Can I pick your brain?

[hdsqrl]

Hooray!  I'm among the cool kids now!  ;)

Thanks to nottygypsy I'm getting to play along... 

1. Leave me a comment saying "Interview me!" 
2. I will respond by asking you five questions of a very intimate and creepily personal nature, or not so creepy personal. 
3. If you choose, you can update your journal with the answers to the questions. 
4. Be a sport and include this explanation with an offer to interview someone else in the post. 
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, be nosy and ask them 5 questions.

Here are my answers to her questions:

1. I have heard you sing, you're wonderful! why don't you do that at fair? 
Answer: *blushes*  Thank you for the compliment.  I don't think that I quite believe it myself, but I'm hoping you're right.  I grew up never being good enough for my parents, so I have a severe lack of faith in my abilities.  I also have a best friend who loves to sing but who can't hold a note to save her life, yet she thinks she sounds wonderful.  I'm terrified to be "that girl", you know?  I'm giving some thought to taking some vocal lessons, though, which would go miles toward making me feel comfortable in my own voice, I think.  I'd LOVE to be able to sing on stage...that'd be a dream come true.

2. How and when did you get involved in fair anyway? 
Answer:  I had never been to a Faire when I was growing up, but I did do a lot of theatre.  In the summer of '99, I worked the front gate at Worlds of Fun, and the core group of workers there always went to KCRF each year, and they pulled me along with them in their excitement, so much so that I ended up making my own costume and three others for friends...all in horribly non-historical fabrics, hah!  I loved it so much that I came back as a playton each year, dragging my kids along as they got old enough (my daughter loves it, my son...not so much.)  In 2003, I found myself working alongside Martin Thomsen, and he gave me Jessica's number, and I found myself working Front Gate that year.  The next year I was an A.M.  I still haven't figured how that one happened.  :p 

3. Are you at all worried about your stong attachment to penny? kidding, I notice the ninja band in your icon, how did you feel about your White Hart experience? 
Answer:  Actually, yes!!  I still get teary-eyed when I tell people about her.  How when I dropped her off and she ran to join the rest of the flock, I could hear her little "Maaaa...Maaaa..." above all of the others.  It hit me that she was probably wondering where I'd gone...kind of expected me to be right there with her, you know?  I cried like a baby on the way home after that.  :(  She keeps me company on my desktop, at least.  :)  I still miss her.  I'm hoping to go back to visit her next summer, and see how big she's gotten.  I'm sure she'll have forgotten me, but I'd still like to see her.

My White Hart experience was wonderful.  I didn't want it to end.  I think, to be completely candid, I felt a bit like the new kid there, and I felt really honored to be working alongside the lot of the rest of you, who I've seen performing for freaking EVER, it seems.  Might sound like I've got you up on a pedestal, but hopefully you know what I mean.  Kind of like...I dunno...maybe the "big time" wasn't so far away after all.  :)

4. You talk about the kids and their games, you sound like a great mom, how many do you have, and any other details you are comfortable sharing. 
Answer: Ahh, my kids.  :)  There's Brenna, age 12, and Connor, age 10.  When they were small, I think I was almost embarrassed to admit I was a mom, as if there was some kind of dishonor in that.  Not that I was embarrassed of THEM, no, nothing like that.  I think I just didn't want the stigma of the mom-jeans.  I still kind of bristle when someone calls me a soccer-mom, because that really kind of pigeonholes me, I think.  Yes, both kids play soccer, and yes, I go to their games, and yes, I cheer for them, sometimes very loudly.  But dangit, they're my kids.  I'd be a heartless pig if I did any less.  It's taken me a bit of growing up to realize that it's okay for me to stand up for myself when someone snidely says the word "mom".  There's no shame in having kids, especially if you're doing your best at raising them, and not pushing them aside as if they're in the way.  They're people, not pets, and someday they'll be gone and out of the house.  I hardly ever talked to my mom once I left the nest, and now it's too late.  I'm doing my best to not repeat history with these two.  :)

5. What do you do for a living? 
Answer: Bleh.  I test software, currently doing so for the USDA.  Prior to this, I did so for H&R Block.  Woo.  It's probably one of the most boring jobs on the planet, which is why you'll see me obsessively post on LJ and other blog sites.  ;)  But it pays well, and I have weekends off to do what *I* want to do, so it works for now.

I think if I could do anything in the world, I'd probably train people to do things.  Or be a teacher.  But I think I'd flip into mom-mode if the kids got lippy with me, which would probably get me suspended, heh.  I really liked working for the school district and doing library stuff...I'd also love to be a researcher, I think....for a magazine or something.  I'm a Google Queen.

;)