Tag again (So I'm slow!)

So Barb tagged me a few days ago, and I've just now got time to sit down to it...or, more accurately, Mr.Q's out, so I get the computer for a leetle while! Here we go again - settle in, folks, it's a long 'un!

1. What were you afraid of as a child? Thunder. I was sure, every time there was a thunderstorm, that it was actually a nuclear bomb (Like Cranbrook would be a military target!) Also, sharks in the lake. Never mind about the fresh water thing.

2. When have you been most courageous? Giving notice at my full-time-but-crappy job, while Mr.Q was on tour with no guarantee that he'd have a job when he got back - Knowing I wouldn't be able to collect EI and we had nothing by way of savings, and we'd have to live solely on his income for several months - Signing up for a rather expensive course to get certified in a field I knew little about (ESL) at a time of the year when jobs in that field are uber-scarce - Having no idea at all when, or even if, the risk would pay off but knowing that slinging coffee for minimum wage was no longer an option if I wanted to keep my sanity or that not-going-to-jail-for-murdering-a-really-stupid-person-thing intact....Felt rather like I imagine sky-diving would, but with no instructor, and I'd only read a book about it, and I had no idea if my parachute would open. What fun! I could not go through that again, and be quite happy! But I did it.

And it paid off. Hah! I rock.

3. What sound most disturbs you? People eating crunchy food. Especially, but not only, with their mouths open. It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

4. What is the greatest amount of physical pain you’ve been in? About 3 or 4 weeks before our wedding, I tore part of the ligaments in my left elbow, and took a bone chip with 'em. The most fun part was when I went to the clinic, the duty doctor told me it was "tennis elbow" and to immobilize it, brushing off my insistent protests that it was definitely the wrong kind of pain. I finally went to emergency after 3 nights of not sleeping from the pain- they did an x-ray, spotted the bone chip, sent me that day for a consultation with an orthopaedic surgeon...who told me (thankfully!) that I wouldn't need surgery...but that if I'd listened to the first doctor, I would have lost most of the range of motion in my elbow. Yes, I'm still bitter. (And very glad I listened to my elbow instead of the idiot doctor!)


5. What’s your biggest fear for your children? (or children in general if you don’t have some of your own.) Can we say "climate change," boys and girls? Also, the seeming decline in civility and just plain old paying attention that appears to be going on. And people driving with cellphones.

6. What is the hardest physical challenge you’ve achieved? The first time I climbed a mountain (Lakit Lookout, for the folks who know it) It was the middle of night by the time we found the trail head, and a nearly-full moon. We climbed up by moonlight, which was beautiful - but I had never tried anything like it. The trail was short, but pretty steep, and at a fairly high altitude. And also I had a crappy pack. I thought it was going to kill me, and one of the guys with us ended up carrying my pack part of the way. We slept in a tiny cabin at the top, and woke up to a glorious sunrise over the Rockies...well worth it! (Until I realized that the outhouse - the coolest outhouse you could imagine, there are actually postcards of it! - was on the very edge of cliff, and I hate heights!) The first time...but not the last! Some good trips up there, and the hills around...

7. Which do you prefer: Mountains or oceans/big water? Mountains, hands down. I love the ocean, but mountains...well. Climbing 'em, camping in 'em, berry-picking, wildlife, wild flowers, just sitting and watching the light change on them...it just feels like home in my bones. (Also, see answer # 6, above!)

8. What is the one thing you do for yourself that helps you keep everything together? Having my own room in our apartment. When we first moved in together, I decided that I needed my own space, wherever we lived. It's become a habit bordering on necessity, and it saves my sanity. No piles, no record collections...my books, my guitar, my yarn, quiet, space. Virginia Woolf knew what she was talking about.

9. Ever had a close relative or friend with cancer? Really, who hasn't?

10. What are the things your friends count on you for? Honesty, loyalty, cookies and jam. Maybe not always in that order.

