mousme | Interview by mhw (Reply)

1) Who, in the HP universe, is your favourite character? Is she or he the one that you identify most strongly with; if not, who is that? why?

I'd say that my favourite character... erk, I don't have only one. Umm, it's a toss-up between Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall, because they both represent the type of adult I would like to become. Dumbledore is patient, knowledgeable, understanding, and very very wise on top of being very intelligent. He's also marvellously eccentric, which I'd love to be able to get away with.

McGonagall is the type of crotchety old lady I'd love to be: crusty on the outside, and all soft and gooey on the inside. :) She's also damned good at what she does, and knows it.

I identify most strongly with Hermione and Percy, however. They're both good students, and (at least in the beginning for Hermione) disliked for their obsession with learning and their eagerness to prove themselves to their teachers. They're teased and tormented for being know-it-alls, and when they pull through for people in the end it's taken for granted.

In Hermione's case, there's also that terrible plight of being "one of the boys." Being a girl with brains automatically disqualifies you for anything other than a "buddy" status with boys, and girls want nothing to do with you. So you're basically caught between a rock and a hard place.

2) At the moment that you're answering this question, where are you? Please describe it briefly for us.

I'm sitting at my dining room table at home, on a white kitchen chair which has seen better days. The table is covered with *stuff* which includes my laptop, printer, a bottle of juice which I just brought with me from the kitchen, Dante's Inferno which I've been using as a reference lately, a historical novel about the battle of Waterloo, a calculator, my purse and cell phone, a plush Cthulhu that I brought back from work (he used to sit on my computer there), a Get Fuzzy day calendar, my address book and my appointment calendar, several postcards that I'll be sending off soon, Knitting In Plain English by Maggie Righetti, and sundry other arts-and-crafts-related items.

I have a cat on my lap (Pan-Pan), a cat at my feet (Gretzky) and a cat lying on a large throw pillow on the floor next to me (George). The throw pillow is in fact a large burlap sack that was once used for delivering mail in France, which was stuffed and sewn together to make a comfy sitting place on the floor.

To my left is an antique chair given to me by my mother many years ago, and a green armchair which I got at IKEA, and the room is bathed in light turned golden by my almost translucent yellow curtains.

I won't describe my bookcases, as that'll make this entirely too long. ;)

3) Do you have brothers and sisters, or are you an 'only'? If you are, did you ever wish you had siblings?

I'm an only adopted child, as it happens, and when I was very young I did wish that my parents would somehow obtain another child. This was not because I was actually lonely or lacking for anything, but in my small mind I imagined that this new being would be rather like a living doll that I would be able to play with and then put away until I needed it again. I imagined that having another baby in the house would be very entertaining.

I did have two close friends growing up who spent a lot of time at my house, and the more time I spent with them the less keen I got on the idea of having a sibling, because I began to understand that having other human beings involved meant compromise and not always doing things the way I wanted, as well as sharing my parents' attention and affection.

I have been told many times since that I am a very typical only child in many ways, the most blatant being that I tend to get along better with people who are older than I am (less so now that I'm actually entering adulthood, sort of), and have difficulty with the sort of interpersonal conflicts that resemble sibling rivalry.

4) Which three books have you read most recently?

Dante's Inferno, Knitting In Plain English, and Hamlet (a re-read).

5) What is currently most satisfying, and what is least satisfying, about your life right now? Do you see those things changing, and if so, how?

Hmm... that's a tough one. I'll answer the second part first, if I may. The least satisfying aspect of my life right now is that I don't feel as though I'm doing enough. If I were to die tomorrow, I'd have left no impression at all upon the world, except maybe a few people who'd say "Oh, she was sort of nice."

I want my presence in this world to make a difference, no matter what it is. Right now I'm just existing, and I feel like I'm constantly just a drain on other people, that I take and take and never give anything back, like a great big sucking void of negativity.

The most satisfying aspect of my life, I guess, would be that at least I'm aware of being a drain on other people, and that I at least plan on doing something about it. So that would answer your last question too, I suppose. :)