm not interested in debate. I form my opinions and I follow my heart. And I skip blithely on, singing Tra La La at the top of my lungs, so that I can't hear the people telling me what they think I should be thinking.

5. And to steal one~if you could have any super power what would it be and why?
When I was a kid, I had flying dreams. I still have flying dreams sometimes. That's the superpower I'd want. To have that freedom. There's a poem that I was introduced to while I was in the Air Force, High Flight by Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee of the Royal Canadian Air Force, that fits.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

It's a pilot poem, but since flight without the aircraft is not yet possible, it's the closest I can get (even though, strictly speaking, I don't believe in God, or not just one anyway).

OK, so that's my interview. Thanks, Janice for the questions.

Here are the rules, if you would like to be interviewed:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.