interview

The lovely Auntie Amanda offered this challenge, and I can't resist this kind of stuff. Plus it will help me refocus away from the more intense aspects of being a parent. Oh, and I'm totally jealous that her trees all have leaves. Here? No leaves. Some buds, but no leaves.

1. When you were a child what did you want to be when you grew up?

A sleuth. I was enthralled with Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. I think I was only one of a dozen kids in the entire country that could slog through these dated novels (Cherry Ames, anyone?? The Bobsey Twins??) and still think they were cool. Still, they were some of my first experiences with literature that made a lasting and compelling impression.

I remember one Nancy Drew, unsure which one, with a line that has stuck with me as clear as day, since I last read it almost twenty years ago. Nancy has to dive underwater to investigate the contents of a suspiciously-sunk sailing vessel. She opens a vanity, still full of compacts and make-up. Picking up a lipstick, she pulls off the cap and the tubes were choked with glittering diamonds. That was the line and at eleven years old, it was one of the most sexy sentences I had ever read. Ah me.

2. What do you think your best and worst qualities are?

Ah, easy!
Best: I am incredibly loyal to my friends. Come high times or terrible, I will love you and cherish you. And if I complain to you, I will never complain about you.
Worst: I bear a grudge. Anger or worse, upset me or someone I love, and I'm not likely to forgive it anytime soon.

3. What three people –dead or alive- would you like to have over for coffee & conversation and why?

Ray Bradbury-He rocks my world, and his characters are always people after my own heart, even when they're bad. Where did he dream up all those people? Does he really spring out of bed in the middle of the night with a whole story? Who is Cicy? Has he been to the Veldt?
Bruce Springsteen-Grew up in my town, got kicked out of my catholic grade school, writes incredibly lyrical poems about my life and life in NJ. We used to fight like cats to serve him at Jersey Freeze. I wonder what it's like to be him. What's that lyric from Evita? "Sometimes it's very difficult to keep momentum if it's you that you are following." So how does he do it?
Lucille Clifton-Incredible poetess and lover of southern Maryland. Split her teaching tenure between St. Mary's and Duke. One of the most powerful black women I have ever met. I got to take a class with her, but never had the courage to ask her the important questions about what she believes.

4. What is the biggest surprise about motherhood?
That I'm still up typing when I'm so incredibly, incredibly tired.

5. What superpower ( flying, invisibility ,etc) would you like to have and why?
I would like to invent a new power. It's called Stripping the Undeserving of Their Power. Then I would proceed to take down governmental special interest groups devoted to making money, waging war, deceiving the public, and otherwise fucking up this country, which I love. This power would also have the ability to thwart shitty spouses/boyfriends and cause them to break out in boils.


Want to play? Here’s the scoop:
1. Leave me a comment saying ”Interview me” and give me your e-mail address so you can make it easier on me.
2. I will respond by e-mailing 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.