Answer Me This . . . The Occasional Perils of Public Transportation

by | Jun 29, 2014 | Answer Me This | 4 comments

Welcome to Answer Me This . . . the internet’s favorite virtual cocktail party* in which I ask six totally random questions and we all answer them and get to know each other a little better. Isn’t that nice?

*this statement may not be true.

So, here goes this week’s edition:

1. How often do you take public transportation?

Almost never, but I wish I could do it more. Everyone drives everywhere in Los Angeles, so we drive everywhere in the Big Giant Van. While we’re in Chicago over the summer, we usually walk everywhere, which is my favorite. And sometimes we take the train downtown to visit Papa. The kids love it, and I love not having to put Lulu in her car seat, which is the only thing in the world that she hates.
We also do a lot of public transportation while traveling, with mostly great success.
But there was one time, when we were on a bus in Mexico City, heading out of town to see the Teotihuacan pyramids. The husband, me, my parents, the kids, baby Anita, bus in Mexico City. I don’t think it had a lady holding a chicken, but it totally COULD have. 
The people on the bus kept looking at us and speaking in Spanish too fast for me to understand and gesticulating and looking at us. Which is pretty normal for us, really. But then finally a guy got up and walked down the aisle of the moving bus to make sure we knew that that was the last bus of the day and there wouldn’t be any way to get back into the city. 
No, we did NOT know that. So, we asked the driver to stop the bus and we got off on a freeway on-ramp and walked back to the apartment we were renting. Public transportation. Good times.

2. How many cousins do you have?

I have six cousins, three on my mom’s side and three on my dad’s side.

Here is my mom’s side of the family, including cousins, at my grandparent’s 50th. (Quick aside, Lulu and I are leaving Chicago for Memphis on Monday to go visit my grandmother — my inspiration for letting my hair go gray — who is 94 now and struggling with some health issues. :0( Please pray for her.)

And my sister and my cousins are in yellow here:

MY kids have four cousins so far, two on each side. We’re definitely hoping to end up with more than that. Seeing my kids get to hang out with their cousins is one of my favorite parts of summer.

3. Have you ever fired a gun?
Yes, but I don’t do it regularly.
My dad took my sister and I shooting a couple of times when we were kids. And one of my first dates with the husband was to Ladies’ Night at an indoor shooting range in San Diego. He took me on some pretty great dates.

I asked my dad if he had any pictures of us shooting as kids. He couldn’t find any, but he DID send me this epic photograph of my mom firing a flintlock:

And a picture of his old van:

4. Do you ride roller coasters?

Roller coasters I like. Spinning things I cannot do. They make me super barfy, which I hate to admit because it seems wussy, so sometimes I go on them anyway. And they always make me sick.
But yes to roller coasters.

5. What’s your favorite flower?

Lillies are my favorite. Especially the Stargazer Lily:
I used to like tulips best, but they are awfully temperamental and seem to start drooping right away. The husband gave me a bouquet of these and they lasted for over a week and have been my favorite ever since.

6. Are you allergic to anything?

I was finally able to get the scratch testing done, and the allergist thought I might be allergic to a whole bunch of stuff including ragweed, dogs, and gluten, but I had tested negative for those things on the blood tests, and they really wouldn’t explain the unexplained itching I was having, and that itching is now gone. So . . . I have decided that: No. I’m not allergic to anything.

For next week I’m tagging a couple of the fifteen ladies involved in a new project I’m a part of, that I’m really excited about. It’s called Blessed Is She. Come September it will be a place on the web to find daily devotionals for Catholic women. I’ll be writing some of them, and so will some other awesome Catholic bloggers.

Until we’re up and running, check out Jenna at A Mama Collective. Hiding My Faith from Blog Readers

And Olivia at To the Heights. She needs your help: Help Me: Postpartum and Nursing Wear

Next week’s questions for Jenna and Olivia and you are . . .
1. Have you ever walked out of a movie?
2. What do you most often use for blogs and blogging: desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone?
3. Have you ever had anything stolen from you?
4. Do you identify as a member of a particular ethnic group? 
5. Do you abstain from meat on Fridays?
6. Seen anything weird lately?

Next week’s installment will go live at 10pm Pacific Saturday night, and will be open until 10pm Wednesday night.

So, please, answer this week’s questions for yourself in the comments. If you have a blog, answer the questions there, link back to this post, and link your blog post up below. You can even tag a couple other bloggers so THEY can play along too! So fun.

4 Comments

  1. Mia Jude

    Oh my goodness we honeymooned in Mexico and that bus ride was the worst. We crammed into a small 8 person van to ride out to do some hiking and zip lining and visit and climb a big (geez I forgot the name of it) pyramid. I was sitting between my husband and a larger woman in the back back seat and I thought I would die of heat exhaustion and suffocation. That was no bueno.

    I LOVE roller coasters! Soooo fun. While you are in Chicago are you going to take a trip to Six Flags Great America and try out the new Goliath roller coaster? It is supposedly the fastest tallest wooden roller coaster in the world! I want to go!

  2. Abby S.

    Camille with a gun! I love it!

    1. No public transit for us (same LA issues). I did take a city bus in HS until I could drive.
    2. I have 16 cousins, but almost no one my age. (We hardly saw my one older cousin growing up, and my youngest cousin is 19 years younger.) I really regretted not having anyone my own age, but my kids have 8 cousins (and #9 due in July), which I'm really happy about.
    3. When I first got married, my retired AF FIL taught me gun safety and took me to a shooting range. Pretty darn fun, I've got to say.
    4. Even the merry-go-round makes me queasy.
    5. There are lots of flowers that I love, but if I could put one flower in my yard, it would be agapanthus. http://www.bhg.com/gardening/plant-dictionary/bulb/agapanthus/
    6. No allergies for me. Unless you count a messy house or whiny kids.

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Hi! I’m Kendra.

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