11. What is the best part of being in a committed relationship? Being able to be silly and whimsical and make up funny songs about farting and knowing he'll play along and not think I'm too weird to hang out with. Being sad or grumpy and knowing he'll not only endure my mood, but try to make it better. Being happy or excited, and knowing he'll share that with me. And knowing that I get to reciprocate, and we're not only not-bored with each other, but we get to watch each other find out new things about ourselves and each other, which is very cool, and after almost 8 years his impish grin still makes me weak in the knees. And making people choke on mushballs is fun. Not to mention writing "Zimbu the Love Chimp" on his lunch bag. (Well, and, erm, as Barb said, there's that - ahem - that naked thing....)

12. What is the hardest part of being in a committed relationship? The fact that he wasn't trained to housework by my mother. It sounds facetious, but it's true. I mean, how is it not obvious that if you wash the dishes, you wipe off the stove? That there are no laundry fairies? And so on and on...A constant parade of little things not-quite-finished gets very, very frustrating to live with. (In his defence, he wasn't taught to do housework by his mother either - she has rather Cleaver-esque ideas about gender roles in the home. Taking that into account, he actually does pretty well, and he really does do a fair share of the housework. Even if it's not always done properly.)

But really - though it is partly really about the housework, I also know that it's about different priorities and worldviews. For example, I want/need a comfortable, reasonably orderly space to recharge in...it's not as important to him. How to reconcile that, and other differences? It certainly keeps things interesting! It's like we're dancing together, but each to a different song, and the challenge is to try not to stomp on each other's toes while we're doing it. Not so easy, sometimes!

13. Summer or Winter? Why? Neither. I'm a Spring/Autumn kind of gal...and if I had to choose one of those, I'd pick early autumn, when the light's just turning the colour of honey and the air's getting crisp, and the leaves are crunchy on the ground and I get to wear big sweaters again...

14. Have you ever been in a school-yard fight? Why and what happened? Once, in Grade 6 or 7. I don't remember why, but one of the girls in my class decided I needed to be whupped for something or other. She landed one punch - a rather wimpy one, I don't recall that it hurt at all - and then she got so freaked out about getting in trouble that she ran to tell the teacher about it. Very anti-climactic, really!

15. Why blog? Why not? But seriously...it's a way to order my thoughts, find the humour in my day, meet people on-line and off (some of my good "real-life" friends now are people I met through blogging), keep up with what my blogging friends and family are up to...it's a new and very cool way of building a different kind of community. Plus, I find all kinds of fun knitting patterns!

16. Did you learn about sex, and/or sex safety from your parents? Umm, yeah! I don't remember getting The Big Talk - but I also don't remember having questions not answered. As for the safety bit...well, let's see. There were the "safe socks" in my stocking one year - socks with a pocket sewn on the side, to hold a condom. There was the funky woven hemp condom carrier another year. (Which won me tickets to a rock festival once, but that's another story...) Etc. etc.

17. How do you plan to talk to your kids about sex and/or sex safety? Are you kidding? I'm gonna send them to talk to my parents!

18. What are you most thankful for this year? I have to pick one thing? Time with Mr.Q. Our summer holiday, sitting by a river, doing sweet frak all for several days. The fact that he didn't tour this year, saving me a great deal of time alone and stress about finances. Seeing my family several times this year. New fridge art and lots of cuddles from the kidlets. My sister moving out to the coast. A chance to visit with my brother and his GF before they took off travelling for a year. Finding my sea legs as a teacher. Meeting new friends. The old, good friends, made better. Music. The ocean smell from our yard, on certain days. The awareness that I am lucky, and the good fortune of being able to appreciate it in the moment.

(And free Dweezil Zappa tix tomorrow night...wahoo!)

I'm not sure who to tag with this one...Jel, when she resurfaces from school. Little Mother, coz I'm curious about her answers. Ari, who has a great vocabulary. And anybody else who wants to jump on the bandwagon - come on up! It's loads of fun, and there may be some Bailey's around here. Or even tequila, if you're so inclined!