You wouldn’t think this, given the way I toss my life about on the Internet, but I’m actually quite fond of privacy. Back in my shrinking days even my phone number was unlisted. All this “oh and here’s something else about my arse” business is quite new for me.
Last year, a large newspaper in my hometown ran an article on me, about how I ditched my safe, conventional life for a somewhat shaky and unconventional one in a medieval town in France. They asked for a picture, I sent them one and then they blew it up to cover half the page. I was mortified and yet I have that same page (sent by my mother) in my desk drawer.
Now they’re back asking not only for another picture but for another interview. And an interesting interview at that. I had to say yes, the reporter is the same one who connected me with the blook publisher, so not much to think about on that one, right? Anyway, I had to answer 20 questions and in doing so I took yet another step out of my comfort zone. Here’s what I was asked:
- What is your full name?
- Where and when were you born?
- Where is home today?
- What is your favourite food?
- What was your favourite year?
- What are you reading?
- What is your greatest indulgence?
- Do you have a favourite movie?
- Who would play you in a movie about your life?
- What do you like to do when you’re not working?
- What bugs you?
- Where is your favourite vacation spot?
- What are your best and worst qualities?
- Who inspires you?
- What is your most treasured possession?
- Do you have any hidden talents?
- Who would you most/least like to be stuck in an elevator with?
- Who is one person, living or deceased, you’d love to have lunch with?
- If you were the premier of the province, what is one thing you would try to do?
- What would you do if you won the lottery?
I can’t imagine anyone being interested in any of my answers to these questions (maybe you lot and I’ll tell you after they’re published). But I’m very interested in any answers you might have. Go on, answer one, answer all, answer something. Come hang with me, all naked and shivery in the cold blue spotlight that is public disclosure. Put all your stuff out there for everyone to judge and dissect and criticize. You have to admit, I really know how to sell it.
We Finders could have helped answer some of those Qs for you! Oddly, some of them could have the same answer, either *French* or *France.* I would pick Charlize Theron to play you in the movie. It has already been decided Sandra Bullock will play me.
Charlize appears way too together to play me. Although seeing her in Young Adult she might be messy and goofy enough.
I think the answer to 20 is you have already won the lottery. Looking forward to seeing the answers in the saturday paper (where these profiles seems to be)
Okay let me know if you see it.
Wow, some of these questions are . . .
Dawn French would play me in the movie version of my life. Or Dakota Fanning.
This is my favorite year.
If I won the lottery—the big one—I would quit my job so I would never have to drive in snow again.
Oh how I love Dawn French. I wish we were actually related.
1. Amy Elizabeth Gesenhues
2. July 29, 1973 Louisville, KY
3. Southern Indiana
4. bread
5. i love this question
6. why be happy when you can be normal
7. buying books
8. yes
9. John Travolta
10. google homes for sale in different cities
11. favorite spelled with a “u”
12. on a beach
13. i don’t know, you’ll have to ask my husband
14. people who are consistently happy
15. a note my dad wrote me on my 3rd birthday
16. nope; i put everything on display
17. erica jong (or carl jung…i’ve got some questions for him)
18. dad
19. i’m so averse to the idea of serving in a political office that i can’t think of one response–real, witty, or otherwise–for this question
20. stop wasting money on lottery tickets
I need you to do all my interviews
4. Tacos (the real kind, not the stupid El Paso taco kit ones)
6. The Control of Nature by John McPhee
9. I love this question. I used to ask it of my friends, but we would say who would play you in the good movie about your life and the hack version. I say Cate Blanchette (whom I don’t look like at all, but I’ll bet she’s pretty sarcastic in person) and my husband says Sigourney Weaver (but I think he’s just buttering me up).
15. My books, my computer, and my viola
Viola? Very interesting indeed.
I feel like instruments are, if not sentient, at least a little bit more “alive” than other objects. Do with that what you will. :)
6. The Memoirs of a Radioactive Lady
7. Ice cream, ice cream, and sadly more ice cream
12. NYC baby!
14. teens who survive horrible situations
15 my three sons
16. I used to be able to tie a knot in a cherry stem with my tongue….alas no longer
20. Quit my job and travel the world…first stop, Semur!
How did I not know about the cherry stem trick? Quit your job and come over anyway, Neil can support 2 women.
1. Damhnait Martin Monaghan (I know. I have issues.)
4. Pasta
6. The Interpreter of Maladies
12.The family cottage in Ontario
19. I’m done with politics. I was Mayor of St John’s for an evening and that was enough.(dressed up as Dorothy Wyatt for Halloween)
Best name in the history of names.
16. I can make the V-8 sound (also similar to a loud knocking) by suctioning my tongue to the roof of my mouth. No one I’ve ever met has ever been able to make a louder knock.
Coooellll!
You did great!
You thought the *last* pic was big? Hehehehe…
Stop being so freakin’ lovely and photogenic and maybe you’ll get a smaller one?
xoxo
Oh my friggin’ nerves. I have a secret weapon—a husband who is skilled at photoshop! Thank you Tara for asking me to answer your questions and for promoting my book. Finders, this woman is the reason that I have a book published. Let us all bow to her greatness.
Favorite vacation spot: a cabin on the cliffs in Gualala, CA. And Paris.
Biggest indulgence: living in the paradise that is our little town.
I want to be trapped in an elevator with my mother and Aunt Mary.
When I’m not working, I’m walking my dogs. There is no greater peace.
