Uninspired and sort of emotional here at the Four Seasons in Palo Alto, where I’m spending the day parked in the lobby shepherding students to and from their interviews. So, some randomness. I said recently, and it’s true: I am a master of meaningless minutiae.

From James Lipton, host of Inside the Actor’s Studio

What is your favorite word? motif, marginalia, munich, mmm

What is your least favorite word? stupid

What sound or noise do you love? lines snapping against halyards/flagpoles

What sound or noise do you hate? the ringing telephone

What is your favorite curse word? shit!

From JL’s Uncle Jessie Meme

A song/band/type of music you’d risk wreck & injury to turn off when it comes on the radio? Heavy metal

Best show on television? Weeds

Favorite movie? Juno

Favorite room in your house? My office

Best concert? CSN at Great Woods with Hilary when I was about 16

Brass or strings? Strings

If you could have anything put on a t-shirt what would it be? An original Florent tee shirt

The best part about being your age? 34 not off to a great start. Some super highlights but a lot of emotional work too.

Favorite Girl Scout cookie? Thin mints (best kept in the freezer)

Poker or gin or bridge? Bridge (though am not a huge game person and find most of them boring. I guess if I wurdled on the side that would help)

Shower or bath? Shower. I think baths are icky most of the time. Though I had a fantastic jacuzzi tub at the Palomar in San Francisco that I enjoyed.

Favorite pajamas? 3/4 yoga pants from Old Navy & ratty white tank top

Nightmare job? Dental hygienist.

A talent you wish you had? Singing. More – any! – self-confidence (that is trait not talent I guess)

Dream vacation? Three months in Europe alone with a stack of books

What’s on your nightstand? A growing pile of books and a bottle of water. Earplugs and lip balm. And Grace’s enormous Lego tower.

From the famous “Weird Things” blogoshpere meme

Tell us 3 weird things about you: 1. I can’t drive stick 2. I constantly count things in lots of 8, 4, or 2, clicking along with my teeth as I count 3. I eat Nutella from the jar almost every night

From Smith Magazine’s Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs from Writers Famous and Obscure

A six-word memoir that captures your life.

Trying my best, failing a lot.