Questions!

I far prefer the "ask your friend for questions" memes to the "answer a set of pre-written questions" ones. Mostly because my friends are thoughtful and intelligent and all-around awesome and tend to ask much better questions than whatever 15-year-old high school student was bored enough to write a whole long list of queries for their friends to answer. And writing out some answers seems likely to take my mind off the way the wind seems to be trying its best to blow our house down to the bottom of the hill. (Okay, so it's probably not that bad. But if you happen to come by later and there's no house here, have a look down on Tombstone Canyon somewhere. Or in Oz.)

These questions came from epi_lj, who often gives interesting and thoughtful answers, even to questions written by the aforementioned bored 15-year-olds. And, as is required in these sorts of social contracts, if you'd like me to ask you questions, just let me know!

Is there anything that you really miss about Alaska that you haven't been able to find anywhere else?

Hrmmm. I've actually been thinking on this one on and off all day, and haven't come up with anything definite. Even the sort of joking answers ("80-below-zero temperatures", "incredibly high grocery prices") wouldn't fit the bill, as know they exist in other places as well (Alberta and Hawaii, respectively).

In all honesty? I think what I miss most is the quiet. Not in the immediate sense (we actually live in a very quiet area, most of the time), but in a somewhat more loosey-goosey, "mental space" sense. There just aren't that many people in Alaska - half a million or so in a state two and a half times the size of Texas. Even the biggest concentration of them is only 250,000 (or possibly a bit more; I learned these numbers in high school, and I think the population's gone up since then). It's a very different feeling from, say, Tucson, which [a] has more than 2 million people and [b] is far more spread out. (Harsh geography tends to concentrate people in Alaskan cities; housing prices are probably the number-one factor in the cost of living being so high, the next being how groceries are all flown in and therefore priced higher.) There's the fact that you can get almost anywhere in Anchorage within fifteen minutes, whereas in Tucson it's almost always half an hour or more to get *anywhere* thanks to the layout and the traffic.

But it's more than just city planning differences. Like I said, it's the mental space. Call it people-awareness, call it the collective unconscious, call it whatever you like, but there's a very different feel to being near two million people than there is to being near an eighth of that. Or a miniscule fraction, when you're out in one of the villages. (And Tucson's fairly isolated, as cities go - it was even more different in Michigan, where the various towns just kind of blended into each other and there was no end to the people.) I don't really mind the mental noise; I'm a city girl at heart, and to me it says "vibrancy" and "culture" and "community" and "new experiences". But I can totally understand why some people get sick of it and move to more rural areas. And Alaska's about as rural as you can get, with some amazing scenery and stunning natural features that you (also) just don't see anywhere else. And I guess I miss those a bit, too, even though growing up they were just normal.

Do you have a mental "happy place" or a similar sort of soothing mental exercise that you visit or pull out to cope with difficult situations?

While I'm nowhere near a type-A personality, I have just enough of my mother's overachieving mentality to only rarely admit that a situation is difficult - usually, if something seems tough I just assume I'm not putting enough effort into it and redouble said effort. That said, I get overwhelmed like anyone, and for a long time I didn't really have anywhere to turn except to hide somewhere and cry. A couple of years ago, though, I came across an article in Psychology Today about how simply focusing on your breathing can do amazing things to reduce stress. The general idea being, most stress comes from worries about either the past or the future, and if you're focusing on your breath, you have no choice but to live in the here and now. It made sense to me at the time, as I've done yoga on and off for years, which also has excellent stress-reducing properties and a strong focus on breath.

The verdict? It takes practice - it's amazing how strong the habit of living in the future or the past can be. But it's well worth the effort, even if it's occasionally frustrating to think "Okay, I should be good now" and have all the worries come right back down on your shoulders. Learning to live in the present moment is an ongoing process, but it's a good skill to cultivate. To that end, I try to practice meditative breathing in stressful situations, and it's why I have a sticker on my computer that just says "BREATHE".

What book or movie do you find yourself returning to, to re-read or re-watch, most often?

Man, this is another tough one. My biggest motivator behind slowing my purchases of movies and books was the sheer fact that I don't re-watch or re-read them that often. When I do, it's almost always because I want to share it with someone who hasn't seen/read it before, so the movies I see most often from year to year can vary depending on who I'm spending time with. All that said...two of my favorite movies are Juno and Stranger Than Fiction, and I've been known to put one or the other on now and then when I feel the need for some cinematic comfort-food. Oh, and Casablanca, but that one's sort of a gimme. :)

What life accomplishment are you most proud of?

Questions like these often strike me as setting up for failure, largely because people are absolute crap at gauging their progress on - well, anything they do. Objectively, yes, you probably have 'life accomplishments' that are worthy of pride, but sort of by definition, you're always focusing on the things you *want* to achieve (in my case right now, writing a novel). Once you've already accomplished something, on the other hand, it tends to seem like a lot less of a big deal than it did before - after all, if you've done it, it couldn't be that hard.

