MissMeliss: Escribition

…whether or not it's true that dogs instinctively swim. It completely is. Today both Zorro and Cleo swam the width of the pool, twice. And Cleo can almost manage the ladder.

We'll be working on a way to allow them to get OUT if they ever get in w/o supervision, but I don't think they'll go in without Mom to swim to.

— How does where you are today differ from where you thought you'd be when you were a teenager?

I hated my teenage years, and spent a lot of time imagining what life would like when they were over. In truth, if I hadn't attended a performing arts school I'd never have survived high school. So, most importantly, even though I have my dark moments, I'm a much happier, more balanced person than I was then.

My dreams, then, were centered around theatre and cello, but by the time I graduated I was so burnt out from the classic over-achiever treadmill (why, yes, I can be first chair, and part of leadership, and take physics, calculus, AP biology and advanced musical theory all at once, and still have time for music lessons and model UN and Shakespeare camp and serving as Historian for the local ballet company, and, and, and, and…) that I ultimately went to a university that didn't even have a formal music department, because they gave me a lot of money, and the dorms were only a few blocks from the Haight.

I did get to play in theatre some, because my freshman seminar was Theatre as Social Commentary, and it was taught by a guy who was a dead ringer for Fidel Castro and kept wanting us to do something about Solidarity, which none of us were interested in. Oh, and there was the annual Comm Arts presentation party.

I had dabbled in /so/ many things for /so/ long, and never been able to choose, that even in college I had no clue what I wanted, and ultimately realized I was there for the wrong reasons, and quit. Someday, when I'm ready, and I know I'm doing it because I /want/ to and not because I feel it's expected of me, I'll finish my degree. Probably at Mills College in Oakland, because I really like the faculty and the philosophy of the school.

So, anyway, at nineteen, I was managing an espresso bar / bookstore, and writing radio filler for spare cash, and then I took some time for an extensive visit with my grandfather, during what turned out to be the last year of his life. And then I came back to California, though I'm not /from/ here (is anyone?) and got really active in the pro-choice movement, getting up at dawn on weekends to do clinic defense, and stuff, and went to work for my mother's company, and realized I really liked the industry.

Nothing of that is /anything/ I ever thought about, but for the most part I'm happy with how things have turned out. There are little regrets, here and there, but nothing earth shattering. I have a house I love, and a husband who understands me, mostly, and the two cutest dogs on earth, and I still don't have to be at work before ten or wear corporate drag. So, it's all good.

— When you shut your eyes, just now, what do you imagine?

My immediate answer is a waterbed, because my shoulders and wrists are killing me, and I've read that waterbeds are really good for people who just cannot get comfortable, then, it expands, and I'm floating in my pool (which Jose the pool guy swears will be ready tomorrow), and there's sunshine, and someone brings me an iced coffee.

And anyone else is still welcome to Question Me.

Note to self:
When you realize that you are having issues receiving mail from more than one account, from recognized email addresses, check and see if your other computers are online and in the mail program.

*sheepish expression*

— Which is better…NJ Shore or CA Shore? Why?
For sheer dramatic beauty, and wildlife, nothing beats the California coastline. For sunning and swimming, NJ, all the way. Northern CA water is cold even in summer, and the undertow is severe. I was spoiled by the Gulf Stream running through the Atlantic.

— If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
Portland, Orgeon, or Pezenas, Languedoc, France.

: Monkeys: cool or not cool? As objects of humor, cool, as pets, not cool. They're my favorite animal cracker, though.

So, people tell me I'm guarded, and I guess that's true, but mostly it's not intentional, it's just that I've no idea what people could possibly find interesting.

Therefore, in the interest of letting down my guard a little (and because all the cool kids are doing it), I join the “Question Me” Queue.

told us which she'd read…now it's my turn.

1984, George Orwell
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Animal Farm, George Orwell
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
The BFG, Roald Dahl
Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
Bleak House, Charles Dickens
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
Catch 22, Joseph Heller
The Catcher In The Rye, JD Salinger
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
Dune, Frank Herbert
Emma, Jane Austen
Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
The Godfather, Mario Puzo
Gone With The Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, JK Rowling
Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
His Dark Materials trilogy, Philip Pullman
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
Holes, Louis Sachar
I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
Katherine, Anya Seton
The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, CS Lewis
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
The Lord Of The Rings, JRR Tolkien
Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
Magician, Raymond E Feist
The Magus, John Fowles
Matilda, Roald Dahl
Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
Middlemarch, George Eliot
Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
Mort, Terry Pratchett
Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
On The Road, Jack Kerouac
One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
Perfume, Patrick Süskind
Persuasion, Jane Austen
The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
Pride And Prejudice, Jane Austen
The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
The Ragged Trousered Philantrhopists, Robert Tressell
Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret History, Donna Tartt
The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
The Stand, Stephen King
The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
Tess Of The D'urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
The Twits, Roald Dahl
Ulysses, James Joyce
Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
War And Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Watership Down, Richard Adams
The Wind In The Willows, Kenneth Grahame
Winnie-the-Pooh, AA Milne
The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte