missroserose | *sneezes* I appear to have caught a meme....

Man, these things are worse than rhinoviruses. Usually I'm pretty good at avoiding them, but not today, I guess. *sniffs*

Anyway, it's a pretty standard kind of thing - if you want to partcipate, post here and I'll ask you six questions. Post those and the answers in your blog. Or in the comments thread. I'm not picky.

Questions, from

alexmegami:

You've mentioned moving away from Alaska. Where, ideally, would you go?

Ideally, somewhere warmer and bluer - politically, I mean. Alaska's a hardcore Republican state, and while there are some young folk here, we're pretty well outnumbered by the older conservative family-values types. (Not to mention the gun-toting nutjobs - Alaskan hicks are a breed all their own.) Current frontrunner for place-to-escape-to would be Seattle, although if we wanted to find a house for less than they cost here in Juneau we might have to go somewhere less heavily populated. ;)

Tangent: On the subject of Alaska's hardcore Republicanness, some people are commenting that there's as good a chance as we've seen in a long time for Alaska's electoral votes to go Democratic this general election. Apparently the vast majority of Alaskan Republicans despise McCain, to the point where many of them have declared that they won't vote, period if he's the nominee. Combine that with Obama's sheer loyalty-inducing charisma (the Democratic caucuses this time around were larger than they had been in decades, according to seasoned party members), and if he ends up winning the Democratic nomination some think we might well vote Democratic for the first time since JFK. (Most Republicans are pooh-poohing the idea, though, and given Obama's hard line record on gun control, a big issue up here, I find myself reluctantly agreeing with them.) End of tangent.

Did your Nohari/Johari tell you anything interesting about how people see you?

Probably the most interesting thing I learned is related to what you pointed out below - nobody who answered picked "irrational" or "impatient". Since most of the people who responded were people I know mostly online, that made me think about exactly how much effort I exert to keep my online persona in the iron grip of rationality (with rare exceptions, and then only in my personal blog). My online friends expressed surprise that I picked those, but people who knew me in real life weren't as surprised, though apparently it wasn't in the first five things they thought about when thinking of me, which was a bit of a relief. Brian wasn't surprised at all, but then, he's lived with me for three years (see answer to question #5).

What is a day in the life with your cats like?

Well, let's see - roundabout getting-up time (right now, 6:00 AM), Mr. Jerry Brown will jump up on the bed, plop down next to Brian's head, and purr. Not yowl - purr. (I might've mentioned that this cat has the loudest purrbox of any feline I've ever met - he sounds like an engine when he really gets going.) Brian stumbles out of bed, gives him his gooshyfood, then (depending on the day) either stumbles back into bed or starts making coffee. For the purposes of this simulation, we'll assume it's a weekend and he stumbles back into bed.

A few minutes later, once he's had his obligatory first few licks at the gooshyfood (he almost never eats any of it, but he seems to like licking the broth off) Dexter will jump on the bed and start demanding his morning scritchings, usually by kneading my arm/shoulder/chest/whatever happens to be exposed that morning - very, very hard. (I keep his claws trimmed pretty short for this reason.) I will groggily provide some scritchings, he will settle down, and we all go to sleep for another couple hours.

Once we finally wake up, the cats more or less ignore us as we shuffle about doing tasks. Mr. Jerry Brown might yowl to have his window opened, or Dexter might chirp at me to be picked up if he feels neglected (often happens if I don't immediately give him attention after coming home), but usually they go off and do cat things (including curling up ever-so-cutely on the bed or the sofa, one of their specialties). Once we settle down for food or a movie or a game or whatever, they'll come keep us company - Mr. Jerry Brown by sitting down to watch with us, and Dexter with his knead-knead-pet-me-now-kneadiness.

When bedtime comes around and we turn out the lights, they usually prowl about for a while (I assume to make sure that no foods are coming out to play), then curl up to sleep. Dexter will usually join us on the bed; Mr. Jerry Brown seems evenly divided between the bed or other places (couch, floor, very occasionally one of the beds we've bought him :).

Once in a while there will be hairballs or cat-hork or whatever to clean up, but usually not too often - they're pretty healthy kitties. (Which reminds me, I need to make an appointment for Mr. Brown to have his teeth cleaned and a checkup.)

Is there any specific thing that Brian does that is his way of showing he loves you (and if so, what)?

Hm...puts up with me every day? Not an entirely insignificant thing, given my penchant for constantly giving people crap about whatever's handy...=D

Specifically? I don't think it's any one exact thing, really. More just lots of little things, scattered here and there. Not the least of which is standing up to me when I become too abrasive. ;) I think what it mostly comes down to is that he treats me with respect and affection, listens to me when I need someone to talk to, and is generally my friend as well as lover. I try to do the same in return.

Your Nohari shows no one thinks you're irrational or impatient. Care to describe an event that highlights those traits in an amusing way? ;)

Okay, I realize that nothing is going to make me look good in this story, but I feel I should at least provide some context: Brian and I were on our way back home after a whirlwind weekend in Spokane; we'd gotten up at 4:00 AM to catch our morning flight to SeaTac and from there to Juneau; neither of us had had any breakfast (too early for them to have put out the usual inedible muffins and single-serving cereal bowls at the hotel), and the flight had been delayed for an hour and a half - all of which was spent in the actual plane, rather than somewhere we could get some real food, which also meant that rather than having a nice cushy layover we were going to have to rush down the concourse to make our connection. By the time we were halfway through the (rather turbulent, if fortunately short) ride, the only thought keeping me going was that there was a Burger King on the Alaska Air concourse at SeaTac, and if I sprinted, I could get a Whopper and some fries before boarding the next flight. After a while, it almost became a mantra - Soon I'll have a Whopper. Soon I'll have a Whopper. Soon I'll have a Whopper. So, naturally, the first thing I did after deboarding was exactly that - sprint down the concourse, land in front of the (fortunately deserted) Burger King stand, and order a Whopper.

Except they didn't have Whoppers.

Because it was only 7:00 AM.

All...they had...was breakfast sandwiches.

No Whoppers.

Breakfast sandwiches.

*cue heart-wrenching dramatic Vader-esque "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" scene*

Brian had to physically drag me away from the counter, where I was leaning dangerously close to the register biscuit ("No no no, I don't think you understand, I need a Whopper right now") and order two sausage muffin thingies. I remained in sullen silence for the next hour as he berated me (gently but firmly) for throwing a tantrum at the hapless employee.

To be fair, I did feel better after eating my sausage muffin. But it just wasn't the same.

(cheater question) Link me your Amazon wishlist, woman, I still owe you a Christmas gift. :P

Done, although it's on my user info page too. =P. Thanks for reminding me, though. I needed to update my address.