I’d love to have breakfast, lunch AND dinner with: Truman Capote, Margaret Atwood, William Styron, Winston Churchill, General Petraeus, and David Sedaris.
I once had dinner next to Margaret Atwood, she’s awesome. Sedaris would be great fun I bet.
Sedaris once read at a bookstore where I worked. Ever the southern gentleman, he wrote the bookstore staff a thank you note and included all of our names, even me, whom he met for approximately 2.1 seconds.
Oh I love knowing this, thank you.
How lovely. Thanks for sharing this. It beats the writer I recently heard about who, at her book signing, when asked to write “To Julie” on the page responded with, “You can write your own name.”
I have never been so appalled. And I’m not going to tell you this prize-winning writer’s name because I wish I’d never heard this story. It ruined all of her books for me; I won’t ruin them for you.
Bravo for David. Proves you can be silly and mannerly all at once.
16. I can cook. No, really, REALLY cook. It’s not necessarily a hidden talent, though I don’t talk about it much because if I did every conversation would degenerate into what kind of sherry best enhances wild mushrooms and how to keep the phyllo dough from drying between layers in the baklava.
I’ll be right there.
4. Dark chocolate and really good pizza
6. The entire Charles Todd mystery series with Inspector Rutledge (not all at once, obviously)
7. Buying books
10. Read
11. Irrational obstinacy
12. Santa Fe, New Mexico
13. Best: I’m a good friend
Worst: a tie between being not bothered by clutter and procrastination
17. My son and my daughter – they are endlessly entertaining when together, plus they are tall enough they could climb out the escape hatch in the elevator ceiling if necessary, to save the day
18. My gr gr grandmother – there are stories handed down than I’d love to know if they are true
20. Move my sister into a private room in her nursing home, then build my dream house on a ridgetop in Santa Fe.
6. The Chronology of Water
16. I can tie a cherry stem with my tongue.
Bobbi – I don’t envy you these questions. I’d have a hard time not being a complete wiseacre and then hearing about it from my mom.
I’m just going to send you hugs, hun.
I would love to be stuck in an elevator with you. Just saying!
Every time I visit a book club, I answer the same exact questions — it’s astonishing. So I just want to tell you, it gets easier!
You’re on! You book the flight, I’ll book the rickety French elevator. Finders, this is Kelly Simmons, author of Standing Still and The Birdhouse, two fantastic books. Stay tuned for her next great novel.
#15 ..my late Mother’s cedar chest. The only thing I could not give up if I was brave like you and unloading my worldly goods in order to start a fresh new life chapter.
I’d like to have lunch with Tom Selleck. I’d ask him to let his hair go grey-he would be so distinguished looking!
I’m sure he’d do that for me!!
4. Cheesecake
6. Sing You Home
10. Read and bake
11. lately it’s been people that park in the disabled parking areas
14. My grandmother who raised 5 children, between the ages of 9 months and 13 years, by herself, after my grandfather passed away.
16. I can recite the alphabet backwards faster than I can say it forwards ;)
18. My grandmother
20. Share it!
I received a message this morning that there was a piece in the Telegram about a relative, who is a very inspiring young lady battling cancer. This, I couldn’t wait to read.
After finishing the piece I turned the page and lo and behold there was another lady that inspires me in a whole different way, and she makes me laugh. Your interview was great and the picture… ooh la la!
-> Bobbi, were you aware of the book “Zarafa” (about the first Giraffe in France?) I think that should be your “I’m reading now.”
Where and when were you born? – North York, Canada
Where is home today? – Liège, Belgium
What is your favourite food? – That’s too hard. Always chocolate. Often cheese. Good ice cream/gelato/sorbet. Chewy molasses-y ginger cookies. Eggs are pretty amazing too. Oh, and turkey stuffing. Mmm. I’d be fat if I only at my desert island foods. Fat, and malnourished!
What are you reading? – Un an chez les Français, The complete Brothers Grimm, Better English, and La stratégie de l’ombre
What is your greatest indulgence? – deciding to abandon conventional “work success” to pursue life with more meaning.
Do you have a favourite movie? – I like “Stranger than Fiction”, among others.
Where is your favourite vacation spot? – Spain
Who inspires you? – Anyone who dares to carve out for themselves a truer path in life.
What is your most treasured possession? – My Passport, and my recipe work-folder.
Do you have any hidden talents? – I’m pretty low key about most of the creative stuff I do.
Who would you most/least like to be stuck in an elevator with? – Anyone with bad hygiene/gas and few manners!
Who is one person, living or deceased, you’d love to have lunch with? – Thich Nhat Hanh
What would you do if you won the lottery? – Invest to live and give in a sustainable manner, enjoy a life free from financial pressure.
I actually read the article you are talking about in the paper today- And I thought it was really interesting, and it’s how I came across this blog- love it :)
Love from, the Rock
Hi
I actually saw your interview in yesterday’s Telegram..I really enjoyed it–loved your answers!!
I actually went on a trek in the woods today…we lit a big fire and roasted capelin..that was nice too ;o)
I’m green with envy that you are in France…how exciting—-Cheers from back home
Somewhat daunting and very personal questions! If I were interviewing I’d also be curious to know about the course of the blook. I can feel the heat of that lamp and a slight sweat forming..
Who would play me in a movie? Tina Fey, in my thinner years. These days, it would be Rosie O’Donnell. *sigh*
Do I have any hidden talents? I can hold a pen, or a lit cigarette, between my bottom lip and my chin. I’m really quite amazing.
What would I do if I won the lottery? Probably invest every penny in the lottery. And lose.