Surveys, In Case You Were Unaware, Are What We Used to Do on LiveJournal When Bored

Alley from What Red Read posted a survey, and while those rarely happen here anymore due to PROFESSIONALISM ("Didn't you just do a big post about a CW show?"), I have been taken back to my LiveJournal days, and will now do this out of nostalgia. And also because who doesn't want to hear about people's past jobs. I mean, it's like the first thing you talk about when you meet someone, right?...Maybe this is why my dating hasn't been going well.

Four names people call me other than my real name

1. Al

2. Alicia Keys (shout-out to my cousin Janet)

3. Alice in Wonderland

4. Alison. ALL THE TIME, ALISON. I'm sure Alison is a fine name, and I'll answer to it, but 1) That is longer than my name and I don't know how you heard that instead of Alice. 2) I am not the son of Ali. My dad's name is Rod. That's not even close.

This is an Alison. I am an Alice.

Four jobs I’ve had:
1. When I was 19, I nannied for two little boys. I needed rent money while I did my internship in Chicago. This was not a good situation for a few reasons. #1 was that it was 8 AM - 3 PM. #2 was this was a time in my life when I stayed up until 3 every night writing Janeway/Chakotay fanfiction for the Star Trek: Voyager fandom, so I was always exhausted. And #3 was that I do not do well around children for long periods of time, because I get frustrated that their tiny brains don't understand logic. "Why would you do that! It makes no sense!" "Because my brain isn't fully formed and I barely speak English right now, let alone possess the capacity for rational thought!" "AGGHHHH."

2. Music Library circulation desk worker. I mainly looked up pictures of couples I was shipping. I was also Not Nice, so if you were checking out items, you'd want to go to my co-worker. One of my co-workers and I had a game where we'd stare at our computer screens REALLY hard to try to make the patron go to the other person. The music library was not a great place to go if you weren't a circ worker. If you WERE a circ worker, it was awesome because we all really liked each other. We just didn't like the patrons.

pretty accurate representation of my time there

 

It's Etudesque! Nahree, this was EIGHT YEARS AGO.

3. Dickensian caroler. My name is Agatha Crumpwhistle. Let me sing all three verses of Jingle Bells for you so you can sit there looking uncomfortable after the first verse is over since you didn't know there even were three verses, let alone what "two-forty for his speed" means.

4. Temp. Being a temp was a weird nine month situation. On one hand, I hated the uncertainty, having people not know my name ever, and getting paid Not Awesomely/not having benefits. On the OTHER hand, I remember almost having a panic attack when I thought about having to come into work at the same place every day. I've been at my current job for six years, so...I got over that.

Four movies I would/have watched more than once:

I grew up in the legit country. We couldn't even get cable, and the only pizza place that would even think about delivering to us was called "Bulldog Pizza," because our local high school was The Bulldogs. With no cable, we watched a lot of PBS and a lot and a lot of movies. So a lot of these are going to be from the early-to-mid '90s.

1. Sleepless in Seattle. This movie is basically perfect. The leads have, I think, two scenes when they're in the same frame, and it's still one of the best romantic comedies ever.

"Verbal ability is a highly overrated thing in a guy, and our pathetic need for it is what gets us into so much trouble."

"It's a sign." "It's a sign that I have watched this movie too many times."

2. Death Race. Death Race is in my top 3 movies of all time, and, as mentioned above, I have seen a shitload of movies. This is the remake from 2007. Someone on Tumblr described it as "It's like Mario Kart, but hardcore as fuck."

Yes.

3. Wayne's World 2. I mean, obviously the first one too, but the sequel is where I learned about the pop culture reference of the Native American who cries because of pollution, and who the popular bands of 1993 were, and where I saw a Graduate parody before I saw The Graduate. 

COMEDY GOLD

 

4. The Adventures of Huck Finn. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Young Elijah Wood! Super-attractive Anne Heche! This is legit a really good adaptation of Huck Finn and I love it way more than the book. The supporting cast is really solid, and I cannot hear "Don't you cry for me, Mr Finn" without dissolving into weepy weepy tears.

