A Very Short Excuse for a Post

Dear everyone,

I have just come back from my trip to Portland and I have many things to tell you. Unfortunately, I haven't had time to write it all yet. That is why today's post will be more visual than verbal because I want to keep up with having a post every Monday. Here is a panoramic picture of the Cannon Beach in Oregon. I tried uploading it at maximum file size so that way you could, if you wanted to of course, download it and have a better look. I don't think it worked though. I hope you enjoy it anyway.


The guy with the camera in the picture is some random guy from the beach. I could not get him to move so I could take my panoramic picture.

Sorry the picture is small and hard to see but that was the only size it would show up in the blog. Feel free to download it to try and get a better view or leave me a message with an email and I can send you a copy of the original which may be easier to see. I think for it being my first panoramic attempt, it came out pretty well. The beaty of the landscape helps as well so I can't take all the credit. Screw that, I am taking all the credit. I took an amazing picture and I hope you like it as much as I do.

A Few Random Thoughts

This week's post will probably be very short, but I have a very good reason for it. I will be going on vacation on Wednesday and I am still not ready. There is so much stuff to do, mainly because I have procrastinated but there is no point in assigning blame, that I am starting to feel a bit overwhelmed. I will be going to visit Hillary and Zeke in Portland, Oregon. I am very excited about it, I think. I don't show excitement well. It will be cool to visit Portland and to see if it is anything like Portlandia portrays it. For those in the know, I am very worried that when I am done packing I will forget to put a bird on my suitcase. Cacao! (It means something, I promise though it may be more of an inside joke.) Since I still have a whole lot to do, I will attempt a random post. I apologize it for it in advance as I know that my attempts in the past have not gone so well. Anyway, here we go...

• The way I ended that sentence made me think of when Noodle says "Here you go" in the song 19-2000 by Gorillaz.
• Yes, I go on tangents like that quite often.
• Point in case, I lost like fifteen minutes from the first bullet point to the next because I started looking up Gorillaz and whatever new music they have out. 
• I am actually listening to them right now. 
• About the vacation, I will take a plane for the first time in my life and I am a little bit nervous.
• I just lied to you in the last bullet point. It will be the second time I fly but the first time I was fifteen and it was right after my brother passed away so I don't remember it well.
• Plus, this will be my first time flying after 9/11 and, again for those in the know, my middle name sounds kind of middle eastern-y and that is of concern to me.
• If I had one, I would wear a sarape or sombrero so that it will be clear to TSA officials that I am Mexican and not middle eastern.
• And, more importantly, I am definitely not a Muslim. As an atheist, I can't stress that enough.
• I really want to avoid going through any invasive searches. I have only been frisked once and it was only nominally fun so I doubt that something more invasive would be more fun.
• Not to disparage those that would enjoy it. I mean, to each their own.
• The BF is coming on the trip and I am kind of worried that he will be bored as his sense of humor and mine differ greatly and Hillary and Zeke share my sense of humor. I can just see Hillary, Zeke and me in laughing fits and the BF just looking at us with a tilted head trying to figure out what is wrong with us.
• That being said, I am glad he is coming. If nothing else, he will help with the flight anxiety, if there is any.
• Also, Wednesday will be our six month anniversary so it will be a reason to celebrate.
• Something else that worries me, and this may be TMI but I often over-share anyway, is the bathroom situation. I always been uncomfortable with bodily functions and I will be sharing a hotel room with the BF for four and a half days.
• I know that should not be a big deal but I am childish about somethings. For instance, I hate the word "fart." I don't find it funny and it makes me uncomfortable.
• On a different, and quite less disgusting note, Preggo sent me this pic a few days ago,

  

  She sent it with the caption, and I quote, "Memories :(" 

• I know that the picture itself means nothing to you, but that was the park where I sat for three hours hoping to hear from my parents the time they left me in Odessa. 
• I am glad to finally have  a pictorial reminder of the time my parents taught me that I should not expect them to not leave me 300 miles from home.
• I think I had it coming, it's been three years now so I don't remember it, but did it ever open my eyes.
• It wasn't all bad though. I like to believe that I am stronger for it.
• On a sadder note, that was the last time I saw my then best friend Jenny as she gave me a ride home after a took a bus to Abilene.
• There is a wasp nest outside my house and I went to buy wasp and hornet killer yesterday so I feel pretty butch about that.
• Now I am kind of scared of using it and being stung so any butch feeling is gone. I will get it done though. I just don't know when.

