Laura takes the Proust Questionnaire!

Michelle already took this thing, time for me to have a go at it.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
There being no cruelty of any kind, a free market economy in every country, and leisure time spent with family and friends.

What is your current state of mind?
Stressed, stressed, resigned to other people's apathy, and stressed.

What is your greatest fear?
Death and/or homelessness.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Laziness and/or the inability to shine under pressure.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Arrogance.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Impulse shopping.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Submission?

What is it that you most dislike?
Government-run economies and/or narrow-mindedness on the part of people who praise themselves for being sooo tolerant of others.

What do you dislike most about your appearance?
My inability to put on a look that would make other people fear me and my judgmental eyebrows. It's hard to look haughty with full cheeks.

What is the quality you most like in a man?
Being a gentleman.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Not thinking she's better than me; give me attitude and I will cut you! (well, not really, but I'll think uncharitable thoughts about you.)

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Llama.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
After myself (haha), my family and friends.

When and where were you happiest?
Every moment in which my family or friends have been happy.

Which talent would you most like to have?
Having my life under control and my paper written ahead of schedule.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Not doing more damage with my car than what I have accomplished so far.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Time travel powers. That way, I can keep making time so my papers will get finished!

If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what do you think it would be?
I want to be the person who makes the ding ding ding noise at the New York Stock Exchange.

What is your most treasured possession?
Black spandex bike shorts that I can wear when it's not practical to wear a slip.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
The inability to make things better for those who are suffering.

What is your most marked characteristic?
Being odd, or as a professor kindly put it, "She is her own person."

What do you most value in your friends?
Kindness.

Who are your favorite writers?
Jane Austen, Patrick O'Brian, P.J. O' Rourke, Christopher Buckley, William F. Buckley, Charles Dickens, and Tom Wolfe.

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Either Jack Aubrey or Col. Brandon from Sense and Sensibility.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?
John Adams.

Who are your heroes in real life?
My parents, Ron Paul, firefighters, cops, and most importantly, affordable and effective plumbers.

How would you like to die?
Never/Only after I've had a long, rewarding, and comfortable life/In my sleep/Without pain.