Enlightenment

A wise man (Eugene Ionesco) once said, "It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question."

So thanks, Pookalooka for starting the game, and thanks to everyone who particpated. It was good to not think about running tonight!

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In response to Running42K...

1) About friends... Attributes you look for: Openness. An inclination to discuss thoughts, ideas, and of course, FEELINGS. Helps if they are witty, can keep me on my toes, and add to my music collection.

2) About sex... Most interesting place it has happened: Hmm... Interesting... It involves a fraternity house and a laundry room. But I swear, Dad, we just held hands the entire time.

3) About music... Favorite bands: This list is always changing, but I super heart Spoon. I can find a Spoon song for every mood lately. I am newly obsessed with The Arcade Fire - I seriously want to choreograph a modern dance piece to the entire Funeral album. On my iPod right now is Belle & Sebastain thanks to MJC. The old staples include The Beatles, Beck, Counting Crows, Guster, The Shins, The White Stripes, and Wilco. But that's a short list. I have 13 GB of music - and I'm just getting started!

4) About drugs... Do you or have you? Yes or No but not a lot and Yes but a very very very short list.

5) About love... Love at first sight or no? Love at first conversation. But sight? I don't think I've ever loved someone because of how they look.

6) About anything... Favorite meal. Mom makes a mean pork tenderloin... every time I am at her house. She thinks it's my favorite, so I'll say that. Really, though, I can't get enough of the Spanish Omellette at The Diner in Adams Morgan, DC. I miss that place. The closest I've come to replicating it in SF is the Acapulco Omellette at The Crepe House. However if I'm being honest, I am also perfectly content with peanut butter from the jar... :)
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In response to Pookalooka...

1) About friends... Outside of your family, how far away is your closest friend from you? So I have this thing with my best friends. There are ten of them. I can't rank them. I've tried. It just doesn't work - because they are all best friends for different reasons. I have tried to stop referring to each one of them as my "bestsest friend in the whole wide world," too, but it's impossible because they are all so great. They live in the following cities - Boston (2), Philly - soon (1), DC (4), Richmond (2), Austin (1). There are also two in NYC and a couple more in DC , but if I had to pick best vs. bestest they'd just be best. Phew. That was long-winded.

2) About sex... hmmm, clean one -- do you think the sexual revolution helped or hindered in sexual equality? Gut response - helped. I could write an entire term paper on this one, though. I'll just say that topics in the news and on Oprah a while back concerning young girls and the pressure they feel to put out really make me sad.

3) About music... how many local bands do you see perform in a year, as compared to big ticket concerts? I haven't been to a big ticket concert since... Dave Matthews 1998. I tend to see indie-bands at small venues, but they aren't necessarily local bands. Although I always opt to go to a bar with a band playing over a club with a DJ. And I'd say that happens on average 1-2 times/month. Minimum.

4) About drugs... What's worse -- use of illegal drugs or abuse of legal drugs? Depends on the drugs! And I think it depends on why their being used... But if you really want me to pick one, I'll pick use of illegal drugs, because most of them are illegal for a reason.

5) About love... How many times have you fallen in love? vs. developed crushes? I develop a new crush every week. And I act like a 14 year old about it every time. But I have only been in love once.

6) About anything... What's your true career ambition? (what's your dream job) I am not that far away from having my dream job. I'd like to invent things. It would be cool to have a few patents under my belt. But I'm not really a tinker-er. So I want to manage/lead the invention and design process. I picked software as my industry of choice because it's an industry in which creation and invention can be very quickly realized. I design a new system every week and we build it in a few months and I love it. One day, I hope to design a new product from beginning to end, bring it to market, and sell billions of dollars worth of it. I guess my dream title would be Product Manager/Product Champion. Or President. I guess in the dream scenario I would do all this under the guise of my OWN company.

6a) not so bad, right? Not bad at all! Dad will just have to deal!
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In response to JKRunning...

1) About friends... Oldest Friend? (not by age, by years) RED. But we haven't spoken since I was down in L.A. I don't know if we're friends anymore. It's so hard with the friends to boyfriends to ex-boyfriends to still make-out sometimes and normally talk regularly types of "friends." Anyway, we've been friends since we were 12. A close second would be LEF. We met at age 13, but we weren't REALLY friends until senior year of high school. So I guess I'd also have to say ARH. We also met around age 13. But RED, if we talk again sometime soon, would be the oldest. He arguably still knows me the best, too...

2) About sex... Biggest regret: RP. I liked him more than he liked me. I learned from it (never trust a man with a guitar!) but I still regret it.

3) About music... What is the most frequently played song on your iPod? Ha ha! Awesome question. Cody Chestnut, "Look Good In Leather." Download it NOW! It makes you happy, it makes you want to go out, it makes you dance, it makes you feel sexy, it makes you want to run, it makes you FEEL.

4) About drugs... Hmmm, I'll copy running42k and say have you? Yes.

5) About love... If you could guarantee one trait for your future husband to have, what would it be? These days, it would be nice if he were also an endurance athlete. But if we're talking personality traits, I think I'd like for him to be a grounded dreamer. Does that make sense?

6) About anything... How did you get started with running? I played soccer growing up, so I always ran for soccer. I didn't play in college, though, so I just ran when I could. Which wasn't often, because I worked my no time to work out I'm an engineering major excuse to the bone during college. One day I decided to sign up for a race. It was a 10K. Now, I also grew up dancing, and I love performing. And to me, a race is a long performance. Replace the stage with the street, but all the rest is there - only the crowd cheers for you a hell of a lot longer during a marathon than during a dance performance! After that race, I was hooked. Plus, runners are a lot nicer to each other than dancers are. And there are no leotards and tights. Well, there can be tights, but there are no mirrors. I love it!
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In response to A.Maria...

