I was reading the meme on Stephanie’s blog How to Survive Life in the Suburbs (a meme which she got from her blog friend Window Shopping) and it made me realize just how much I adore pithy insights into a person, all tied up in one neat little post.
So I decided to do my own meme, but with the questions I would like to know the answers to, because – you know – it’s all about me(me). Here goes. Questions and Answers:
1. What’s your guilty pleasure? You know what I mean? What do you do that you know is probably not the wisest thing for you but you can’t seem to help yourself?
Hm. Funny you should ask. (chuckle) Coffee is my guilty pleasure. I know it gives me wrinkles and makes me want to eat sweet things and makes me tense and easily angered but I know that no matter how long I give it up (longest has been a month) I will one day be seduced by the aroma or the idea of “meeting a friend for coffee” and I will be led right back down that bitter path.
2. This leads me to the second question: Have you ever been able to overcome a perniciously bad habit? If so, how?
I haven’t written a lot about alcohol recovery on my blog, although I will at one point, but I’m proud of myself for giving it up 15 years ago. I attended a recovery group with our church (I initially went to accompany someone else, and boy did I get a shock when I realized that what people were saying hit home). I think I was able to give it up because I just sort of became a different person where that was no longer part of my life. I wish all destructive behavior were so “easy” to overcome.
3. What’s your first memory?
I must have been only 2 or 3 because we had just moved from our apartment into our new house. I remember standing and looking up at our dining room table (which is now hip-level) and watching my mom walk around the nearly empty room as if speculating how she was going to decorate it.
4. Have you ever had an experience with a ghost?
I don’t know . . . after my brother died I dreamt that I saw him and we talked. It was horrible and scary – so real it felt like he was there. Thank goodness there’s never been anything more concrete than that because I don’t relish the idea of being a mystic.
5. This brings me to my next question. Have you ever had a significant dream? One that came true, or one that meant something to you?
Why yes, yes I did. I dreamt I would marry a French man when I was 18 years old. Funny that.
6. What’s your most embarrassingly funny memory, and if you dare, your most embarrassingly embarrassing memory?
Okay, embarrassingly funny was when I told my friend Kirsten (my colleague selling advertising for the IMF/World Bank newspaper) that I would show her how it was done in approaching Finance Ministers at the annual meeting to sell them country profiles. I proceeded to convince the Minister of the Central Bank of Hungary why the great country of Poland needed a country profile. (I got the wrong guy. Details are fuzzy).
Embarrassingly embarrassing? Oh dear. I once farted when talking to a guy I didn’t know and I tried to keep acting normal but he was looking at me in total disgust, shock and awe. Let me just sink into the ground right now even remembering it all of 20 years ago.
7. Alright moving on to more distinguished topics. Favorite book. Why is it your favorite?
Mine is Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers. I read it nearly a year after my brother committed suicide and I just started getting treated for depression. It made me laugh. Oh, it made me laugh so hard I had to stop reading it on the train for fear that people would commit me. But it came at a time when I thought I’d never laugh again so I’ll always remember it as my favorite.
8. Last question, most romantic. At what precise moment did you know your spouse/partner was “the one?”
It was on our first date. We had tea. I thought he was such a “nice guy” until he took me salsa dancing. Oh my gosh, he was really good and the way he just grabbed me firmly around the waist and spun me wherever he wanted me to go . . . my knees go weak just thinking about it.
* * * * *
Now you – if you’re inspired to answer even one question in the comments please do. I love to hear stories about you! It doesn’t matter if you’ve never commented before.
If you want to do an entire post with my All About Me(me) questions, leave your link below in the comments and I promise to read every one. Here are the questions again:
1. What’s your guilty pleasure? You know what I mean? What do you do that you know is probably not the wisest thing for you but you can’t seem to help yourself?
2. Have you ever been able to overcome a bad habit? If so, how?
3. What’s your first memory?
4. Have you ever had an experience with a ghost?
5. Have you ever had a significant dream? One that came true, or one that meant something to you?
6. What’s your most embarrassingly funny memory, and if you dare, your embarrassingly embarrassing memory?
7. Alright moving on to more distinguished topics. Favorite book. Why is it your favorite?
8. Last question – most romantic. At what precise moment did you know your spouse/partner was “the one?”
Bisous!
pronounced beezoo and means – Kisses!
