Playing blog tag: I'll show you mine if you show me yours

I was all settled in at my desk, finally ready to get some work done (stop laughing) . . . and then I saw that Alley from What Red Read tagged me for this fun bloggedy doodad. So now I'm doing this instead of anything remotely productive. Let the procrastinating begin (or continue, as it were)!

Here's how this works
1. Post rules.
2. Post 11 fun facts about yourself.
3. Answer questions from the person who tagged you.
4. Make up 11 questions for people you tag.
5. Tag 11 people.
6. Let them know they've been tagged.


"Fun" Facts About 

1. All through college, I worked at a cage-free doggy day care. The majority of my job was to stand in a room full of dogs and make sure they didn't kill each other . . . and also to clean eleventy-million puddles of pee and piles of poop and the occasional vomit (a lab once regurgitated an intact pair of extra-large cotton panties). Another part of my job was to serenade the dogs with hits from the '90s and today. I loved that job.

2. In junior high, I was first-chair violin in the school orchestra. Even the band geeks were cooler than me.

3. I've been playing drums since I was 15. I have a Toca djembe, a Roland e-kit, and a gorgeous set of Zildjian cymbals that are of absolutely no use to me until I can afford another acoustic drum set (I had to sell my old one when I moved out here).

4. About 3 years ago, I drove from Melbourne, Florida, to Los Angeles, California, in my '91 Honda Accord (named Don Juan, may he rest in peace). And then I stayed.

5. My husband is an actor. If one more person asks me if he's been in anything they've seen, someone is going to get hurt.

6. Celebrities terrify me. I don't know how to behave around them, and each encounter is followed by several hours of me remembering what I said and regretting every wretched word of it. My first week in LA, I met Milo Ventimiglia at a film festival, and all I could think to say was, "I watched Gilmore Girls with my mom." To which he replied, not even bothering to veil his sarcasm, "Oh, yeah . . . how great was that show?" This picture says it all. I look crazed.

And then this happened.

I have so many regrets.

7. I have an unhealthy attachment to my two dogs. I would probably choose them over my husband.

BUT LOOK AT THEM.

8. I've been a vegetarian since I was 8. I realized one day that I didn't really care for meat, and there was no reason why I should go on eating it. My parents hoped it was a phase. It wasn't. I don't preach at people (my extreme carnivore of a husband probably wouldn't have married me if I did), but I do glare disapprovingly at America's factory-farming practices and fervently wish that the way we treated meat were healthier for us AND the animals. (Full disclosure: I started eating fish a few years ago, so now I'm actually a pescetarian. And, no, I don't approve of our fishing practices either.)

9. I live in a purple house.

Maybe it's closer to periwinkle.

10. I closely identify with Sleeping Beauty because I, too, enjoy sleeping for days on end and frolicking with woodland creatures. My husband is a die-hard Superman fan, so we incorporated both into our wedding. My ridiculously talented brother designed the invitations.

11. When I travel, I buy antique books as souvenirs. My favorite is probably the pocket-size, leather-bound copy of Silas Marner, dated 1946, that I bought in Devonport, New Zealand.

And now for Alley's questions . . . 
1. What's your favorite bookish movie? (Movie based on a book, movie with literary tendencies, whatever)
I loved Midnight in Paris, but I'm not sure if it's my FAVORITE bookish movie. I hate picking favorites.

2. How often do you re-read books?
Hardly ever. I've read Jane Eyre and Gone With the Wind multiple times, but they're an exception.

3. What's your favorite reading spot?
On the porch swing in my front yard. I try to read outside whenever possible because my work keeps me indoors most of the day.


4. Which season is your favorite?
I grew up in Florida, which has no seasons, and now I live in Southern California, which has no seasons. But spring is my favorite, from what I've heard.


5. What's your profile picture?
It's cropped from one of our engagement pictures. We were arm wrestling. I was winning with minimal effort, of course.

6. What's your ideal meal?
A dragon roll followed by a rice nugget followed by a spicy tuna roll followed by miso soup followed by another dragon roll.


7. What's your guilty pleasure TV show, movie, book?
I am a stereotype . . . a woman who loves romantic comedies. Not ALL romantic comedies, just the good ones. If I'm having a down day, I'll pop in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days or The Holiday for a pick-me-up. But I also like action movies . . . so back off this.


8. How do you like to spend a rainy day?
READING. This is such a boring answer, but I have to be honest, don't I? I can't very well say I hop in my Toyota Yaris and go drifting on canyon roads.


9. Do you have any good Tumblrs to recommend?
I'm most familiar with all the ones ever created that have anything to do with Ryan Gosling.

10. If you like to cook (or bake), what's your favorite thing to make?
I don't cook very often, much to my husband's dismay, but I DO make pretty good chocolate chip bars. I undercook them a little so they stay nice and squooshy.

11. Do you have a big TBR list? Or do you wait until you're done with your current book to buy (or borrow from the library) your next reads?
Do I wait until I'm done with a book to buy/borrow another? PAH! Absurd concepts are absurd. I can't ENTER a bookstore without buying three books, and I'm not very good at staying out of bookstores. So the TBR pile in my house is gargantuan, and that's nowhere near as massive as the one on my Goodreads account, which doesn't even compare to the one in my head. I'll never catch up if I live to be 150.


And now MY questions *puts on thinking cap*
1. Are you a city mouse or a country mouse?
2. Where in the world would you live if you had the choice?
3. Zombies are attacking, what one book do you take with you when you flee into the wilderness?
4. Do you have any unusual hobbies (e.g., collecting butterflies, building model cars, searching for Big Foot)?
5. What's your favorite book of those you own, based on cover design only?
6. What's your favorite Disney character (come on, everyone has one)?
7. What's your favorite comic book character?
8. What is your dream car, and what would you name it?
9. Team Edward or Team Jacob? JUST KIDDING. More seriously, Team Angel or Team Spike?
10. What is your favorite piece of artwork (you don't have to own it)?
11. Have you ever performed anything in front of an audience?

TAG! You're it. (I am NOT picking 11 people. That's silly. I will pick 5.)

Rayna from Libereading
Wallace from Unputdownables
Brooks from Forever Overhead
Darlyn from Your Move, Dickens
Emily from As the Crowe Flies (And Reads!)