10:27 a.m. - 2005-06-20
katie, one of my favorites
Katie Meyer is one of those people that is very smart, but not at all annoyingly so. And her smartness is equalled by other things like her funny-ness, her sensitivity, her friendliness, her hospitality and her determination. Katie is just an all-round lovely person who I trust completely. She is deliciously sensible and I tell her things I don't tell anyone else for certain reasons and I mourn the distance between our current homes. My sincere hope is to go into business with her one day. Won't that be fun? Here is her interview.
How do you know me?
Well, I first met Jessi in good old Athens, OH. I considered her to be Navigators royalty and respectfully kept my distance. Then, in 2001 (my last year at OU), we bonded on a spring break trip over a certain shared characteristic about ourselves and a near-death experience. I know her best from Seattle, where we had many spontaneous happy hours, barbeques, trips to Alki and sleepover parties.
Where do you live and with whom?
I live in Seattle, in the dark and dank bottom half of a house, with two roommates, Jenny and Bryony.
How do you spend most of your time?
I go to law school (blah blah blah) and that takes up a fair amount of time. I am going to run the Seattle Marathon and so I have been trying to get in shape and that takes up more time than is fun. I spend a lot of time working with a nonprofit organization at the law school that raises money to fund students who do pro bono legal work over the summer. Besides that, I am working on various schemes to ensure that I never have to work for anyone: developing my own law project funded by a fellowship for right after I graduate, and a business plan for later on (with Miss Dobos herself, if she is still crazy enough to trust me 5 to 10 years down the road).
What are you excited about?
I am excited by the prospect that I might never have to work for someone. To avoid seeming overly obsessed with this idea, I will say that I am also excited by the sermon series going on at my church about issues that most pastors consider �untouchable��politics, war, sex. This past Sunday we learned about the biblical arguments behind just war vs. pacifism.
What are you bored with?
America. And not because I hate America. It�s just that since college, I have done some traveling and it really makes me want to do more. My ideal job would involve work in both America and Europe. I am not taking any trips this summer (partially because Europe is coming to me in the form of my dear friend Eva) but I will hopefully visit Steve Lynch in Turkmenistan next April.
Favorite beverage: (non-alc)
Americano. With room.
Favorite alc. beverage:
Expensive beer. Or maybe gin and tonic.
Favorite childhood memory:
My favorite childhood memory takes place at my favorite childhood place to play�Aunt Brenda�s house. Aunt Brenda isn�t really a relative but she was like a grandma to me and my siblings and we were great friends with her real grandchildren. Every summer, our biggest project was to make up a musical, play or movie that we would then perform for people in the neighborhood (Aunt Brenda had a porch that was perfect for a stage and about a thousand different dress-up clothes). I think the culmination of our creative genius was when we wrote, directed and performed a musical comedy called �The Tale of a Proper Dude�, which was about a surfer dude who accidentally took a time machine back to the middle ages, fell in love with a princess and had many zany adventures and mishaps. We had a time machine, we had musical accompaniment, we had a curtain that opened and closed across the stage�it was truly glorious.
Most traumatic childhood memory:
In elementary school, I peed in my pants on stage during a dress rehearsal for a play. I pretended that I slipped in a puddle and my lovely, amazing teacher pretended to believe me. I was always terrified to ask teachers if I could go to the bathroom when I was little. After that, I was more afraid of peeing my pants than of asking to go.
Most frustrating part of life:
I hate, hate, hate how easy it is to become bored and complacent. When life is calm and easy, I always seem to become a worse person�-more selfish, less compassionate, more lazy, less creative, etc.
Greatest strength:
I am pretty good at coming up with ideas or solutions and implementing them.
Lamest weakness:
I have a hard time committing to things for the long term. Doing one thing, being with one person, staying in one place for more than a year is hard for me. I like to divide my life into exciting one year chunks. I hope that some of my restlessness and craving for change will subside in the coming years.
Tell a story with me and you in it from back in the day or whenever:
I will tell the story of our (sort of) near-death experience. In the spring of 2001, we went on the Navigators spring break trip. The trip involved various service projects in a pretty shady neighborhood in Chicago. Most of the people on the trip were sleeping in one building, but Jessi, several other ladies and I were sleeping in the basement of the house next door. About halfway through the trip, the people who actually lived in the house went out of town. As we were all settling down to sleep the first night they were gone, we heard lots of shouting coming from the street. Eventually we realized that the shouting was directed toward the house we were in and involved various death threats directed toward the man of the house who wasn�t there. He was shouting things like �Come out of there, (various expletives)� and �I�m going to shoot you�. We all crawled into this tiny office room that was next to the room we were sleeping in and when the shouting continued for a good five or ten minutes, we called the people who lived next door to find out what we should do. Now, to credit the bravery/stupidity of the guy next door, he actually came outside and talked to the guy (the guy who was, you remember, holding a gun) instead of calling the police. He told the gun guy that no one was home and convinced him to go away. Then we all slept peacefully and had a good laugh. Just kidding.
Favorite game:
I have many and will narrow them down to one per category. My favorite card game is poker and my favorite board game is Settlers of Catan. The only video game I like is Tetris (or Dr. Mario). My favorite outside game is Ghost in the Graveyard.
Favorite 2 books (I know you couldn't pick just one, right?)
Ok. This is the question that has been holding me up. I can�t pick two favorites but I will recommend two books that I don�t think many people have read: The Ball and the Cross by G.K. Chesterton and Moon Palace by Paul Auster.
One thing you know for sure is true:
Besides the fact that it took me a long time to complete this survey, I know that good will in fact triumph over evil� perhaps in our lifetime or perhaps in a thousand lifetimes from now. It�s corny, I know, but I think we all need to hear it every once in a while. Things can get pretty depressing, eh?
