Proust & Me

I am copying dear Tommy's idea and answering Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire. I have thought of my own answers every time I've read it in the magazine anyway so I thought they might be interesting to actually write down.

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Being with my favorite people, with good food, wine, and either a fire or sunshine. Being whole.

2. What is your greatest fear?
Being 90 and wishing I would have done more.

3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
My girlish insecurities (that can be paralyzing.)

4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Dishonesty.

5. Which living person do you most admire?
My mother.

6. What is your greatest extravagance?
Plane tickets. One day I hope it will be shoes.

7. What is your current state of mind?
Frustrated and disappointed, but hopeful. (Tomorrow it will already be different.)

8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Prudence.

9. On what occasion do you lie?
I don't. I'm incapable of it. Oops that's a lie - once in a while when I say I was going to call someone when I really wasn't. Only if it's insignificant to both me and them.

10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
Bad skin.

11. Which living person do you most despise?
Kurt Tobolski.

12. What is the quality you most like in a man?
Confidence.

13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Loyalty.

14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
"Right?!?" and ".. so ..." as in "I so agree" or "I so wouldn't do that."

15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
So far I'm not ready to put this in print.

16. When and where were you happiest?
April - June 2007, mostly in Fayetteville, NC.

17. Which talent would you most like to have?
The ability to move on from emotional stress after I've paid it enough attention.

18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I wouldn't get my heart tangled up so easily.

19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Being able to feel joy over the last year.

20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
A well cared for cat.

21. Where would you most like to live?
I would most like to want to live wherever I am living at the moment.
Madison, Granada, Galway, San Francisco.

22. What is your most treasured possession?
A CD my brother made me for Christmas one year.

23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Visiting a morgue to identify a loved body.

24. What is your favorite occupation?
Teacher. (Note - this does not mean I want it to be my occupation.)

25. What is your most marked characteristic?
My height combined with love of high heels and ability to talk to anyone in the room no matter how much they have to tilt up.

26. What do you most value in your friends?
Loyalty, honesty, and patience.

27. Who are your favorite writers?
Pablo Neruda, Dr. Suess, William Shakespeare

28. Who is your hero of fiction?
Wesley.

29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
I don't identify personally with any historical figure.

30. Who are your heroes in real life?
My mother and my sister.

31. What are your favorite names?
Ava, John, Stella, Leah, Michael, Raul, Eve, Caitlin, Megan, Brendan

32. What is it that you most dislike?
Feeling left behind.

33. What is your greatest regret?
Not keeping better track of the big pastel drawing my brother did for me five years ago.

34. How would you like to die?
Happily, peacefully, quickly but not suddenly, and almost last.

35. What is your motto?
"I'm just livin' the dream..."