1. What is your favorite soup?
Does gumbo count as soup? It first came to mind because I used to have the Campbell's Chunky brand chicken and sausage gumbo soup fairly often. If not, then a hearty chicken noodle with celery and carrots in it.

2. Have you made your favorite soup yourself?
I've made gumbo a few times. I've also made broccoli cheese soup.

3. What is your favorite dessert?
Cake, with not too much frosting.

4. Have you made your favorite dessert yourself?
Many times. But baking is my hobby, so...

5. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream or other frozen treat?
My favorite ice cream flavor is the one I am craving in the given moment.

If not for other people posting the Friday Five lists, I'd never see the questions anymore. They aren't being posted on LJ, and I can't find the community on DW.

1. What is your favorite vegetable?
Broccoli. I also love corn on the cob, peas, carrots, cucumber, avocado. Vaguely related, but I love going to the Whole Foods salad bar about once every two months.

2. What is your least favorite (or most disliked) vegetable?
Less a particular vegetable and more mushy, overcooked veggies. Or canned veggies that are not nearly the color they ought to be.

3. How many half cup (one deciliter) servings of vegetables do you eat on a typical day?
Sadly, none. I don't eat nearly enough vegetables.

4. What is your favorite fruit?
Raspberries, cherries, strawberries, bananas, pineapple, the rare good apricot.

5. What is your least favorite (or most disliked) fruit?
Cantaloupe! That stuff is nasty. Mealy apples, rock hard and/or flavorless stone fruits, the plum variety with purple skin and yellow flesh.

1. How often do you change the sheets on your bed?
Usually every other week, but weekly when I'm on the ball.


2. If you had daily maid service, how often would you want the sheets changed?
Weekly, but my pillowcases more often. I shower at night so I don't feel like I need to change them more often than weekly.

3. How many pillows are on your bed?
Two standard pillows and a body pillow that is mainly a barrier between my head and the metal headboard.


4. How many pillows do you actually sleep on?
I roll back and forth between the 2 pillows.


5. How many blankets and/or comforters and/or other bed coverings do you have on your bed?
A coverlet that is mainly for decoration, and 2 blankets.

1. Books or movies?
I read more books than I watch movies, but I enjoy both. I prefer to read most books before seeing its movie adaptation. This dates at least back to Jurassic Park.

2. Indoors or outdoors?
I'm indoors most of the time. It's too hot to be outside for long periods, but life, errands, etc must be done. On the other hand, in the evenings, I'll often go outside to see the sunset or look for the moon in the sky. So, I like outdoors, but spend too much time inside.

3. Morning person or night owl?
Night owl by nature, but I do a good impression of morning person since I arrive so early to work. On weekends or days off, however, woah to anyone who wakes me up before I'm ready.

4. Online messaging or physical letters?
I mainly communicate online, but miss the days of writing letters. I have some postcards I should send out. I love the idea of Postcrossing, but lack the discipline for it.

5. Dragons or unicorns?
Young me would say unicorns. Now, no preference really.

1. What would you do right now, if money were not an issue?
Quit my job. (This week at work sucked less, but still.)

2. What would you do for the next three years, if money were not an issue?
Travel.

3. What is bringing you the most joy right now that requires little or no money?
Looking for the moon in the sky. Taking pictures of the moon, and sunsets.

4. What types of things do you find enjoyable that require no money?
Audiobooks from the library. Podcasts.

5. Is there anything you've been meaning to do for a long time, but put off because of money?
Renovating the bathrooms, or getting my kitchen cabinets painted.

On Friday, I was talking to my sister during my lunch break, telling her that I was stressed by the amount of work I always have. She basically said well stop stressing. Sigh.

This morning, I was sitting in a break area before my shift. Two people near me were talking about a third person on their team that one was helping get in control of her workload. I guess the one who got help told the other that she had stressed all weekend. The helper told the the stressed teammate that she needs to "turn if off" when she clocks out. Sigh.

Last month in office, some of my team and my manager were saying you just have to stop thinking about work at the end of the day, and not worry about it. Sigh.

IF IT WERE THAT EASY, WE WOULD HAVE DONE IT AGES AGO.

Some people absolutely are the type who just don't care, and anything rolls off their back. And then there's me, and people like me, who can't turn it off. Am I working on it? Yes. Lot of prayer, journaling, and reminding myself I can literally do nothing outside of work, and worrying won't get my tasks done. Do I still wake up an hour before my alarm some days? Yes. Do I still think about it? Yes. Am I working on coping skills? Yes.

But please, for the love of sanity, do not tell an anxious person to just stop worrying. Now we're anxious and a little pissed off.

1. Do you enjoy reading?
Very much so.

2. What is the first book you remember reading?
The Bible, since we memorized verses in preschool. But I don't know if that's the first book I read, just the one I remember.

3. Who is your favorite author?
Maybe Jane Austen. Long ago I loved Michael Crichton and John Grisham. Nowadays, if I really enjoy a book and see a new release by the same author, I'm likely to read that also.

4. What is your favorite book?
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte.

5. What is the last book you read and the first you'll read next?
Last book was You With the Sad Eyes - Christina Applegate. Currently reading Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend by Rebecca Romney

1. What did you want to be when you were a kid?
A marine biologist, a whale and dolphin trainer at what was then called Marine World, a veterinarian, and then I had no idea when I started college and had to choose a major.

2. What is your proudest accomplishment so far?
I have no idea. Maybe finally having the courage to leave teaching with zero plans of what to do next.

3. What is your dream job?
It used to be something like a travel reporter, basically getting paid to travel and review places. Really, I just wanted the travel part. I'd still like to travel, but don't know how that would be a paying job.

4. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
*Hopefully* somewhere close to retirement. If I don't talk to a financial planner, that might not be the case.

5. What does it take to make you happy?
Iced coffee, getting enough sleep, my friends.

How many times a day do you . . .

1. Brush your teeth?
Once or twice. If I'm working from home, I'll often skip the morning. I floss at night, so I have to brush before that.

2. Shower?
Once, before bed.

3. Check your E-mail?
My main email, 2-3 times. Work emails as I see them come in. My other addresses when the notification dot irritates me enough.

4. Check LJ? (or DW?)
At least once a day, and will refresh a few times throughout the evening.

5. Eat?
As many times as I get hungry.