So Wonder-Rachel... tell us about Mr. Right.

I got this fun Meme from my cousin at her blog:

Where did the two of you meet?

We met at The Off Broadway Theater when he was performing in Quick Wits, their original improv-comedy show.

What was the first thought that went through your head when you first met him?

Wow. He is so cute! Oh he's looking at me! smiles And oh my gosh now he's coming over here - I think he's going to talk to me!!!

Do you remember what he was wearing?

Nope. But I remember one thing I saw him in a lot in those days: his black GAP polo shirt - his uniform for bar-backing at Bricks. And I thought he looked so sexy in black.

Where did you go for your first date?

We had a late dinner at the Applebee's in Taylorsville on Redwood Road. He waited tables there at the time.

Where was the first time you kissed?

I don't remember our first kiss. It was 13 years ago and it's a little fuzzy. I do remember I wouldn't kiss him till I had broken things off with my boyfriend. Yes, I was seeing someone else that night our eyes locked in the lobby of The OBT. And said significant other was out of town so there was waiting involved! But the significant kiss I do remember is the kiss we shared about 5 years ago. After breaking up and going our separate ways almost nine years earlier, I looked him up when I was in town visiting family at easter and we met for coffee. Sitting in his jeep in a parking structure near Starbucks, we kissed just a little. He smelled the same as I remembered and I was smitten all over again.

When was the first time you realized you liked him?

Oh the first time I spent any time talking to him I knew I liked him. He's intelligent and funny and entertaining and inclusive... I liked him right off.

How long did you know him before you became a couple?

Well I guess I only knew him a few days before we started dating but we never really defined it as an exclusive relationship back in '95. Then all those years later we were seeing each other but living in different states so we weren't really a "couple" then either. I guess I would say the Las Vegas trip in Spring of 2004 was the defining moment. We had planned a weekend in Vegas since it was a good half-way point and he had friends going that particular weekend. When I got to his hotel room he pulled me inside and we commenced reunion kissing. At one point when we were pausing for air he just beamed at me and said "I love you." and at that point we decided it was kind of silly to pretend we weren't a madly-in-love-couple any longer. So I guess it was several years.

How did he propose to you?

It was so romantic. I was seriously stressed, dealing with my ex and co-parenting our son. Anthony took me out for a drive the day after Valentines Day I love that part. We ended up in the parking lot at the base of the trail up Mt. Olympus an old make-out spot for us way back in '95. It was quiet, dark, snowing, we got out to look at the lights and he pulled out a ring. It was perfect.

Do you have kids together?

Yep, we've got the toddler-tornado, and we do a pretty damn good job parenting Dante together as well.

Have you ever broken the law together?

Yes.

Do you trust him?

More than I trust myself

Do you see him as your partner in your future?

Absolutely.

What is the best gift he gave you?

It's a toss up between Noah and his patience & understanding. Yes, seriously I am that difficult to deal with!

What is one thing he does that gets on your nerves?

There's really so little... I'm sure he could come up with a long list of character flaws for me actually he should be able to come up with such a list but he probably couldn't (see previous answer), but I can only think of how he bounces his leg all the time. It bugs me when we're at our computers in the loft since it shakes the floor and feels like an earthquake, or if we're sitting next to each other it vibrates me. It's pretty trivial though! lol

Where do you see each other 15 years from now?

15 years from now we'll still be seeing each other in bed quite often. Hehehehehe

What causes the most arguments?

My short temper, hands down.

How long have you been together?

Such a tough question! I guess about five years if we don't count the mad crazy romance right after I graduated, and the 9 years apart in between...

Who Do you Tag?

Oh lets see...
Well Mr. Right of course... And how about my pal Susan if she's got the time in her busy mommy life... and maybe X wants to get personal... I'd love to hear how my sister Melanie met her husband since I wasn't around for it but her blog is private so you can't see it, I know absolutely nothing about NUGO's relationship, being as we're online-only buddies... and last but not least, I like this kind of story since I'm a hopeless romantic so I tag anyone else who reads this & wants to play! :)

Who knew Showtime would eventually bring polygamy back in vogue?

X has been kind enough to pass on five fun and thought provoking questions so that I may entertain all you readers with something other than pictures of my munchkins, ramblings about my writing project and unprovoked political diatribes. This comes from my request after her own revelations last week - fun post, you should go take a look. For all interested in their own "Hey read all about me" interview questions, I would love to send you a few. Now here are my answers to five questions I never expected to answer!

