A Jar of Balloons Survey, Volume 4

1.) At what age did you know the most good jokes?
I’ve never been good at telling jokes. So, never really.

2.) About what subject have you forgotten the most?
That would be math. I’m an English person. Math did not stick around in my head.

3.) Can you sit still well?
No. I’m a fidgeter.

4.) Have you ever been burned by a video game system that never caught on?
No. Maybe the Nintendo Game Cube, but that was Nathan’s.

5.) What is your opinion of greeting cards?
I like greeting cards. But some thought should be put into the one that is chosen.

6.) Have you ever wished your room could be dusted for fingerprints, as in the cop movies, just so you could see?
No.

7.) At a certain point, will we all switch to "old-people’s clothes," or will we go on dressing as we always have until we learn what we’ve been wearing ARE old people’s clothes?
We’ll go on dressing the way we do and then what we have will be old people’s clothes.

8.) Where, if you have a choice, do you like to sit when at the movies, towards the front or towards the back? Do you like to turn around and look at the shining, rapt faces?
I like to sit in the back towards the middle of the row. I don’t like people sitting behind me in a movie theater, I don’t know why.

9.) As a teenager, did you loiter? A lot?
Yes. Yes I did.

10.) Have you ever been caught in the act of sex? Were you secretly proud?
Yes, and no.

11.) How little must you sleep before you round down to none, tell others you didn’t sleep a wink? Three hours? Two? One?
Two hours or less counts as none.

12.) Are there any card games you’d say you were good at?
I’m good at Gin and Canasta and I’m evil at Uno.

13.) Do you have any collections of things (books, wines, sports cards, jeans, fountain pens, stamps, toy figurines in original packaging) that you actively grow?
I collect Disney Beauty and the Beast items. It’s an actively growing collection.

14.) What’s the most you’ve ever shelled out for shoes?
$100 on a pair of boots that hurt even if I sat down all day. I ended up giving them to my mother. She didn’t have problems with them after she stuffed some tissue in the toes so they would fit her.

15.) Do you or have you ever had a nickname? Were you one of these people at whom nicknames, like noodles at cabinets, were thrown?
I have a few nicknames. They get thrown at me all the time. Most people know me by "Grace" because of my klutzieness, but there are other more unique ones that I will not go into here.

16.) Regarding socks and underwear, do you replace piece by piece or every two or three years overhaul the whole drawer?
Piece by piece. Underwear is expensive.

17.) How much tolerance do you have for coincidence (at what point, I mean, will religious thoughts kick in?)
I’m a believer in signs from (god, universe, etc), but my tolerance is midling. Some things just HAPPEN for no reason. But other times there is no doubt that it’s a sign of some sort.

18.) Any authors whose work you’ve read every single published word of?
J.K. Rowling. Yup. I’m a dork. I read lots of different authors, but nobody’s complete works. I do own the complete works of Shakespeare, T.S. Elliot, and the guy who wrote Alice in Wonderland though. I just haven’t read through them all.

19.) Do you like finding evidence of things you do, like movie ticket stubs folded in your wallet from a movie you saw months ago or perhaps a menu from a friend’s wedding in a suit packet that causes you to suddently remember exactly what you ate on a day three long years ago?
Yes, I do.

20.) Have you ever liked an ID photo so much you’ve kept the ID or become indignant at the fact that you had to give it back at the end of the experience for which it was needed?
No. I don’t really photograph very well.

21.) How long does it take you to learn a grocery store?
Forever. I’m always out of sorts when my normal stores reorganize. I’m horrible at remembering where things are. For example, I’ve worked in my building for over 6 years and I STILL can’t remember which drawer we keep the plastic spoons in or which doors need to have the knobs turned before pushing to open them (some don’t, the knobs are ornamental or non-functioning).

22.) Do you scale from 1 to 10?
Not really.

23.) Do you ever have the desire to organize your experiences by, say, photographing every bed in every hotel you’ve ever slept in or every cluttered coffee table you’ve spent a talk-filled night around or every bar-stool you’ve sat on long enough to warm? What would this accomplish, this endless compiling? Would it matter that there’d never be time to sort through the stacks, or is the important thing simply that the stacks be there, to be tipped over, then righted and squared with soft, short, parallel-palmed pushes?
No not really.

24.) Which do you think is more infectious, a whisper or a yawn?
A yawn. Definitely a yawn.

25.) Which do you think is more irresistible, a window or a mirror? What about a piano in a room with a dusty shaft of sunlight and no one to forbid you?
A window. I love to look into windows. As for the piano, you play it of course. Even if it’s just "Heart and Soul" you play the piano.