More meme...

Same as the last, only this time from diatryma:

Greek things
I've been really interested in Greek mythology ever since I was a very little girl. I always felt very close to Athena, especially, and I've also always had an attachment to Persephone (even though I've never really been able to put my finger quite on why...but I think I may have recently figured it out), and I just always searched more stories out. When I was younger and identified as Christian I just couldn't accept that the people who had once followed the Olympians (and by association any other non-"God" religion) were actually wrong. Even when I was eight I knew that other religions had been around earlier, and it blew my mind that people could see them as "wrong." Luckily, I grew up with fairly agnostic parents who were not opposed to me learning about other religious beliefs. In the way that life works out, I ended up discovering neo-paganism, and eventually (after much trial and error, I guess you could say) realized that the Olympians were the god/desses I belonged to. I think I originally believed that I couldn't belong to them because of my ethnic backgrounds, and so I tried to find something closer to my bloodlines (plus, the majority of the neo-pagan/Wiccan stuff is heavily focused on the Celts so it's hard to find other info). After I got into archaeology I started focusing on classical archaeology, with a personal focus on classical Greece--I started learning about their cult practices and their daily practices and ohhhhhh their festivals!

There's a story involving one of my favorite plays that helped lead me to that moment where the Olympians figuratively beat me over the head and told me I belonged to them, and I realized that I would finally be able to stop searching because I had found my place. I also tried for a long time to think that Athena was not actually my patron, probably because it was another "but She's so popular and so many people claim Her as their patron that I would be just another silly girl to hope that She could possibly think I was special." She had to appear to me in a dream (as a very large owl) to convince me that I was, in fact, one of Hers. I still sometimes don't see how I deserve Her, but She always finds a way to remind me that I am deserving of Her gifts and that I am still Hers. So...long answer, and really still not all of it, but...a fair explanation.

Business of restaurants
More the business of hospitality, I think. I just enjoy the restaurant aspect more than, say, the hotel aspect because I love sharing the experience of food and drink with others, and helping them to celebrate special times in their lives, or supporting them during difficult times. You touch more people more often in restaurants. Also, restaurants are more direct interaction with the people you are giving to. Many career hospitality people will tell you it's a calling of sorts. It really is. It's not that I want to serve, it's that I want to share.

The Absurdists, though you are the only one I've kept even loosely
I still actually keep in touch with a fair number of them. Most of them are on my LJ and/or Facebook, and I last saw Lissa a few years ago when we went to see POTO together--her and I were very very close online, though, and even though we don't talk often I consider her as part of my core group of close friends (ditto Alley--and yes I still call her Alley, though I've finally grown accustomed to occasionally using Stacey...lol). I really love how we all met. We were all interested in one thing, it brought us together in such a unique way, and now we've all grown up and we're all so different and yet so much the same, and I don't think that a single one of us is still really involved in the things that brought us together. I also like knowing deep down that it's almost ten years down the road and I still know that we could all get together again and it would be like not a day went by since our FAnAFAS meetup in Naperville, and that it will probably always be that way. We were exceptionally lucky to be a part of that, and all of you will always be a part of me and who I am and where I've come from.

High school, because that is where I was then
I don't like talking about high school. I try to forget it ever happened, really--though that is where most of us were then. Mainly, I did a lot of theatre in high school, and I spent a lot of time online. That's the only part of it that matters.

Things of beauty
There is so much beauty around us every day. I try really hard to always find it in the smallest things, even when in my head it seems like there can be nothing beautiful. I am exceptionally lucky to have found the love I've found in this world--and not just the love of Dan. I have such unbelievable amounts of love from friends and family, and that is the most beautiful thing in the world. I know that I am loved unconditionally by so many people, and I love them the same way. I miss theatre and ballet because there was such beauty in the art and creation of it. I would love to go on and on about this one, but my eyes are starting to droop, so I think it's bedtime.

...I liked those. They made me think :-)

ha...more meme...

This is quite possibly the most amusing of the set, and from vox_diabolica.

Relocation
I am always torn between whether I love it or I hate it. I understand that largely my relocations have been for the better (excepting the Sterling Heights relocation...I was not happy there in any way, shape, or form), and they advance who I am and what I want to do. Aside from moving to Michigan with my family when I was 12.5, this is my biggest move right now, and Dan's, too. I see this is a major opportunity for what I want to do with my life, and I've always wanted to live in a real city. Even though I've spent most of my life in smaller towns I never feel more alive than when I'm driving into a bigger city. I like being able to walk everywhere if I want to, and I like the variety of places and things to do. I am certain this is not where I will stay, but I think it's the right next step for both Dan and I, and so I'm embracing it. The apartment thing sucks, though, as those of you on my Facebook are probably getting thoroughly annoyed with ;-) The apartment I have not found yet will be the sixth apartment I'll have lived in in the past two years (and that's not including all the long-term hotel stays).

Beards
I hate beards and facial hair...HATE them--just ask Dan. When he first had to grow one for the Shakespeare Festival I wanted to cry (and laugh...he's German blond hair/blue eyes, but he's also Scottish and his beard grows in red...it's a very amusing dissonance). Every winter after that, until this past one, he always liked growing it out. Now that he has realized how ridiculous it is to have one in his line of work I am ecstatic.

Girls in ties
I'm indifferent, probably because I've actually worked in a restaurant where I've had to wear ties, and I've seen it in so many restaurants that I don't even think twice about it. Dan always got a kick out of my uniform when I worked at that restaurant because suddenly I had to learn how to tie a tie and wear one after he had been forced to wear them throughout his high school years. I don't mind wearing them, and I think when done correctly they can look really cute on girls. I love my Ravenclaw tie, of course, but that's something different entirely--HP house pride because I'm obsessed like that ;-)

Phantom of the Opera
I first heard the soundtrack to the ALW musical the final choir class of my freshman year of high school. Fast forward a little under a year and I became OBSESSED. I learned what the show was and bought the soundtrack. My best friend in high school and I would read phanphic online (I didn't have a computer at that time, so she'd print things out for me to read), and I discovered it was a book, too! I read the Leroux novel and fell even more in love with the story. I tracked down other versions of the story (oh, I adore Susan Kay's, still). I went to see it in Toronto for the first time when I was 16 with a family I babysat for, I watched movies based on the story. I think I love it so much because of a lot of things. I identified with Christine's solitude and loneliness, and there's something about obsessive love that stirs me, especially in this case because he heard potential in her voice and took her under his wing as teacher/student. I liked that their story wasn't perfect, I liked that the characters were all so deeply flawed, and I loved the passion and the intensity and the simultaneous innocence and horror that played so well against each other. I'd always loved the Beauty and the Beast stories, and I'd always loved the Persephone and Hades stories, and this was a wonderful rendering of the same idea. Like every obsessed high school soprano I really wanted to act/sing the role of Christine onstage someday. I know that it would be terribly unlikely to happen now, but that's okay.

Godzilla v. King Kong
I can't answer that because I actually don't know anything about either. I've never seen the movies, I really don't know the stories. Sorry!