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Your Five Variable Love Profile

Propensity for Monogamy: Your propensity for monogamy is high.You find it easy to be devoted and loyal to one person.And in return, you expect the same from who you love.Any sign of straying, and you'll end things. Experience Level: Your experience level is high.You've loved, lost, and loved again.You have had a wide range of love experiences.And when the real thing comes along, you know it! Dominance: Your dominance is low.This doesn't mean you're a doormat, just balanced.You know a relationship is not about getting your way.And you love to give your sweetie a lot of freedom. Cynicism: Your cynicism is low.You are an eternal optimist when it comes to love and romance.No matter how many times you've been hurt - you're never bitter.You believe in one true love, your perfect soulmate.And if you haven't found true love yet, you know you will soon. Independence: Your independence is high.You don't need to be in love, and sometimes you don't even want love.Having your own life is very important for you...Even more important than having a relationship.

The'>http://www.blogthings.com/thefivevariablelovetest/">The Five Variable Love Test

You Are 31% Scary

You scare men off ocassionaly, but only very weak men. You're a normal woman. You're not perfect, but you're pretty darn close.

Do You Scare Off Men?

The closet of lizardly delights

After my experience with the high-end cockroach of Fort Lauderdale (see post, below), I found myself situated in a truly beautiful suite of rooms. It was absolutely lovey...spacious, with a deck and fuzzy bathrobes.

...And some lizards.

They were not quite as spectacular as the lizards that grace Tom Spinker's delightful web site.
http://www.southalley.com/index.html

However, they were, indeed, lizards, running around in the bottom of the closet.

After having encountered a cockroach who was larger than the combined closet-dwelling lizard community, I wondered if I would fare better in another hotel room. In the end, I decided to see if the lizards left the closet, since they weren't really causing a problem and they were much smaller than my insect visitors.

A few factors swayed my decision. The most important of these was that the animals appeared to be moving up the food chain, and I was not eager to encounter any mammals in my next hotel room.

I warned the nice girl at the desk about the lizards when I left. I felt bad, because she seemed really upset that I'd moved from bugs to lizards. They offered another room discount, which I turned down because they'd been really nice about the whole roach thing.

Picture credit: Olaf Breidbach, Visions of Nature: The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel. Prestel Verlag: New York, 2006. Image is in the public domain.

The Giant High-End Cockroach

The place: An anonymous posh hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
The time: 7 am on a sunny mid-November Tuesday morning
The unwanted visitor: a 2-inch long, shiny dark brown cockroach-like insect
His friends: a number of worms
Fig. 49 from Insects, their way and means of living, R. E. Snodgrass.


Yuck.

I was not in a stellar mood when I arrived in Fort Lauderdale late Monday night. A full day of teaching, a hectic journey to Newark airport, a delayed flight, and a long taxi ride are not cheer-bringers to me. There may be people who thrive on such wonders, but I'm not among them. I was still having the tail end of an adrenaline rush when I got into bed and didn't sleep terribly well, but speaking engagements are speaking engagements, and you really do have to get up.

Imagine my surprise to find a rather large cockroach lying on his back in the middle of the bathroom floor. At first, I though he was dead, but no such luck was mine. After dropping some tissues on him, so I wouldn't have to touch his dead and possibly unhygienic insect body, I realized that my new friend was quite alive because he started scuttling madly about the travertine tiles. Then he disappeared.

Yuck.

A few moments later, as I was wondering whether to call for help, my new friend made a break for it. I breached the social contract by squishing him in a rocks glass, then got ready for my meeting and brought him to the front desk of the hotel. On the way, I discovered that a number of worms had also entered the room through the front door.

Did I say "yuck"?

Yuck.

The nice girl at the front desk was suitably horrified about my visitor and gave me a new, nicer posh room. I started feeling a little bit guilty because I'd really liked that story about Gregor Samsa when I was in high school.

Taking the bait

You don't have to take the bait.

Created in Adobe Illustrator by Jeremy Kemp, 1/16/05

Released into the public domain by the author.

A wise woman told me this while I was taking the bait from a former colleague at a recent conference.

And the wise woman is correct. You don't have to take the bait.

However, you can think about why you might want to. For example, a former partner could post unflattering things about you on his or her blog. And does such peurile behavior warrant your attention?

It might, if you can use the bait as an opportunity to improve.

Irresponsible posting

I've been reminded now by several people that I have been remiss in my blogging.

It's been busy. I had roaches to deal with.

Of course, it's really no excuse, but it is a reason, of sorts.

Wedding Bell Blues?

Well...not blues exactly. It does seem, however, that having purchased the tallest red shoes of my life, I was taller than 75% of the bridal party in which I participated. As I'm not that tall, it was a bit perplexing. I felt a sort of nurturing instinct toward all the little people.

It made me wonder why tall people don't always seem more benevolent, but then I figured that we shorter people must get annoying.