I think I shall end this post now. Once again, I apologize for it but I do think it is better than nothing. I mean, it even has a picture on it so what else could I have done to make it better? Plus, it's 1:37 p.m. right now and I have yet to have something to eat so I need to take care of me now. Hope you all have a great week. I know that after two days of work my week will suddenly get way better.

I Am Learning, Little by Little Mind You, That I Am Human.

Before I get into the details of my humanity and all, a quick update on last week's post. Yes, I am still a vegetarian. No, not for much longer. I will actually be giving it up in two days. You may be asking yourself why while raising your hands above your head exasperatedly. Well, there are several reasons. The main one being that of the three people that started in July, I am the only one still doing it. It's a lot more fun being a vegetarian when everyone else is doing it and you have someone to commiserate about the fact that you have to pay the same amount for a dish with four sides and no entree even if it is not as fulfilling as what everyone else is getting. Another reason for giving it up is because I am going on vacation to Portland in a week and a half and I want to be able to enjoy my vacation without having to worry about what to eat. Also, I am starting to eat meat a week in advance of my vacation so that my stomach gets used to it again and to avoid any episodes as I know I will be stressed enough by the travel alone. Other than that, I did enjoy my little forage into vegetarianism. I do believe sometime I will be able to do a permanent transition to a vegetarian diet but that may just be wishful thinking.

On a different note, they have changed my work duties, however temporarily, so I am unsure if I will have time to type this from work as I used to do it in my down time. It's not really good news though. Duties have been added to my schedule and I will even have to spend time away from my desk but there will be no pay increase and I am already frustrated with the way things are being handled. Since I am unaware of how much down time I will have, I may have to start writing from home. What will this mean to you? Nothing really. I will still try to do a new post every Monday. However, the length of the post may be considerably shorter to allow me time to go about my daily life, i.e. watching TV, drinking and such. Anyway, enough with the intros and on with the main point of this post.

So, after much thought and consideration, I have arrived at the conclusion that I am human, after all, with human emotions and everything. You may be wondering why my humanity was up for discussion but I am not a typical human. Especially when it comes to emotions. Yes, it is possible to bring me to tears but it's not through typical means. A good poem, recently W.B. Yeats Easter, 1916, a good movie, Fernando Leon De Aranoa's Princesas, or a good song, Stavesacre's Gold & Silver, will have me bawling like an infant. Yet, the tale of someone's misfortune or death just revs my brain into overdrive trying to find the most hilariously inappropriate comment I can make. I am often accused of being heartless and when that happens I often have no more recourse than to shrug my shoulders and agree with my accuser. It's not all great though. It does bother me that sometimes people don't tell me things because they are afraid that I will make fun of whatever they are going through. They don't understand that I am totally capable of exercising restraint and, though I will make light of the situation, I know when not to do it in front of them. I guess some people will always find a way to make everything about themselves though.

I have no idea where my callousness comes from so I will simply have to blame Medea. She was never really expressive of her emotions and I guess I learned from her. I remember that when I was a kid and used to hug her she would ask me what had gotten into me and if I had dreamed that she had died again. Most of the time, she was right as I would only hug her if I had a particularly vivid dream in which she died and when, upon waking, I was glad to see that she was still alive. However, that gladness was short-lived by her abrupt reception and accusing remarks of how I did not appreciate her unless I thought she was dead. Thus I learned to not express any emotion that may be seen as weakness and preyed upon. I called this living.

