Answer Period Part 1

Post 500!

As promised, here are my mediocre answers to your brilliant questions. Now because I tend to be quite long winded, I've decided to split this post up, in order to give your scrolling finger a break.

So grab a cuppa and here we go...

1/ From Domestic Goddess: I guess my question is which post is your favorite? Anything stick out?

Me: This is a tough one, as I do have a few that come to mind.

When I first started blogging, it was about the kids, here there and everywhere, always about the kids. This was a place for their fun stories, a spot to capture all the little milestones that I can still look back on. But the blog became more about ME. As I became more emotionally vested, and I began writing more from the heart, I was able to post more meaningful pieces.

Almost a year ago I wrote about the boy next door. I still think about this post from time to time because it's not one of my typical "look what my kid just said, hardy-har-har" moments. It gave me pause to think about what a huge responsibility it is to be a parent. I haven't seen him much in the last year, so as an update, I still don't know what happened. His parents are still the fine neighbours they've always been, so I'm assuming that things settled down.

I'm glad this question was asked again so I'll link again in the next round. There are some other nuggets that I managed to spit out when I had super blogging mojo. Hopefully more "real" posts will surface again soon.

2/ From Busy Dad: what was your favorite toy growing up?

Me: Okay, this was supposed to be easy, right? Let's see, maybe it was this...

Just kidding, I'm neither that ancient nor that mathematically inclined.

I did love board games and think I owned every Milton Bradley/Hasbro cardboard box ever created in the 1970s. Payday, Masterpiece, Sorry, Monopoly, Clue...

3/ From Mrs. Mogul: Hmm what is arrowroot made of?

Me: Lots of addictive ingredients apparently.

4/ From my old friend Knatolee (well, she's not old, but she's longlost from my teens and I just discovered that she is also a blogger) : if you could live anywhere in the world (with your loved ones, of course), would you still live where you live now?

Me: Probably not. I've been living in the same general area for most of my life. Not to say it's boring, but as I get older, I realize there's so much more of the world to see and experience, and live. It's funny, when we first got married, my husband was the one who had some wanderlust, thinking and dreaming about living in far away lands, and I was always reluctant to pick up and move. Now that we have our own little family unit, if there were opportunities elsewhere, as long as the schooling and healthcare were decent, I'd be a lot more open to it.

4b/And how do I get a following like yours?

Me: A following? Uh, I don't know about that ... I'm flattered. I am most appreciative of the readers that come back here more than once, and there are some great blog friends that I've made in the last couple of years. People that I feel like I know, and have gotten to know that much faster than if we'd met face to face (remember me, right, the quiet one?).

There is so much fantastic reading out there, I could spend days just staring at the screen (and have been guilty of that more than once in a while). Although I started this in 2005, I really kicked it up a notch with NaBloPoMo in late 2007 - early 2008 and visited a lot of blogs, bloghopping, commenting tons, participating in blog carnivals, dipping into the social networking thing. Honestly, it's a lot of work and a time suck to put it eloquently. And the time spent on my posts, editing, picking apart, perfecting... it's insane.

But I love it. No matter how many times I've turned my back on it in the last few years, taken blog holidays, I've always come back. And I am beyond thrilled when I have new readers and develop new blog friendships, which continues to happen even to this day. I used to have "petit-morts" anytime my comments numbered above 20, but nowadays it's not so much about how many comments but what they are, and how I feel after I've completed a well-written post.

5/ From Yo Momma: would you rather be in between an Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt sandwich or a Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhall (however you spell his last name) sandwich?

Me: Girl, you ARE a perv, and a riot!

I'd definitely prefer to be Reese's peanut butter cup/spooning with Jake. Angelina and Brad are just too pretty for me and they've got too many kids who just seem to swarm around them all the time... even with their individual nannies around.

And have you seen how BUILT Jake is, um, yum... (okay, I'm simmering down now ...).

6/ From Melissa: what is your earliest childhood memory?

Me: A good memory - tinkering away on the piano in the basement, then hopping on my tricycle for a little ride before going upstairs and following my Mom to the ice-cream truck outside.

A not so good memory - bawling my eyes out at 3, getting wrenched from my Grandma's arms and put on the schoolbus to Chinese school for the day, with my flat polyester pillow and lunch box in tow.

6b/ if you could change one thing in your past, what would it be?

Me: It would be to go to university away from home. Ironically, of the schools that accepted me, I chose the one that I could commute to from home, the only school that gave me zero scholarship. My parents didn't want me too far away, and my boyfriend at the time stayed local. It's stupid, what puppy love can do.

I think it would have been a great life experience to actually live on my own, a rite of passage which I really regret not having had. I hope that when my kids get to that stage they won't be afraid to venture further...I may not like it, but I think it's an important part of growing up. Although I think I still turned out okay.

*****

So that's it for Part 1.

I'm still open to more questions (this is great blog fodder, do you think I can keep this up for the year???). Feel free to just let 'em rip.