Marci (MB)

(Here we go!  My very first victim interviewee.  Wheeee!)

Background:  I've met Marci in real life, face-to-face only once.  ONE time.  But we have a very connective mutual friend, Marisa.  She's my bestie of almost twenty years and Marci's significant other, for lack of a better term.  I've always felt like "significant other" wasn't grand enough.  "Partner-in-crime" might cover it, but it doesn't sound personal enough.  But I digress...

I'm pretty convinced Marci and I would have been fast friends regardless of how we met or who introduced us.  I was immediately drawn in by her sarcastic, sardonic and sometimes dry wit, her "foodie" side and her direct, no-nonsense demeanor.  And if she's a part of Marisa's life, it goes without saying but I'm gonna say it anyway:  she HAS to be a part of mine.  No questions.  No ifs, ands, or buts.

The only problem:  It was difficult to "steal" photos of her.  Most of the photos on her FB page are from AFP and I'm easily distracted and got lost spending an hour or so looking through the horror. 

Excuse my technique*, I'm still trying to hone my skills in the art of the interview...but I hope you find something you like.  I did.

*Disclaimer: From the bare bones of our actual conversation, I've taken artistic license to fatten it up in places just so it reads a little better, I've gone on a tangent or to provide snippets of background information.  I will denote changes/additions in brackets "[...]'.

Me:  Let's start with the basics:  Born and raised?
Marci (MB):  Born:  Arlington, TX.  Only other place I've lived is Dallas and H-E-B area. [H-E-B  is the Hurst-Euless-Bedford area.  This area is pretty centrally-located in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.]  Traveled quite a bit though.


Me:  Furthest you've traveled?  [Is it "furthest" or "farthest"?]
MB:  Stockholm, Sweden

Me:  Why?
MB:  Mom had a work friend whose husband worked for Eriksson.  He was there on temporary assignment, but they offered a free place to stay so we took it.  I worked for American Airlines at the time and we got first class round trip.  That was back when they actually fed you 5-course meals.  First time I tried caviar.

Me:  How was it?  (The caviar.)
MB:  Chilled vodka and caviar.  You kidding?  I fell in love.

Me:  How long did you work for AA?
MB:  13 years.  Started as a gate agent, then moved up to tower.  Then spent the last 2 years at the hangar managing overnight scheduled maintenance.  [I] was working in the tower on 9/11.  Horrible day.

Me:  Oh, man.  (We'll have to discuss further over drinks someday.)  I remember how everything was grounded.  Can you give any details about how your day played out?
MB:  I was a supervisor and was on admin that day so I got the lovely job of having to figure out where to put all the airplanes.  We had every gate occupied with 3 holding and 50 flights that were coming back to DFW.  ["DFW, as of April 2013, is the world's 3rd busiest airport by aircraft movements."  source:  Wikipedia]  I had a radio in one ear with the chief mechanic and a phone in the other ear with the chief pilot coordinating driving the planes off the gate once we dumped the people.  (Only mechanics and pilots can drive.)  We didn't even bother with bags.  We shut down a runway and just lined them up.
Once everything was grounded, I'll never forget how quiet it was.  You could hear a pin drop and that's saying a lot for an airport.  Creepy and sad.
I got reaaaaaaaaalllly drunk that night.

Me:  I bet! Wow. And now describe the best day of that job.

MB:  Hmmm...not one day stands out but usually it was the days where i could help people that were stranded during bad weather events, etc. lots of people stuck and trying to get home for Christmas or a funeral, stuff like that.

Me:  Okay, in all of your travels, where would you NOT recommend going? And why specifically? (The people, hard to get around, terrible food?)

MB:  Friend of mine I worked with had free tickets to a Talladega race.  I'm not a race fan but had never been so I said what the hell.  We practically flew for free so it was something to do.  I mean we used to fly to New Orleans for lunch for crying out loud.  So we flew into Birmingham, AL (never eat Mexican food in AL...hot sauce was ketchup with a little Tabasco added to it), and rented a car. The rebel flag waving rednecks that showed up from this particular tri-state area were not only frightening, but smelly.  It an was interesting trip, but wouldn't do it again.

Me:  Now that we're on the topic of food...finally...ha! ... You're quite the foodie. What is your signature dish?