1) About friends... When a friend and you get into an argument, are you the first to patch things up, or do you wait for them to come to you? The last time I was mad at my friends was when I was visiting DC around Thanksgiving, and GPSH, LGA, and ACN got in a cab and LEFT me at a bar without saying good-bye to go to the WORST bar in DC. Smith Point. I played passive aggressive and let them apologize to me. But I'd have to say that situation is not the norm. I like to talk about feelings, so I normally try to patch things up myself.

2) About sex... How long do you wait, in a new relationship, for sex. more specifically do you HAVE a "time period" that you're like "no sex for X dates" or just play it by ear? Dad, I'm waiting until marriage. But really, I guess I play it by ear. Although three dates sounds like a good number.

3) About music... Song you listen to when you're angry/sad/partying/etc: OK, I actually have entire playlists for these genres. Angry, Chill, Cocktails, Driving, Forlorn, Getting Ready, Dance Party, etc. So I'll just name the song at the top of each playlist.
Angry - "Precious Things" by Tori Amos
Sad - "Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Straits
Cocktails - "All That Jazz" by Sammy Davis Jr
Partying - "Hotel" by Cassidy & R Kelly (EMBARRASSING!)
Happy - "I Summon You" by Spoon

4) About drugs... if they legalized pot, would you partake, and if so, how often. Yes, I would partake. On laid back evenings. Or days. Not daily, maybe not even weekly, but likely before a concert. Or a reunion with certain friends. And with my Dad, who swears he's never smoked pot. I don't know how he missed out on this part of the 60s.

5) About love... Have you been in love, and if so, how did you know? Yes. If I think back, though, the way I loved him when I realized I loved him and the way I grew to love him were entirely different. So without getting super cheesy, no one else ever looked at me the way he did. And I didn't look at anyone else the way I looked at him. And no one else looked at him the way I did. I don't mean this on a physical eyeball to eyeball level. But he saw in me what no one else did and I in him. And I think that's how we knew.

6) About anything... Favorite book. not just some steven king or something, but (if you like to read that is) one that really touched you, and why.(i'm a dork. i love to read. pardon the question if you're not!!!!) A. Maria! I'm a dork, too! In college it was The Fountainhead. That book made me think about everything differently. I have never read Atlas Shrugged, nor do I want to, nor do I believe in everything Ayn Raynd. But that was the first book that really shook everything up for me. Also, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers. I live in SF now partly because of that book. And I quote, "Have you ever seen this mother-fucking sky? Have you ever BEEN to California?"
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In response to Chickfit...

1) About friends... Lots of acquaintences or just a few really close friends? Lots of really close friends. Wait, that wasn't an option. But really, I have the most amazing group of awesome friends. And now that I'm out in SF I'm starting to rack up a great crew of acquaintences who I hope will become friends! I think I have a unique ability to connect with lots of different types of people on lots of different levels. For example, in high school I was a dancer/cheerleader/soccer player who then went to college to be an engineer/dancer/sorority girl... I know, right?

2) About sex... Last time you had sex (just a date, I don't need details) :) December 30 - The Homeowner. It ended right after that. Oops, those would be details...

3) About music... What kind of music do you like? Favorite would be indie-rock. But I love most things that I can sing, and I especially love bands that utilize the piano.

4) About drugs... Not sure this counts, but how many pills do you take everyday? (vitamins, supplements, Rx, etc.) I like it! 1 multi-vitamin. 2-multi-mineral. 1-iron (if I remember). 1-calcium chew. 1-fish oil. 2-glucosamine chondroitin. 1-BCP.

5) About love... Is love an overused word? It is, but only because we don't seem to have a better word. There is such a difference in intensity between like and love and platonic love vs. romantic love. We're left only with qualifiers like, REALLY and ALOT. And they're such trite words! I'm guilty of overusing "love." But I also use words like BESTEST, and really mean it, so can you hold it against me?

6) About anything... Hills or sprints and why? Sprints - because I'm getting good at them!!!! Only if they're kind of long, though. No 100 yard dashes. I suck at those.
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And in response to Walchka...

1) About friends…What was your favorite non-human friend while growing up? (teddy, ect) Mr. Flopsy, my stuffed bunny rabit. I received him for Easter when I was four. And when I broke my arm and had to have surgery, he came into surgery with me. The doctor also bandaged his arm. He is sitting behind me now on my chair. I don't sleep with him anymore, but he's still there.

2) About sex…Biggest turn-ons or instant mood setters? I admit that these two things don't particularly sound sexy in the Danielle Steele fashion, but I love when I'm kissing a guy and he holds my face in his hands. I am also most likely to be turned on in the middle of a political (or ideological) argument... I also like to watch gusy read/work. And cook. I guess flowers never hurt either!

3) About music…Most likely group/song to be on while doing the deed? I don't know anymore! I lost my virginity to Bob Marley, though. So NOT Bob Marley. I love the song, "Born for Me" by Paul Westerberg. It's just sweet and good. I also wouldn't mind hearing most Iron & Wine songs in the background. But if we're calling it the deed, sweet may not be appropriate. So "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" by The Beatles.

4) Drug…Preference, legal or not? I think pot should be legal. Holding in CA is only a misdemeanor. We have bigger problems in this country, and the world for that matter, than pot. But needles and noses are no-nos.

5) About love…First big crush when you were growing up? I had a serious crush on RED when I was 13. We didn't start dating until we were 17, though. But in the non-realistic sense, I so LOVED Christian Bale - he was in Newsies and I danced to songs from Newsies and I just couldn't sleep at night sometimes. Ah...

6) About anything…Favorite flower and color? Flower - I love orchids. Color - Red. But I don't really like red flowers, oddly enough!
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