I have recently realized though that, even if I don't acknowledge them, the feelings are still there if buried deep within me and so strange to me that I almost do not recognize them when they dare surface. Two such cases happened a few weeks ago and they all happened due to the amazing person that is willing to put up with all my quirks, the BF.

The first one happened on a Tuesday. I don't remember exactly what was going on. I think he was in town but for some reason we had not seen each other in a while. We had talked daily but only for a few minutes because we both had things to do. On Tuesday, we talked as soon as I got off work but once again we had to cut the talk short for some reason or other. We always said we would talk later, but I knew that he would not call back til the next day. After I finished dinner and while I was watching TV and with no good reason for doing so, I called him. When he answered, I had nothing to say. I really had not thought it through. Nothing had happened since we had talked earlier and I found myself telling him that I had called him because it seemed like we had not talked enough even if I had nothing more to say. He gave a quick laugh and said that I had called him because I missed him. I immediately recoiled at his accusation because missing someone is something that I just don't do since it seems a sign of weakness. After all, I don't need anyone because I can take care of myself. I balked at his arrogant assumption and told him nothing could be further from the truth. The subject was then changed and we ended up talking on the phone for about an hour. While I was falling asleep that night, I was still thinking of his accusation that I missed him. I realized then that he was right. I was missing him but I did not recognize it because I have never really missed anyone in my life. I live a pretty independent life and I stay in touch with the people I want to stay in touch with when I want to stay in touch with them. I do not even miss my family. I feel more comfortable when my parents are here because my mom cooks and I know they are all right, but I never have the desire to call them and just talk to them. In fact, since they are in Mexico, I have to remind myself and force myself to call them once every two weeks. I was not aware that I could miss someone and, at first, was embarrassed that I could miss someone. I felt weak and stupid for letting someone influence how I felt. Thankfully, the second case which happened two days later changed my perspective.

Two days later, we had started making plans for the weekend. I was planning on spending the weekend at his place. We had been texting plans back and forth all day but when I called him after work he told me that the plans had changed. See, the BF has a dog, puppy as he likes to call him as he dislikes the word "dog," named Diesel. Since the BF travels a lot for work, he leaves Diesel with a friend of his that also has a dog, Nora. Therefore, whenever the BF is in town, he has to take care of two dogs, puppies, as they keep them together. That however is not important. What is important is that he told me that his friend was coming into the Dallas area for the weekend and that he was going to stay at his place so that our plans had to change. I felt an uneasiness at that moment but chalked it up to the fact that I don't like it when plans change. I told him that it was OK though because we could change our plans to accommodate his friend easily. I was not aware of anything unusual until the next morning when I woke up and remembered what I had dreamt. The BF's friend has a name that can easily be seen as unisex. I don't feel comfortable revealing his name so let it suffice that, in my dream, the BF's friend turned out to be a woman and that, upon meeting "her," my mind was put at ease. It took me a minute to realize that I was jealous. I have always stated that I am not a jealous person, but I have never really had a relationship, so I did not know for sure. In this case, the BF has a friend that shares with him his animals and love of animals and whom I never met and I was a little bit jealous. I was not even aware of it on a conscious level but, obviously, subconsciously I was troubled by it. Now, I have always maintained that jealousy is pointless but I should amend that to say that "excessive jealousy" is pointless. As things stand, I don't begrudge the BF having friends, but it is nice to know that I care enough to feel some jealousy as long as it does not affect the relationship.

I was super excited that I was jealous, to say the least. It was then that I realized that if being subconsciously jealous of the BF was a good thing, missing him was a good thing too. I told my friends at work about my new discovery as soon as I got to work and they were surprised and were the first to say that I may be human after all. I was elated for the rest of the day and told the BF the good news as soon as I saw him that night. He was not as excited about the new developments as I was but I don't think he understood how monumental these changes were. They kind of re-defined who I was which is not easy as I try to be a very self-actualized person. Also, I had proof that I was a person because persons miss people and get jealous. He still did not quite fully grasp why I was so excited kind of like he does not understand how I can enjoy being depressed. He's got a lot to learn about me but the good thing is that, apparently, so do I and I can't wait to find out what else there is to learn. I am a scholar after all.

