I was interviewed by Mai, who was interviewed by Kara, who was interviewed by....
1. you recently mentioned on your blog that you want to eat healthier, go on walks more often, and cut out soda for health reasons. do you cook and what do you think will be the hardest thing to change?
I cooked for a living in my previous career. I’ve done everything from working under a CIA trained chef and having a fancy French title that I didn’t know how to pronounce to slapping together sandwiches for drunks at 1 am for a sandwich chain. I grew up on Julia Child and Justin Wilson and whoever else had a cooking show on PBS in the ‘70s. So, I do know how cook. But I grew up in a house where the same 10 weeknight dinners were rotated for decades, and food was just boring. (Baked chicken, mac and cheese, baked chicken, brisket and barley, baked chicken, hot dogs, and more baked chicken.) Meals were a necessity to be eaten quickly in front of the television without thought. On weekends my Dad cooked, and bread was baked, pasta was made by hand and elaborate desserts involving lady fingers were constructed in tiers. And it looked like a lot of work and made a big mess, delicious as it was. Once Daddy perfected a recipe, he lost interest in it and never made it again. Now I live in a small apartment with a tiny galley kitchen and without a dishwasher. Garlic and onion and oil smells linger in the apartment for a day, which I don’t like. I don’t have central air, and the air in the kitchen doesn’t circulate from the rooms with the window units, so it’s too hot to cook during the summer. And I cook for one, so unless I want to eat the same thing at least 4 times, cookbooks and recipes aren’t much help. So I eat convenience and fast foods. The exception is when I cook Japanese food. (And you’ll see more of that soon….) Or when I get a special request. The monk asked for cream puffs for his birthday a few years ago and I spent 10 hours with choux paste and pastry bags and custard cream and Italian meringue. And I had a blast. I like trying new things and cooking for other people. There’s so rarely anyone to cook for, though.
The hardest thing to change? I really don’t see it changing as long as I live where I do, and it’s too cheap there to move. If I ever get married, though, I’m turning into Donna Reed.
2. what is your favorite finished knit?
I had to look in the album to see what I’ve finished! It would have to be Kiri, though I’ve only worn it once. The rest is mostly scarves or gifts. It’s definitely not Bobble Hell!
3. if salary were not an issue, what would be your dream job?
To provide people with clean drinking water. I’d dig the wells myself. Unfortunately, those kinds of jobs don’t have a 401K.
4. if you won the lottery (enough that you do not HAVE to work), would you ever work again? what kind of car would you drive? where would you purchase a home to settle down (no vacation homes! they don't count!)?
I don’t know if I’d keep working. Probably not. I might go back to school to study linguistics. Just for fun.
I would purchase 3 homes. One would be here in St. Louis. I’d also get a flat in London. Then I’d build a house about an hour outside Tokyo. This is theoretical, of course, because I’d only live where my cats could, and I don’t think they’d like to be in quarantine all the time as I moved around. I would live in all three of these homes, about a month at a time, depending on what was going on where. These would be my bases and I’d explore the world.
5. one of my biggest flaws is that i am often low on patience and often find it difficult to sympathize with other people (if i had a nickel for every time i've been described as a "cold-hearted bitch"...). however, one thing for which i'm very grateful is that my parents raised me to be a very confident person (no self-esteem problems here! i think i'm awesome!). what do you consider to be your biggest flaw? and what do you consider to be your best trait?
My biggest flaw? Well, whatever it is that keeps men from wanting to take me away from all this spinsterhood, I guess, but darned if I know what that is. I’d fix it if I could. Second to that, it used to be that I had a vicious temper, but my time with the monk and all the knitting seem to have diminished that. And I’m desperately shy, though no one believes me. My best trait? That would be empathy. I’ve always been able to put myself in others’ shoes and see things from their side. That sounds kind of conceited, though, doesn’t it? It also makes me very sentimental, so much so that I’m teary much of the time. And that’s not a good trait. So instead I’ll say that I try to explore new experiences whenever I can, and not pass any open doors. That’s how I ended up knitting and studying with a Buddhist monk and learning Japanese and meeting nice people like all of you.
okay, now if you want to play, leave me a comment saying, "interview me." i will ask you five questions by email if it is available to me, or via the comments on this blog post otherwise, so be sure to check back here if you want to be interviewed. i get to pick the questions (i will try my best to come up with five interesting questions, but i make no promises!), you will update your blog with the answers to the questions, and include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. when others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
