Trailer Wife

Because it pains me to relive the past few days in depth, I'll leave it to the following bullet points to describe:

• Saturday: attempted to relax at a bookstore, only to realize I had forgotten my wallet and had to go home. Seems like a small thing, I know.

• Sunday: huge, ridiculous fight with Sam pertaining to the wildly expensive bed we bought and now hate.

• Monday: did a google search about the nagging pain in my knee and realize I have something called "housemaid's knee." Depression ensues.

• Tuesday: minor car accident on the way to Gusser's 12 month checkup, 4 booster shots and blood draw for the kid, Suburban is towed, awful cab ride with pissed off toddler, $1200 mechanic bill.

• Wednesday: made and entirely consumed loaf of banana chocolate chip bread, found myself rendered incoherent during fiction workshop.

• Thursday: found out the bumper on the Suburban must be replaced adding another $400 to our outstanding bill.

On the heels of my Worst Week Ever, I am attempting to look on the proverbial bright side, despite the many flaws in that logic. As a great lover of lists, I've chosen this one as a stand-in gratitude list, which is my normal remedy when I find my head firmly planted in the nether regions. Just in case you think me soulless, I've decided to leave Sam and Gus out of my answers, since they could easily embody each one.

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness? The dinner table, full of good food and familiar faces
2. What is your greatest fear? Bear attack, followed by a tsunami
3. Which living person do you most admire? The Dalai Lama
4. What trait do you most deplore in yourself? Social awkwardness
5. What trait do you most deplore in others? Kindness meant only to disarm or deceive
6. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Patience
7. What or who is the greatest love of your life? Literature
8. Which talent would you most like to have? Self-discipline
9. What is your current state of mind? Addled
10. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Defying the statistical certainty that I'd end up pregnant, addicted and poverty-stricken before I hit 18
11. What is your most treasured possession? Macbook, red Julie blanket, Visconti fountain pen
12. What is your superpower? Getting by on little to no sleep
13. Who is your favorite hero of fiction? a tie between Dorothea Brooke from Middlemarch and Sylvie from Housekeeping
14. Who are your heroes in real life? Artists of all stripes
15. What is your motto? I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree
16. What do you most value in your friends? Honesty, Humor, Intellect
17. Which word or phrase do you most overuse? F*ck. (I'm not proud)
18. What is your greatest extravagance? Marathon TV series watching on my computer in bed
19. What is the quality you most like in a woman? Wit
20. What is the quality you most like in a man? Self depreciation
21. On what occasion do you feel the most authentic? When I'm with my sister, when I'm finishing a story, when I am walking alone.