What I Most Want to Know about You 2.

Play along!

1. What are your favorite professional voices?
2. What qualities do you admire in a celebrity?
3. What is your favorite kind of mail?
4. What's the easiest way to make you feel loved?
5. What is a loss that would make your life dull?
6. What is your favorite jewel?
7. With which Wizard of Oz character do you most identify?
8. What is something beautiful for your day?
9. What are your should-be-guilty-but-aren't pleasures?
10. What's something really weird about your life right now?
11. What's something odd you just love?
12. What can been a recent, unexpected luxury for you?

1. What are your favorite professional voices? Musically, Michael Crawford, Ramin Karimloo, Dennis DeYoung, Corinne Bailey Rae, and Billy Joel. In general, Alan Rickman (shed a tear).
2. What qualities do you admire in a celebrity? I love celebrities who will be good sports and make fun of themselves. I also admire their stamina, and I'm impressed when they are kind and gentle with fans.
3. What is your favorite kind of mail? I love my Stitch Fix, but a used $4 book from Amazon is really awesome.
4. What's the easiest way to make you feel loved? Probably just a sincere, firm hug. But a fun question (like one of these) can do it too. Any kind of tiny gift lights me up.
5. What is a loss that would make your life dull? Glitter. Really. I would be so down if it disappeared. I always try to incorporate glitter into what I wear and what I do.
6. What is your favorite jewel? That's tough. I love amethyst...I also love emerald, opal, tanzanite, and ruby. I wear a lot of costume jewelry rings, and they can be beautiful.
7. With which Wizard of Oz character do you most identify? Maybe the Cowardly Lion. I feel anxious and panicked much of the time, yet I've proven (to others) my courage many times.
8. What is something beautiful for your day? Hmm. Oliver's dancing. The bubbles in my wine glass of Sprite. Josh's reading.
9. What are your should-be-guilty-but-aren't pleasures? Mixing baby blue glitter drops into my foundation. Drinking a Cherry Coke. Watching scary movies by myself (with Josh nearby). Binge watching American Horror Story with Bruce.
10. What's something really weird about your life right now? Our lives revolve around magazines. Oliver is obsessed with tearing them up. I look at my magazines and then give them to him--which is kind of good since I have a lot of magazines clutter. Mom and Bruce save magazines for Oliver too. He carpets the floor with magazine shreds. Clean-up is pretty constant. This phase has become long-term.
11. What's something odd you just love? I love journals that are made to look like books, with the title on the decorative cover and spine. The most recent one I found is blue and claims to contain love stories.
12. What can been a recent, unexpected luxury for you? A box of 200 lens wipes. Now, I can really clean my glasses thoroughly once a day or so.

What I Most Want to Know about You.

I'm going to list the questions and then add answers. You can respond with your answers in the comments or on my Facebook link post. Or share with others! I believe that questions are love.

1. What are your top three favorite songs?
2. What foods make you feel peaceful?
3. What TV shows have really pierced you?
4. If you could wear any costume to a costume party, what would you choose?
5. If you could wear only one color for a year, what color would you choose?
6. What is your best garden- or flower-related memory?
7. If you had to kiss someone you don't know just once, whom would you choose?
8. If you could change one of your physical attributes, what would you change?
9. If you could suddenly possess one impressive skill, what would you choose?
10. If you could go anywhere in the world for two weeks, where would you go?
11. If you could hire a trained professional assistant, what sort would you choose?
12. What are your top three fictional characters?

1. What are your top three favorite songs? "Hysteria" by Def Leppard, the title song from Phantom, and Corrine Bailey Rae's "Paris Nights/New York Mornings."
2. What foods make you feel peaceful? Hmm...shells and cheese with broccoli, Mashhouse cheese grits, and Carrabbas Mezzaluna.
3. What TV shows have really pierced you? Black Mirror, Electric Dreams, X-Files
4. If you could wear any costume to a costume party, what would you choose? Hmm...probably Christine Daae in her costume and white robe.
5. If you could wear only one color for a year, what color would you choose? If I could wear colorful accessories, I'd choose black. If not, I'd choose green.
6. What is your best garden- or flower-related memory? My mom has always made beautiful gardens. I also have sweet memories of scribbling in a spiral notebook at the botanical gardens in Nashville.
7. If you had to kiss someone you don't know just once, whom would you choose? Probably Paul Rudd.
8. If you could change one of your physical attributes, what would you change? I'd be back to my pre-lithium weight. Perfect skin would be great too.
9. If you could suddenly possess one impressive skill, what would you choose? Playing the piano. 
10. If you could go anywhere in the world for two weeks, where would you go? The UK. England in particular.
11. If you could hire a trained professional assistant, what sort would you choose? Probably a cook. 
12. What are your top three fictional characters? Erik from Phantom, Anne from Green Gables, and Jane from Jane Eyre.

Restoration: Week 47.

This past week, I read only a little poetry. But I read many tiny stories. They seem to patch me up somehow. I don't know if I could really writer that way. I do have lists of story ideas and first lines. Perhaps some tiny stories wait among those.

We spend two nights in Charlotte with Mom and Shane. Thanksgiving lunch was delicious. I probably had three slices of pumpkin pie while we were there. We love to eat pie for breakfast. It's a restorative joy.

James and I talked a great deal about movies. Mom asked about our favorites, telling James, "Your sister thinks questions are love." Yes!

Shane drove Mom and me all around on Friday. We went to Cheap Joe's Art Stuff, a place that plants me firmly in the concrete but also makes me feel like I'm floating. I chose 20 dark metallic and glitter Gelly Roll pens (my perennial favorite) for my upcoming journals. We stopped at a yarn shop for Mom (we all need our tools) and a mini bundt cake bakery for Shane (my carrot cake bundt lasted two days). I mentioned Paper Source, and there we were! I love the atmosphere and merchandising. It makes me think that some creativity is about to bubble out of me. The rubber stamps were lovely: a trees with star-like leaves, You Are Magical, and a cluster of snowflakes. It was a restorative day, soaking up beauty and potential beauty.

We had dinner snacks (my favorite! Salami, cheese, and this time, Mom's crab dip!) on Friday night. I drank soda, jumping off the one-soda-a-week wagon temporarily. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I finished a journal on Sunday. Getting ready to start a new journal is a thrill.

The week restored my joy and many of my connections. I'm grateful for that.

10 Questions.

I think asking questions is an act of love. That curiosity and engagement are wonderful for the one asking and the one answering. We learn each other. But I also think that asking ourselves questions is healthy and illuminating. That's what prompts and guided journals are for, but sometimes the asking is just as important as the answer. A few days ago, I wrote a quick list of ten questions I pulled from the attic of my mind.

1. Will something interesting or important arrive in the mail today? I love mail!
2. Why am I always so sleepy?
3. Will I ever lose enough weight?
4. What are my boys doing right now?
5. Is this about as stable as I will get?
6. How long will we live here?
7. How can we communicate with Oliver?
8. What should I do with all of Oliver's school work?
9. What would handwriting analysis tell me?
10. Why does ancient Egypt interest me?