20/20 with The Daughter of Opinion

Let me start this posting with a little background. Everyone pause in reading this for a moment and look to the top right of the browser window (the content, not the browser itself). You will notice a button that says Next Blog. I love this button...I look forward to clicking on this button daily. Why, you ask? Because it pulls random Blogspot blogs up for me to read. And often times, I am a random kind-of girl. So two weeks ago, it brought me to the Daughter of Opinion blog. I was intrigued by the posts and added a hot link to my own blog for her.

While reading her posts, I found this Interview with another blog-owner and instructions on requesting your own interview. So Jessica has been kind enough to offer me up 5 questions to answer and so I extend the same to other blog-owners:

The Official Interview Game Rules

1. If you want to participate, leave a comment below saying "interview me."

2. I will respond by asking you five questions - each person's will be different.

3. You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

So here are my 5 questions to answer.

1. Who has been the most influential person in your life?

This is a tough one for me as I have a lot of people who have influenced me. While it is hard to pick just one, I think I would have to say my Gramps, William Albert Sparks. Here is a man who worked hard, married someone he wasn't in love with, raised a family on his salary from the train yards. He converted his garage into a full workshop where he let us build whatever we wanted every time we went to visit. The man could build any contraption to solve any problem, and would always have the time to read me Shakespeare. When I was 6, he built me the most beautiful dollhouse anyone had ever seen (based on the floor plans of a real house in Missouri) and it took him 2 years to build. When I would go to spend the summer in Kentucky with him and my grandmother, he would have the neighbor across the street hide it in his garage. It is still my most prized possession, even though it is in dire need of repair. It even was wired for electricity. The man had a huge heart and only thought about others his entire life. I strive to be like him every day.

2. Describe the moment when you realized that one (or both) of your parents weren't perfect.

I actually worked for my parents business for a few years and during that time I was their CFO. Let me tell you, seeing directly into the finances of your own parents is a humbling experience. I knew we weren't made of money growing up, but we were comfortable. My parents worked very hard to give us all we needed and some of what we wanted, but I didn't realize how difficult that was for them. Realizing that they were taking from Peter to pay Paul opened my eyes. Creditlines and Mortgages, going into more debt to pay off older debt, while they were doing it for us, it made them seem more human to get into such a predicament. And honestly, there is comfort in knowing that your parents are real people who make mistakes...it makes me respect them much more.

3. Dark chocolate or white chocolate?

Dark chocolate, especially dark chocolate from San Francisco (primarily Scharffen Berger). After all, white chocolate isn't really chocolate, it's mostly cocoa butter.

4. Is the glass half empty or half full?
It depends on the day. 85% of the time, it is half-full, but on those days when you have just been beaten down by so many things, it is really hard for me to keep that attitude. I much prefer the half-full concept, as there seems to be so many more options.

5. You can only listen to one album for the rest of your life - what is it?
It would be the Garden State Soundtrack as it covers all my moods in one album. How I wish I could be deeper than that and say something classical, but I'm afraid I would tire of anything like that pretty quickly.

Don't forget, I can quiz you too!