That said, after some thought I remembered exactly how intimidated I was by voice lessons (I grew up with an operatically-trained mother, so even though people often told me I had a nice voice it was difficult to imagine I could ever be as good as her). Eventually, though, I've reached the point where I'm fairly pleased with my voice, even if it's nowhere near as rich and full as my mother's. But a certain amount of that will come with age, too.

If you could get all of your readers to visit one page on the internet just as a favour to you (and look at whatever is on it seriously), what page would it be?

Hrmm. Sort of oddly for someone who feels strongly about a number of causes, I don't have a whole lot of 'serious' websites in my bookmarks. There are several that I very much like the idea of and occasionally reference - religioustolerance.org, because the kind of misunderstanding and ignorance you see commonly displayed about various religions is just mind-boggling; snopes.com, because far too few people learn to think critically. But a single page is different from a whole website. And in that case...I'd probably have to go with Cracked's 10 Most Important Things They Didn't Teach You In School. Irreverent tone aside, it's actually a pretty thorough roundup of the kinds of common-sense things everyone should have figured out about living in Western society, but so few people actually have. Plus, it's funny.

What's your favourite breakfast?

I'm actually not really much of a breakfast person, but when I do eat it...hrm. I like corned beef hash and eggs from a comfort-food standpoint, especially with some good hot sauce to go atop it. But I've also had some pretty amazing breakfasts from Apache Spring, the new little cafe that just opened up here in town. Last Sunday the chef had this dish with eggs, spinach, mushrooms, onions, chorizo, and homemade salsa all layered together and baked with Muenster cheese on top. It was heavenly, like a breakfast lasagna. So that's definitely high up there too.

Relate a story that happened (approximately) eight years ago.

I'm tempted to go the troll route and relate a story from the news, since the biggest thing that happened in my life eight years ago was dating Brian. Which is a sweet story, but not a particularly gripping one. Although there's one moment that makes me smile to this day; it was before we were dating-dating (he was with another girl and I was in the process of breaking up with my previous boyfriend Ryan), though I was definitely eyeing him as a potential next candidate. A bunch of us were hanging out at Ryan's parents' house, and I was making quesadillas; I made Brian's first, and asked him if he wanted any garlic in it. I distinctly remember having a moment of worry that he might not like garlic, and that sort of spiraling-out panic that if he didn't then I couldn't marry him because we'd never be able to eat the same things and blah blah blah (note that this was long before marriage, or even really dating, was ever on the table). But then he smiled and said "I don't think there's such a thing as too much garlic," and my panic was put to rest. :)

Okay, your turn! Leave a comment, and I'll think up some questions I'd like to ask you.

Questions!

I far prefer the "ask your friend for questions" memes to the "answer a set of pre-written questions" ones. Mostly because my friends are thoughtful and intelligent and all-around awesome and tend to ask much better questions than whatever 15-year-old high school student was bored enough to write a whole long list of queries for their friends to answer. And writing out some answers seems likely to take my mind off the way the wind seems to be trying its best to blow our house down to the bottom of the hill. (Okay, so it's probably not that bad. But if you happen to come by later and there's no house here, have a look down on Tombstone Canyon somewhere. Or in Oz.)

These questions came from epi_lj, who often gives interesting and thoughtful answers, even to questions written by the aforementioned bored 15-year-olds. And, as is required in these sorts of social contracts, if you'd like me to ask you questions, just let me know!

Is there anything that you really miss about Alaska that you haven't been able to find anywhere else?

Hrmmm. I've actually been thinking on this one on and off all day, and haven't come up with anything definite. Even the sort of joking answers ("80-below-zero temperatures", "incredibly high grocery prices") wouldn't fit the bill, as know they exist in other places as well (Alberta and Hawaii, respectively).

In all honesty? I think what I miss most is the quiet. Not in the immediate sense (we actually live in a very quiet area, most of the time), but in a somewhat more loosey-goosey, "mental space" sense. There just aren't that many people in Alaska - half a million or so in a state two and a half times the size of Texas. Even the biggest concentration of them is only 250,000 (or possibly a bit more; I learned these numbers in high school, and I think the population's gone up since then). It's a very different feeling from, say, Tucson, which [a] has more than 2 million people and [b] is far more spread out. (Harsh geography tends to concentrate people in Alaskan cities; housing prices are probably the number-one factor in the cost of living being so high, the next being how groceries are all flown in and therefore priced higher.) There's the fact that you can get almost anywhere in Anchorage within fifteen minutes, whereas in Tucson it's almost always half an hour or more to get *anywhere* thanks to the layout and the traffic.

But it's more than just city planning differences. Like I said, it's the mental space. Call it people-awareness, call it the collective unconscious, call it whatever you like, but there's a very different feel to being near two million people than there is to being near an eighth of that. Or a miniscule fraction, when you're out in one of the villages. (And Tucson's fairly isolated, as cities go - it was even more different in Michigan, where the various towns just kind of blended into each other and there was no end to the people.) I don't really mind the mental noise; I'm a city girl at heart, and to me it says "vibrancy" and "culture" and "community" and "new experiences". But I can totally understand why some people get sick of it and move to more rural areas. And Alaska's about as rural as you can get, with some amazing scenery and stunning natural features that you (also) just don't see anywhere else. And I guess I miss those a bit, too, even though growing up they were just normal.

