Sunday Stealing

Shannon's Moments Meme, Part One

1. Do you like blue cheese? No, but thank you for asking.

2. Have you ever smoked cigarettes? If yes, how did you quit? I've never smoked. Anything. Few notions creep me out more than taking smoke into my lungs and letting it out my nose, thereby polluting the air around me and leaving my hair all stinky.

3. Do you own a gun? How are your feelings about gun control/2^nd amendment rights? I live in a city awash in guns. Firearms that come in from Indiana and Kentucky, two states with lax gun laws. I am sick about all the children caught in gang cross fire. It would seem to me that sportsmen and responsible gun owners would want this kind of violence to stop. Yet they do nothing. 

25 Chicagoans were shot in 14 hours yesterday. How do you think I feel about gun control? Do not even try to tell me that this mayhem would be curbed if "good guys had guns." EVERYONE already has guns! That's the problem! People who don't live here don't get it.

This 10-year-old boy was shot in front of his twin sister, 5 miles from my home. He is now fighting for his life. Perhaps he should have been armed? (PS I'm warning you -- gun control is a dearly held conviction of mine. If you don't agree, keep it to yourself. You have your own blog. Post it there. BTW, this is why I'm not visiting many other Sunday Stealings today.)

4. What is your favorite flavor of water or liquor flavors? I need a drink after question #3! My preferred liquor is vodka. 

5. Do you get nervous before a doctor visit? Why? Yes. Because I don't want to get bad news.

6. How do you like your hot dogs? Sliced and mixed with baked beans.

And this was taken in Key West! I love Key West.

7. Although it’s been asked a lot, tell us about a favorite movie that you haven’t shared before. Up Close and Personal (1996). It's a newsroom drama, loosely based on Jessica Savitch's life. I like the way it handles local vs. national news coverage. And I love the way their romance is handled. Sometimes we meet the perfect person at the wrong time.

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? I have a lot of sugar in the morning -- a Coke and a glass of chocolate milk.

9. In a dating situation, have you ever misrepresented yourself to seem cooler or hipper? (Yes we know for most of you it was long ago…) I don't think so. I try to present the most gracious version of myself -- more Melanie Hamilton than Scarlett O'Hara. But that's not cooler or hipper, is it?

10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? Why? I wear a black diamond infinity ring on my right hand. I don't know why I love it, but I do.

11. Favorite hobby? Tell us about it so we understand it. I

love classic movies because this intrinsically American art form gives us a snapshot of who we are at any given moment. Just last month a group of us movie geeks were watching Butterfield 8 (1960). It's a glamorous, soapy Elizabeth Taylor vehicle, but one thing about it struck me as rather important. Her character is "the slut of all time" as a result of her abuse as a child. Yet the movie treats her sexual molestation as somehow her fault. We've come a long way in 55 years, haven't we? It's as cool to watch us evolve as a society as it is to watch the hairstyles.

12. Do you have A.D.D., or have you suspected it? No.

13. What’s a thing you dislike or would change about yourself? My chins. I have too many.

14. Middle name? Like it or not? It's fine. I don't use it often, so I don't care much.

15. Name three random thoughts you might have on this week: I don't understand the question. This past week or this coming week? I'll answer with random thoughts I'll probably have during coming week ...

1) Go, Cubs, go!

2) I don't think I want to go to the all-agency picnic.

3) Where did I leave my keys/phone?

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink. Tell us a bit about them. Coke, orange juice, water. I believe you're familiar with all three.

17. Current worry: Money.

18. Current annoyance: My cat Reynaldo keeps knocking stuff over in an attempt to hold my attention.

19. Favorite place to be in the summer? Give us a wee bit more than “the beach”. Watching the Cubs! Online from my desk at work, through headphones as I run my errands, on the sofa at home, from a stool in a bar, and soon, from within The Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field.

20. How do you usually ring in the new year? If forced (how we’d do that without Judd coming to your house, if you even know who he was) to do something new, what would it be? I used to ring in the New Year with friends in Key West. Over the past few years, I've switched my travel plans from New Year's to Christmas, so my New Year's is up for grabs. Last year I watched Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper and enjoyed it thoroughly. In my fantasy, I'd like to get a hotel room at the Intercontinental in Times Square and watch the ball drop.

Isn't he lovely?

21. What have you done this summer that’s special? Pictures please. See Question 19. I am so in love with this Cub team. I don't think I'll ever forget them. Here's a picture of the league's top homer hitter, KRIS BRYANT.

22. Have you ever walked into a room with just shoes on? Why would anyone do that?