(02-03-2021, 03:34 AM)Nova! Wrote: Hi Alti! <3
What's your favorite word? And Why?
Tell me about the most interesting person you know.
What did your childhood kitchen smell like?
How often do you catch yourself humming a tune? What tune is the most common?
When was the last time you ate inside of a restaurant? Tell me about when where and with who?
What is something you try to grow and cultivate in others?
What is the best piece of advice you've ever received and who gave it to you?
My favorite word is box. It's just how it sounds. Like the ksksks sound and I like to push the ah sound into my nose so it sounds like a quack. Imagine all quacks ending like ksksks! Good vibe.
My Uncle Ray is the most interesting person I know. When he was young he was poor. Like, can't afford shoes on your feet kind of poor. My great grandpa was a truck driver and he started 5 secret families across the South - women he was married to all at the same time who he essentially left for dead when they weren't on his truck route anymore. My Uncle was one of the unfortunate families who didn't have anyone to care for him and his mom after my great grandpa left, so they just had nothing. He's the kind of guy who just gets things done, though. As soon as he was old enough to make a dime, he started doing odd jobs for people around town for the sole purpose of buying himself a pair of shoes. Once he started working, he just didn't quit. When he finally retired he was Chancellor of a University and had several doctorates. He really pulled it together in the money department. But that's not why he interests me. He interests me because he set his mind on a profession that was ultimately a pun, he now travels the world with his wife photographing animals and doing water paintings of them, and when he looks at his current and past life he sees it all as hilarious. Everything brings him joy, everything is a journey, and nothing is too sacred for a healthy dose of sarcasm. He's wonderful. :)
I don't know what my childhood kitchen smelt like. We moved almost every year, it would be really hard to pick one. I think the two I remember most are one place we lived in Texas where the counters were as tall as I was at the time. I would open the cabinet doors and climb up them to cook dinner at night. Once I babysat my two cousins and got in trouble because I had decided I needed to teach them how to cook fried chicken - mind, I was probably 11 at the time and they were like 4 and 6. I climbed up the cabinets 4 year old on my hip and put her up on the counter to learn how to cook. Apparently that is dangerous. And the other kitchen I only remember because it had more windows than walls and it was all painted yellow, so it always reminded me of a flower.
I sing all the time. :) I'm almost always humming a tune. The music on my mind doesn't have much of a theme. Just always something.
The last restaurant I ate inside of was a Texmex place in Houston with some of my oldest friends. My mom and I drove down to Texas to see them. It was so comfortable and so sweet to be together and do something normal. We had fun. :)
Something I try to grow and cultivate in others? That's a really big question. My dad was the kind of person who pretty much anyone would follow to the grave. People just trusted him, and he believed in them, and that made a difference. He used to tell me that he was going to change the world - which I would always respond to with "I know you will, daddy." Because I believed he would. There was no logical portion of my brain that ever kicked in to supply me any reasonable doubt, it was just a fact of life that the earth was round, the grass was green, and my dad was going to change the world. Imagine my surprise when he suddenly died and the world sat there not being changed. I didn't know how to process that for a long time, but what I've come down to in the present is the simple fact that I spent my whole life having a dad who I didn't really know or understand, then in the last 3 years of his life we grew closer than we had ever been before and in that short span of time, he changed me. I am not the world, but I think changing me might be enough. I know it is within my power to change others. I know it is within their power to change people after them. So what I try to teach people is that I love them, I will never stop loving them, they are important and wonderful and enough. And then once they believe really firmly that they are loved, I tell them that this is how we will change the world. We'll love people really truthfully and without judgment and we'll teach them to love other people. I think if I can teach enough people to love honestly then the world will be changed.
The best lesson I ever learned was, expectedly, from my dad. Really from the Bible. But it goes that the power of life and death is in the tongue, so we should always speak life. We speak positivity and progress over people, and not bring hate or meanness to their table. What you say to someone can break them if you're not careful, or it could turn their whole life around. So even in small things, be cautious and be kind.