Rosemary asked...

Rosemary asked me some questions, and I'll answer them, below! First, let me mention these public service announcements:

1) I will be teaching here at the Tennessee Fiber Festival on May 23rd, from 9 to 12. If you were even the tiniest bit interested in trying out spinning with a lot of interesting raw and washed fleeces, please sign up soon! Here's the teaser. I'm bringing:raw Romney and Rambouillet. Washed Jacobs, Finn, Texel, and maybe even Border Leicester fleeces. Hand cards. Flick cards, combs. Fingers. Spindles. Wheels. Three hours of fibery wool fun!

2) I know you were wondering, but does this woman ever actually knit? I mean, she says she does, but honestly? Here are some sneak previews of things I've tried out lately. I am especially enamored of the structural difficulties inherent in the attached I-cord curve, but it came out well...in organic cotton, no less!
OK, here's the meme:

"The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer."
I am changing the rules...although future participants are free to change them back. I will not name a ton of people at the end. I will wander over to a few folks' blogs and invite them to post on this if they feel like it. That way, no one is left on the spot, ok? If you feel like answering this, please do--and leave me a comment with a link so I can learn more about you!

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
Crying a lot. Yes, I was. I got married June 28th, 10 years ago. In the 10 days to three weeks preceeding the wedding, I gave final exams to my high school students, closed down my classroom, moved all my belongings to my new home and retreated to my parents' house for three weeks before the wedding with my dog because my rental "couldn't be rented to someone else" with my belongings and Lucy, the friendly dog, in it. (bad housing situation. uck.) I had a morning wedding. My father decided to vacuum at 12:30 AM the night before...dirt was bothering him. I got maybe 5 hours of sleep most nights during that time. No kidding. It was the vacuum that felt like a cosmic last straw. Or maybe it was the professor's aunt, who fed her grandchild pringles in the sanctuary as I was walking down the aisle?

I didn't enjoy my wedding. I am glad to be married but the wedding was absolutely not my style or choice and the event made me miserable for months before and after. After the wedding, we went on our honeymoon to Iceland, and Cornwall and Devon in the UK. It was an amazing trip--except that I had a kidney infection from all the stress of the exams, moving, wedding nonsense, etc. I spent the entire rest of the summer in bed in my new home in North Carolina, on huge antibiotics. Lucy the dog got a bad case of kennel cough while we were away and spent the summer in bed with me.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):
work out a contract's details (pretty frequent issue for a writer), dry out from a very damp walk this morning, knit/work on a sock design, drive to an appointment in Nashville and....enjoy the opportunity to visit a good grocery store in Nashville for some edible treats!

3) Snacks I enjoy:
I try very hard not to eat snacks between meals a lot!
olives, good cheese, chocolate, homemade bread and jam, tea.
anything homemade is very dangerous; I try to limit baked goods since I'd eat them all.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
A billion dollars is a lot of money, perhaps too much for one person, in my opinion. I'd figure out what I'd need to live on comfortably in a middle class sort of way and then create an investment portfolio that provided that amount with a "cushion" for emergencies. Then, I'd find a way to donate the rest of it to help others. This week in particular, there are plenty of places I could find to make that amount of money useful. (earthquake and cyclone victims? children harmed by war? children in Africa orphaned by AIDS? homeless shelters and foodbanks? you get the picture.)

5) Places I have lived:
Falls Church, Virginia
a kibbutz
Ithaca, New York
Arlington, Virginia
Durham, North Carolina
Buffalo, New York
Bowling Green, Kentucky
??? to be determined!

7) 6 people I wanna know more about:
If you want to do this questionnaire, please do! Leave me a comment and a link to follow so I can read your answers, please! Or, leave me a comment anyway?! I love to hear from you!