I’ll start with the big news: I have a new job! I am going to be the campus minister at the University of Texas at Austin. This means I am now professionally affiliated with the good folks at BustedHalo, which is super cool, if I do say so unprofessionally. It also means that I have to move to Texas next week. Fun times.
In other fun news, how about some Friday Fives to continue this update?
- What is your favorite drink of all time? Does it hold a special memory to you or is it just because it tastes good? I have had a lot of delicious drinks. Almost twenty-four years of them, really. Water is probably my favorite, followed by Coke Zero.
- Tea or coffee or hot cocoa? English breakfast tea. Even after four years of college and two as a full-time teacher/full-time grad student, I still do not drink coffee. I just don’t want to.
- Best summer time drink? I love pink lemonade.
- Worst soda brand ever? I’m pretty sure I had regular Mountain Dew once and did not like it. Mountain Dew Live Wire (the one that tastes like orange soda) was delicious, though.
- Water: flavored, bottled, carbonated, or regular old tap? I avoid tap water like the plague, but I stay away from the trash of plastic bottles. I like filtered water (from fridges or Brita pitchers) and water fountains. As a bonus, fountains are free.
- Do you have insurance? Yes. ACE took care of us, and my new job is actually a job, so it works out.
- What do you think of public option for health care? I don’t like politics. I have heard a lot of support and criticism, and I’m not sure where I stand.
- Should health insurance be mandatory? If so, should it be subsidized for the poor? I started to respond that you can’t require things that cost money, but then I realized that’s not true. We require students under sixteen to be in school, and even public education requires money for supplies (and these days, uniforms, too). I don’t think mandating health insurance is going to solve the problem. Medicaid already exists to subsidize health care for the poor, and clearly that hasn’t been an enduring solution.
- Do you think the health care industry and pharma make too much money or not enough? Neither.
- Would you leave the country if it meant that you would have no job but [would be] assured health care? No. If I don’t have a job and I can’t eat, medicine won’t help me.
- What’s your favorite playing card game? Why? Nertz! It reminds me of some of my best friends, it’s fast-paced, and it’s super intense. (Note: That is a mess of a Wikipedia article, but it gives you the gist of the game. I do not play in teams.)
- Poker: five card draw, seven card stud, or Texas Hold ‘Em? None. I don’t like poker, though I’ve tried to learn a few times.
- Where gambling is involved what is the highest amount of money you’d bet on a hand of cards? I’ve actually never gambled on cards (legitimately, not in a “what happens in Atlantic City” sort of way). I’m so cheap I probably wouldn’t go higher than $20.
- Have you ever had your tarot read with playing cards? If not would you want to? If so was it accurate, interesting, or just plain lame? I have not and I wouldn’t. If I cared enough about hints of the occult to break my knock on wood superstition and stop reading horoscopes, I am definitely staying away from tarot (which, if I’m not mistaken, requires tarot cards and not playing cards).
- What is on the back of your playing cards (the swirly red/blue design or is it a specialty deck with photographs)? Which deck? Nertz takes one deck per person! I have five decks in different colors that say “Solitaire Frenzy” which I took from a packaged Nertz set with a board (boo!), one red Bicycle deck, and one with scenes from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on the fronts: a gift from my friend Stephanie in high school.








