Sunday Stealing on fire

I'm joining up with the Sunday Stealing crew. Thanks to Bev for stealing the questions. I love reading everyone's answers. This week's questions were stolen from The Pen Company.

1. If your house was on fire, which three items would you save? As someone whose house has burned, let me tell you . . .you really aren’t thinking about what to save. When I called 911, the dispatcher said, “Get every living thing out of the house.” I grabbed my purse, phone, and the cat. I was already wearing a raincoat because it was pouring rain and our house was struck by lightning and I had been outside to check on it. Someone else may have had a different experience if their house burned and maybe they were clear-headed enough to think about the three things they should grab. I did ask one of the firefighters to go back in and get my two laptops (one work and one school) that were in the kitchen. When the fire was out, our son remembered to grab our "box of imporant papers." At that point, I was still in shock (and still sick) and my co-workers, neighbors, and Glenn and his best friend who just happens to work at our insurance company, were smart enough to think of things we had to get out of the house that night -- my silver, Mark's guns and bourbon collection, my jewelry. Once again, I still was not thinking about what I needed to get out. The next day, my neighbor rescued our wedding book and our children's baby books, and some other important things -- the kind of things you "think" you would possibly grab. My scrapbooks are all packed into giant plastic tubs and I'm hoping those memories made it through.

2. What is the strangest or most awkward date you’ve ever been on? Way back when, I went on some unusual dates. The weirdest was when I went out with this guy from church – cute guy, great car, but clammy hands. I was totally freaked out when we held hands. Actually, as I was typing I remembered a far worse first date. I had a blind date with a medical student and we were at a really fancy home that belonged to a doctor at one of the local hospitals. The owner of the house had multiple cats and I had one of the worst allergic reactions I’ve ever had. It was so bad that I thought I was going to end up at the hospital. Needless to say . . .we never went out again. I’m talking "eyes swelled close and nose running down my face" kind of reaction.

3. What are your biggest fears? This question was in a recent set of questions. I don’t even like to write or talk about my biggest fears.

4. How do you spend your time when you are procrastinating? I love to while away time on the computer or just “piddling” around. One of my main procrastinating skills is eating . . . which is ridiculous. I must be very aware of this and if/when I catch myself eating to procrastinate, I try to make myself either go ahead and do whatever it is that I don’t want to do OR find a healthier way to procrastinate.

5. What has been your most memorable birthday so far, and why? I guess it would be my 50th birthday. I’ve mentioned that party before. My mom died not long after her 50^th birthday so I always said if I made it to 50, I was having a blow out party. A friend at church hosted the party. Mark hired a local restaurateur to cook in my friend’s kitchen. We invited our Sunday School class, our kids, my sister. We even invited some of our kid’s friends (one of them was living with us that summer). We ate, we drank, we talked, and we had so much fun.

6. What is your favorite snack? I love to eat fruit as a snack and I love Built bars – especially the coconut one. If I didn’t have to always watch my weight, I would eat chips or crackers. I love a good salty snack.

7. What was your first pet? We had a cat whose name was Tom, but I don’t remember much about him. Missy was a calico kitty I had when I was a little older kid. I had a bicycle with a basket on the front and Missy would hop into that basket and away we would go. She loved riding in that basket.

8. What’s your favorite city in your country? I awant to say that my favorite city depends on where I am! I actually love the city I live in. I love Orange Beach, AL. I love Charleston, SC. I’ve never been to New York, but I think I would love that city, too. I wish I could access my scrapbooks (soon . . .soon) because we went to one city in Colorado that I loved. I think it might have been Colorado Springs.

9. Do you have a garden? We do not have a garden but I wish we had a spot for one. My daddy and my grandpa ALWAYS had a garden. Mark and I had a garden the first year we were married and we grew broccoli and tomatoes and some other things. Fresh broccoli straight from the garden was delicious!

10. What is your favorite thing about your home town? Are we talking home town where I grew up or home town where I live now? The home town where I grew up was much like Mayberry. The school was within walking distance of our house, as was our church. We had a tiny “downtown” area with a couple of grocery stores, a pharmacy, a furniture store, a Western Auto, a Five and Dime store, a Dairy Queen, a couple of clothing stores, a library, and a city hall. I’m sad to report that little city is no longer a good place to live.

My current hometown is great. If you look at the greater Birmingham area, we are known as a foodie city. We have some of the best restaurants with several James Beard award winning chefs.

Our city is lush with greenery and right now, the limelight hydrangeas are blooming everywhere. Throughout the spring and summer, we have gorgeous flowering bushes, plants, and trees. We only have a couple of months of cold weather and even during those months, we don’t have to wear heavy wool coats very often. We get a snow storm with several inches of snow about once a decade with a few light dustings of snow every few years. We have lots of sunshine and blue skies and scorching hot days. The one thing I would change would be to have less humidity. We are in a very hot spell – heat index is over a 100 and humidity is so high that you feel like you are swimming. As usual, the question asked for my favorite thing and I have a hard time narrowing it down to one.

11. What was the last book you read? I just finished Where They Lie by Joe Hart. It is a thriller.

12. What is the best book you have ever read? I just saw a post I wrote about Same Kind of Different as Me. That is a really good book.  Once again, I can’t pick a favorite. I love to read.

13. Who is your favorite author? Ha! I can’t answer that question. I love to read and I love lots of different authors.

14, Is there a food that you hate? If you had asked me this question a few months ago, my response would have been salmon . . .but I’m trying to learn to like it. I really don’t like beets in any form or fashion and luckily, Mark doesn’t like them either.

15. Do you get along with your neighbors? We do . . .most of the time. One of our neighbors has really struggled with the construction this last year. It is messy and nails and screws run away and jump into tires. I understand it is frustrating. Really, I do. We feel so blessed to live in this neighborhood. The people are so incredibly kind.

16. Do you have any tattoos or piercings? My ears are pierced and there is actually a second hole in each ear but I haven’t worn earrings in those second holes in years. I celebrated my 65^th birthday a couple of weeks ago and I have just about talked myself into getting a tattoo. I don’t currently have any tattoos, but I might before the end of the summer. We will see. I’ve also thought about re-piercing those second holes in my ears.