INTERVIEW MEME

I'm not sure exactly where this meme started, but I got it from Beckie's site. These are the questions that Beckie asked me. Further instructions on this meme are at the bottom.

1. Do you like being a married mother?

Funny you should ask that... But then again, I know you don't know much about me and most people my age ARE mothers. I don't have kids by choice. I've been married for 10 years and we both felt we were a little too selfish for kids. We also enjoy extreme sports which I wouldn't be able to do if I had kids. I have some very stringent beliefs in the upbringing of children and frankly we really couldn't afford to raise children the way we both feel they should be raised. I would either have to home school or be able to pay for private school for one. I disagree with parents turning their children over to the government to be raised or taught (indoctrinated). But I won't get into that right now. So I can't really tell you if I like being a married mother since I'm not a mother. As far as being married goes, it has its ups and downs, of course. Ours has been a rocky marriage at times, but just like anything else worthwhile, it takes work and we are still together after 10 years. I hope we will be for many years to come. When he ticks me off, I rant freely on my other journal.

2. Ever wish you lived where it snows?

Oh yes, plenty of times. I love playing in the snow and I don't get to very often. I did live in Virginia for a few years and it snowed just about every year, which I loved. But that was when I was young and didn't have to worry about shoveling it or driving in it. Still, I've never had a white Christmas and someday I want to vacation somewhere where I'm almost guaranteed there will be snow. Being asthmatic, I don't tolerate cold as well as heat. My normal body temperature is around 97 degrees and my blood pressure is normally quite low so I tend to get cold very easily. Of course now that I'm having periomenopause symptoms, I can get hot one minute and cold another. Sometimes I get so hot that I wish I was laying in some snow and making snow angels (which is something I always loved to do).

3. Have you ever done illicit drugs?

Usually I don't comment or answer questions like this, but I did agree to be interviewed after all and I knew that a question like this would come up. Actually I already knew you were going to ask this, but I don't know how I knew. I seem to have some 'psychic' or 'sixth sense' abilities. Anyhow, yes, I have done illicit drugs before. I got into my 'experimentation' stage much later than everyone else. When everyone else was trying stuff out in high school, I wasn't. I had never even tried alcohol in high school. My parents were way too strict and I was never allowed to go anywhere or do anything much. So when I went to college, I went absolutely wild with the new freedom I had. I've tried just about all of them, too. There were a few I knew I didn't want to mess with at all and I didn't. I learned a few things through all of this. One is that most of the drugs aren't as terrible as the government or some people would make them out to be. Alcohol and cigarettes in some ways are much worse and they are legal. Making drugs illegal doesn't stop anyone from doing them. In some cases it makes it even more enticing. I also learned that it isn't always a good thing for parents to be extremely strict on their kids because once they get away from the parents, they seem more likely to go wild and try more things than if the parents hadn't been as strict. I do think nowadays we have more of a problem with parents not being involved with their kids than when I was young. My Mom never worked outside the house, so she was ALWAYS there. Still, I feel education is best when it comes to drugs or anything else. Chances are, most people will try drugs at some point in their lives, so it's best to be educated about it. Just because a drug is socially acceptable (alcohol or tobacco) doesn't mean it's not as bad for you.

4. What's your favorite movie?

Wow. This one is much harder than I thought. It's difficult to pick out just one movie that is my favorite. I guess for me it would have to be "Star Wars" because that movie was just awesome on the big screen and it was such a big deal in my day. I still like to watch it. I didn't care as much for "The Empire Strikes Back" or "Return of the Jedi" except for Yoda. I like Yoda. The first one is still the best one so far.

5. Do you sing in the car?

Yes, I do sing in the car sometimes. I only sing if I'm alone though. I never sing in front of anyone unless I am drunk and I mean, VERY drunk. My friends once got me to sing karaoke. I don't know how they convinced me to get up in front of everyone to do that. I'd be more likely to do it with a group, but I ended up there by myself singing "The Rose". Ugh! I think I sing terrible, so I never, ever sing in front of anyone if I can help it. But sometimes I enjoy singing in the car, but I'm embarrassed sometimes if anyone in traffic sees me singing. Hopefully they just think I'm on a hands free cell phone call.

I've answered Beckie's questions. Read below if you want me to interview you.

MEME RULES

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."

2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.

