1.) I am a bit of an agoraphobe – not in the strict sense of being afraid to go outside, but in the ‘fear of the open market’ sense of not liking to travel, not liking crowds, etc.

2.) I hate talking on the phone. I would rather text or email than talk on the phone.

3.) I often say that I would love to move to the woods, in the middle of nowhere, and raise chickens and alpacas and have a huge garden and goats and knit and bake bread all day. But i like being able to walk to our local library, movie theater, restaurants and food markets so maybe this wouldn’t work for me.

4.) I need routine, symmetry, and stability for my mental health.

5.) I love pumpkin pie and coffee and red wine and fresh bread and hot buttered toast and sweet hot tea and avocado and Brie cheese. (Written when I was in my early 30’s. Since then, menopause has really hit my metabolism hard.)

6.) I think my brother is the funniest person I have ever met.

7.) October is my favorite month.

8.) I love thunderstorms.

9.) I don’t know anything about jazz or red wine but I love both of them.

10.) Getting a big pile of new books from the library is like getting a big pile of presents.

11.) I am terrible at buying presents for people; it’s not because I don’t love them, I don’t know what it is except I tend to procrastinate and then panic. If I’ve ever given you a bad present, I’m sorry, but I’ve accepted that it is a shortcoming. Can I give you money instead?

12.) I don’t know how to swim and that’s just fine with me.

13.) Sometimes I feel sad that religion never ‘took’ with me; it would be nice to have that kind of faith, but I just don’t.

14.) I am an ‘early to bed, early to rise’ kind of girl. If I could go to sleep at 8 every night and be up by 5 or 6, I would do it. If I sleep past 9 nowadays I feel that I have missed the best part of the day and can’t catch up.

15.) If I could get away with being like Diane Keaton and wearing gloves everywhere, in public, etc., I would totally do it. (And I wrote this a solid decade before the pandemic.)

16.) I like to splurge on nice candles for the kitchen and special hand soap for the bathroom. (This is what led me to start making my own candles!)

17.) I don’t know how to drive a stick shift.(Update: I did start to learn summer of 2024 and got decent enough to drive around our neighborhood.)

18.) I am moody and frequently feel ‘done’ with people and when I’m ‘done’, that’s that. I don’t attach easily to others, except for one or two very special friends that have been with me for decades, and which can never be replaced. I know this is a shortcoming but I also really don’t intend to do anything about it. I’m happy to not have a big group of friends – just a handful. 

19.) I hate loud noises – loud televisions, radios, etc.

20.) I listen to 90.9 FM (‘classical days and jazzy nights’) in the kitchen all the time. This and public radio are really the only radio that I will listen to as they don’t have loud music or a lot of speaking or any “drive time morning shows” full of insulting and nonsensical yammering.

21.) I wanted to go to law school and so I took the LSAT and got accepted to law school and then I got married and moved to Australia instead. (Now I’m divorced but in a very happy long-term relationship, and I am a paralegal / legal manager in the Legal Dept of a Detroit-area automotive supplier.)

22.) I would love to take wintry ski vacation and just sit by a big flagstone fireplace the entire time with a blanket and a pile of books and a steamy spiked beverage while my sportier compadres came and went off the slopes.

23.) People are like a chess game to me – I am always analyzing why they did what they did and what they might do next.

24.) When I was a child, I had a bit of a crush on Vincent Price.

25.) I am an introvert and would always rather stay home than go out. I’m usually glad I did, when I do, but it’s not my first choice.

26.) I am a crazy cat lady and proud of it and have capped at 3 but if I had a bigger house and worked at home I would go for 4 in a heartbeat.