Five questions

Apparently there's some fun blogger game in which one blogger (me) answers five questions posed to him/her by a fellow blogger. Andrea (Dewey Richards) gave me these five and I'm going to answer them with gusto in a firey spirit of self-importance.

1. If you could take a month long backpacking trip, where would you go and why?

This is a very difficult question. There are a million and a half places I would like to go, but in the end I think it would have to be the British Isles. I know it doesn't have much in the way of mountains but I've always had the dream of going all around England, Scotland and Ireland, although I'd rather go on a bike than by foot. My dad and I always had this idea in the back of our heads about taking a cycling trip across England. I'd like to do that someday. Or remote mainland China. Or the Greek Isles. Or Norwegian Fjords. Or Nepal.

2. If you wrote a children's book, who would you want to illustrate it and why?

I have no answer for this one, but I can tell you it would not be Edward Gorey.

3. What would be your dream job? Be specific.

My dream job would be........well, it would be awesome if someone would pay me to learn a bunch of random instruments really well so that I could tour around Europe as a street musician. Of course I would have enough money to have nice houses in lots of different countries so I wouldn't have to stay in creepy hostels. And I would learn all the languages. And learn the history and literature of all the countries. Basically, I would want someone to pay me to learn all the things I want to learn at my own pace and discretion. That doesn't really count as a job, though, so maybe I would say it would be great to work in some really cool archive in Europe, where I could work with old things and computers and help people. And could have as many vacation days as I want.....

4. If you had to choose another time and place to live, what would you choose?

I think it would be really interesting to be alive in the time period of 1900-1950-ish. I don't know about one place in particular--that time period is so fascinating in both America and Europe and I would want to see it all--from a safe distance, of course. I would also be curious to see Victorian England.....but only for a week or so. Especially if I had to dress like this:

5. What would you do with 5 acres of land?

I would have a horse and at least two dogs. I would have a small house and a large greenhouse and a wood shop. I hope the land would abut a lake. I would have a very large garden. Maybe I would rent out or donate some plots for other people to have gardens who didn't have land of their own. And I would probably take in a bunch of stray animals--maybe some kind of shelter? And the house would be set way back from the road with a long tree-lined driveway. Does that count? I don't really have great plans for land, just how I want to live

Exhibit A:

A very dramatic day

I found out on Monday that I don't have a job at BYU, as most of you already know. My new attitude is "good riddance". The one before that was "their loss not mine". The one before that was "I don't have a job!". It's kind of exciting, being unemployed.

That same day I gave the boys haircuts. Adam was no problem, but Eli really, really, really didn't want to get his hair cut. He has somehow become very fashion-conscious, as far as hair is concerned, and he wants to keep it long and tangly and "un-handsome". Both Dan and Andrea told him he needed to get it cut, though, so I got to do the honors. I hardly cut it at all--just some off the back so he wouldn't have a long nasty rat tail/mullet-type thing, but he sobbed the whole time and was really angry at me all night. I was already grumpy from the whole no-job thing and wasn't in the mood to deal with his loathing, so I went down to my room. Right before bed he came down and shoved a note under my door: "Sorry. P.S. Can you right back. P.P.S. I love you." It was really cute, even though I'm pretty sure it started under coercion by Dan. A few minutes later, though, he knocked on my door and he came in and we had a good long talk. I have very strong memories of things like that happening when I was a child. I would get so angry and vow to myself to stay angry forever, but it would quickly get more and more difficult to keep up appearances. Eventually something would happen and there would be apologies and forgiveness all around and I would be so relieved that I would talk and talk and talk. It was an interesting trip down memory lane from a different perspective, and a relieving conclusion to a very dramatic evening.