On the Hardships of Being a Vegetarian When You Don't Like Vegetables

As of the first of July and for the rest of the month, I have committed to being a vegetarian again. One may easily wonder why I would do that to myself as I have tried becoming a full time vegetarian before and have failed.  Well, this time I have a very good reason. Dottie decided that she wanted to go vegetarian for a month and I decided to tag along. Why is this a very good reason to become a vegetarian? Well, it's the best reason I have had so far. Allow me to go into detail.

The first time I went vegetarian was a few years back, probably around 2008. I had been watching many documentaries, which I do from time to time, and was appalled by the way the meat industries conduct their business. Not only is the treatment of the animals horrific, but the quality of the meat and the many chemicals involved is revolting. I also learned about the benefits of a vegetarian, or at least meat-lite, diet and was pretty convinced that it was definitely a healthier lifestyle. Unfortunately, none of that was taken into account when I decided to try my hand at vegetarianism. One morning I woke up more sullen than usual and decided my life was too monotonous. I decided I needed to make a change to get myself out of that rut. That was my sole reason for becoming a vegetarian. Of course, when people asked I told them that I was doing it for health reasons or for the animals because I did not want people to think I was weird. I have come a long way since then. Regardless, or irregardless if you wish, I was doing it purely out of boredom. I do a lot of stupid stuff because I'm bored. Fortunately, this one turned out to be one of the "not-so-bad" ones.

That year, my former uncle was going through a divorce. What do I mean by former uncle? I mean that I don't claim him as my uncle anymore. I guess he is also my former godfather but I never thought of him in that way so I guess that's not relevant. The point is that, although he is out of my life now, he was still considered family then and he was going through a rough patch. I have never been a sensitive person, but I felt bad for him and asked my parents to go to Albuquerque with me to spend thanksgiving with the former uncle. Why do I bring this up? I bring this up because, although my first experience with vegetarianism was a good one, that was the worst thanksgiving of my life. To be honest, I have never really been much into the whole thanksgiving celebration. To be even more honest, I absolutely love thanksgiving food. I love turkey. I love ham. I love stuffing and dressing. I love mashed potatoes and gravy. I love macaroni & cheese. I love pasta salad. I love rolls. I hate cranberry sauce, and I don't totally understand why it is paired with turkey, but I don't often have to worry about that since Mexicans don't use cranberry sauce with their turkey. That thanksgiving, my mom went all out. We even had dessert and we don't often have dessert. We sat down to a great feast and I did not enjoy watching everyone stuff their mouth-holes with happy turkey and delicious ham while I shoveled sad spoonful of bland mashed potatoes down my gullet. That's all I could eat. Everything else had some sort of meat in it except for the mashed potatoes which I made sure were vegetarian. In fact, I made those sad tasteless mashed potatoes myself and I am sure they would have tasted a lot better as a side dish than as a main course. It does not matter how much butter and cheese you add to them, they are not gonna compare to a full meal. I learned that the hard way. There are just not enough seasonings in the world to turn mashed potatoes into an entree. I must say that I am very proud that I made it through without caving in. I wanted to, but I didn't. I held steadfast and the one reason I stopped being a vegetarian that time was because of Medea.