3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

MY FIRST TRY AT VIDEO

I posted this on my other journal so I'm just providing the link here. Besides, since I don't have a paid account anywhere, most places won't let me upload files, especially video that takes up a lot of room. This is a very rough draft and the picture quality is not good because I had to cut everything down as much as possible just to even post it because of size limitations.
Also the video is cut short because of limitations, so there actually is more footage at the end.

Not on the video as of yet, but will be: "In Memory of Rick"
The footage at the beginning of the airplane is our good friend Rick, who later died in a plane crash in that same plane. Some of you might even remember the story as it was before Christmas and the plane crashed into a Federal Reserve building down near Miami where employees were holding a holiday party. At first it was thought it could have been a terrorist attack, but it wasn't. It was a very unfortunate accident. Later on in the video is footage of another plane that is similar. That plane was built after the crash so it's not the same one. Hubby was with Rick in the first plane the day before the crash. Since then, I have yet to get him back on one.

So here's the link to the post with the video: FIRST VIDEO

LOOKED IN THE MIRROR & WASN'T HAPPY WITH WHAT I SAW...

Recently I had someone tell me I am too high maintenance. My idea of high maintenance was always some prissy female or what was portrayed in the movie "When Harry Met Sally". I never felt I really had either one of those characteristics. But still, this bothered me that I would be labeled a high maintenance person. I know how people in general react to someone they consider high maintenance. They groan and roll their eyes when they see that person come in the room. They don't answer the phone when they see that person on caller ID. They don't answer the door when that person happens to just drop by. They cut short the time they spend with that person. And here I am in that category. That means that someone or probably several someones have done one or all of those things when I've been around. I can't get angry about it because I've done the same thing to people I consider to be high maintenance.

Anyhow, since being categorized this way bothers me, I wanted to see what I could do to change it. So the first thing I did was research on 'high maintenance people'. And what I found wasn't pretty. In fact it has hit me like a ton of bricks. According to the majority of information I found, high maintenance does not necessarily refer to prissy women who are picky about everything as I had originally thought. Instead it refers more to someone who wants or demands more attention than people are wanting to give them. It also refers to someone who tends to depend on someone too much to help with problems, confides too much in someone, or makes it seem that another person is responsible for their happiness or well being or that there is no one else they can turn to. In other words, being a drain on someone.

I do tend to rely on people too much at times. I will be the first to admit that I want, love, crave attention (as long as it's not negative) and that sometimes I even go out of my way to get it. But I am also very shy and very sensitive, not only in how I sense people are and behave around me, but also sensitive to other people's positive or negative feelings. A lot of times I take another person's negative emotions personally because I tend to feel it's because of me or something I did.

I'm not the most confident person in social situations. I have very few friends and even fewer that I would call close friends. People come into my life and go out of my life. It's rare that I will have a friend I am still close with or talk to on a regular basis after 5 years of knowing them. Usually they become more of an acquaintance and I am the one who will actually get in contact with them every so often. I think twice I've had someone try to find me that I was friends with and we moved apart and hadn't talked in years. I don't make friends that easily, or rather I should say, I don't KEEP friends that easily.

I'm not very outgoing so unless someone initiates contact with me to begin with, it's very unlikely I will initiate contact with them. Once they do, then I get excited that someone actually wants to get to know me or be friends with me. Then that's when the difficulties begin, at least with most of them. I'll want to spend too much time with them or something like that (probably because I don't have a bunch of other friends to call on) and then the 'high maintenance' behaviors come out.

So now I know that I am high maintenance. I guess the first step was admitting it as they always say. The next thing I did research on were ways to curb that behavior or those tendencies. I've been very disappointed so far on what I've found. Most everywhere I've been focuses more on how to deal with a high maintenance person than for the high maintenance person to learn to deal in a more beneficial manner. Other places focus on accepting yourself as high maintenance and why there is nothing wrong with it and how you just need to find someone who can cater to your 'special' needs. And even some sites were trying to promote being high maintenance. I don't want to learn how to deal with a high maintenance person, or accept that I am just that way and people will have to deal with it. I don't want to be high maintenance at all. Perhaps there are benefits to it, but even if there are, I still don't want to be high maintenance. I know there has to be other people that have felt the way I feel. I know there are others who refuse to just accept that they are that way and always will be that way so everyone else around you has to accommodate for it.

