58 posts tagged “qotd”

What is your signature drink?

Trick question! It's a variable answer depending on the season, mood, financial status, even location.

That's right, location. Example: I drank sake far more routinely in Japan than I do in the States. In the scorching Southwest, I drank far more beer than red wine, which is consumed in greater quantity in the chilly dreary climate of the Pacific Northwest.

In short, there's a rhythm to my drink that's aligned with external conditions. Hence a trick question!

However, in a sweeping overview, it'd break down thusly:

1. Signature drink in general: Beer. Good beer. Which excludes the U.S. grande trio of Budweiser, Coors and Miller. Of the innumerable beers down this gullet, the singlemost memorable was a weissbier in Germany. Lo the decades pass yet I'm still besotted by and beholden to that single glass, recalling every detail, except location, the way one remembers a first kiss.

2. Signature drink when broke and unemployed: Pabst, the tall boys.

The brew of the blue collar. This is as low as I'll go in flavor ("flavor") and quality ("quality") and it's still a step above the big three. I consume under no illusion that it's tasty or my drink of choice but one dictated by economics; I'm down with that. When I was jobless, I felt deep gratitude and appreciation at being able to drink in a pub at all, even if it was one tall boy at $2.50 (3.17 AU, 1.78 EU) nursed for the night. Pabst wormed its way into a unique spot in my heart, not unlike that lone pair of worn tired shoes with slopping soles when a new pair is but a dream out of reach.

3. Signature daily drink outside the beer category: red wine. Funny about wine. I'm particular about beer but red wine I'll drink anything, no complaints if out of a box. I've no standards - rather, haven't cared enough to discover them.

4. Signature drink for chilling: a martini. (to be clear, that's with gin, not vodka, a common misperception.) Dry. With two or three olives, depending on size. I'm also rather fond of the dirty martini though it doesn't speak to my heart like the classic. And my baby is:

4. Signature drink when I need a real drink: rye whiskey. Neat. Keep it simple. Keep it real. Keep it pure. Of all spirits, this embraces and encompasses my soul like no other. There's an affinity deep and profound. It's my choice also as a writer. It's not one I drink daily, though I really should rectify that. It centers and soothes (again like no other). If that German weissbier is the first kiss, then rye whiskey is ... my spirit alive. As I said, it's profound, a marriage of the divine. It'd be a sad world without it.

5. Signature drink for a long spell in my youth: the Pink Lady. Surprising how many folks don't know this cocktail, including bartenders. For you Lady virgins, it's gin, grenadine, cream and ice in a blender. Its lovely shade of pink brings to mind a Pepto Bismol shake. I've not held this Lady to my lips in a long long while due to changing (evolving) tastes; I no longer do frou-frou (neither sweet) drinks and have built the liquor chops since the era of the Pink Lady. Still, I hold her in a certain fondness, even without the cherry-red sword.

What would your best friend say makes you great? What about your parents or siblings?
Sponsored by Nature Made.

Best friends: My sense of humor.

What about your parents or siblings?: Dunno, my friends don't know my parents.

If you could be an expert in any one field, which one would you choose?

Forensics.

Take it as the mitigated answer. Mitigated by my love of expertise that extends above and beyond the field.

Put another way, I can think of a dozen possible answers to that question because many fields interest me.

Astronomy. Law. Film-making. Reporter. Photographer. Journalist. Heart surgeon. Cook and chef. Military officer. Traveler and writer. Cruise ship officer. Vet. Mortician. Economist. Political scientist. Researcher. Prison employee/correction officer. Peace Corp worker.

At one time or another, I was drawn to and remain drawn to these fields.

So pick one. Put me in it. And I will become an expert. Because that's what I do. The field is secondary to attaining expertise.

Thus my mitigated answer.

That explained, forensics coupled with medical examiner.

I assure you, I'd become an expert.

I've the eye and passion for detail. A researching and scientific and probing intelligent mind. Thoroughness. Extremely steady hands for the finest detailed tasks;  in parallel, excellent hand-eye-mind coordination for probing decaying tissue for microscopic insect presence, to randomly select a forensic task. High skill at examining the whole and breaking it down into its minute parts. An innate understanding and respect for a crime scene and how to approach and what is required. And detachment in spades.

Let us not overlook job security.

There will always be crime, murders and corpses.

You can't get any more recession/depression-immune.

Yes, if I could turn back the hands of time, I very well might be in a lab right now, extracting a bullet lodged in a lung with tweezers. Instead of sitting unemployed and in search of a job in a market with none.

Roads not taken. How clear their merit when seen in the rear-view mirror ...

What was the bravest thing you did in 2008?
Submitted by TheFiercestCalm.

Tried to cope with the death of one loved and dear alone.

What does your morning “beauty” routine involve?
Sponsored by Blogs.com.

Um, combing my hair?

What's your favorite thing about being sick?

Rest with reduced guilt, respite from shouldering burdens. To my slave-driver parent, illness and fatigue were no excuse to stop producing. I still struggle with that.  On the upside, did you know that the traditional Japanese cold remedy is hot sake with a raw egg? Tamagozake it's called; "tamago" means egg, "zake" of course derived from "sake." Kampai! (cheers)

What's the one thing you're most neurotic about?

  Um, my buffet of neuroses? Seriously, probably mimicking human behaviors to conceal the differences.

What would you do if you had one day to live and you were still young and healthy?
Submitted by Green Tea Adelaide.

If I were "still" young and healthy? Am I old and frail and moments away from death yet too senile to know? Nonetheless: Hug a dog and my one true love (unseen for some 10 years) for one last time. This is assuming they'd let an old lady not in her right mind on the plane.

What are you most grateful for in your life right now?
Submitted by Becca-Pink.

Plenty. First to pop into mind: moving.

What are five words you really like? 
Submitted by purplesque.

Any five that express accurately in any moment in writing.