An interview with Jen

Immoral Matriarch started a series of interviews that are making their way around the blogosphere.  Joie at Canned Laughter got interviewed by our mutual friend Hotfessional and now Joie is interviewing yours truly.  Either she has a phenomenal memory or she crawled through my archives, because she asked questions about things I don’t even remember writing about.

You have said that you have a Masters degree in Education, but you do not have any desire to teach.  Did you ever experience the horror of teaching?

No, not exactly.  Other than subbing at the girls’ preschool, I don’t have any teaching experience.  Then again, it was never my intention to teach.  My master’s degree is in education, yes, but it was theoretical, not practical.  I went to grad school (at night, while working full-time in fundraising at a posh private school) for two reasons:

1) I had some topics I wanted to explore and learn more about (public vs. private schools, single sex vs. coed, etc.).  I learned a lot and am glad I got a chance to research a variety of issues.

2 ) I had a co-worker who was an utter douchebag and drove me crazy.  We had to share an office, including a phone, for a year, until I walked into our boss’ office and said I was quitting because I couldn’t take it any more.  Within a week, walls were going up elsewhere in the building to create a space for the douchebag.  Anyway, the guy was moderately intelligent, but not brilliant.  He went to a piss ant school for undergrad, but then his father-in-law got him into Harvard’s school of education for grad school.  Because he want to Harvard, he  thought he was brilliant.  I had been toying with grad school for some time, but this guy’s arrival on our staff pushed me to grad school to at least even things up,as I knew it could be important later on  down the road if the guy and I went head-to-head for a promotion.  I figured that two degrees from the University of Virginia would more than equal his Piss Ant College + Harvard.  Oh yeah, and I wasn’t a total douche, so that definitely put me ahead.

Are you going to grow Yellow Pear Tomatoes again this year? What else are you planning for your nifty new garden?

Joie, I cannot believe you remember this!  Yes, I loved those yellow pear tomatoes and am going to put in at least four plants this year.  The funny thing is, my neighbor gave me the plants last year and I wasn’t really interested … until I had my first one and then I coddled those plants the rest of the summer.

As for my plans for this year, I did find time last fall to create three beds for the kitchen garden at the new house.  I’ll definitely add a fourth 4′ x 8′ garden this spring and then two more before Spring 2010.  What’s going in the four beds this year? We’re going to keep things simple this year, because we’ll have a lot going on.  One kitchen garden will be  dedicated to asparagus.  One will be tomatoes, basil, peppers, and marigolds.  One will be for Farmer Elegant’s soybean crop.  And the fourth will be for Farmer Graceful’s beans (pinto, kidney, and/or black — she’s still deciding).  I’m also planning to put in six blueberry bushes (two types) along the fence next to the gardens. I put in rosemary and garlic last fall and will tuck in other herbs (chives, oregano, sage, etc.) in various nooks and crannies.

What card games do you play on your computer?

I only play card games when I’m on the phone — usually at work.  Believe it or not, the games help me stay focused on the conversation.  I alternate between Free Cell and Spider Solitaire.

Do you prefer the heroes or the villains on “Heroes”? For that matter, do you plonk down in front of a DVD any time you are exhausted & bored, or do you plan video nights?

I’ve only seen Season 1 of “Heroes” and liked the heroes much better.  Maybe the distinction between heroes and villains is blurred in subsequent seasons, but I wouldn’t know quite yet because Pete and I are currently working our way through all five seasons of “La Femme Nikita.”  We watch DVDs only, never live TV.  With the exception of our 16 day Christmas break, we usually only watch on Fridays and Saturdays.

You met Kurt Vonnegut (I’m so jealous) and actually spoke with him briefly. What in the world did you talk about? Did you stop yourself from blurting out “So it goes”?

I had forgotten that I mentioned that.  It was a fleeting moment and there was nothing major about it, at least not for Mr. Vonnegut.  Way back in 1985, my high school hosted a group of exchange students from Germany for three weeks. When we took them back to the airport, there was a wild-looking old guy waiting at one of the gates.  We absolutely could not believe it was him, but a couple of us went up and said hi and quickly confirmed that it was indeed the man himself.  He didn’t say much; mostly he just endured our chattering presence for a few minutes while we gushed about how much we had enjoyed his work.

End of interview.

Want to be interviewed?  Follow these instructions:

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”  I’ll interview the first five people.
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions of my choosing.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.  Also, you have to link back to the original post (http://immoralmatriarch.com/questionsagain) and also to this 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 ask them five questions.

Updated to add:  Five people are interested.  I’ll email each of you in the next few days.