The Interview

So my blog buddy, Nick wrote a post yesterday about interviewing a reader. He may have been joking, but I jumped at the chance. (surprise surprise!) Here are the questions he asked me, and the honest answers that I promised him:

You started blogging in November of '05, just over a year ago. A lot of blogs don't last that long. What keeps you going?

My blog has been a type of therapy for me. I have had so many ups and downs these past few years, and it has been a place for me to work through my emotions. I realize that I could do this in a journal, but then I wouldn't get any feedback. And those comments are addictive. I love the feedback I have received over the past year and a bit. This blog has also been a good way for friends to check in on me. Many of them never comment, but they are reading, and making sure that I'm ok. I've also made some actual real life friends from this blog. That has been an added bonus. It has become harder to keep up recently, mostly because T is often around, and I don't blog in front of him. But I still try to write a few entries a week.

If computers became illegal today, who from the internet would you try the hardest to find?

I would try my hardest to find this blog. I've never backed it up or anything, and would be crushed if I lost everything I had written. So I guess I'd be trying my hardest to find myself.

Fast forward 10 years. Tell us one thing about your life.

I am happily married and have a third child.

Your husband died almost three years ago at the age of 31. What advice would you give to someone who is just now going through what you went through at that time?

Let people help you. It's ok to cry every day. Join a support group! You are stronger than you could ever imagine yourself to be. Someday you will find happiness again.

Obviously we don't get do-overs in life. Imagine we did. If you could go back in time and change one, and only one, thing you've said or done, what would it be?

The night I went to see Joe at the hospital I would not have stopped at the front desk. I would have just marched right into Joe's hospital room, and held him, and told him how much I loved him. The fact that I stopped at the front desk, and was told that I couldn't see Joe, will forever haunt me. It was my last chance to see him conscious.

You're auditioning for American Idol. What song are you going to sing?

Obviously you've never heard me sing! But if I had to sing something it would have to be, "The Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing. Oh yeah.

Who's Patrick?

LOL! Patrick was the aide in my classroom last year. He had worked here for two years prior to that, but I never got to know him until last year. Patrick is one of the nicest, funniest, easiest to be around guys that I know. He's a good friend.

You surprise T with carry-out Chinese one night and discover him in bed with another woman. Do you leave immediately and eat the Chinese (like I would), or stay to confront them, letting the perfectly good Chinese go to waste?

I would join in. Just kidding! I would confront him, and then cry for the next week. The food would never get eaten.

Being a teacher, what advice do you have for someone considering a career in education?

Don't do it! It's way harder than people perceive it to be.

What advice do you wish someone would have given you when you decided to become a teacher?

I really don't know. I was given lots of advice, but brushed most of it off because I was a cocky new teacher.

What's your favorite and least favorite part of being a teacher?

My favorite part of being a teacher is watching a student understand something that s/he didn't previously understand. I had a lot of difficulty in school as a kid, and I love when I can actually help a struggling student not struggle any more. My least favorite part is dealing with bad behavior from students, parents and administrators.

Describe your mood right now in one word.

Anxious

If you could instantly and permanently change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I'd be skinny

You can marry any celebrity you want. Congratulations.

Why thank you!

Describe each of your children using one sentence that doesn't run on for a whole paragraph.

Jacob is a sweet, strong willed, funny, slightly strange, inquisitive child.
Josh is a cuddly, funny, smart, strong willed, mostly happy child.

Imagine you were never married and never had kids. How do you think your life would be different?

Perhaps I'd be living in a city somewhere closer to my sister. I doubt I would be very happy at this point in my life if I had never married, nor had kids. Both were so important to me. Dating would be far less complicated though!

Boxers, briefs or boxer-briefs?

Boxers, or boxer briefs. NO BRIEFS!!!!

You're going to be executed today. Should have just left and ate the Chinese... What's your last meal consist of?

Eggplant parm, good French bread with lots of butter, molten chocolate cake.

Any parting words?

I'm wondering why anyone reads my blog, including you. It's often so depressing! I appreciate all my readers though, and want to thank you for reading!

Thanks b :)
Thank you!

-b