meme, infinite

Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions

Questions via splix:

1. The classic desert island question: three books, three films, three people. Go!
Books:
The Miracle Game by Josef Skvorecky
Crime & Punishment by Fydor Dostoevsky
The Reef by Edith Wharton
Films:
My Neighbor Totoro
Love, Actually
The Fellowship of the Ring
People:
rm for conversation, colmmcsky for his practical engineering skills, brienze for her awesome cooking skills

2. You're giving a dinner party for some people you'd really like to impress, and cooking everything yourself. What will you serve, soup to nuts?
Biscuits with white cheddar and scallions
Borscht
Salmon roasted with heirloom tomatoes and shallots
Haricots verts with cashews and ginger
Chocolate strawberry pie

3. What made you decide to become a Catholic?
There were a lot of things that facilitated it, the usual sort of things. But I became Catholic because it has a physicality to it that I absolutely needed to be able to approach the question of religion and faith. I grew up with absolutely no religion at home, and I think I lack a vocabulary and way of thinking that many other people have because it has always been a part of their lives. The ritual of the Catholic faith gave me a place to begin. And if you're going to do Christianity, you might as well go old school and original, right?

It's not something I talk about much, because it is so unsettled in my own head and I feel absolutely unable to have a rational religious discussion with anyone. It's hard also, to be awkwardly gendered and sexual and to reconcile myself to some of the Church's attitudes. I don't regret doing it, because I think this is an important part of my life.

4. What is the kindest thing someone's ever done for you?
My university years were hard. After several incidents culminated in a post fever misery, I went to Russian class hoarse and unable to talk. My professor teased me about my pronunciation and I lost my shit completely. I screamed at him and walked out of class. Of course fifteen minutes later, I calmed down enough to wait around for class to end so I could apologize. He took me back to his office and I must have spent two hours there, talking. At the time I had no close friends and almost no contact with my family members, so this was the first time I'd been able to talk about the things happening to me. My Russian professor and later my Czech professor spent a lot of time talking to me, letting me spend time in their offices, loaned me books, made me go to Prague. I say going to Prague saved my life, and I wouldn't have gotten there without them.

5. What is your favorite holiday and why?
Of all the holidays, I like Halloween. It has bats, jack o lanterns and lots of candy. Candy! I like mellowcreme pumpkins a lot. When I worked for the state, I think my favorite holiday was San Jacinto Day, because it was such a random day of holiday time.