Now, I give Medea a lot of grief in this blog. I don't feel bad about that because, in accordance with Karmic law, she has it coming. But, there are some things in which I have no reason to reproach her. She may not be understanding, or because of denial even aware, of me being gay, but she was one hundred percent supportive about me being a vegetarian. Throughout most of my life, she has held a job because she gets bored at home. However, at that time she was not working. I don't remember exactly why, but I think it was due to a work injury she sustained. The point being, she was at home and would cook two dinners every day. She would cook one with meat for her and Dad and one without for me. I kept asking her not to and telling her that I would cook my own dinners so she wouldn't have to overexert herself but she would not listen. It got to the point that she cooked three different lunches for our trip to Albuquerque. She made regular picadillo, a Mexican ground beef dish, for Dad. She made meatless picadillo for me. And, she made onion-less picadillo for her as she does not like onions. I kind of felt bad that she had to do all that extra work for me. The breaking point came one day when I came home and she told me what she had made for dinner. I don't remember what it was but it was something with meat in it. When I told her that, she said that she had not forgotten about me and that she had made hot dogs for me. I felt really bad when I told her that hot dogs are made of meat products. It honestly slipped her mind that I could not eat them and she had already cooked them. That was the end of my first venture into vegetarianism. Word to the wise, though, if you haven't eaten meat in six weeks, hot dogs are not the best choice for a first meat meal. Just sayin'.

My second and third attempts were more halfhearted, it was during these that I instituted my steadfast rule about not giving up jello, and lasted less time than the first. Let's just say that I would love to be a vegetarian for life, but I lack the motivation and drive to do it. Also, I am not fully sure how people who become vegetarians because they say the respect life can eat vegetables since they were alive too at one point. In a way, I guess humans are just parasites because we have to consume other living things to survive. Anyway, this brings us to this, my fourth, attempt at vegetarianism.

This time I was not even thinking about it. One day we were having lunch and Dottie, completely out of the blue, announces that she is going vegetarian for a month at the beginning of the week. I asked her why she was doing that as it was uncharacteristic of her. She responded that she was going to try it for health reasons. I don't know why, I am thinking it was mainly because she and Connie are my main lunch companions, but I told her that if she waited til July first I would do it with her. And so, here we are. As of this writing, it has only been two days, today is the third. How's it going? Not bad. Connie, although she initially said she would at least do vegetarian lunches with us, has not had lunch with us this week so far. That was expected though. As for me and Dottie, we're trying to do it. It's sad to say we're struggling because it has only been two days, today is the third, but you don't realize how much you like meat and are addicted to it until you can't have it. We are trying though. We had Subway veggie subs on Monday and we made our own salad yesterday. Here's a picture of my salad which, I must say, tasted as good as it looks,

If you were wondering how it looks, it looks delicious. Delicious and satisfying. Also, yes, those are potato chips on top. Don't judge.

I know, that salad is a bit unorthodox, but the potato chips completely changed the flavor of the salad and made it bearable. Also, that's ranch dressing you see in there and I will give you one guess as to who does not like ranch dressing. Me. I don't like ranch dressing. I still ate it though. Besides, if you think that salad looks bad, I should show you the picture of the omelet I tried to make Monday night. I won't show you a picture, because I am a merciful blogger, but it was disastrous. See, I meant to make spaghetti for dinner Monday night because Mexican spaghetti, and yes I know that sounds weird what with spaghetti being Italian and all, does not have meat in it. I bought everything I needed to make spaghetti just the way I like it. I got some tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, crushed peppers and oregano. I did not buy tortillas, even though I was completely out, because even I know spaghetti is not eaten with tortillas. I get home from work Monday night to find that I did not have any spaghetti noodles. I was sure I had some so I hadn't bought any and now I found myself noodle-less. I decided to make something else but the only thing I had that did not involve meat was eggs. I like eggs okay and, after being a vegetarian for a while, I usually crave them. However, I like eggs with tortillas and I did not have any. My solution to that little problem was to try and make an omelet. Now I did not have many ingredients but here is the list of what I did have and ended up being added to the omelet,

1. Jalapeno peppers
2. Cayenne pepper
3. Salt
4. Three eggs
5. Parmesan cheese
6. Mozzarella cheese
7. Corn flour
8. Baking powder

I think the list is pretty normal. Well, maybe except for the last two items. I just figured that if I added the baking powder and corn flour to the mix, it would be like eating it with a tortilla. It wasn't. The omelet ended up having a pancake like consistency but it still was not what I was expecting. I ate it though and I have never been more thankful for having an iron stomach due to being raised in Mexico and drinking its water for twelve years.

