eimarra | Five questions make a meme

Rules of the Meme:

1. Leave me a casual comment of no particular significance,like a lyric to your current favorite song, or your favorite kind of sandwich, maybe your favorite game. Any remark, meaningless or not.

2. I will respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.

3. Update your blog or LiveJournal with the answers to the questions.

Optional:

4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in your own post.

5. When others respond with a desultory comment, you will ask them five questions.

My answers to

bonniers's five questions behind the cut:

1. If you could go on a vacation anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Tough question. I proofread lots of travel books for my day job, so I see a lot of different options.

My husband and I have talked about Europe--we both went while younger, and would love to go back. Ireland and England would be great, but he'd also like to visit Spain and Italy. I'd like to do France (maybe sneak in an afternoon class at Cordon Bleu?), even if he does think it's too snooty. And we have friends from grad school in Germany, so visiting there would be cool.

When we went on our honeymoon to Disney World, we really liked the World Showcase at Epcot, and we fell in love with Moroccan cooking. It would be great to actually get to Morocco some day.

Or Hawaii would be good. He actually went to high school there, so there's a lot he could act as tour guide for. I'd really like to visit Kauai, though, and do some hiking, maybe some kayaking. See all the flowers, hear the birds, that sort of thing.

South America and Central America have lots of great flora and fauna, and the number of plot bunnies I've seen in the books alone leave me convinced that a trip there--pretty much anywhere there--would be fruitful. Hubby speaks Spanish, and he's said he'd love to maybe spend his sabbatical year (after he gets tenure, knock on wood) doing an exchange program. (Yes, they have those for college professors, too, not just students.)

I also proofed one book on Thailand, and I have to say that just for the sake of doing something completely outside my experience, just about anywhere in Southeast Asia would be really cool.

2. And would you take the family or go by yourself?

With family.

3. In those places that have charity boxes by the cash registers, do you donate your change?

Sometimes. Just as I occasionally buy one of those "food for families" tickets. Not always--not even often.

4. In your fantasy, you're holding your first published book. What's it like?

Mass-market paperback, bright colors on the cover, and a somewhat-misleading blurb on the back.

Or did you mean what's it like for me to be holding it? Somewhat unreal. It's there, it's in my hands, but someone's going to realize they made a mistake any time now. Meanwhile . . . I have to tell everyone I know!

5. Has writing made you a better person?

Ooh, that's tough. Better? I don't know. It's made me more aware that there are different sides to every story, that people may not even think about their preconceptions as possibly being wrong--and that that includes me.

When I was in high school, a friend of mine asked me about a dilemma she had. She told me she'd given a gift to friend A, then friend B saw it and wanted one, but she'd done it just because and didn't know what to tell friend B. She didn't want to feel like because she'd done a nice thing, all of her other friends were going to be asking her for things. I suggested she ask friend A's opinion. She said she had, and it wasn't very helpful.

Why do I bring this up? Because it was only a couple of years ago that it hit me that she was asking me because I *was* friend A. She'd given me an adorable little clothespin doll, and another friend had asked where I had gotten it. So, twenty years later, I finally got the point of the conversation. Is that because I'm a writer or because I've finally matured enough to think about things from someone else's point of view? Not sure.