Four books I’d recommend:
1. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

2. World War Z by Max Brooks

3. Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis

4. The Soul of the Silver Dog by Lynn Hall. (it is about a Bedlington Terrier with glaucoma who learns how to navigate an obstacle course! very moving to a 10-year-old obsessed with dogs)

Four places I have lived:
1. Fairfax, Virginia

2. Champaign/Urbana, Illinois

3. Avignon, France (five weeks! I cried almost every day because Avignon is entirely too far away from hamburgers)

4. Chicago, Illinois. Obvs.

Four places I have been:
1. Arles, France. They have an amphitheater because shit in Europe is OLD, man. That's also where Van Gogh painted Starry Night, but as is usually the case with traveling vs. reading about it, I was much more concerned about where I was going to buy lunch than standing on the banks of the Rhone contemplating Van Gogh's madness. They had a market with strawberries!

2. London, UK. I was five years old. But my parents dragged me and my two brothers to probably every castle in the vicinity. My middle brother said he saw the ghost of Anne Boleyn in a window at Hampton Court (and later said he lied, but my mom refuses to believe that), and I drew pictures of Henry VIII's wives in my journal. Anne of Cleves had leaves on her head, for obvious reasons.

3. New York City. A bazillion times. It is my default visiting location because it has History and Opera and Musical Theatre and Art, but also because it is cheap due to my brother and brother-in-law living there. My favorite thing to do there lately is hang out with people, so if you're there this spring, let's hang out.

This isn't Emma Goldman & Ben Reitman's
street they lived on in 1910; YOU'RE weird.

4. Seattle, Washington. I never go west! Going west is so strange to my brain! My ancestors got this far and said "Fuck it" so who am I to question their judgment? But I loved Seattle and I want to go back. And also visit Portland! Yeah, boo hipsters, etc, but I feel like Portland has a chill vibe that East Coast cities do not. And yes, I'm somehow including Chicago in "East Coast" there.

Four places I’d rather be right now:
1. On the banks of the Chicago River in 1803.

2. Singing Abigail in The Crucible anywhere. Anywhere. Do you know how many evil sopranos there are? Like two. And she is one of them.

3. Having coffee with Robbie Kaplan, the attorney who argued for marriage equality in front of the Supreme Court in United States v. Windsor. 

4. In Evanston, Illinois in 1861 because Frances Willard was going through a really, really hard time and I want to give her a hug.

Four things I don’t eat:
1. Olives. 

2. Eggplant.

That's it, but I hate the latter two SO MUCH AGH THEY ARE THE WORST.

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Mashed potatoes from Jestine's Kitchen in Charleston, SC. My best friend took me there, and after having dinner I asked for another order of them to go. Because they are that good.

2. This is gonna sound reeeeeal WASPy, but the country club my parents used to belong to had this steak called The 19th Holer that was...some kind of steak on top of toast, and it's just...I cannot even think about it because I'll want to eat it and that is impossible. They don't even go there anymore.

3. Um. This thing that I do, where I make a box of rotini, and dump like an entire jar of alfredo sauce in it, and then add chicken strips, and then I eat it in a giant bowl on my couch while watching Designing Women. 

Basically like this.

4. Combining Pretzel Crisps with hummus. 

In case the above doesn't make this clear, I generally allocate my money towards things that are not restaurants.

Four TV shows that I watch:
1. Reign!!!!!!!!

2. Jane the Virgin

3. Up the Women, which is about British suffragettes and I made a fanvid for it set to Nickelback that started as a joke but ended up with me being way too sincere about it.

4. Grand Hotel, which is basically Spanish Downton Abbey and available on Netflix!

Ooooh

Four things I am looking forward to this year (2015):
1. Going to NYC/LA

2. Meeting new people

3. Learning new arias

4. C2E2, which is basically Chicago Comic Con, even though I think we have something else called that.

Four things I’m always saying:
1.  "Fan-tastic" the way Jackie Kashian says it.

2. "Here's the thing"

3. "So there's that."

4. "Huzzah."

Feel free to take this survey as I so unmercifully took it from Alley.