Now, it is almost time for lunch again and I think I will have the same salad I had yesterday, the picture above, sans the ranch dressing. I am pretty sure I will make it to the end of the month. Ideally, I would love to be a vegetarian for longer than that but I will just have to wait and see how everything plays out. Don't worry though. I will keep you posted.

P.S. If you know any simple recipes for vegetarian salads, please share them with me as we are attempting to eat salads at lunch and I can only eat so many potato chips before I get tired of them.

P.P.S. Please do not suggest a blue cheese salad as the BF already suggested that. I did not mean to laugh at him when he did but he was talking about two Mexicans and a black lady eating blue cheese and that was just too funny. In my defense, Connie and Dottie laughed too when I suggested it. We know what we like.

I Am Very Thankful and a Bit Ashamed

Since I started writing on this blog again, I have been very appreciative of every reader that I have and very thankful for any comments that they may leave. One of the few people to have ever left a comment was a blogger by the name of GunDiva. I believe she added me to her list of blogs back before my writing hiatus and started reading it again when I picked the blog back up. She left a comment back in May on the post about my wedding etiquette. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that other people, other than the friends I am always bothering, read the blog. Well, to make a short story, that I made long due to my rambling nature, short again, two weeks ago she left a message on one of my posts saying that she had an award for me at one of her blogs. I followed the link that she typed at the end of her comment and found a post with information about the Liebster Blog Award which is awarded to blogs with fewer than 200 followers. I have never received any awards but apparently most blog awards have rules. The rules for the Liebster Award are as follows,

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and include a link back to their blog.
2. List 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Answer the 11 questions given to you.
4. Create 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate.
5. Choose 11 bloggers to nominate and include links to their blogs.
6. Go to each blogger's page and notify them of their nomination.

As flattered as I am to be nominated, I don't think I can accept the award. The reason for that is that I use this blog as a very megalomaniacal way to vent. In keeping up with that egotistical use of a blog, I don't necessarily read other blogs. Therefore, I can fulfill the first three rules of the award, but unfortunately, I cannot do the last three as I do not know 11 bloggers to nominate. I feel very bad about expecting people to read my ramblings when I don't follow anyone else but I am an egocentric bastard and I can't change that. I know I should strive for personal improvement but that seems like too much work so I would much rather just apologize for being self-absorbed and move on.  As I said before, I cannot fulfill the last three requirements but I will go ahead and do the first three just for fun.

The first rule was that I had to thank the blogger who nominated me and include a link back to their blog. I believe I have already done that in the first paragraph but, just in case that doesn't count, I will do it again. Thanks go to GunDiva for nominating me when she received the Liebster Blog Award for Tales from the Trail. I am really just thankful to have a reader, the nomination is just a very nice plus.

There, I did it. I thanked someone and it sounded halfway genuine. I am still trying to perfect my fake genuine but, for some reason, it is harder than it sounds. The second task was that I had to list eleven random facts about myself. I have proven before that I suck at writing random lists as I tend to elaborate more than I need to but I will give it another try.

1. Although I do not believe in ghosts or the supernatural anymore, I used to be scared of almost everything when I was growing up. This went as far as me having to wake my brother, who was four years younger than me mind you, in the middle of the night if I had to use the bathroom so that I would not have to walk in the dark alone.
2. I strongly believe that I don't like seafood even though I like calamari and catfish and crab rangoon and shrimp and sushi.
3. I have a tendency to try my hand at vegetarianism from time to time but I refuse to give up jello every time because life without jello just simply is not life.
4. I have a broken record player that just needs a new needle to play but I have no idea how to get that needle so it just sits in my room as part of the decor.
5. Speaking of record players, the only record I own is Lady Gaga's The Fame.
6. I cannot work without music so it is very easy to tell when I am actually doing work by listening to whether or not I have music on.
7. I am a hypochondriac psychosomatic so if you ever tell me you're not feeling well, I will start feeling the same symptoms in about half an hour.
8. Although I have a B.A. in literature, English class was my least favorite class in high school.
9. I have two favorite movies; Princesas, and The Bubble.
10. If you include guilty pleasure movies though you can add Miss Congeniality and Legally Blonde to that list.
11. This is the post with the most hyperlinks that I have ever written.

