September 29, 2008
A Jaunty Get-Together
Written by Margo Maguire in Jaunty PostSo many new Jaunties have joined us recently, that we decided to get together and chat about some crazy things … Probably a few things you never knew about us. Read on, then give us some insight into your personality!
If you could have only one color in the world, what would it be?
Shana: Purple–the color of royalty.
Margo: Dark red. It goes with everything, especially diamond jewelry.
Robyn: Green, it’s been my favorite color since I was a little girl, there are so many shades and it’s just so relaxing and earthy.
Cindy: Sky blue
Kristan: Royal blue. It’s so rich and lovely.
Delilah: Soft powder blue. The same color as the walls often seen during the Georgian period. Something about that color takes my breath away and makes me feel all dreamy.
Emily: Purple. A long time ago, my English teacher said that if you liked purple it meant you had a good imagination. I decided then that I loved purple. It must have stuck, because all these years later, I still love it.
Shirley: Purple - not only the color of royalty, but it’s flattering on us peasants, too.
What place on earth would you most like to visit, and why?
Margo: Greece. I would love to study the history of the place and read Heroditus again, then go there and spend a couple of months visiting all the important sites. Or maybe just lie on the beach with a good book..
Kristan: Venice. I love the architecture, the canals, the Italian men, the fabulous women! And of course, the food…
Shana: I’d like to visit Gretna Green. It’s featured in two of my books, and while I’ve been to Scotland, I’ve never been to Gretna.
Emily: I love to travel to exotic, tropical places like Costa Rica and Belize. I love the tower trees in old growth rain forests, the way life is so interconnected there. It reinforces my sense of awe.
Shirley: I’d love to go on a Tall Ship cruise in the Caribbean, salmon fishing in Alaska, explore Australia’s outback, and spend a decade or so researching in England, with a detour to Wales.
Robyn: Wow, there are so many places I want to go. I’ve traveled some, but not nearly as much as I’d like. I want to go back to England and while there hit Scotland and maybe Wales. I’d love to go to Iceland, it just looks breathtaking there. I’ve always wanted to just go and tour all over Europe. Africa sounds so adventurous and I’d like to think I would go, but it might take me a while to conjure up the courage and then there’s Australia and Hawaii and Alaska and back to the Caribbean….sigh, I love to travel.
Cindy: I’d love to go to the Netherlands. My father was born there but I’ve never been there.
Delilah: Egypt. So that I could roam through the pyramids and touch things older than I am allowed to write about.
If you could be any character in history, who would it be?
Kristan: Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird. Now there’s a good kid!
Cindy: I’d like to meet Eleanor Roosevelt. She lived such an interesting life. And I’d like to meet Mary Pickford (who formed United Artists) because she was a savvy businesswoman who stood up for herself.
Delilah: Queen Elizabeth I. Something about ruling over men utterly fascinates me.
Emily: I don’t know that there’s anyone in particular I’d like to be in history. Just someone who lived a long life, didn’t die in childbirth and didn’t lose her whole family to the plague.
Margo: Daniel Boone. Or maybe I’d just like to be his concubine. 
Shana: Maybe one of Jesus’ disciples. I would have loved to see the world at that time.
Robyn: I don’t know that I’d want to BE anyone from history, but there are plenty of people from history I’d want to meet. Jane Austen, Cleopatra, Patsy Cline…
Shirley: Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci… Hmm, I’m noticing a trend. Maybe I need a vacation? I’d like to meet Margaret Sanger, to thank her for giving women information that enabled them to have some measure of control over their lives that male doctors denied us for so long.
If you believed in reincarnation, what do you think would have been one of your past lives?
Delilah: A nun in France. And now I am making up for it.
Margo: LOL, Delilah! I think I would have been a pioneer. We still have the same old farmhouse my great-grandfather built in the 1890s and I feel right at home there.
Kristan: Dolphin trainer.
Emily: I don’t know that I believe in reincarnation, but once when I was in New Orleans, I had a fortune teller tell me about my past lives. According to her, I was a horse trainer in medieval Spain. And a spy during the Russian Bolshevik revolution. For all I know, she tells everyone the exact same story, but it was fascinating stuff.
Shirley: A painter, probably of landscapes rather than portraits.
Shana: Hmm…I can’t imagine myself as anyone but me!
Robyn: Delilah, you might have to explain that one to us one day. As for myself, definitely a princess, I would make an excellent princess.
Cindy: I sometimes have the feeling I lived in the old west….which is really odd because I can’t imagine living in such such conditions.
If you had the talent to be anything at all, what profession would you choose?
Kristan: A dolphin trainer!
Shana: I’m with Kristan. I’d also be an animal trainer–not necessarily dolphins. I don’t like water that much. Maybe I’d be Cesar Millan (Dog Whisperer).
Robyn: I’ve always harbored secret dreams of being a professional singer though I’ve never had a performance voice. I can carry a tune, but I’ve never had the presence nor range to pull off anything like that, but I think I would have really loved it.
Cindy: I’d love to be a singer/songwriter.
Delilah: I’d love to be a race car driver.
Shirley: A carpenter. I’m terrible with power tools — almost cut off the tip of my thumb in shop class — but I love unique wood furniture and cabinets. Or a painter, of landscapes and seascapes. However I’d rather have the income of someone talented with stocks and investments, someone like, say, Warren Buffet. 
Margo: An inventor. I wish I could have lived in the Thomas Edison era! What a brain that guy had!
Emily: I wouldn’t necessarily want to do this professionally, but if I could have any talent, it would be singing. I can barely carry a tune, but would absolutely love to have a wonderful voice. And maybe talent at the piano to go along with it.
Do you have any special skills?
