Five from charlotte_buff

[karlht]

charlotte_buff asked:

1. What are three of your favorite things about where you live?

2. What's worse - 2 full weeks of constant crowds and people talking to you nonstop or 2 full years of absolutely no interaction with another person.

3. I can't believe that I don't know this about you but... do you have any pets? If so, describe them to me. If not, why?

4. Do you remember the first book that you bought with your own money? What was the title and why did you choose it?

5. When was the last time that you laughed so hard your sides hurt?



And I answered:

1. First, the sound of the wind in the trees at night -- I live on top of a hill that gets a constant breeze off the ocean. I can't actually hear the waves crashing from where I live, but the patterns of the wind are very similar. It's hypnotic, and it always helps me sleep. Second, I'm less than five minutes drive from a point where I can pull off the road and watch the sun set over the Pacific Ocean (can't do that from the house itself -- the hill's in the way). I never get tired of that. Third, I live with four people who have made a commitment to living together as a family. We have our ups and downs, as all families do, but the five of us are here because we choose to be. I don't agree with them all the time. It's not perfect. But we do amazingly well together, and I've never felt more secure in my life.

2. That's a tough one; you know my feelings about crowds. But I'd have to say that two years of isolation is worse. After two weeks of crowding I could go somewhere and hide for a long while and I'd be OK. After two years of isolation, I'd be a gibbering wreck.

3. I am, unfortunately, violently allergic to both dogs and cats. My housemate redstreets has a pet snake, a beautiful South Florida King snake by the name of Hannibal. I admire him from a distance; although I'm not allergic to him, I haven't really learned to handle him yet. We have two fish tanks in the house, one belonging to toymaker and one belonging to redstreets, but I'm not sure those count as 'pets' for these purposes. It's difficult to cuddle a fish.

4. I believe the first book I bought with my own money was Watership Down, by Richard Adams. I bought it on my father's recommendation with the money I got from my grandmother for my 11th birthday. I enjoyed the book quite a bit, although I had unnerving dreams (not quite nightmares, but not pleasant) about the Black Rabbit of Inlé for a number of weeks after I finished it. None of my friends could understand what I was on about, but that wasn't unusual.

5. At an otherwise very boring convention meeting, two of our fannish friends did a send-up of Abbott and Costello doing "Who's On First? " having to do with strange voting rules for site selection for next year's convention. The timing was perfect, the expressions hilarious, and the in-jokes were truly, truly awful. Side-splitting in that "it's funny 'cause it's true" sort of way.