How did I do? I hope better than last time but you will have to decide that. The next task was to answer the eleven questions posited by the nominator. The questions, along with their answers, are,

1. What is your passion?  My passion is literature which is clear to anyone that has ever heard me talk about it. Apparently, I come to life and become very enthusiastic and energetic.
2. If you could do anything you wanted for the rest of your life, without having to think about money, what would it be? I have actually thought about this before and if I could do anything without having to worry about money, I would be a lifelong student. I find it sad that there is so much out there to be learned and so little time, and resources, to learn it.
3. What is your guilty pleasure? I don't know if it is a guilty pleasure but I do enjoy taking bubble baths with candles and wine while watching The Colbert Report. I tried reading but the book kept getting wet and, as much as I like it, music is for showers not baths. 
4. Favorite book ever?  First of all, that is not a question, regardless of the question mark in the end. However, I understand what the question would be and the answer is that I don't have one. I have three books that I list as my favorites; Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, and Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. These may soon be joined by Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, but I think having four favorite books is a bit contrived.
5. Favorite movie ever?  For the answer to this "question" please refer to numbers nine and ten in my list of random facts about myself.
6. Have you ever met anyone famous?  Not famous per se. Although one time I did criticize a Spanish Christian rock singer's career for leaving a band and going solo within earshot of that singer. Needless to say, she shot me a very deserved dirty look. Unfortunately, I still did not learn to keep my mouth shut.
7. Who would you like to meet (living or dead, real or fictional) and why?  This is an easy one. Franz Kafka. I would kill to meet Franz Kafka. I maybe would not kill a human, but definitely a spider or some sort of bug (get it?). He was so far ahead of his time. He found ways to be depressed before depression was even a thing. In all honesty, I find him to be very human and would love to pick at his brain. Metaphorically, of course.
8. Biggest Pet Peeve? I absolutely hate it when people start saying something and then suddenly stop and refuse to finish what they were saying. I have ended friendships over it. It makes me question whether they trust me and whether or not I should trust them.
9. If you won the PowerBall or Lotto and wanted to donate a chunk to a charity, which charity would it be and why? I would donate a lot of that money to the Make-a-Wish foundation. It is because of them that our family got our first computer due to my brother's illness and although it is now obsolete and it no longer works, it is still stashed in storage because I can't bring myself to get rid of it.
10. Favorite place you've visited? I haven't been to many places so I don't really have a favorite place. If I had to choose, I would say Las Vegas though because you can walk around the street with a drink in your hand.
11. Where do you want to visit that you haven't been able to? I would love to visit Australia, even though I am scared of most of the animals there. A close second would be Prague because that's where Kafka is from.

That was harder than I thought it would be. It was still kind of fun. I think for my future posts I will just look for questionnaires and answer them. The rest of the rules I cannot fulfill as I don't really follow any blogs. However, and I know this is a long shot, I figured I would write eleven questions for my readers. I don't really expect anyone to answer them but it would be nice if someone did. Here we go.

1. Do you like my blog?
2. Do you like me?
3. Do you like me and my blog?
4. Do you like my writing style?
5. What do you like best about me?
6. Am I your favorite, or one of your favorite, person(s) in the world?
7. If you had the superpower to give anyone superpowers, what superpower would you give me and why?
8. What animal do you think best describes me?
9. Which post in my blog is your favorite (feel free to list all that apply)?
10. What activity would you most like to do with me if we could do anything?
11. Is there anything about me that I did not ask but that you would like to share?

I think these are some thought provoking questions that we have all been asking ourselves. I know I have my answers already but it would be fun to see what someone else comes up with because I am very interested in my readers and, more importantly, what my readers think of me. Until next time.