1. What are the 3 most important things everyone should know about you?

I’m a wife and mom, I’m loyal to a fault, and if everyone is going this way, I’ll probably go that way.

2. What is the strangest thing you believed as a child?

It’s a toss-up between thinking sharks would come out of pool lights once turned on, or the “mall monster”, that I believed lived in mall fountains and would grab little kids.

3. Thinking of school classes, which were your favorite and least favorite?

English was my favorite, of course. Math was my least favorite but only because I struggled so much.

4. What is your favorite fast food?

I don’t eat fast food but if I had to pick something that’s grab and go, I would say the Starbucks breakfast sandwiches were always my favorite, especially the bacon gouda one.

5. What song comes closest to how you feel about your life right now?

I don’t think I have one that suns up how I feel right now, but the song on XM right now is If and Any Day, by Seals and Crofts and it reminded me how, this time last summer, I was pretty depressed and this song always made me happy.

6. Have you ever taken martial arts classes?

No, but we’ve talked about taking them as a family.

7. Does your life tend to get better or worse or does it just stay the same?

I think everyone probably has ups and down, peaks and valleys. I feel like mine is more often better than bad, but it depends.

8.What arts and crafts have you tried and decided you were bad at?

I used to be really good at drawing – at the creativity side. But then I just sort of lost it. So now, I am maybe only really good at coloring or maybe smaller building projects.

9. What is the truest thing that you know?

That inevitably, you WILL have ups and downs that are vastly opposite.

10. Are you more of a giver or a taker?

While not inherently giving, I do think I am more of that. I’d rather make things to make people happy (like food) than accept a gift. I get nervous about that.

11. Do you make your decisions with an open heart/mind?

I try to. And especially with an open mind because I’d rather not make a choice with heart alone. That’s a dangerous game.

12. What is the most physically painful thing that has ever happened to you?

Hmm, I popped a tendon in my ankle when I was in my teens; that kind of sucked.

13. What is the most emotionally painful thing that has ever happened to you?

I guess it was probably a couple years into dating my husband. He and I decided to take a break for a while and it was so depleting; I was just a shell of myself.

14. What is your favorite line from a movie?

OK while not one line, I love this part from American President:

America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say, “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.” You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms.

15. Can you eat with chopsticks?

Nope, and I don’t even try. I just use my hands for sushi.