Ask Me Anything Answers (Part 2): In Which I Reveal My Ignorance on Fashion & Wax Eloquent About Tea

First things first: happy Thanksgiving! I hope you’re having a lovely day, whether it’s a quieter more restful Thanksgiving or a busier day catching up with family. Second things second: I’ve finally returned with the rest of my Ask Me Anything answers. (One more thing to be thankful for.)

Ruth

11. What is a movie you’re (almost) always in the mood to watch?

This is actually harder to answer than you might think. At first I thought of saying All About Eve, but while it’s one of my favorite movies it’s a little…well, intense implies that it’s action-packed, which it isn’t. But it’s psychologically intense, and while I’m all for that much of the time, there are some times when I want something fluffier. That being said, there are certain things that are so very fluffy that I don’t really want to watch them when my spirits don’t need lightening…so we need to find something that neatly balances those two extremes.

I think I’ll choose The Music Man and You Were Never Lovelier, both classic Hollywood musicals. While there are things about The Music Man that annoy me, it’s so funny and sunny and happy that it’s a joy to watch. I can’t think of many moods in which I wouldn’t enjoy it. You Were Never Lovelier is a newer find for me, but I’ve already pestered I don’t know how many people recommending it. It’s one of those movies that immediately clicked for me and is already a top comfort movie. It has a sort of subdued, laid-back feel that I really like (and which I think is uncommon for the genre), beautiful dancing, and just the right balance of humor and romance and shimmery glamorous aesthetic.

Not to mention some pretty great quotes.

12. What is your favorite kind of tea?

Probably chai. I love it deeply. I also discovered the website Adagio Teas a couple years ago, which has greatly enriched my life – it’s sort of like an open-source tea website, where as well as buying standard tea flavors, anybody can create their own tea mixes and then buy the tea that they – or anyone else – has created. I haven’t created any teas there myself, but I’ve really enjoyed other people’s tea mixes that I’ve bought there. I got a Victorian Christmas tea blend last year which was absolutely delicious, and I’m entranced by all the fandom teas they sell (they have Les Mis tea, guys. And Agnes Wickfield tea. And Jeeves and Wooster tea, the delightful tastes of which I can personally vouch for).

13. If I may play off Emi’s question, who would you nominate as the most fabulous character in American literature?

We do indeed, as you pointed out, have a deficit in this department…which makes this a hard question. Especially since the amount of American literature I have personally read is rather meager. The only good answer I can think of is the Ingalls, though I don’t know if they count since they aren’t fictional. Laura is wonderful, of course, and one realizes as one gets older just how fantastic Pa and Ma are. They are absolutely inspirational, both as individuals and as a couple.

Cecilia

14. What is one modern fashion trend/style/etc that you do like very much (if there are any)? and one you hate?

To be perfectly honest with you, I don’t really know that much about modern fashions, beyond knowing that there’s a lot of leggings and very neutral colors and makeup that makes it look like your face is unnaturally shiny. From some (very cursory) research online, it looks like flowy things are a bit more “in” now? I like that.

And for something I hate, I think I will say the makeup. I feel like the fashionable thing is to have very neutral-colored makeup that somehow still looks very heavy and over-done, and I don’t like it.

15. What are your tips for beginner bloggers?

I don’t know how qualified I am to give blogging advice, but I suppose here goes:

1. If you want more people to read your blog, go read and comment on other people’s blogs. I’m not saying you have to explicitly ask people to read your blog, but if you don’t seek out and meet other people, they might quite simply not know you’re there.
2.  I know everyone says this, but it’s true: don’t try to just do the same thing that your favorite blogger(s) does. Obviously you can be inspired by other people and you can write about things you think other people will find interesting, but write about subjects that interest you and in a style that really reflects you.

16. French or British accents, and why?

Both are lovely, but my preference is for British accents…I can’t give you an objective reason why. Perhaps partly because of my love for period dramas and Victorian English aesthetics and whatnot, and partly because I’m simply more familiar with British accents and more of my favorite actors/musicians/&c. have been British.

17. If you could change one particular thing about your looks, what would it be?

Truth be told, I don’t think I would change anything about my looks if I got the chance – not by any means because I don’t think I could be prettier, but because the way I look now is me. But if I were to change one thing…hm. Like Amy March, I’ve often longed for a more aristocratic nose, so maybe I’d go with that. Oh, or wait, I could change my hair texture so that it could actually easily hold a curl. That’s a change that I actually might conceivably make if I could.

18. If you could go back in time to the year 2015, what one thing would you do differently since now you’ve seen whatever’s happened since?