Kristan: Um…does bed-making count? I make a mean bed…bake pretty well….jeesh, this is a little depressing.. .
Margo: I am an excellent venipuncturist. If you’ve got bad veins and you need blood drawn, I’m your gal.
Robyn: Oh, man, Margo, I wish we lived closer, I have terrible veins - it nearly always takes them at least 3 sticks to get my veins going. 
Well, everyone already knows that I make the world’s greatest sugar cookies, but I also know sign language - it was my “foreign” language in college.
Cindy: I can make a fairly realistic “pig” noise.
Delilah: I can mimic an angry Donald Duck.
Emily: Hmm … hidden talents. I’m a pretty decent cook/baker. Okay, that might be hard for you guys to believe, though, because I only blog about the disasters. I also scuba dive. Does that count as a talent?
Shirley: I make my own jewelry. I used to design and sell it in order to support my habit of buying pearls and gemstones, back when I had free time, before I sold my first book and had a baby.
Shana: I can sing. I majored in opera my first year in college.
Where are you in the birth order of your family?
Robyn: I’m the worst kind of kid because I’m technically the baby in the family, but according to birth order I’m also considered an only child since my siblings are more than 5 years older than me. Basically I’m just a brat.
Emily: Like Robyn, I’m the youngest, but my sister is five years older. I like to think I have all the best qualities of both only and youngest. If Robyn wants to call that bratty …
Margo: I’m the second of five, first girl. Which (in other words) means I’m the eldest because boys (when I was a kid) weren’t required to do much more than show up for meals.
Kristan: I’m the neglected middle child who overcompensates on all fronts.
Cindy: I have an older brother I grew up with….four half-sisters I’ve never met…and a half-brother I have met.
Delilah: Well, I WAS the youngest. Then my father divorced and remarried and sadly, I turned into a middle child. Which is why I now write, LOL.
Shirley: Middle child, but since my two older sisters moved out and married by the time I was nine and my younger brother went to live elsewhere when I was a teen, I have personality aspects of oldest, youngest, only *and* middle child. I can get along with almost anyone.
Shana: I’m an oldest middle. My brother is 8 years older than me, and I have a sister 2 years younger. I know what it’s like to have the spotlight and to be “neglected.” I think my personality is oldest child.
What’s your favorite bad-for-you food that you simply can’t give up?
Robyn: M&M’s. I don’t have them often, but I can’t imagine a world without their tiny colored yumminess. And I like plain and peanut, which reminds me, why don’t they package those two together, that would be like the perfect bag of candy.
Kristan: Brie.. Usually late at night.
Emily: Gosh, there are so many bad for me foods I could never give up. Raw chocolate chip cookie dough probably tops the list.
Delilah: Cheeseburgers and fries…
Shirley: Brownies — with nuts, hold the frosting. I started making them from scratch so I could use whole wheat flour and less sugar to make them less bad for me, and since that takes longer than from a mix I don’t make them very often.
Cindy: Brownies. I don’t dare make a pan of them–or I’ll eat them!
Shana: Ice cream. And ever since Anne’s blog on Magic Shell, now it’s ice cream with Magic Shell.
Margo: Chocolate of any persuasion!
5:23 am | Share This
Fedora Says:
Oh, extremely fun! Thank you for sharing, all you Jaunties!
Are we supposed to answer, too?
If I could have only one color, it’d probably be brown–it’s the color of chocolate, and it’s goes with everything, including dirt
And can I only pick one place to visit? I’d love to explore more of China and the rest of Asia, plus most of Europe. I would also love to see Israel–there are so many historically significant places there.
As for who I’d want to be in history, I’m not sure–I’d agree with Emily–someone who didn’t die young of something awful and who didn’t lose her whole family to something horrible. And who had an easy time in childbirth–that was not a fun thing then!
If I had the talent to be anything at all, I’d be a ballerina
Not too many special skills here either–and Margo, I wish I lived closer to you, too! But you ladies are a talented bunch!
I’m the oldest in my family–and I’m trying to make sure that doesn’t mean I spoil my oldest
And ditto what Emily said about having lots of bad-for-you-foods… I’m not big on raw cookie dough, but the baked stuff, I’m all over that
And cheeseburgers… YUM! Now I’ve got a craving! 
Diana Says:
I loved reading this. Always fun to learn more about you authors.
My favorite color is orange and has been since kindergarten. Such a happy color.
I’d love to visit Singapore, my birthplace. I moved here when I was a baby, so I have no memories of Singapore. I’d also like to visit Australia.
If I could be any character in history, I’d be one of Paul Newman’s leading ladies. Does that count? It’s my homage to him, one of my favorite actors.
In a past life, I might’ve been a person of leisure.
If I had the talent to be anything at all, I’d choose to be a chef. While I love to eat, I can’t cook very well and don’t like to all that much, although I love to watch the Food Network.
My special skill is being able to lounge in my bed for hours during the weekend.
I’m the oldest of three.
I’m also a big fan of cheese. I like bread a lot, too, especially sourdough.
Solveig Says:
This is interesting :Ö)
My favorite color is bright red ´cause it matches my hair :Ö)
I´d love to visit Egypt, sail on the Nile and visit all the magnificent monuments built by the ancient Egyptians
If I could be someone in history I´d be Charles Darwin
In a past life I think I might have been a mouse :Öp Often feel like one in real life
If I had a talent to be anything I would be a great vet and could save all animals that needed help
My special skill is cleaning thoroughly (when I get around to it)
I´m the second oldest of five
I´m a big fan of dark icelandic baking chocolate :Ö) mmmmmmmmmm
Devon Ellington Says:
what fun, to get to know people!
Shana, I was so disappointed when I drove through Gretna Green — it was nothing like I imagined!