1. Leave a comment, saying you want to be "interviewed".
2. I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3. You'll update your blog with my five questions, and your five answers.
4. You'll include this explanation.
5. You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be "interviewed".


Yeah, so I decided to do this. Here's to answer Isaac's questions.

1. What do you like best and least about staying in France?

What I like best? I suppose it's the learning of a new language and culture, finding myself managing and indepdendent (at least somewhat)...When I have the motivation, brushing up on my history through sightseeing, having the means and proximity to travel.

What I like least? The bureaucracy of living here, how difficult it is to do most things like exercise...meet good people. Even shopping for food becomes a task of gargantuan proportions...I like least the fact that I am so far away from my family and friends. Whoops, that was more than one superlative.

2. What do you see yourself doing in 5 years?

This one's a toughie. Let's see, I'll be 25 years old...Ideally, I will be working for the governmental agency of my dreams and saving the world. More realistically, I could be anywhere from finishing up law school, starting up on a phd in English or International Relations, starting up my third year as a full-fledged staff writer for the newspaper of my dreams (also, somewhat idealistic, that last one)...That's professionally. Personally, I would be in a relationship with the man of my dreams and tactfully holding off on marriage until I am most secure in my career, etc.

It did say what I see myself doing in 5 years...and who says I can't do fantasy sometimes.

3. I like this question, actually: If you were a superhero, what powers, costume, and moniker would you have?

I detest such questions (no offense)...but, as a good team player and all that, I'll try and answer it. I suppose I would be extraordinarily fast, be dressed in lightweight, wind resistant, skintight (to aid in that whole speed thing) clothing, and you'd call me Super Tami Fast!...Okay, I cheated. That's what people jokingly called me at times in high school. Or rather, I think they used it as an adverb.

4. Will you ever write a book? What will be its subject matter?

You know, people have told me to write a book ever since...well, forever. And, just like with music, I always felt like the best songs and stories had already been written, that I would end up telling a story that, somewhere, someone, somehow, had already written...And no one likes plagiarism...In the fourth grade I tried writing my first book, but was utterly unimpressed with my own creativity, and shortly stopped, leaving nearly empty computer screen with saved document title alone, for the rest of my years. I've slowly come to realize that I would like to write a book, that I think I would find satisfaction in being a writer (as well as extreme frustration)...but that I need to have lived more in order to write a book, I need to have a story to tell, and I am not sure I have one yet.

The book I wrote (or, to be more optimistic, write) would/will be fiction. But, my biggest problem actually is that it would most likely be nonfiction...or at least based on my life...or damn easy to figure out that it is connected to my life. Then I would have family and friends...as well as a somewhat horrified public (I give myself too much credit...), jumping down my throat in astonishment...you did WHAT?...and, I would ruin too many other lives in the process.

So, I think I'll just dream about that possible book for now.
Plus, I don't think I'm patient enough to write one. (Nor creative enough).

5. What's your favorite memory?

I can't choose one memory out of many, and claim it to be my favorite. However, I will mention a memory I like...that has stayed with me...for no real particular reason other than perhaps it gives me comfort, and a sort of perspective.

I was seven years old...during the summer...and I thought I would never turn eight. Ever. I was outside around late afternoon, one of those dog day summers in SoCal that I love and miss so much. Me and a good friend of mine, Jane, had new addictions to Game Boy...and we would play tetris on the step outside in the yard all afternoon...or run around the track, or go bike riding or roller blading. I would inevitably scrape off my skin or hurt myself in some fashion...but that was the joy of just relaxing. I had no worries then...or none that I can remember, except for wanting to turn eight, of course. I always remember this memory with the late afternoon sunlight that isn't a brilliant white, but a deep golden childhood memory sunshine, like the backdrop to a ongoing movie...

I have many more memories, of course...more recent memories...ones were I felt comforted and happy. But never in the same way as I did then. Ah, the innocence of one's childhood. If I only knew what a crappy mess I would be today.