1. If you became a polygamist tomorrow, who would you want your second wife to be and why?

I had to think about this one for days but when the answer came to me I thought "Oh duh. Why didn't I think of that sooner?" You think I'm about to say Alessandra Ambrosio don't you? Well yeah, that would be one option... but I think I would go with my girl Cindy. Why? Because she's the closest I've had already to a female partner and I think we'd do better together than anyone else. I love her and think she's amazing. And maybe one of these days she'll actually come for a visit. And really that's as close as it would get to this strange polygamist fantasy. sigh

2. What do you think happens when we die?

I am finally in a place in my life where I'm content to not know. It's a comfort that I don't hold to any hopes that may not come to be, especially after losing loved ones - I would hate to operate all my life under the assumption I would see my dad again and then be wrong.

3. If you could bestow your children with one talent, what would it be?

I would make them charismatic communicators. Being able to speak to others, get your point across, sway opinions to align with your own... these skills are invaluable.

4. When was the last time you felt true jealousy and what caused it?

Anthony and I had an understanding about the exclusivity (or lack of it) in our relationship early on while I was still living in Ventura. We were so far apart, it wasn't reasonable to be alone all the time. So I think the last time I felt real jealousy (not the kind I felt last week as my mother attended the presidential inauguration ceremony) was toward the end of that arrangement, right before we finally admitted to each other that we were more than just FwB's, were madly in love, and wanted to be together.

5. If you could change just one thing about the Mormon religion, what would you change?

Okay there isn't one thing that if changed, would bring me back, so I had a hard time thinking what one thing could possibly be important to me at this point. Since I'm pretty live & let live... but then it came to me. I would only have them stop knocking on my door. :)

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Here are the meme details:
If you'd like to play along, just follow these instructions:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me." (And realize I might take a while to get back to you.)
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions. (Eventually!)
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions. Be sure you link back to the original post.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Gun Safety and Grandma

I wanted to get this posted in a timely manner since the questions I got are so pressing... or maybe I'm stalling because I've hit a rough spot in my other writing.

OGUN asks: Wonder-Rachel, what's the color of your favorite trigger-lock?

Well I guess the logical answer here would be pink. But I'm not really sure if a pink trigger-lock exists. And the trigger lock that came with my gun is blue. So I guess that's my favorite. Though thinking more about it, maybe blue should be my least favorite trigger-lock color since I really hate mine and never use it. In fact, I couldn't even tell you where it is! The thing about trigger-locks is that if a kid monkeys with it enough or if it's not on just right, the gun can go off. This is why I bought a cable lock. It's black. The revolver chamber rolls fully out of place & the cable threads right down the barrel - no chance in hell that baby's goin off.

And Sus wanted to know: When can I hear some of that hot "Rachel Sings Whitney Houston" that I remember from so long ago? :)

Alas, now I only sing in the shower. If you want to come over & hop in sometime, I'll try to remember a few bars of The Children Are Our Future. Anthony was always trying to get me to sing Karaoke when we were dating (before my awesome eBay night job)but here's the thing: The last time I sang in public was the final of many recitals Grandma Stamm made me sing in. So I sang Mozart to friends, family, neighbors & strangers at countless recitals for years. Since then no one has been able to prevail upon me in quite the way that Grandma was capable, and I have never performed since - quite happily I might add. Now I sing at home and leave the public performance to my capable and willing cousins and as always, my beautiful & talented Grandmother.

And that's all we have time for today folks.

The Red & Green Xmas Survey

A few weeks ago I had begun to author an entertaining post about my decision to finally murder Santa. It went along the lines of my usual Christmas rant: I'm not Christian, I certainly don't want to celebrate the commercial aspect of the holiday... thus, exactly what am I celebrating? Anyone who knows me has heard me complain about my personal/religious/family/community conflicts surrounding the holidays. Well Anthony and I had a very intellectual and enlightened discussion about the whole thing and decided we wouldn't teach Noah about Santa. Dante is so close to figuring it all out anyway I figure now was the perfect year to murder Santa.

Then Noah learned two new words this week: Claus and Ho-Ho-Ho-Ho!

Fuck. Fine. So now I'm resigned to diving headlong into the Santa/baking/giving/celebrating aspect of the holidays foreverafter. And in my attempts to resurrect Santa and the spirit of xmas in my life, I have set a few tasks for myself. The first two are the obvious ones...

PUT UP THE TREE We have little ones, this is a necessity - so we have a tree now and it's very pretty.

BUY & WRAP PRESENTS FOR THE KIDS. Okay so that's pretty much done.
DO SOME XMAS BAKING. This helps me feel like there are some redeeming aspects of the holidays that even I, the heathen, can celebrate. I've done a bit. Hubby has been a big help. And likely I'll crank out a billion cookies after Dante leaves for CA. But this year I won't be able to send any baking with him. Not enough time. I wish I had pictures of the hot cran-apple tartlets I gave to family last night but oh well. Here are the apple-pie tartlets I made last week - good stuff!