MB:  I make a mean BBQ sauce.  An adaptation of an Emeril Lagasse recipe.  Particularly for ribs.  I also make a decent Asian salmon patty with water chestnuts, ginger, cilantro. usually make a sesame seed oil & vinegar carrot/diakon salad to go with.

Now I'm hungry. dammit.

Me:  And what's your favorite dessert?

MB:  I don't really do sweet stuff. not a fan of sugar. but if I had to pick it would probably be a key lime pie.

Me:  Favorite restaurant?  Favorite cocktail/adult beverage?

MB:  Dry martini or vodka/diet tonic. Also a fan of an aged single malt scotch.

Restaurant?  Hmmmm...

Restaurant would have to depend on the type of food.  I ate at Morimoto's place in Napa Valley and it was iiiiinnnncredible.

When I go somewhere I pre-plan where I'm going to eat..  It's that bad. Ask Marisa about our New York trip.  One entire day was focused solely on Little Italy.

Me: 

I do the same thing!! I research restaurants more than transportation, accommodations, sights to see!! Your list of go-to's: Life hack(s)? Ways to relax? Guilty pleasure(s)?

MB:  Hacks?

Me:  Ummmm, like how to wrap your ear buds so that they're not a tangled mess and you can pull one end to unwrap them.

http://lifehacker.com/152499/keep-headphone-wires-from-getting-tangled

This one works!

MB:  Definitely the boat helps me relax. The beer I drink on it doesn't hurt. Guilty pleasure? I hate to admit it because it's disgusting, but every now and then I have to have a bologna sandwich on white bread with mayo. Marisa tells me I might as well order some chicken nuggets from McDonald's while I'm at it.

Me:  Name ten songs that you've listened to/heard today. If you can't remember ten, fill in the blanks with the FIRST songs that come to mind. (Note which ones were heard, which were filled in/remembered.)

MB:  Bad question for me because I don't pay attention or remember names of songs.  Favorite artist right now is probably Pink.  Always was a fan so it was fun to watch her career take off after one night at the Grammy's.

Me:  And books? Any favorites? What are you reading now.

MB:  I'm listening to HIdden Order by Brad Thor.

Was always a Stephen King fan growing up, but his recent stuff sucked so I gave up on him.

Me:  Favorite genre of movies?

MB:  Mystery/thriller. Romantic comedies usually get on my nerves.  Every now and then I have to see a really bad, gory, horror movie.

Me:  Wrapping up: last question,,,

How do you know me? And why did you agree to being interviewed

(And any last thoughts you want to share: key to world peace, meaning of life, etc?)

MB:  I know you through Marisa Hankey. I figured since y'all are besties, I pretty much had to. And I'm totally self centered and love talking about myself.

Key to world peace? Quit hatin' on each other dammit. Done.

Introduction

I've been missing the writing. 

I started my other blog because I needed a place to write down randomness, vent a little, store some info for later, and/or share about some of the happenings in my life.  Truth is...I don't have a very exciting life. *sigh*  It's pretty drama-free and for that I'm thankful.  Relieved.  Pretty overjoyed about it really.  But it doesn't make for an interesting blog.  Also, once I shared on Facebook those little tidbits that DID happen, it didn't really seem necessary to devote posts on a blog about them.

And although not exciting, I do have bouts of busyness.  As much as I like to pretend I'm a lady of leisure, I do have responsibilities and a job and a family and the normal day-to-day minutiae of life that keeps taking up time that I would rather spend doing other things like traveling, eating cake, writing screenplays, designing clothes or the perfect living space, finding the recipe for the most sublime cookie(s), meeting celebrities, daydreaming about making it big on SNL, blog-stalking my über-talented friends and setting the world alight with fun.  Not necessarily in that order.  And I reserve the right to add to or change that list to accommodate new-found addictions. 

So, here we are.  A new day, a new inspiration, a new blog.

Speaking of Facebook, I've "friended" several people through this network who are friends of friends but relative strangers otherwise.  I've also re-connected with people from my past who were fast friends while we were tweens or teenagers, but the chasm of a few decades has made it really interesting to get to know the adults they've become.  And, of course, I've been able to keep up with those people who, regardless of time and distance, have become my companions on my journey through life.  Looking over my list of Facebook friends, I realized I wanted to get to know them better.  The ones I've just met AND the ones I've known for years.  This is the epiphany that led me to create this blog.

I can't wait to see where it all leads...