lillibet | And on...

1. You seem to have a terrific marriage, and I say that with sincere admiration. But show us the other side: what is the most persistently difficult relationship issue for you and your boy?

Well, I think the same that's true for any relationship--communication. Perfecting our ability to share our thoughts and feelings with each other, and handling the fallout when we fail dramatically, is pretty much what all of our fights boil down to. But we both work very hard at it and have made huge improvements in understanding and practice, after having a lot of snarls early in our relationship.

Within that, the two issues that have been the hardest struggles are our decision-making processes (he's a "maximizer" while I'm a "satisficer"--shopping for big-ticket items is excrutiating, although we're getting better at it) and J's relationship with Final Fantasy XI.

2. You don't care much for most musicals. Which ones do you like, and what are their common traits?

Actually, I think that's a mis-perception. I think musicals are a wonderful form, but much more difficult than most people think. There are a lot of balls to keep in the air and a demand for multi-talents and spectacle that I think are easy to do very poorly in ways that weaken musicals into something unwatchable.

That said, I think my top three musicals (in no order) are La Cage aux Folles, Pippin, and 1776. Fiddler on the Roof also keeps trying to creep in there. Possible contributing factors to that: none of them are standard boy-gets-girl plots; all of them have a counter-culture, irreverent attitude; and--I just now realize--none of them have women as the main character. Oh, and none of them were written by Sondheim.

3. What's sexiest about you?

Well, depends who's lookin' ;)

Physically, I've got lots to choose from--the hair, eyes, tits and legs are all fairly eye-catching and enjoyable and I've got great skin.

But that's not really where sexy comes from and I think the sexiest thing about me is probably the open way that I engage with the world and the deep enjoyment that I take from interacting with other people. I don't have that magnetic "you are the only person in the world to me" quality, but I do have the "I see you, I notice you, I'm interested in you" thing going on that seems to draw people in on a wide variety of levels.

Plus, I've usually been able to project confidence, competence, and self-assurance, which are deeply sexy qualities for a lot of people.

4.If an Icelandic skald composed a saga about your life, what slight or crime would kick off the obligatory feud, and how many families would be dead, their farms burned to the ground, by the end of it?

Someone attempting to manipulate me by using the people around me is the most likely slight to set me on the warpath. The farm-count would probably be fairly low, as I tend to go for the surgical strike rather than the scorched earth or feud-of-generations approaches.

5. What are you most afraid of, Ms. Vulcan-quoting Smartypants? ;)

Actually, it was Frank Herbert, from Dune:

Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

That one's gotten me through a lot over the years.

These days, the thing that frightens me the most is the thought of losing Jason. I occasionally fear that we are still in the first twenty minutes of the movie, the part where they show what a devoted and perfectly-matched couple the characters are, before the terrible blow of fate.

That seems to have replaced swarming bugs and falling-in-the-shower-and-drowning that were my previous biggest fears.

Thanks! That was cool.