I would try to engrain some good mental habits of self-discipline and will power. ‘Tis a useful thing to have, as Frog and Toad could tell you.

19. Is there any particular question you’ve been hoping nobody will ask, and if so, what is it?

Well, I had the caveat that I wouldn’t feel the need to answer any question I thought too personal, so if there were any question I didn’t feel like answering I could have copped out with that excuse. (Which is in itself a vague cop-out answer to the question – how recursive, as my philosophy major brothers would say.)

Hannah

20. Who’s your favourite character that you’ve created?

What a great question! That’s hard…hm. I might say Katinka, the main character of my most recent story project (who I talked about here). While Katinka is not the same personality as me, she and I think very similarly in some ways, and writing about her is sometimes just like spilling my own musings and way of seeing things onto paper.

There was also a story I began maybe seven or eight years ago which featured an affable, slightly smart-alecky talking rabbit named Canberra, and I must say he is still a favorite character of mine.

21. What’s a compliment you’ve never forgotten?

I don’t know if this counts as a compliment…but I’ve always remembered an incident that happened when I was thirteen and went to a church event with my dad and a couple brothers, and a lady there thought that I was a married adult. She didn’t mean it as a compliment per se, but I found that fairly flattering, since evidently she thought I seemed mature enough to be an adult.

22. If you could have chosen your name, what would it be?

I love the name I have and I wouldn’t want another one, but if I had to choose one…hm. I feel like I said Eleanor in answer to this or a similar question before, and I think Maria would be a lovely choice too. (The frustrating thing is that I’m certain I had been thinking about this very thing not too long ago and that I had chosen something, but now I can’t remember what. Ah well. If I remember it before I press “publish” I’ll add it.)

23. How do you picture your life when you’re 60?

To be perfectly honest, I really couldn’t tell you. I could see my life going so many different directions. Maybe I and my delightful husband will be smiling fondly at the doings of our adult children. Maybe I’ll be that slightly weird single aunt who’s obsessed with old movies and is always puttering in the kitchen. Maybe I’ll be running a cozy school/semi-orphanage like Jo did with Plumfield. Who knows? I don’t.

24. What colour is your favourite song?

What an awesome question! The problem is that this implies that I know what my favorite song is…and that’s nigh impossible to figure out. I feel like a lot of my favorites are a sort of light yellow or light lavender color, but then there are my angstier favorites, which are probably more of a dark green or a navy blue.

25. Who would you have narrate your autobiography (in the alternate reality that you have one)?

Ooh…let me think. I’ve only seen her in the ’08 Sense and Sensibility, but judging from that I think Hattie Morahan would do a wonderful job. I think she’d have a good mix of humor, common sense, and sensitivity which I would appreciate in someone narrating my (absolutely enthralling, of course) life story. Plus she’s got a great accent.

26. What about your life would you never want to change?

Among many other things I wouldn’t want to change, I would never want to live in a place where I didn’t get all four seasons. I need snow in the winter, and I need the leaves to turn in the autumn.

27. If your life was a movie, what song would be in the end credits?

Wow, you keep asking such great questions, Hannah! This is a bit different than my usual song choices, but I think I’ll chose “After the Rain” by Laura Bretan. I don’t know that I’ve ever mentioned Laura Bretan on my blog before, but I go through phases of listening to her a lot., She has a breathtakingly beautiful voice and also seems like a genuinely really sweet person, which is always nice. And this particular song would work excellently, I think.

After the rain, the sun comes shining in
After the rain, all things are new again
You stand with me, in the middle of the storm
And when my strength is gone
You give me Yours
The sky is so much bluer than before
After the rain

28. What’s your favourite thing about being Catholic?

I’ll take this as being more my favorite ‘aesthetic’ thing, as it were, not so much why I’m Catholic. I might say all the tradition – there’s something so simultaneously comforting and awe-inspiring about knowing that generations upon generations of people came before you in the same Faith, praying the same prayers, attending the same Masses, celebrating the same feast days.

29. What do you miss about your childhood?

Well, lots of things – I think most of us probably look back at our childhood with rose-colored glasses to a certain extent. But one thing I miss the most is the sheer level of excitement I could achieve as a kid. Even with wonderful things like Christmas – which I still (of course) highly enjoy – I’m not usually able to work myself up to the fervor of excitement that I could as a child. Which is sad.

Well, I think I’ve finally reached the end. Thank you all so much for participating in my first Ask Me Anything attempt; it was a lot of fun!

What are your favorite accents? What colors are your favorite songs? And what are some things you’re grateful for this Thanksgiving?