Feeling like doing a survey....

It has been a while since I filled one of these out, so I thought I would just goof off a bit:

Welcome to the new 2010 edition of getting to know your family and friends. Here is what you are supposed to do, and try not to be lame and spoil the fun. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person who sent it to you.

Some of you may get this several times; that means you have lots of friends. The easiest way to do it is to hit 'forward' so you can change the answers or copy and paste. Have fun and be truthful!

1. What is your occupation right now? Currently, I'm working as a Case Manager for a State Funded program called STAR (Services to At-Risk youth and families). It involves going into homes and schools to do Solution-Focused Brief Therapy with adolescents and their primary caregiver(s). I really like the job, but not so much the required paperwork. I am also seeing clients in private practice at Texas Family Institute. Again, I love being a therapist. And, I've got the photography sideline that keeps me from getting overwhelmed.

2. What color are your socks right now? Black. Boring, huh? I have some socks that are more entertaining, but not enough pairs of them to wear them in rotation. For instance, my friend Beja gave me some red dress socks with black toe and heel, with little white Jolly Rogers on them. Love them.

3. What are you listening to right now? Ugh... a mix of odd noises. Down the hall, the kids have a CD player with children's tunes that they like to listen to as they go to sleep. In the living room, Amelia is watching IQ, a movie that she knows by heart. Of course, there is the clickety-click of the keys as I type... Music wise? Well, I've been collecting albums of Reliant K.

4. What was the last thing you ate? We had dinner at a friend's house and they served Mesquite smoked chicken. It was Delish!

5. Can you drive a stick shift? My first car, Bob (1983 Honda Accord) had a manual transmission. Before I had Bob, I had to learn to drive my Dad's 1987 CJ-7 Jeep. I love shifting and miss our cars that had stick shifts. :(

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? I think I called Amelia to let her know that I needed to stay with Mary Hannah at a Girl Scout Cookie sales booth instead of just dropping her off. One of the other adults who was supervising had to run an errand so I stuck around and sold a truckload of cookies.

7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I'm not going to mention whose note I copied this from, but suffice it to say that I haven't spoken to or interacted with this person in a while, it just happened to be in my "note feed" when I went looking for a survey to fill out.

8. How old are you today? I'm 33 as of today. Interestingly, we had Eleanor's (my youngest daughter) birthday party today. She turns 5 years old next week.

9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? Probably football. I'm not a big sports person, so I don't have any favorites (teams, sports). Football is the one that I watch most often when I watch something. I can't remember ever watching an complete event of another sport on TV, now that I think about it.

10. What is your favorite drink? I've gotten to know several drinks recently. A friend gave me a two-cup coffee maker for a graduation present and I've been using it to brew single cups of Tea, Chai Spice Tea. Then I put in some vanilla chai creamer for a double chai kick. It is great. My favorite juice is grape juice. Given a choice of soft drinks, I prefer Vanilla Coke. I'm not a big fan of much alcohol, but when I do imbibe, I like fruity drinks where you can't really taste the alcohol much.

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Not permanently. I've done some youth events where we played around with spray in color, but it all washes out.

12. Favorite food? Potatoes. Bake 'em, Fry 'em, Put 'em in a stew. Seriously, I'm a big fan. My favorite is probably the way they prepare them in Europe, particularly in Belgium, where I used to live. Pommes Frites mit Curry Katsup. My absolute fave.

13. What is the last movie you watched? In the theater? Avatar in 3D, or, as Amelia and I jokingly dubbed it: Fern-hontas, by Gully (A mash up of Pocahontas and Fern Gully, two movies with almost identical plots)

14. Favorite day of the year? I don't know that I have a favorite day. I have favorite times: When I have time to relax and travel or be with friends and family. So holiday times are nice (except when they involve a lot of stress and planning)

15. How do you vent anger? I don't get very angry and when I do, I'm generally just grumpy at people for a while... Amelia says that I usually talk about it in a generally annoying therapeutic way.

16. What was your favorite toy as a child? I remember that I had a lot of Star Wars toys for a while as a young child. Don't recall a particular favorite... perhaps I should ask Mom or Dad if they remember one specifically. For a while, I did carry around a stuffed Ewok doll.

17. What is your favorite season? I like colder weather, generally, but I also appreciate springtime.

18. Cherries or Blueberries? Cherries, I think. For a while in Germany, we lived in a house that was adjacent to a cherry orchard.

19. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? If the email requires a response, sure. Most of the emails I send do get replied to. However, I'm a bigger fan of having people comment on my statuses and notes (hint, hint). :)

20. Who is the most likely to respond? No idea. In fact, I'm not a fan of this question in every survey. Fill the survey out for the survey's sake, people. Don't try to predict who will validate your efforts by returning the survey.

21. Who is least likely to respond? See answer above.

22. Living situation? Finally in a rental house with just the four others in my immediate family. We're loving it.

23. When was the last time you cried? I'm actually a sympathetic crier and find myself tearing up sometimes with my clients when they are processing something difficult. For my own emotional release, I think the last time I cried was thinking about my kiddos and diabetes and the unfairness of it all.

24. What is on the floor of your closet right now? Unopened boxes of organizational apparatus, a lock box with personal papers. It is probably the least cluttered room of my house.

25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending to? I don't know that I'll tag anyone for this note when FB finally imports it from my blog.

26. What did you do last night? Hung out with the family. My last client was at 4pm and then I came home and had dinner and cleaned house a little and just hung out. Great friday night.

27. What are you most afraid of? People finding out how insecure I am. I sometimes feel like I'm just a breath away from people seeing me as a failure. Mostly, I know that this is not very true, but sometimes it sneaks up on me and tries to get me to buy into the lie.

28. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? I heart hamburgers... all varieties.

29. Favorite dog breed? Mid-sized ones that are friendly without being threatening.

30. Favorite day of the week? Thursday

31. How many states have you lived in? I've resided in more than a few, but the ones I have memories of living in: Texas, Oklahoma, Florida. When I was very young, my parents lived in several others with us kids, but I don't have many memories of those stays. However, I have lived in several countries as well, with my father being in the USAF. Athens, Greece; Kaiserslautern, Germany; Klein Brogel, Belgium have all been places that I've called home.

32. Diamonds or pearls? I like all the Pokemon sets :) (You have Ethan to thank for this silly response)

33. What is your favorite flower? Don't really have a favorite to look or smell, but my favorite to say is "Chrysanthemum"

34. Favorite place traveled? Germany. I would love to go back to central Europe and travel more.

35. What do you do for fun? I like to play with photographs, play board and role playing games, spend time with friends and family, cook, read, goof off on the internet, watch movies...

36. Dream job? Playtester for a game company

37. if you could travel in time what would you do? Visit different time periods, strictly to observe.

38. Have you met your “soul mate”? Jesus! :)

39. Most bizarre thing you’ve done? I decided to be the person that God created me to be. This is bizarre mainly because I think that many people never do it, so it makes me special.

40. Favorite thing about yourself? I like to think that I try to see the best and believe the best about a person, even if I don't particularly like them or enjoy their company.

End of survey. -jeff