I meant to write some Ask Me Anything posts during November for NaBloPoMo, but never got around to those posts. But hooray, I have blog fodder for upcoming posts then.
These first round of questions come from Engie.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was a child, I told everyone I wanted to be a pediatrician because it seemed to make my parents happy. My maternal grandfather was a doctor, and I had an uncle and an aunt who were doctors, so it was kind of the ultimate profession in my family, especially, I think, because as immigrants, a doctor kind of encapsulates the American Dream for them- work hard, get a good paying job, have enough money to own your own home, give back to society, and send back home. I didn’t really want to be a pediatrician.
Secretly I wanted to be a musical theatre star.
The ruse of wanting to go to med school lasted all the way up to my freshman year in college when I bombed physics and admitted to my parents that med school was just not going to happen.
Where did you meet your husband? When did you get married?
My Husband and I met at a contra-dance in 2003. (OMG when I write that out, I can’t believe I’ve known him for 21 years… ) It was my first week in D.C.; I was an intern at the opera company (the same one where I still work) and several of my co-workers were big into contra-dancing. They took me to a dance where they were friends with the Husband. It kind of took a long and meandering route after that, but that’s where it all started. We got married in 2009.
What does he do for a living?
The Husband does GIS work for our County. He makes maps and codes properties so that his department can pull data. At least I think that’s what he does. I usually tell people that he’s a map maker.
Have you ever had a pet?
Growing up, I had hamsters. They were always named Herman, after the Jim Unger comic strip. Even the females. Actually I think they were all females. Hermans never lived very long. I’m sure I had a county fair gold fish at one point. In high school we had a cat named Cat, after the cat in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. My mother had found the cat in the warehouse where she worked and brought him home. He eventually ran away, though.
The Husband and I had a cat named Guapo for a while. He had been a feral cat that our friend had adopted then had to re-home since she already had two other cats. Guapo was kind of a sad cat – he had some anxiety issues leading him to over groom so much that he was constantly leaking puss from licking his skin raw. It was actually like of a joke with our friends that Guapo was the least guapo cat you could fine. One summer, Guapo got hit by a car while we were on vacation.
Now we have fish and occasionally dog sit, which is plenty for us.
What’s your favorite part of having a blog?
I think my favorite part about having a blog is having a place to have thoughts of my own and to share them with other people and to have them share their thoughts with me. I like reading people’s blogs a lot, and I know the personal blog is not quite hip or fashionable right now, but then again, neither am I.
Thanks, Engie for submitting questions! This was a fun post to write!
What about you folks – have you ever been contra-dancing? What was the last time you used a map? Have you ever read Herman?
If anyone else wants to submit questions for an AMA anything, here’s the link.
RIP Guapo. What a sad end, I wasn’t ready for that! I’m sure he was thankful for the life you gave him, even though he couldn’t entirely overcome his anxiety.
I’ve never heard of Herman.
My husband and i have been together for 37 years now, which makes me feel a little bit better about how old I look. I’ve earned it! (Not because of him, just because 37 + 21 is not young anymore…)
Are your parents still alive? What do they think of your career?
Yeah, Guapo was such a sad cat case…
You should look up Herman. It’s kind of ridiculously banal.
My parents are indeed both alive, and they’ve gotten to a place where they are proud of my career – I work at a pretty famous arts complex. But there were a lot of years where they were skeptical that I should be doing this long term.
I had no idea what your husband did – fascinating.
It is indeed! I think some of it is boring for him because he spends all day dealing with data, but the end result is pretty cool.
Contra dancing! That’s so fun.
I wanted to be a theatre actress/ concert pianist when I was young. Um. Neither of those thing happened, obviously, but I do like to be theatrical!
Oooh that’s so fun that you wanted to be a theatre actress/concert pianist.
Oh poor Guapo! That is a great name for a cat. I also love that you named your cat after the cat in breakfast at Tiffany’s. Have you read Blue Sisters? There is a very sad reference to that movie (the book is overall very very sad).
I wanted to be a lawyer for most of my childhood. I majored in math and one of my professors told me that math majors do well in law school. I didn’t feel sure enough about law school to go right to law school so I read a book about the realities of law school my first year after college and it was very apparent that law school was not for me. I had a tv vision of lawyers but many/most aren’t litigator and writing briefs sounded so boring to me. I don’t love writing TBH. I love blogging but that is different that writing briefs. Ha.
I just looked up Blue Sisters – it does look very very sad.
I have several cousins who are lawyers… they say that it is interesting but also quite tedious sometimes.
Oh, poor Guapo. What a sad life. As someone who has an anxiety-ridden pet right now, I just want to hug poor Guapo.
Thanks for answering my questions!
Oh, Guapo! What a sad little life he led. <3
I don't even think I know what contra-line dancing is. I need to look it up! That's such a fascinating way to meet someone, too.