I love your post! Your openess and honesty always blow me away. I am the polar opposite of you. I would NEVER be accused of the ‘overshare!’ Thank goodness for you. You make twitter a much more interesting place.
It was the fart that did me in, wasn’t it. 😉 I have no dignity. It’s very sad.
This may bee my very favourite me(me) of all because all the questions are so relevant!! Thank you so much, first for linking me and second for putting your own fabulous twist on it.
I must answer at least one…The one guilty pleasure I do have (besides coffee) is really good chocolate. I hide it from my family and save it all for myself! Sneaking it makes it even more decadent:)
Hiding good chocolate doesn’t sound like guilty pleasure – it sounds like supreme wisdom!
Ooh! Tea on a first date! Marvelous!
A great post. So revealing and honest. Thanks Lady J. X
If it had ended with the tea, we might have remained civilized friends, but you spice it up with a little Latin fever and there’s no telling . . . 🙂
Tea. Love it. I didn’t know you were in recovery. I always learn something new about you.
It seems there is no end to my weaknesses. 🙂
Marrying “the one” who knew how to dance a good salsa? Awesome! Knowing it was a dream (literally) coming true? Amazing!
BTW, Hi! It is my first time in your blog:-)
Hi Pearl (waving). Any friend of Stephanie’s is a friend of mine. 😉
As adorable and lovely as you.
xo
Aw, my friend. 🙂
Love learning more about you!
My indulgences include anything chocolate – but I don’t feel guilty about it, hehe.
If I had your tiny little frame, I would feel guilty about nothing! 😉
Had to join in…
http://wp.me/p2CCXd-jX
Love your answers to your own questions!
Maggie, I am so excited. Off I go to read!
I LOVE your answers – read them from my iphone. Off to now leave a comment.
I’m laughing and laughing about the fart. I may never stop laughing about the fart.
Hey. Some respect Madame. Show some respect.
🙂
Funny…coffee does nothing for me. Chocolate on the other hand? I can’t seem to stop eating it. Every single day.
I love this post. Funny how we are embarrassed about things that happened 20 years ago but I too am guilty of this!
I used to call them cringe memories, but there is rarely anything that has such a strong hold on me anymore at the ripe ole age of 43.
I love reading these too!! Fun to here how others live & how similar we all are in our minds – even if we are totally different on paper!
Loved your question on when you knew “he was the one” … salsa dancing – whew … that had to be quite the steamy date 🙂 Mine was more simple…we had been dating 4 months and I was at his house upstairs watching TV because March Madness was on & I didn’t feel like basketball 24/7…and then I realized we were both happy to be in the same house, in separate rooms … and I thought, I could do this forever. I wanted to be his boring, joyful and non March Madness watching wife 🙂
I totally get that! I didn’t think my husband was cute at first but I always wanted to stand as close to him as possible because I felt safe. He felt like home. (I quickly learned to find him cute).
When I worked in the ER, I farted while working on a patient. I couldn’t help it. It fell out. So what did I do? I looked over at the curtain next to me and said “He must have gas”…totally blamed it on the other patient.
Drat! There was no one by me. I couldn’t pull it off!
I’m amazed that you remember when we first moved into the house!
I know! Such a random first memory.
I love learning even more about you. Also, coffee soon with me, yes?
I loved learning more about you! And to be fair, I’ll answer a few as well. My embarrassing memory is not embarrassing or funny… it was mean. Being the athletic type, I hated having to wear bras when I finally started to in 6th grade. A friend said that she was wearing one, and since she was much less developed than me, I asked her why she would wear a bra. For a middle school girl, either being well developed or not at all were sore subjects. We were friends so she accepted my apology, but I hated my one moment as a ‘mean girl’. I’m embarrassed and ashamed by that memory.
As for when I knew my husband was the one… well, I knew the first time I met him. I went home and told my roommate that I met the man I was going to marry. We were friends for almost a year after that before he finally asked me out, and then got married 18 months after that. Very fast for two kids in college, but we’re happier than ever 10 years in.
It is to your credit, dear friend, that that is your “one” mean moment. 🙂 And somehow it doesn’t surprise me.
My guilty pleasure is chocolate mint. Like York Peppermint or Junior Mints – I can’t have them in the house I will eat the whole bag or package – it is the only thing I simply cannot resist.
Really? Mine would be reese’s peanut butter over the chocolate mint, even though I like that too. they have good chocolate mint Lindt bars here.