Good Grief- It's the Hodgepodge-Vol 96

Welcome to this week's edition of the Wednesday Hodgepodge.  Everyone is welcome to play along...answer the questions on your own blog then hop back here and link up with the whole big wide world.  Or small wide world.  However you see it is fine.

Here are my answers to this week's questions-

1. It's a brand new month...share one thing you're looking forward to in October.

We're going to see Christopher Cross play in a small venue next weekend and I'm really looking forward to that...we wore his album out when we were in college. When I hear his music now I feel all the drama love and laughter of those years bubble right up to the surface. His voice was amazing and I hope that hasn't changed.  

We're also going to a charity horse race later this month. I like wearing my boots, the crisp fall air and gorgeous colors, and the atmosphere on race day.  

2. Is chivalry dead? Explain.

Not dead, but sometimes hard to find in 2012. Our culture is very me-centered these days and rudeness abounds. The word essentially means having the qualities of a knight-courtesy, generosity, and bravery.  For the most part our modern day knights (the military) still exhibit chivalry. So do husbands raised in the South, and elsewhere I suppose, but my experience is with the southern variety and his good manners were most definitely part of his charm.   

I don't think independence and common courtesy have to be mutually exclusive for women. Feminists have co-opted the word so its taken on a negative connotation, but in my mind a man helping me with something heavy, holding a door, or giving me a seat on a crowded subway doesn't mean he thinks I'm weak and incapable. It just means he's kind and his momma raised him right.   

3. On October 2, 1950 the Peanuts comic strip made its debut. Which character is your favorite?  Which character is most like you?  (Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Schroeder, Snoopy, Woodstock or Pig Pen)  If you need a description click here.

Charlie Brown is my favorite. The eternal optimist filled with insecurities. 

I took one of the zillion online quizzes entitled 'Which Peanuts character are you?' and I came up as Linus-'an optimistic, open minded person who believes everything will work out in the end...willing to give people a second chance...always thinking, plotting, or dreaming.'  Sounds about right.  

4. What's something you're competitive about?

um, everything.  

Okay, not completely true. I'm not competitive about parenting or what sort of car I drive or other such nonsense. I'm only competitive about important stuff like Words With Friends, a game of Pool, Backgammon, Dominoes, Scrabble, cards, darts, and essentially anything involving a board and some dice.  

5. October is National Popcorn Popping Month...are you a fan?  How do you like your popcorn?

I'm a fan. I used to pop a lot more corn than I do these days. Hubs doesn't like the way it makes the house smell so I mostly have popcorn when he's out of town. Sometimes when he's traveling I'll make popcorn for dinner and I pretty much always have it when we go to the movies.  I buy the light microwave style and eat as is. Once upon a time I liked it dripping in butter, but the thought of that makes me feel a little sick now.

6. When did you first realize the world is small?

As a child I thought the world was huge and in many ways I guess it was 'bigger'. We didn't call people whenever we felt like it because long distance phone calls were expensive. We wrote letters and waited a week or more for them to reach their destination. We didn't have online access to information, and images from the other side of the world were in books at the library, not at the end of our fingertips. My grandparents lived out West and trekking to see them from the East Coast felt like it took forever and seemed such a huge adventure.  I remember as a girl, hearing stories of missionaries to China and that might as well have been the moon.  Now my hubs hops on a plane to Shanghai and we barely bat an eye. 

I think for me the world began to feel small when I married and we started moving from pillar to post. We made each new location home and collected friends and memories before packing up and heading on to the next place. You learn that people are people. There is beauty and aggravation, tranquility and kindness and kids forgeting their sneakers for gym no matter where on this planet you may land.
   
7. In terms of architecture, what's the most beautiful building you've seen up close and in person?

Oh my. I've seen so many beautiful buildings I for sure cannot choose just one.  A few of my favorites are-Royal Albert Hall in London, Parliament (also in London) Christ Church in Oxford, Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Kolner Dom in Cologne Germany, and the Basilica di San Marco in Venice.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

For those who don't know him-