POST THAT XMAS SURVEY. So here it is!

If you feel so inclined, gimme your own responses to any of the questions below, or paste the whole damn thing into the comments section & tell me all about yourself! lol I got this from my mom and my husband so I guess it's my turn...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. It takes longer, but I think it looks nicer.
2. Real tree or Artificial? We have an artificial tree we've set up each year, but I do like the smell of real trees.
3. When do you put up the tree? after December 1.
4. When do you take the tree down? A couple of days after we all open our presents. (That's never on Christmas for us - sometimes it's the first week of January. This year, December 22 but we'll likely leave the tree up till after Dante gets back on January 5!)
5. Do you like eggnog? Grocery store eggnog, yes.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Hands down it was the My Little Pony Dream Castle.
7. Hardest person to buy for? Anthony
8. Easiest person to buy for? Dante
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Nope. My own little babies mean more to me than that one, no offense.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Neither. I'm terrible. I'm considering a yearly card in March since xmas means nothing to me but March is when we have all our own birthdays.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Geez I've been trying to come up with an answer to this one for days! Finally I realized I don't really have any memorable least favorite gifts! If someone cares enough to give me a fucking present, I'm damn happy to get it! That's just me.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? A Christmas Story of course! "Fra-Gee-Lay! ...must be Italian!"
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? When the money comes in!
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Oh yeah. Gift exchanges are great for that!
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?Pot-roast, rolls & gravy!
16. Lights on your house/apartment? No lights! We've had enough broken bones thanks!
17. Favorite Christmas song? I know I know - I rail against all the CHRISTmas stuff and wonder why I celebrate since I'm not Christian, but I like Still, Still, Still and I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay at home!
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Let's see... You know Candy & Brandy & Lyric & Bunny... Destiny, Kendal & Dylan & Honey... Wait, sorry, those aren't the reindeer!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star. Angels are kind of too over the top & fluffy-foo-foo.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Whenever the fuck I feel like it! Or whenever fits in with Dante's trip to see his dad.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? All the traffic, wasted ad newspaper & needless consumption.
23. 3 Favorite ornaments? The painted puzzle piece picture frame of Dante that he made in 1st grade, Two red eggs Anthony & I got at the Bennett Grown Grand-children's xmas party and all the bows I made myself.
24. Does your tree have a theme or color? Yes it has two and it alternates each year which one it wears. This year it's in orange & gold tones. Next year, like last year, it will be in Pink. It's beautiful.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A hand-steamer or a pole for the playroom!

Yay! Look what I got!

So Sus has awarded me with the:

Apparently I must share my 6 favorite things to keep my award & status. So...
These are a few of my favorite things:

First!
My boys - I love their smiles. I love their laughter. I love the smell of their heads after a bath. I love the way they look when they're sleeping. There is absolutely nothing in the world that can make me feel the way I feel when I'm with them.

Second!
My husband - I know, how unoriginal I'm being. But I can't help it, it's true. He's amazing. He makes me laugh, he keeps me sane (I was about to say calm, but there are times when no one alive can accomplish that! lol), he's totally hot! ...what? ...it's true.

(the next 4 are in no particular order)
Third!
My tweezers - I have two pair of Tweezerman tweezers. I recommend these above all other brands. One, they're simply far superior to any Maybeline or La Cross crap you'll buy for half the price (you get what you pay for), and two, they offer lifetime free re-sharpening (if you pay shipping to send them in). I've come to feel like my tweezers are an extension of my fingers. I really go crazy when I can't find them.

Fourth!
Books - I escape in books. I can only imagine where life would be without them! Mine personally would be very dull. And obviously without books in general, life would be nothing like it is today. Maybe we'd all still be scratching on cave walls, I don't know.

Fifth!
The Internet - Man! Do you remember having to go to the library to find things out? It's hard to believe that even up through High School I couldn't just sit down at a computer and find virtually any piece of information I was curious about. What was that movie that one guy was in? imdb.com here I come. How high a fever is too high? WebMD you are my friend. Directions to a friends? How late is that new restaurant open and while you're at it, what's on the menu? Seems like there's nothing you can't find online these days.

Sixth!
Bed - I love to crawl into my soft white sheets after a long day and feel my body sink into the mattress. It feels so good to get horizontal and snuggle down under my fluffy covers.

There's so much more. Despite all my "issues" I really love life. I'm passionate & animated (at least I think) and I bet I could fill a list with SIXTY of my favorite things without breaking a sweat, so these six are really just a surface-scratching. But that was fun. :)