This Post Brought to You by the Number 5

The Five Questions meme has been making the rounds in the blogosphere, even here.  This time my questions came from Snackiepoo.  There are only two rules; you have to link the original post, and you have to post the rules in your  own post.  If you’d like to participate just read the directions at the bottom of the post.  Enjoy!

1.  What is one thing that totally annoys you more than anything else?

Bad table manners.  I’m not talking about knowing which fork to use or how to dip the soup spoon away from you instead of toward you.  I could really care less about all of that.  But if I can see your food when you are chewing?  I will leave the table.  If I can hear you slurping or chomping I’m all done.  I have simple rules for the table – chew with your mouth closed, don’t slurp your soup, and for the love of Julia Child do NOT let food fall out of your mouth!

2.  How did you get started with creating cakes?

I started decorating cakes in high school.  My second job ever, which seems like a hundred years ago now, was at Baskin Robbins and back in the day their cakes were the shiznit.  I was so happy when I graduated to cake decorator!  Then I didn’t do anything with it for, like 20 years.  I got back into it on a whim when I took a Wilton’s class at Michaels and got bitten by the bug in a serious way.  And surprise, I’m actually good at it!  I would LOVE to chuck everything and open my own Ace of Cakes style bakery but I am yellow-bellied at heart.  Now I’m waiting for the economy to turn around.  After that I will be officially out of excuses.  But I can still rock out a kickin’ ice cream cake!

3.  What’s your favorite vacation spot?

Cancun, Mexico!  Hubby and I spent a week at an all-inclusive resort in the Cancun area and it was the best vacation ever.  Yeah, ever.  Our room had a full-sized jacuzzi, a balcony with a hammock, and a fully stocked bar and refrigerator.  Every day we had new towel oragami and fresh flowers in our room, all the food and alcohol was FREE, we had the very best view of the ocean, and there was a full-service spa.  It was the ultimate in pampering and I have decided that I want to live there.  But only if the mosquitoes decide they don’t like gringoes anymore because if there’s ever a buzzkill it’s having one thousand mosquito bites.  I did learn that you can stop the itching with the generous administration of alcohol.

4.  If you could switch lives with a celebrity for the day, who would it be and why?

This is hard because there really aren’t any celebrities I’d switch with.  I had a taste of what it was like to have everyone watching you when I did the Get Fit with 4 program and that was just on a local level.  I really, really do not like to have the spotlight on me.  However, since it’s just for a day I’d like to be Oprah.  I know, I know! But before you go all ewwww consider: She has more money than God and I would love to spend a day giving away things to people who really need them.  I love to give gifts to people, especially when I know it’s something they need.    Say what you want about Oprah but she can give the gifts like no one else.  Of course if it was me I’d be doing it without the cameras and reporters.  I could care less if people SAW me giving, I just want to make a lot of people happy all at the same time.

5.  What has blogging taught you?

Netiquette.  When I first started blogging I knew nothing about blogettiquete.  I started my first blog after reading a couple of kind of famous blogs where they didn’t really respond to comments and they didn’t recriprocate linky love like most of us try to do.  So I didn’t either.  I alientated a few people and hurt some feelers because I just didn’t know any better.  I had no idea that people wanted responses, and that I should comment on their blogs too.  I comment if I have something I feel relevant.  I don’t comment just for the sake of commenting, or to whore out my own site.  I honestly didn’t think anyone would notice, let alone care, if I dropped out for a while because I just don’t find myself that interesting and find it hard to believe that anyone else does.  I read a lot of blogs but I still don’t comment on all of them, especially if I’m intimidated by the number of commenters they already have.

I’ve also learned to stop caring about the size of my readership.  This was an important and difficult lesson to learn.  I know I alienated people when I shut down my last blog, but I can’t let that bother me anymore.  I don’t track feeds or site visits anymore because I just don’t want to go there.  The only stats I see on my site are from Akismet because sometimes it goes a little crazy and spams the wrong stuff.  But I’m not going to change the way I write to appeal to the masses.  I’m not going to post things simply to attract certain readers or to avoid pissing off others because for me that’s a one-way ticket to hell.  I am competetive, seriously competetive, and I will drive myself batshit crazy over it if I’m not careful.  So now I’m careful.  I am an old dog, but I can be learned with the new tricks.

Want to be part of it? Follow these instructions:
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.