So now I'm basically on a quest for books, articles, forums, or anything where I can find information on correcting high maintenance behaviors with more positive and beneficial behaviors. Perhaps there are techniques, tips, ideas somewhere. There has to be SOMETHING out there. I'm sure A.D.D. plays a role in it as well. It does seem that we tend to be a high maintenance group in general. But I am tired of draining everyone around me and pushing people away when it's the last thing I'm wanting to do. One way or another I am determined to find a way to fix this.

OK, I guess I'm done venting about that. I may need to start relying more on venting and brainstorming here in my journal than with other people specifically. Also I may start back with my counselor. I understand more now why I sometimes need to pay money for someone to talk to. I suppose if it's their job and I'm paying them for an hour of their time, it can't really be considered being high maintenance to talk to them. My only problem is there are some things I can't discuss even with a paid counselor. I guess there just will be some subjects I can't confide in anyone about. It's not fair to put all of that on a friend that I feel I can trust. So if I have no one I can talk to about certain things, then that's just the way it is. I can still write here and not everything I write is viewable to the public anyhow.

Guess I need to sleep sometime. It took me until 4 a.m. to figure out what I have so far and I'm dead tired now.

TUESDAY UPDATE

So we got a new computer that hopefully can handle video editing. But I haven't had much time to play with it. I can't seem to pry hubby away from it. He's gotten into watching DVD movies on it and playing with the DVD burner. It's a dual layer burner but I have yet to find any dual layer DVDs anywhere. The other DVDs seem to work just fine, though. I might upgrade the RAM and video card plus add another hard drive or two, but other than that, it's fast. It has a 3 gig processor and our last computer had a 1 gig processor when those had just come out. It's an AMD processor, but I've had good luck with AMD processors. They seem to be faster than Pentium and less expensive as well. The only thing is that you have to keep them cool because they like to run hotter than Pentiums.

I think hubby figures since I have the laptop that the new desktop is sorta 'his'. Of course I will be using it for video editing, but about everything else I do can probably be handled on the laptop.

Over the weekend a friend of ours that works at NASA stopped by and then we went up to the No Name for a few drinks. He's been busy getting stuff ready for shuttle launches so we hadn't seen much of him. He also brought over his keyboard. He plays and he wanted me to play the keyboard since hubby told him I knew how. The only thing is that I haven't played in over 10 years. I didn't really feel like playing that much, or at least not in front of anyone. So he played on the keyboard and hubby played drums. They sounded like they had done this before, but of course they haven't. Anyhow he decided to leave the keyboard at my house. ::grin::

I've also figured out I can print out a lot of piano sheet music off the web. So guess what I've been doing? Now I am really anxious to get my piano moved. I still remember how to read music for the most part. I'm rusty, but it's coming back to me and now I remember how much I enjoyed playing just for fun.

I'm also liking my new treadmill. I'm hoping it will help get me ready for bikini season, which is around the corner. Plus it gives me something to do while watching TV. I still knit a lot while watching TV or I might knit right before I go to sleep. I'm working on the hat for next winter. I figured I should probably finish one project before starting a new one as I tend to do that a lot. Now I haven't tried knitting while on the treadmill...

I'm trying to learn something else lately as well. It's kind of silly, but I'm trying to learn how to roll a poker chip through my fingers and back. I've about got it down with both hands now, but sometimes I still mess up. I've tried doing both at the same time and sometimes can do that one. Then I thought I'd try doing two on the same hand. Now THAT is difficult to do. I have a really interesting life, don't I?

I did play poker last night. Came in 18th out of 52. It wasn't that great, but I did have some really good hands for a while. It was OK though because I played the cash tables after the tournament and made my tournament entry fee back and then some. At least if I don't finish in the money, I like to try to get my entry fee back. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. The funny thing was that I went over to a friend's house before the tournament and they tried hard as hell to get me into a card game with them. Maybe some other time...

Well at least now I have a plethora of choices when I get home. Should I play keyboards, poker, knit or get on the treadmill? Oh yeah, and then of course there's always the other things like cooking dinner, laundry, cleaning, etc. I just don't seem to have enough time for all of it, which is one reason I haven't been blogging much.

They are MAKING us take an hour lunch at work. I don't eat lunch normally so I really don't have anything to do for that hour unless I need to run errands. So now I bring my knitting and my laptop. I can play poker, knit or catch up on blogs during that time. I might as well since they are making us take the break. I might end up making more money during lunch...LOL...

OK, that's pretty much what I've been up to.