The Proust Questionaire

With the NaNoWriMo now five days over (I'm hoping to be in Chapter 3 by this point, for the curious), I figured it was time to bring back some GTKY Sundays, where I talk a little bit about myself and answer a few GTKY style questions.  Today, I'm going to do the Proust Questionnaire, which may reveal a bit too much about myself, but whatever-I'm game right now.

Since the Proust Questionnaire takes on many different attributes (looking through Proust's original answers, many of the questions I know from reading Vanity Fair for many years are a bit alien-I can never remember them asking about a favorite bird, for example), so I'm going to go with 35 of the Vanity Fair questions, and in keeping with the theme, I'm going to give short, potentially quippy answers...that are admittedly close to how I feel personally.

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness? A quiet movie theater
2. W1hat is your greatest fear? High, open spaces
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Procrastination
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Ignorance
5. Which living person do you most admire? Hillary Clinton
6. What is your greatest extravagance? Cable
7. What is your current state of mind? Anxious optimism
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Patience
9. On what occasion do you lie? When I don't want to tell the truth.
10. What do you most dislike about your appearance? If I said everything I'm going to get some clucks, right?  Everything south of my eyelashes, we'll go with that.
11. Which living person do you most despise? Despise is such a strong word...but probably everyone currently in the White House.
12. What is the quality you most like in a man? Wit, good conversationalist, and nice arms.
13. What is the quality you most like in a woman? Wit, good conversationalist, and male friends who have nice arms.
14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Excellent and vociferous
15. What or who is the greatest love of your life? The Cinema
16. When and where were you happiest? March 12th, 2005 (and I'll leave it at that)
17. Which talent would you most like to have? To be able to play the cello
18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I'd be able to write like John Updike
19. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Coming out of the closet
20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? Someone who is friends with Ina Garten.
21. Where would you most like to live? London
22. What is your most treasured possession? My memory
23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Death of a loved one
24. What is your favorite occupation? Writer or filmgoer
25. What is your most marked characteristic? A plethora of random facts
26. What do you most value in your friends? Punctuality
27. Who are your favorite writers? Dickens, Wharton, McEwan & Updike
28. Who is your hero of fiction? Jane Eyre
29. Which historical figure do you most identify with? Rachel Carson or Antonio Salieri, depending on the day
30. Who are your heroes in real life? My parents and Joe Biden
31. What are your favorite names? Samuel, Ella, Jonah, Jesse, & Alexandra
32. What is it that you most dislike? People who don't recycle.
33. What is your greatest regret? That I have so many.
34. How would you like to die? Not for a while, thank you.
35. What is your motto? "God doesn't always open a window when he closes a door, but you'll usually give you a screwdriver to get through the air vent"