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thefridayfive

1. What is your favorite imaginary animal?
It's a hard decision between Mermaids, Centaurs, the Rockbiter, and Big Foot.

2. What fictional family would you like to be a member of?
Put me in The Addams Family. I am not nearly gothy enough and will be a standout, but c'mon... who can deny wanting to be around a love like that?

3. What would the title of your autobiography be?
"Harm None: How I F*cked It All Up"

4. When you die, what do you want to be remembered for?
I wish I could say brilliant scientist and climate researcher, but my mistake was taking the contracting vs. grant funding route. Maybe a climate communicator? Or maybe I will just be remembered as a quiet bog witch who tended moss and tried to talk to trees.

5. If you were independently wealthy and didn’t have to work, what would you do with your time?
I would need some time to decompress and figure that out. I like to feel useful, so I imagine I would do all the things I don't find time for now - volunteering at the Refuge and other spaces, get wildlife rehabilitation certified and licensure, spend time with the local Pride group and mutual aid groups, write just for fun (and I don't know, maybe putting my stuff actually out there?) and attend the local writer's group meetings. Write a memoir. Travel. Make vegan baked goods for my community. Spend time mending relationships with family.

thefridayfive

1. What is something you like to do that other people would consider weird?
Eh, I'm not sure that I have anything very exciting or weird. I like identifying moss/fungi/trees/minerals, but I also find plant identification and foraging overwhelming. I like to repair things - mostly little stuff. There is a satisfaction to taking something old and worn and making it look new again or restoring its functionality and making it last a little longer.

2. What's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten?
Leave it better than you found it. This advice was given by a mentor in college, while we walked in the rain one day, and she leaned down to pick up a discarded battery from the path. I carry this through for places and people as best I can (acknowledging I am not always successful).

3. What is your most memorable birthday?
Probably my 17th birthday because of Hurricane Fran. I seem to recall we were released from school early (I can't recall if this was the day before, but it was when early rain bands started moving in and winds were starting to pick up, as I rode a bus), which of course I proclaimed was in honor of my birthday. It was my first memorable experience of a large inland hurricane with significant winds, where the eye actually passed over and the winds and limbs which battered the house changed direction. We had no power and limited water for a couple of weeks after that, and there was extensive damage around the area, but somehow my parents let me have a party with close friends (after the storm) and we sat out on the patio playing cards and taking intermittent dunks in the pool to cool off late into the night. That party spawned a relationship-turned-marriage among two friends!

4. When do you feel like you're the most authentic version of yourself?
Probably when it's just me and the dog and cat around the house. Best when they are sitting aside of me while I'm reading. Other than that, when I am in the deep woods of the mountains.

5. Where is your favorite place to vacation?
Probably anywhere along the Blue Ridge. It's one of the few places I feel like I am home, like I can take a deep breath, like I am a part of things that are much bigger than myself, like I could lie down on the Earth and if it was somehow so kind as to absorb me, then my role here would be complete.