I used to do lots of “either or” kinds of posts, and question posts. I loved seeing the answers and learning about other people — often the ones people would waffle on said more about them than the ones they were decisive about.
I’m fairly ridiculously curious by nature, actually. My random searches account for about 10% of Google’s traffic (and 100% of their traffic on the search phrase, “better with hot sauce?”)
So I’m going to bring back a bit more of my inquisitive flavor today, and offer you…
SIX THINGS YOU SHOULD TELL ME RIGHT NOW
1. The moment in your life when you feel most capable and confident
2. Your favorite color (and even if you don’t have one — liar — just tell me the first one that comes to mind)
3. A pet peeve you’ve blown out of proportion, but it still makes you SO VERY GRRRR
4. Your ideal sleeping conditions
5. Five songs that always make you smile
6. Are you more the silent treatment type, or the confrontational type when you’re angry?
GO!
1. When I’m doing public speaking.
2. purple
3. People who assume because I’m a girl I like pink. I do not like pink just based on principle alone.
4. My own bed, my own pillow, fan on, one sheet, husband with me, 11 p.m.
5. Burning Down the House, Let’s Go (Calvin Harris), Bust-A-Move, Baby Got Back and I Will Follow (U2)
6. CONFRONTATIONAL. Definitely.
(1) When my children look at me and there’s nothing but love & trust in their eyes.
(2) Purple.
(3) People who are condescending.
(4) Completely silent. Black-as-pitch darkness — the kind in which you can’t see your hand in front of your face. Windows open, frogs chirping, the sound of my love breathing next to me.
(5) Only Prettier (Miranda Lambert); Right Down The Line (Gerry Rafferty); Short Skirt/Long Jacket (Cake); Heal The Pain (George Michael); Reach Up For The Sunrise (Duran Duran).
(6) I *used* to be very “silent treatment”. I wouldn’t call myself confrontational, exactly, but I have learned to speak my mind. It makes things better, faster in the long run.
1. At yoga.
2. Teal.
3. When toilet paper is put on the roll the wrong way. It should roll towards you FROM THE FRONT, people. I will totally flip it around at other people’s houses if they do it wrong, yes I’m that much of a self-righteous jerk about this important issue.
4. Midnight or 1a.m., pitch black (no screens or blinking lights in the room), complete silence, queen or king size bed with a sheet and fluffy duvet, and about 4 soft but firm pillows placed strategically around me. 1 for my head, 1 for between my knees, sometimes 1 to lie on top of on my stomach… it’s basically a pretty ridiculous scene.
5. Falling Slowly (Once soundtrack), The Way You Make Me Feel (Michael Jackson), I’ve Had the Time of my Life (Dirty Dancing soundtrack), Galway Girl, Don’t Stop Believing (Journey)
6. Confrontational.
1. When I’m speaking before a large crowd.
2. Midnight Blue.
3. When someone drops a cigarette butt out their car window. Seriously?
4. Chilly. With my wife’s warm body next to me.
5. “Whenever I See Your Smiling Face” – James Taylor, “Isn’t She Lovely” – Stevie Wonder, “59th Street Bridge Song” – Simon & Garfunkel, “Big Ten Inch Record” – Aerosmith, “Never Too Much” – Luther Vandross
6. Confrontational. I like to get things behind me.
1. When I solve a problem or after a run.
2. #252932
3. Not knowing all the pieces missing from a problem.
4. Fall evenings, windows open, cool enough to throw on a light blanket. :)
5. Closer to Love, F**kin’ Perfect, Night Train, Goodnight and Go Live, and OTR version of Bad Romance.
6. Depends on what I’m angry about. My inner Julien comes out when I’m really angry and I use the F word a lot.
1. Working with my students with Aspergers. I get them.
2. Brown–the color of coffee and chocolate.
3. Signs on houses that say “The Johnson’s” or “The Smith’s”. Unnecessary apostrophes in general, I guess.
4. Cold enough outside to really appreciate my warm duvet and my husband’s body heat!
5. Footloose (Kenny Loggins), It’s Friday, I’m in Love (The Cure), Let’s Stay Together (Al Green), Take On Me (Aha), and Baby, Baby Don’t Look Back (Fine Young Cannibals).
Oops…
6. Silent treatment, but working on changing.
1. Running across the finish line after completing a 10k race.
2. Purple.
3. People who can’t spell or use proper grammar. In my work I often have to deal with kids in their late teens and early 20s, and their emails to me are always atrocious. I am sometimes tempted to respond to them and re-write their email to me with proper spelling and grammar. But I don’t. ;)
4. King sized bed that’s the proper amount of firm but yet also soft. Big fluffy duvet cover. Pitch black, windows open (in the summer), and a fan going for white noise.
5. Some of them are cheesy, but I love my cheese! ;) Call Me Maybe – Carly Rae Jepsen, Cover Girl – New Kids on the Block, Where the Streets Have No Name – U2, Kashmir – Led Zeppelin, Need You Tonight – INXS
6. Silent treatment, all the way.
1. In a terse comment (with enough flourish to evoke an emotional response that will remained forever unanswered—though not enough to warrant deletion), nitpicking over an insignificant flaw within a blog post written years ago that only the author still cares about.
2. Pink, but the ferocious variety, not the pastel.
3. The missing 13th Floor on more than half of Manhattan high-rises.
4. Cold, dry room. Heavy goose-down. Better half.
5. Lightning Strikes (Yes). Raffi’s greatest hits.
6. Visibly angry, but silent. Usually.
…because I read all the other replies and I think it’s only fair to share:-)
1. It’s a toss up…when I’m teaching and when my children are fed, bathed and in bed by 9
2. Green
3. Why do people still litter?!? There’s a bin on every freakin’ street corner where I live. Is it really so hard to take 3 more steps?
4. Freshly laundered sheets, pillow encased in a cool white pillowcase, duvet, darkness and nighty-night.
5. Five songs…Step By Step (NKOTB), Opera Singer (Cake), Ojos Asi (Shakira), Livin La Vida Loca (Ricky Martin), You Give Love a Bad Name (Bon Jovi)
6. Confrontational – but I have to calm down first so I don’t pummel whoever made me angry in the first place
SIX THINGS YOU SHOULD TELL ME RIGHT NOW
1. When I am training
2. Twilight blue (the time of day not the books/movies)
3. People who walk to the front of the group of people waiting for the elevator so they can be the first on. People who insist on standing right at the front of the crowd in the elevator even though they are going all the way to the top so everyone else has to say “Excuse me” or squeeze out past them. Elevators in general.
4. Cold room, lots of blankets, spread out like a star fish in the bed.
5. Littlest bird by the Be Good Tanyas. Photosynthesize by Frank Turner. Magic Perfume by Charlene Yi, Blue bird in your soul by They Might Be Giants, Waterloo by ABBA.
6. Both. :)
1. Usually, just seconds before I make the biggest fool of myself.
2. Navy (because it’s classic)
3. CDs or DVDs left outside their case, or worse, in the wrong case.
4. Beside my wife with the window open, letting in the softest summer breeze.
5. Five songs…
– You’re the Only Love ~ The Payol$
– God Will Lift Up Your Head ~ Jars of Clay
– Let the Rain ~ Sara Bareilles
– Dancing With Myself ~ Billy Idol
– Animal ~ Def Leppard
6. Confrontational :-(