In Case You Missed It

As mentioned Friday, the lovely Leah Gorrell at Life Letters graciously invited me to be her guest at http://www.leahdotgorrell.blogspot.com/. I was delighted to oblige, and today I am reprinting that interview for your dining and dancing pleasure! Thanks again to TOL (The Other Leah) for the hospitality!

So in case you missed it-- here goes...

1. So we are both named Leah.... how do you feel about that?
I’m delighted to be meeting people named Leah. We should start an All-Leah Club, and only people named Leah could belong. Let’s call it “All Leah, All The Time.” I hated the name as a kid, because my best friends had such cute names like Suzy and Linda, and the only time I ever heard the name Leah was when some kid would say, “Leah??? That’s my grandmother’s name.” I guess it could have been worse—it could have been their grandfather’s… Now I like the name. I suppose I’ve grown into it. And to be fair, it’s better than my sister Elphaba. Kidding.

2. Do you watch Mad Men??? If you don't, why not????
Hmm, yeah, I know I should be watching Mad Men, because I hear it’s great, but we don’t have cable (I know, shock, gasp, cringe) so I haven’t seen it. I do watch Damages, however, but only via Netflix (God I love Netflix), so I guess I could order Mad Men, too… In other words, I have no excuse but inertia.

3. What have you learned from blogging that is the most shocking to you??
I’m sorta shocked at how many people with little kids are taking the time to blog! I’m totally in awe of that, because when my kids were that age I couldn’t get organized enough to do something that time-consuming. These days (geez, I’m making myself sound like I’m a hundred years old, and I’m only 97, which is the new 90, so…) young women are doing SO much more than my peers (well, some of us) and I did. I think they are fantastic.

4. Favorite Store to blow mega bucks at??
I’m actually a discredit to my gender in the shopping department. Like it takes an act of Congress to make me go shopping. This year for my birthday my husband gave me some money and said I should go out and buy all new clothes. Does that tell you how bad I am about shopping? And my birthday was in June and I only started the shopping ordeal very recently. Oh yes—and he had to remind me that he did something similar two years ago when he told me that I should take the $$ from our tax refund and buy new clothes. I never did it. Are you getting the picture? So I can’t even answer you properly, except to say that I did some major damage recently at one of the outlet malls.

5. If you won 10 Million Dollars would you give some to me or spend it on something nice like a charity??
Well, after you and I split it 50/50, then I have a list of pet charities (not the dog and cat kind—just meaning ‘favorites’) that would get a big wad of it. Then I’d want to help my kids of course, and I think there would be lots of travel and relaxation to spend it on. Did I mention booze? I should mention booze. Booze.

6. Who are you most like Oprah or Jesus?
Well, my hair is closer to Jesus than Oprah, but my reading tends more to the Oprah than the Jesus… Also, I’m a people person, and love to talk, but I can’t tell for sure if that’s more one than the other. Hmm… missing the shopping gene—that’s probably more Jesus than Oprah. But I’m also rather cynical and sarcastic at times, and we know that’s not going to put me into the Jesus column… Okay—Oprah. Except for the skin color thing.

7. Any advice on me being a parent to a 2 year old?
Try to relax about your 2-year olds tantrums and streaks of independence. It’s part of his job description, and it is definitely how he makes a living. (You call this living?) It really will all taper off when he is three, and you will have achieved nirvana. Deep cleansing breath innnnnnnnnnn, and ouuuuuuuuuut. Ahhh. All better now.

8. Favorite Joke or Prank:
Dates all the way back to college when friends and I crumpled up enough newspaper to totally and completely fill our neighbor’s dorm room, floor to ceiling. Then a bunch of us sat out in the hall (having taken forever to clean the black ink off our guilty little hands) yakking, trying to look totally casual waiting for the girl to come home. When she finally did, and unlocked her door she nearly fainted. That was followed by lots of hysterical shrieking. I think every other door on our wing and two others opened up, and girls poured out toward our end of the hall to see what had happened. It was totally worth the effort! It was the talk of the dorm for weeks. Other (cheap) imitators tried to follow, but our prank was legend!

9. You are on death row for whatever reason...... what is your final meal???
Oh, I know why I’m on death row—but let’s not go there right now. Let’s do talk about my last meal. Light, crispy crab cakes, medium-rare filet mignon, sautéed scallops, and fettucine alfredo. (Hey, if it’s my last meal, who’s going to worry about calories, saturated fat, or overdoing? Finally!) And chocolate layer cake coated in chocolate hazelnut ganache for dessert. Yes, I can at least fantasize big!

10. Do you use coupons when grocery shopping.... please explain your answer
I cut coupons out and put them into an envelope and sometimes even manage to take them to the store with me. Mostly I mean to use them and don’t quite put that into practice. But maybe I should make more of an effort to do that. It’s always to cool to see them actually subtract from your grocery bill! I mean $117.41 sounds SO much better than $118.99. Woo-hoo! I saved a buck fifty-eight, and it only took me forty-six minutes of coupon cutting and organizing to pull off this coup! (Coupon coup?? Har, har!)

11. How do you feel about vests? Do you own or wear them???
I have a whole bunch of vests that I wear all through the cool- and cold-weather months. If you read my blog post about being a weather wimp, you’ll know that I’m talking about a good nine months. Sometimes I give up the vest for a full heavy sweater, but then there are times when I wear a sweater over my vest. I think I am a reptile. Cooooooold blood. You wouldn’t believe the number of blankets I sleep under.

12. Do you feel like I have wasted your time??? Which of my blogs is your favorite??
You have never wasted my time! I’m a big fan, and I like reading about what’s happening with you, and your view of things. I especially like Thankful Thursday s, because they remind me to take a little mental inventory of what I am thankful for, too. We all have so much, and some days it’s hard to keep that in mind. If we can do it, though, it really makes us happier, and isn’t that the whole idea? I’m just sayin’… And today, by the by, I’m thankful for YOU letting ME be your guest! It’s been a blast!