Ten in Ten. Not as Hard as I'd Thought.

1) I love fried food of all kinds. My friend Nicole's mother once said that what I really liked was the "fried," by which she meant the coating. She was right. 

2) I do not have that thing that so many people I know do where I cannot watch movies or television shows in which harm comes to a child. However, I cannot watch an animal in peril on screen and must avert my eyes.

3) That being said, I often feel I enjoy the companionship of children at least as much if not more than that of most adults and love my own children far more than I ever imagined possible. 

4) I studied Swedish for four years in college and at one point, ill-advisedly--or perhaps irrelevantly--had this on my resume: Conversational Swedish. This was, even then, pretty much a lie, although I can still say these sentences: "I can speak a little Swedish. I can buy reindeer meat. I have a little elf. His name is Sven." Seriously.

5) For a brief period in seventh grade, frustrated by the ordinariness of my name, I spelled it as follows, alternating versions as it suited me: Aimee, Ame with an accent over the "e" and Ami, with a heart instead of an "i." Oy.

6) I will remain loyal to the Boston sports teams even if I stay in New York for the rest of my life, and do not mind being the only Celtics fan in Madison Square Garden or Red Sox fan in Yankee Stadium. It is very important to me that my children understand the importance of this and follow in my footsteps, created in the footsteps of my father before me.

7) I love, in no predetermined order, hot baths, reading in bed, the beach, and beaches on islands in particular, red tulips, red toenails, mechanical pencils, convertibles, eating tomatoes off the vine in my own garden, hammocks, potato chips, the Rolling Stones and Buddy Holly, frosting--straight up, no cake, big dogs, sledding, strong and/or triple-creme cheese, tart lemonade, basketball, baseball caps, mittens not gloves, boots not shoes, and unselfconscious people.

8) Emerson's essays "Self-Reliance" and "Experience" have been very important to me since I was a teenager and I read them both regularly.

9) I subscribe to, and read, both the New Yorker and US Weekly and believe this makes me well-rounded.

10) I know, with 100% certainty, that if I called my parents at any time, day or night, and told them I needed them, they would be in the car in 30 seconds, and I want nothing more than for my children to feel the exact same way.