Kate Enters the Blogosphere

With the metaphorical microphone passed to me by Mrs. Chicky earlier this week via an Interview Meme, I am carrying on the tradition with a different spin. In addition to interviewing a few bloggers who posted their answers on their own sites, I opened up the line of questioning to interested parties without blogs. Taking advantage of the opportunity was a regular reader named Kate. I am pleased to introduce her to you now.

Me: You are in a room full of strangers--different sexes, ages, ethnicities, backgrounds, professions, familial statuses, etc., are all represented. They want to know who you are. How do you identify yourself?

Kate: This is a difficult question to answer because I need more context. Why am I in a room full of such a diverse group of strangers? Am I mingling and just introducing myself to individual people along the way, or am I addressing a crowd for some reason as a leader/keynote speaker? Even so, I would need to know the reason everyone is gathered. If I am introducing myself to individuals, mingling, then I suspect I would introduce myself with my name, "Hi, I'm Kate L., nice to meet you." Any identifying info to follow would, as I said, depend on the circumstances at hand.

If I am addressing the group in some way, then I still need to know WHY I am addressing the group. The way I identify myself will depend on what brought everyone together. Essentially, I am a woman with multiple identities (my status as a woman being one of my primary ones) and I generally wear different hats in the appropriate circumstances. Everyone of these identities makes me who I am, but only some of them matter to others in particular contexts. The short answer to this question and what I think you are really getting at is what are my identities and what do I see as my primary identities - here is the list:

I am an over educated, under paid lower middle class white woman with a mild physical disability who is a trained sociologist but not a practicing one. I'm a career oriented person, though it took me a long time to find my career. I'm a feminist and a bleeding heart liberal. I'm a mother and a wife and a deeply saddened motherless daughter.

Whew, long list. That's not all of my identities, but I do believe those are the primary or core identities that inform most of who I am and my thought processes and emotions.

Me: Which quality of yours do you most hope your daughter inherits?

Kate: I can not choose just one. Modest of me, huh? Here are my top three:

1) independence
2) empathy
3) intelligence

Me: What is the ideal distance (in miles) between your home and that of your mother-in-law?

Kate: What is the distance between Earth and Pluto? Sorry, all sarcasm aside, probably 60 miles or so. Approximately within 1-1.5 hours driving distance. Close enough to visit once a week or every 2 weeks during day trips (so my daughter can know her Grandmother and my husband can see his mother), but far enough to prevent unannounced visits and to hopefully cut the cord between my husband and my mother-in-law. Or, at the very least help provide a physical boundary in order to promote other kinds of boundaries.

Me: When was the last time you went skinny dipping?

Kate: Last summer. :blush:

Me: You inherit 5 million dollars the same day aliens land and say they're going to blow up the world in two days... what do you do? (You earn extra points if you can identify the source of this question)

Kate: I have no idea what the source is.

Me: Then you must not have seen the best movie of all times--Heathers. You should probably rectify that soon. But not before you go on with your answer.

Kate: Presuming I really and truly believe that the world is going to get blown up in two days, I would take everyone I love to a lovely tropical island where we can be together and at least have a good time together in a warm, sunny place with cocktails. If the world is going to end anyway, then I'm going to spend my last two days on earth with people I love in a beautiful environment partying like it's the end of the world ;)

Me: Thanks so much for playing, Kate. I hope you had a good time here at 24/7. Please proceed to the comment section for words of welcome and encouragement. And don't forget to check out my Blogroll for a sampling of other blogs--some similar, some different, most both--you just might enjoy.