getting to know me ... again

tammy at create a connection posted the following questions. yep, it's been a while since i did one of these. sorry about that.

1. If you had to change your first name, what would you choose as your new name?

hmm - i have no idea...at one point, i think i wanted my name to be diamond - that might have been for an ice breaker thing...sounds like a pornstar's name. i have no idea what possessed me to think that would be fun. perhaps i was going for the shock value of it...maybe something like beth or oooh, josephine! then i could be jo - i dearly love jo in little women

2. What is your favorite saying, quote, or expression?

“"it is what it is" or,(wasn't it Nietzche who said...) "was mich nicht zerstört, bildet mich stärker" i'm going to have to see if that's what it says on american dreamer...it means "what doesn't destroy me, makes me stronger"

3. If you could buy any rare collection in the world, which would you choose? Why?

gosh - i actually am not sure. probably art of some sort. i might find someone whose art i love, but hasn't been funded properly - a struggling artist and help that person by buying and promoting his/her art. or, maybe it would be 1st edition children's books.

why? heavens, because it's beautiful - wonderful? lovely? the children's books are fun to read and to share.

okay - i thought about it some more...i'd probably get my children's art framed professionally instead of just tacking it up to the wall. and i'd get giant prints of some of the pictures that we've taken and frame them too....then it would be a rare collection.

4. If you could fly in a hot-air balloon over any city in the world, what city would you choose? Why that city? Have you visited there before?

would i just be flying over it?or would i get to stay there for a while? there are hot air balloons around here. they had them in the bay area as well. but if i'm going to get to stay wherever it is (and if rob got to go with me), maybe venice. or maybe lugo or santiago de compostela in galicia. why? because they are both amazingly beautiful. i'd love to share what i saw of both places with rob and seeing them from either place would be lovely -- and could we drop down on San Marcos Plaza? or perhaps near La Muralla?

5. What is an item you own that has a minimal monetary value but has such sentimental value that you would not sell it for $5,000?

i have more than one thing...and actually, it's not the whole list of what i wouldn't sell for $5,000. one is my pearl necklace from my grandmother schoenmann. they are costume pearls of a superb quality and so beautiful. it's one of the few things i have from her. my uncle gave them to me shortly before i got married. i wore them at my wedding - it was my something old. the ring on my necklace that belonged to my father-in-law (Bob) when he was a baby. it has an r on it. i've spoken of it before (i think it was in my N post). Pat (my MIL) had worn it for as long as i'd known her. she gave it to me after rhys was born. the angel tree topper that my mom made when i was very little -- she gave it to me - gosh - i think when she moved to ohio in 1994. those are just a very few...