Roadtrips, Bedside Tables, Heaven, Hell and Other Ridiculously Awesome Questions

posted 20th January 2011    Written by: Marian    CATEGORY: All Posts, Inspiration, Marian, Season 3

I am a total dork and have been looking forward to writing the interview post for AGES. I’m one of those people who loves filling out surveys and answering difficult questions. Because I’ve waaaaay overwritten though I’m going to skip over the pleasantries and just get into it:

What do you miss most about being a child?

I was a HUGE reader as a kid as we weren’t allowed to watch TV growing up. While I’m probably an even bigger reader today (thank you, Kindle!), there’s something about children’s literature that lit my fire. My Side of the Mountain. Island of the Blue Dolphins. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I recently tried re-reading a lot of my old favorites but some of that magic is lost. The thing I miss most about being a child is the imagination and fantasies we create for ourselves based on the books we read and the stories that shaped us.

What’s on your bedside table?

This never changes: A glass of water, the latest book I’m reading, my glasses case, cell phone, birth control pills, hair tie and sleep mask.

When was the last time you were giddy with happiness, lost in one of those can’t-hold-back-a-smile kinda moments?

Yesterday in the pool with my boyfriend. No, not like that, pervert. Just lots of giggles and water splashing and getting up on his shoulders and trying to get him to perform a dance routine with me. No suck luck, but still an absurd amount of fun.

What are you most looking forward to in the next 6 months? (Besides reading awesome Season IV Bloggers!)

Travel, baby! I can’t wait to see more of New Zealand, travel up the coast of Australia and generally be a bit of a nomad.

What’s your hell like?

Hell is listening to 80s music while eating anything involving meat, raisins, hazelnuts and/or papaya. There are insects everywhere and I’m stuck listening to someone/anyone who spends eternity talking about themselves. I am most likely performing complex mathematical equations.

What’s your heaven like?

Heaven isn’t puffy clouds and harps, it’s filled with trees and rivers and birds chirping. Everyone I love is there (including my family, who, magically, don’t try to piss me off every five seconds), it’s a warm 75 degrees and I’m listening to anything folksy. Eating any and all desserts that don’t involve raisins or soggy bread. Maybe cupcakes. Pecan pie. Mint chocolate chip ice cream. I get to meet Johnny Depp and Emmeline Pankhurst. I am completely and utterly free of worry.

What’s the biggest lesson you’re taking away from the past 6 months with Stratejoy / how has the experience changed you?

To be honest with you, I still have no idea where I’m headed. I don’t know what my calling is or what I’ll be doing next year. But there has been one, hugely dramatic change in my thinking towards the Quarterlife Crisis: I am not alone. Post I really didn’t want to write, were not only met with support but complete understanding. I am not the only one who hates bars. It’s not just me who hesitates when donating to charities. And, finally, I am not alone in my Quarterlife Crisis. In fact, I think I now revel in it. How boring would I be if, at 23, I knew exactly who I was and what I wanted to do for the next 60 years? How interesting would my life turn out if I weren’t consumed by my passion for passion? It’s okay to not know at 23. It’s okay to not know at 83.

What song lyrics fit your life, right now, at the beginning of this brand new year?

While I may have mentioned this in my post about what inspires me, this Weepies lyric is the message that kind of represents my entire life: “In the end, the only steps that matter are the ones you take all by yourself.”

If you had a time machine, what place and time would you travel too and why?

This is, by far, the hardest question of the bunch because time travel is my all time biggest fantasy. If I could have any super power I would want to be a suffragette in the early 1900s and a flapper in the 20s and a welder like my grandma during World War II. I would want to be an American Indian and an early settler. I would see Medieval England and Renaissance Italy. I would glimpse the dinosaurs. No way in hell I can give only one answer to this question – I’m a total history nerd.

What is something that not a lot of people know about you that you wish more people could know?

I wish more people knew and fully understood my obsession with nature and being outside and quiet on the land. Every time I go for hikes or walk with people it’s always chat chat chat and you can almost always hear planes overhead or cars in the distance. The people that don’t know this about me are always surprised and say something along the lines of, “You?! You’re outdoorsy?” Maybe it’s because of my job fixed on the internet or my desire to hike alone, but even family thinks I’m a completely lazy-head which is totally lame because my biggest pet peeve is sitting inside on my laptop all day.

What surprised you the most about 2010?

Well, the entire fact that I’m here in New Zealand is a bit of a shock. Last year I was living in a swanky apartment in Manhattan going on blind dates and missing my ex. Six months after the New Year and I was flying to England to see if we still clicked. I had no idea my life would turn from 20-something single girl in the city to seriously committed travel bug.

What’s the best present you’ve ever received?

I gotta say, this Christmas was beyond awesome in terms of presents. My Kindle is my new best friend and my daddy sent a GPS system all the way from the States that was not only programmed with New Zealand maps, but had John Cleese’s voice uploaded to give directions. My family and blog readers also pitched in to get me a new computer.

That said, the most thoughtful and useful present was care of Sam for my 22nd birthday. I had desperately wanted to go to culinary school, but ended up having to drop it because of it’s ridiculous cost. But that year, Sam bought me to HUGE cookbooks that the French Culinary Institute used as textbooks. Not only have they taught me how to make the perfect pie crust, but the present was a little ray of hope that even though I might not have $40,000, I can still make smaller efforts to teach myself.

Dream Job?  Dream Home?  Dream Vacation?

Job: There’s not one BIG thing I want as a career, but it’s definitely my dream to own a store that sells coffee, pastries and cute antiques and fun things I find on my travels. I also want to write a book, continue to freelance, travel the world, get paid to write about things I love and maybe do something random like make wine or choose icing flavors.

Home: I think there’s a lot of travel in my future and after a few years of that I will hopefully find the one place that “fits” me long term. That said, based on what A LOT have people have told me, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest might suit. Portland or Boulder or even farther south in San Diego. I can’t see myself settling down outside the States but with a Kiwi-British boyfriend I might need to do a little compromising.

Vacation: Road-tripping across America! I’ve wanted to do that since I was a kid and I’ve seen so much of the world now I think it might be time to really get to know my own country.

Imagine your life was being made into a movie. What would the title be? Who would you pick to play you? What would the theme song be? How about the little trailer blurb for the advertisement?

I am soooo not creative enough for this question, but if Audrey Hepburn were still alive I’d definitely love her to play me. Her or Winona Ryder. The theme song would be anything by AC/DC. Honestly, I can’t think of a trailer blurb and can’t decide if it would be a rom-com, drama, action flick or fantasy. I can’t do this question…

Wow, what a totally lame way to end this AWESOME list of questions. This has definitely been my favorite post to write though!

[photo credit:  -Snugg-]

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Comments (3)

3 Responses to “Roadtrips, Bedside Tables, Heaven, Hell and Other Ridiculously Awesome Questions”

  • Alisha Says:
    January 20th, 2011 at 11:40 am

    Totally diggingthese posts too. That was definitely a great gift ftom your boyfriend. And, no, inever would have pegged you as the outdoorsy type :)

  • mbreau Says:
    January 20th, 2011 at 1:48 pm

    If your Kiwi can't do the cross-country trip with you, it's something I've been dying to do for like ever and ever…. :-P

  • emmajoan Says:
    January 26th, 2011 at 9:53 am

    Marian! Thank you as always for your open and honest posts.

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