Answers!

OK, so answers... (Thanks, Laurie, for humoring me!)

What are you reading now, and would you recommend anything you've read lately?

Right now I am finishing up Bossypants by Tina Fey. Very funny. I also recently read Suite Francaise, which was written by a French woman (Irene Nemirovsky) about the German occupation of France during WWII as these events were occurring, up until she was deported to a concentration camp. She died and her manuscripts were lost for 50 years only to be discovered and recently published. She only completed two parts of what was meant to be a five part story. The background behind the novel (which is really two little novellas) makes it really interesting. The stories themselves are written in an older, classic style that I would liken to that of Russians like Dostoevsky, so they are a bit dense and take some time getting into. But if you like WWII history and/or France, I think you would enjoy it.

Another recent favorite, which it seems like just about everyone has read and loved, was The Help. I think the movie is coming out later this month. It's about relationships between African American maids and the women they served in Mississippi at the dawn of the Civil Rights movement. Pretty fascinating stuff and great characters.

What are some little goals you're working on?

Unfortunately, I'm not really good at "little goals." I tend to go big or not at all. I would like to say that I'm actively working on keeping our home more organized and tidy, which is always a goal, but I tend to approach that one with kind of a binge and purge mentality. I may clean for 4 hours one weekend, resulting in a perfect, spotless house. But then by the next weekend there are piles of unfolded laundry all over the place, dirty dishes in the sink, and overflowing recycling containers in our pantry. So I don't think that really counts.

One of my "big goals" is to find a way to transition my job into something that is more writing oriented. Again, I go through spurts of effort where I do a lot of research and make strides in the right direction, and then suddenly weeks go by where the only writing I do are a few spotty blog postings. So perhaps my goal should be to be more consistent in pursuing my goals, even if it means lots of little baby steps. Maybe I should avoid the big goals (which can easily seem overwhelming) and make more of the little goals you asked about above.

Are you watching The Bachelorette?

Um, is today a day that ends in "y"? Yes, I am watching the train wreck that is Ashley H. looking for love. I can't seem to pull myself away (and let's be honest, I never try very hard anyway!) I hope she finds a great guy, although I realize the odds of that happening are extremely low. The whole Bentley fiasco was hard to watch. That was definitely a low point in Bachelor/Bachelorette history. I'm still shocked Chris Harrison didn't pull her aside and clue her in. Hopefully there are better things in store for our intrepid bachelorette.

Oh, The Places You'll Go!

I've always been (nerdily) fascinated with geography, particularly within the United States. I love poring over maps to figure out how various cities and states are situated relative to each other-- especially for those parts of the country that I'm not very familiar with. As a girl from the west coast, where are the states are all big blocks and usually take at least 5-6 hours (or 18 if you're in California) to drive through, it still blows my mind that one night in college, while I was visiting a friend in Pennsylvania, we drove about 20 minutes from her home in Pittsburgh to pick up her good friend in West Virginia, and then drove another 20 minutes to go to a movie-- in Ohio. Crazy town.

Anyway, not surprisingly, one of my goals has always been to visit each and every one of the 50 states.* So I started keeping track a while back, and realized that now, due to our move to Texas and my job here, I'm making pretty good progress. Behold my "visited states" map (oh and the color coding is totally arbitrary-- it's just for pizazz):

Clearly, the middle of the country has not been my forte. Then there's New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Alaska. I'm confident I can knock off a few of these, but North Dakota? That will take some creativity. Some highlights:

• Oregon: Born and raised in Portland.
• California: Lived in Orange County for a few years during elementary school, LA during college, and San Francisco for 3 years after college.
• Washington: Lived in Seattle for 5 years.
• Hawaii: I've spent some time on the Big Island, Maui, and Kauai. I am dying to go back!
• Idaho/Montana/Wyoming/Nevada/Utah/Arizona: I grew up in a family that loved to camp, so we took many long road trips to visit the National Parks of the west, including Glacier, Yellowstone, Zion, and the Grand Canyon.
• Colorado & South Dakota: At my last job, one of my big accounts was Vail, CO, so I had to travel out there once every other month or so (tough life!); I also worked briefly with a fast food client based in Sioux Falls, SD-- not my favorite account ever, but at least I got to cross South Dakota off my list!
• Ohio/Kansas/Georgia: Since working at my current job, I've been able to travel to each of these states for work... more states I might not have gotten to otherwise. And Lawrence, KS? A very cool little town.
• North and South Carolina: Just added these to the list last summer when J was working in Charlotte and we took a road trip down to Charleston. Beautiful!

So my grand total is 33 states visited with 17 to go... not too bad! I'm hoping to knock one or two more off the list while we live in Texas.

What are some of your favorite U.S. destinations?

*I only count a state as visited if I've actually gotten out and seen or done something in the state. So, while I've traveled through New Jersey and Minnesota several times, and Rhode Island and Kentucky once each, I'm not counting airport layovers or any sort of transit through the state if I didn't actually stay there, or, as in the case of West Virginia, at least spend several hours sight-seeing and exploring.