"Old-Fashioned Blogging" and Get to Know Me

I was tagged by Callie in an old-fashioned blogging questionnaire, and it sounded like a good idea. I started this blog something like six years ago, and blogging has changed a lot in the time since then, but like any 26-year-old old-lady, I always have a fondness for "the good old days."

1. What is a favorite childhood memory?

I really loved my childhood, and probably could sit around for way too long just telling favorite stories. Like the time my Dad was out of the country and we locked ourselves out of our house, but were able to break in because I climbed over the fence, dragged a ladder outside, put it next to the 2nd story balcony, climbed onto the balcony, over the railing, opened a bedroom window and stuck my arm inside to unlock the balcony door by twisting the handle--then I was able to get in and let the rest of my family in the house through the front door.

I "come from" many different places and remember the past quite well, so I have awesome memories both of working in the garden in the Michigan countryside and helping my mom prepare a freezer full of homegrown green beans....and of dancing on the beach of the Indian Ocean, 30 yards away from my home, welcoming in a new year with family and friends and fireworks. I like the variety my childhood involved best of all.

2.  If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I've loved just about everywhere I've ever lived and I tend to feel like I could make anywhere a home. I love where I live right now, and I really enjoyed life in China, and I have really happy memories of newlywed life in Michigan with Angel. I have no intention of moving at this point, but if this were the sort of "money is not a consideration, you don't need to have a job, and you can pick out a place to live purely based on your own enjoyment" sort of question...Bois Blanc Island in Lake Huron.

Odds are I'd be snowed into my cabin for a couple months of the year, but I'd lay in a good stash of books and firewood ahead of time and write stories while drinking hot chocolate. In the warmer months I'd spend all my time outdoors and biking and kayaking on the lake. It would be just like being stranded on a deserted tropical island, only without the tropical climate, and with a ferry to the mainland.

3. What was the last book you read?

Right now I'm reading Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos, an autobiographical novel, and really enjoying it. I love books with really memorable characters, and this one is not disappointing!

4.  When you have some spare time, what do you do with it (besides blogging, of course).

I really enjoy sewing when I have a project in mind and a good chunk of time to dedicate to it. Reading has been a lifelong love, and in recent years, 'creating' in the form of writing, blogging, photo/video editing, or lettering, has been my go-to in the free hours.

5. With whom is your longest friendship?

My siblings, in age order. ;) Followed up by some of the Malaysian friends that I've stayed close with since my first week here back in 2004. And I've been friends with Angel for 10 years so he's getting up there.

6. Favorite summer beverage?

It's always summer here. My favorite local drink is ice lemon tea, which is made fresh with strong tea and real limes, but I don't drink it often because I'm not sure if I really ought to drink caffeinated tea while nursing. I also love any fresh fruit juice or the icy fruit slushies Angel makes out of whatever fruit we have in our refrigerator.

7. If you had the opportunity to attend your own funeral, what would you hope to hear people say about you?

In Secondhand Lions, at the end of the movie they say about the two elderly brothers, "They really lived." and I've always felt a fondness for that statement. I want to have really lived. Even more, though, I want to have changed the world for the better and for the more interesting by being in it.

2010 - the week we got engaged

8. All you ladies are married - how did you meet your spouse?

It's pretty well known that I met Angel in college, on my first day. As the "About" page on my blog says, "It was your typical 24-year-old senior meets 17-year-old freshman and eventually comes to the logical conclusion that she would be the perfect wife" love story.

9.  Finish the sentence: "In high school I could have been voted most likely to..."

Be in the movies.

One person even signed my yearbook with "I promise to buy DVDs of any movie you're in!" but I don't think people even buy DVDs anymore. I loved acting, still do, whenever I get any chance in that direction I'll say yes in a heartbeat, but it's not such a big part of the more normal life I've chosen.

10.  Tell us something that we don't already know and wouldn't think to ask you.

I try harder to be normal that I probably should, and even then I don't much succeed. I've been told a few times during my years in blogging that I'm not very 'relatable' to some who read my blog. But I try. When Angel first met my Grandpa, Grandpa took him on a walk and told him, "Rachel 'dumbs herself down' a lot of the time, but don't be fooled by that." 

I hope that as I get older I continue to grow more in 'owning' the way my brain works, as far as memory and learning things without trying to learn them, etc. I ought to err more on the side of being myself than fitting in, sometimes I'm better at that, sometimes I'm worse.