Do you have a mental "happy place" or a similar sort of soothing mental exercise that you visit or pull out to cope with difficult situations?

While I'm nowhere near a type-A personality, I have just enough of my mother's overachieving mentality to only rarely admit that a situation is difficult - usually, if something seems tough I just assume I'm not putting enough effort into it and redouble said effort. That said, I get overwhelmed like anyone, and for a long time I didn't really have anywhere to turn except to hide somewhere and cry. A couple of years ago, though, I came across an article in Psychology Today about how simply focusing on your breathing can do amazing things to reduce stress. The general idea being, most stress comes from worries about either the past or the future, and if you're focusing on your breath, you have no choice but to live in the here and now. It made sense to me at the time, as I've done yoga on and off for years, which also has excellent stress-reducing properties and a strong focus on breath.

The verdict? It takes practice - it's amazing how strong the habit of living in the future or the past can be. But it's well worth the effort, even if it's occasionally frustrating to think "Okay, I should be good now" and have all the worries come right back down on your shoulders. Learning to live in the present moment is an ongoing process, but it's a good skill to cultivate. To that end, I try to practice meditative breathing in stressful situations, and it's why I have a sticker on my computer that just says "BREATHE".

What book or movie do you find yourself returning to, to re-read or re-watch, most often?

Man, this is another tough one. My biggest motivator behind slowing my purchases of movies and books was the sheer fact that I don't re-watch or re-read them that often. When I do, it's almost always because I want to share it with someone who hasn't seen/read it before, so the movies I see most often from year to year can vary depending on who I'm spending time with. All that said...two of my favorite movies are Juno and Stranger Than Fiction, and I've been known to put one or the other on now and then when I feel the need for some cinematic comfort-food. Oh, and Casablanca, but that one's sort of a gimme. :)

What life accomplishment are you most proud of?

Questions like these often strike me as setting up for failure, largely because people are absolute crap at gauging their progress on - well, anything they do. Objectively, yes, you probably have 'life accomplishments' that are worthy of pride, but sort of by definition, you're always focusing on the things you *want* to achieve (in my case right now, writing a novel). Once you've already accomplished something, on the other hand, it tends to seem like a lot less of a big deal than it did before - after all, if you've done it, it couldn't be that hard.

That said, after some thought I remembered exactly how intimidated I was by voice lessons (I grew up with an operatically-trained mother, so even though people often told me I had a nice voice it was difficult to imagine I could ever be as good as her). Eventually, though, I've reached the point where I'm fairly pleased with my voice, even if it's nowhere near as rich and full as my mother's. But a certain amount of that will come with age, too.

If you could get all of your readers to visit one page on the internet just as a favour to you (and look at whatever is on it seriously), what page would it be?

Hrmm. Sort of oddly for someone who feels strongly about a number of causes, I don't have a whole lot of 'serious' websites in my bookmarks. There are several that I very much like the idea of and occasionally reference - religioustolerance.org, because the kind of misunderstanding and ignorance you see commonly displayed about various religions is just mind-boggling; snopes.com, because far too few people learn to think critically. But a single page is different from a whole website. And in that case...I'd probably have to go with Cracked's 10 Most Important Things They Didn't Teach You In School. Irreverent tone aside, it's actually a pretty thorough roundup of the kinds of common-sense things everyone should have figured out about living in Western society, but so few people actually have. Plus, it's funny.

What's your favourite breakfast?

I'm actually not really much of a breakfast person, but when I do eat it...hrm. I like corned beef hash and eggs from a comfort-food standpoint, especially with some good hot sauce to go atop it. But I've also had some pretty amazing breakfasts from Apache Spring, the new little cafe that just opened up here in town. Last Sunday the chef had this dish with eggs, spinach, mushrooms, onions, chorizo, and homemade salsa all layered together and baked with Muenster cheese on top. It was heavenly, like a breakfast lasagna. So that's definitely high up there too.

Relate a story that happened (approximately) eight years ago.

I'm tempted to go the troll route and relate a story from the news, since the biggest thing that happened in my life eight years ago was dating Brian. Which is a sweet story, but not a particularly gripping one. Although there's one moment that makes me smile to this day; it was before we were dating-dating (he was with another girl and I was in the process of breaking up with my previous boyfriend Ryan), though I was definitely eyeing him as a potential next candidate. A bunch of us were hanging out at Ryan's parents' house, and I was making quesadillas; I made Brian's first, and asked him if he wanted any garlic in it. I distinctly remember having a moment of worry that he might not like garlic, and that sort of spiraling-out panic that if he didn't then I couldn't marry him because we'd never be able to eat the same things and blah blah blah (note that this was long before marriage, or even really dating, was ever on the table). But then he smiled and said "I don't think there's such a thing as too much garlic," and my panic was put to rest. :)

Okay, your turn! Leave a comment, and I'll think up some questions I'd like to ask you.