April 30, 2015

What is your nickname? Who uses it?

Laura: No shortage of nicknames. But the first that comes to mind is Lulu. It's my family nickname mostly given by my mother but used occasionally by pretty much everyone else in the family. LauraLu would be the offshoot of that, probably used even more by everyone in the family, but also my mother to a large extent. Dad called me Corinne when he really wanted my attention. Grandma Grace called me Sunshine. My gym teacher called me city kitty. My dentist called me Skowronski. Some sports team members would call me Scrunchie, like the hair tie. I've been called Goldie or Blondie occasionally but more often as a joke, as if they didn't know me or a better name for me.

Naveen calls me a lot of different things. I think it may have started with Boogaloo or Boog. Later it became Skowronski, as if to highlight a friendly casual summoning power. Monkey for silliness. Beesly in reference to The Office. But it has mostly been his favorite Lauralyne, sometimes Corinne, but more often Corinne-bin, and of course, Love.

Naveen: The obvious one is Bobby, given by my mom and/or grandfather. The story has frequently changed. But usually it goes along the lines of the name reminding my mom of her brother who was also called Bobby for short. It's unrelated to Robert, but probably related more to some kind of affectionate Indian term that sounded like or transformed into Bobby. But the name's meaning was said to be "a happy guy." My grandfather once told me that I looked like a happy kid, so that's why they all called me Bobby.

I used to sign my cards or emails to Laura as "Your Sweet Sulaco." Now I write all kinds of email signatures, there is no end to the names I come up with. Laura and I would also refer to each other as "my favorite" frequently. Sometimes I'd jokingly refer to myself as Greg (or Greg would be Laura's supposed fictional other love interest, a white Catholic man from a simpler time). Walter was the one we used when referring to ourselves in the golden age years when men used to beat their subordinate wives who would pretend to be fancy and spotless (Walter and Susan, old fashioned and dramatic). Nowadays Laura frequently calls me Navin, Navin Modem, Brown Man, Brownie. Love. Jackass.

April 29, 2015

Who lives in your home with you?

Laura: Naveen Nattam. Grade A husband material. My right hand brown man, and best friend.

We shared a living space in college for a time with various room mates (or nearly room mates), favorites being Jess Andrikovich Doherty, Mike Bass, and Nate Summers. Jess was the amazing room mate that Naveen had met accidentally (both of them in a case of mistaken identity for someone else) and a strong and real friendship grew that would last. Mike Bass was our talented musical friend who had a huge heart and a lot of ambition to do good in the world. Nate Summers was the man of stoic loyalty in our lives, while still sharing an amazing sense of fun and imagination.

Least favorites were Matt McBride, my old room mate's boyfriend who had a lot of problems and had no problem dragging everyone into them as dramatically as possible. I really liked my room mate Erica Hoenie for our freshman year, but she became so sunk into her on-and-off relationship with Matt that she frequently got carried away by the drama or her own affection for him and forgot boundaries, respect, and friendliness toward me. Another room mate Naveen had for a while was Matt Jacob, who was nice enough, but also not great in that he became addicted (seriously) to video games and wasn't taking care of himself or the apartment. And I also had a big fight at some point with Joe Shull, although I think I've purposely forgotten my reasons for being angry at him (but I think they had to do with his eruptive and frequently self-destructive behavior, particularly around the time he broke up with Melissa Harris Ross). Generally good people, just not without their faults. Some more than others.

Of course prior to that I only ever lived with my parents Tom and Lynda, and sister Kristy.

Naveen: My wife Laura and my cat Sully live in my home. Both require a level of attention to detail that I enjoy.

Laura is my best friend. We were great friends who got married, and now after 6+ years married I can say we are still best friends, and we get stronger and stronger each year and there's no one I'd rather spend my time with.

Sully is a gigantic piece of [redacted]. I have an intense love-hate relationship with him. He is full of feelings, very fickle and frustrating to deal with, but sometimes very rewarding because he emotes so much.

April 28, 2015

What is your favorite color? What does it remind you of?

Laura: This is an interesting question because it changes. When I was very young, it used to be red, like my dad's old Camry. A little bit later in life, when I learned that prisms could divide white light into every color in the spectrum, that notion made me really love white. In my teenage years I really liked blue, like the varying shades of the sky. When I was engaged to be married, for some reason I loved gem tones, especially deep purple, maybe because it made me feel like royalty, something very special and precious. These days, in my early 30s, it seems to be teal, although I tend to like the entire array of colors that a peacock typically exhibits: teal, blue, brown, green, yellow, and rust.

Naveen: Blue, I think. Like a darker blue, the color of my hammer shirt. I don't know that it reminds me of anything in particular. I just like it. It feels neutral. I like a lot of earth tones and colors that aren't too vibrant. I like colors that aren't super outlandish.

April 27, 2015

What are you doing after school today?

Laura: Well, if I tell you what I'm doing after work today instead, it would be handling some dumb adult stuff (fighting a mistaken toll bill for a toll road I've never been on), making dinner or arranging a pickup solution, watching some TV, doing some laundry/dishes, and maybe listening to music while spending some time on the LaZBoy couch looking at Facebook notifications and seeing what everyone is up to.

What I used to do after elementary school is hang out in my room, usually drawing or doing something crafty or imaginative. I also liked some family tv series and cartoons. These days if I were a kid, I'm afraid I'd be playing games on an iPad or spending too much time on the computer.

Naveen: Returning a chair. I was returning a chair due to buyer's remorse hanging over my head and causing me anxiety. Picked up dinner, which was Chinese food (pretty unusual actually) and we watched an episode of Daredevil on Netflix. Now I'm playing a little bit of Destiny, PVP right now to earn enough points to purchase a different chest piece for my character. Trying to increase my gear variety. Raj is the lead of the hard surfaces team, which includes guns, ships, etc. He's very passionate about the design and color variety in the game. You can see in the expansion pack (House of Wolves), there's more color variety in the gear and you can tell that people like Raj pushed for that and they got it. My favorite things about Destiny are its uniqueness, tight gameplay and combat, and that it offers players the feeling of a good experience even if they only have 10 minutes at a time to give to the game. There's always a plethora of things to do.

What I used to do after elementary school is watch cartoons, eat junk food, and play with my neighbors in the backyard. If I were a kid today, there are so many big video game experiences that would be so much fun, it would be hard to want to go outside. I'd probably stay inside and play video games unless my parents or some other responsible person would kick me out. There are a lot of fun distractions inside, so it's really tough to find a good balance.