Meme-ing as Distraction: Five Questions

The lovely Pink Cupcake has provided me with some lighter blog fodder: five personalised questions to answer! And these questions are fantastic.

If you were a super-hero and could have any special power, what would it be? This is, of course, my favourite question to ask students. I would have to say that I would like to be able to stretch my arms as Elastigirl can. Think of all the potential for my laziness! That trip to the kitchen that I just made, to refill my bowl of tortilla chips? I could have sat here on this chair, still staring at this screen, and reached to the kitchen to get those chips.

As well as being the Queen of West Procrastination you also have a reputation as being the Queen of Tea, what's your favourite tea right now? Now, I would contend that Meg is perhaps the true Queen of Tea (and I just her lowly handmaiden), but I will accept the honour. Right now, my favourite tea is the Pear Oolong from the Vancouver store T. I just ran out, and this tea is haunting my dreams. It's that good. (Note: if anyone is going to be in Vancouver anytime soon, and then will be anywhere near the Island, please pick me up some more tea! It costs so much more to have it shipped!)

Apart from missing family and friends, what was the most striking difference that you noticed when you moved across the country? Good question. While there were a number of shocking differences (the tendency of the entire male population to go shirtless as soon as the temperature rose above a comfortable temperature, the absolute ubiquity of iPods and cell phones in public places, the tendency of the entire female teenaged population to dress absolutely the same, in this West Coast style that I'm still adjusting to), the most striking difference that I first noticed was the attitudes towards shopping. There is an idealism here that I have never seen anywhere else. The "shop locally" mentality is so entrenched that small, independant stores thrive as I've never seen anywhere else in Canada. The "buy organic" mentality is so prevalent that I have to avoid mentioning to people that I normally buy whatever's cheapest at Superstore and the Real Canadian Wholesale Club. (Evil Loblaws!) (Except for when I'm supporting the sweet little stores down the street!) While I have also encountered a section of the population that economises as I've never seen anyone economise before, there's this major force (especially at the University) that cares not how much they spend on food, as long as it's produced ethically, and/or locally. I've never encountered anything like it before. (The funny thing is that, whereas back home Starbucks is seen as the evil empire that is out to destroy our local coffee shops, here Starbucks is mostly beloved.)

What was your favourite childhood toy and do you still have it? My favourite childhood toy was my stuffed polar bear named Lizzie. I hugged Lizzie every night from the time I got her (I think it was Christmas 1986) until I got married. And, when Chris went to Anaheim for a week, I brought back Lizzie. I also kept her with me after Grandma died. So, yes, I still have her.

What do you think is your best quality? That's a hard question for me to answer about myself. I can come of with a pretty sizable list of my worst qualities in a hurry. (For goodness sake: this blog's devoted to one of my worst ones!) While I'm not always the most consistent or reliable friend, I think that I'm pretty good at getting people talking and making them examine themselves. And I think part of that is that I'm pretty good at caring about people.

Now, Pinky offered to ask people five questions to continue this. I will try to do this, although I'm not feeling very creative. If you want some questions to answer, e-mail me at westprocrastination(AT)gmail(DOT)com. (I just got the e-mail account! But after I signed up for Beta, and now I wish I could make it my Blogger sign-in account!)