I will never truly know if I was born an introvert, if my introvert-ness was due to my upbringing or if it was a combination of both but regardless, I am an introvert.

I’ve wrote about this in a past post here.

One of the good things about being an introvert was that when the pandemic hit, my day-to-day life didn’t drastically change. I was already working from home a lot and since I don’t like shopping, I used to do my best to do all my errands on the same day to limit having to step foot in the mall or grocery stores. I enjoy the peacefulness of my cocoon and have never felt stir crazy being within my own four walls.

Don’t get me wrong, I can function well enough in a crowd of people or even strangers but not if I don’t have to.

Unless the people I am around are truly authentic, I find them to be exhausting.

Would you consider yourself an introvert, extrovert, or ambivert?

The treadmill has always been the place where I have gotten the best ideas. Ideas that have made me jump off multiple times to jot down specific dialogue and scenes that pop into my head.

I used to think that I was “special” but no.

I came across a few writers who said the exact same thing and even took things up a notch by using dictation equipment to dictate out stories during their sessions.

*sigh*

My treadmill has been sitting unused for at least 6 months but I’m slowly preparing myself to getting back to it now that walking outside is less tempting.

The last thing I want to end up doing is this…

Where and when do you get your best ideas?

Back in the day and in my younger years, I would have felt angry, like situations when I used to purposely get passed over for opportunities that I should have been offered.

Those systemic barriers taught me to forget about being angry and to simply limit the use of my talents and expertise to what I was there to do. It also taught me decipher if my anger was really due to the missed opportunity or if it was related to being treated in such a shabby way while still being expected to go above and beyond what I was there to do.

It was all about the poor treatment and nothing to do with my peers or competitors.

I have never been one to compete with others. If anything, I compete against myself to see just how far I can stretch myself so even in current times when the odd “thing” happens, it doesn’t bother me.

I will congratulate, acknowledge what has happened, and focus on what I need to do.

When you see peers/competitors getting things you want, how do you react?

It hasn’t happened in a long time but I would recommend the following for a quicker cure:

First, wallow in your sadness and cry until you have no tears left.

Then, when you are sick of crying, get mad and do what Bernadette did in “Waiting To Exhale” (giphy above).

Wait…no.

Don’t that!

What I mean is just fantasize about burning all their stuff.

Instead, donate everything they ever gave you to charity or sell it.

Toss all pictures of them into the garbage (in these modern times, I guess you would delete them from your social media and phone).

Lastly, write a laundry list of every annoying thing you ever disliked about them so that when your mind wanders to supposedly better times, you can refresh your memory about why you are better off without them.

What’s your recipe for recuperating from extreme heartbreak?

My taste in music is too varied to just pick a personal antheme or a theme song. It also depends on what kind of mood I’m in.

But…

I’m always in the mood for old-school-type R&B or old easy-listening music.

It makes me miss the days when most song lyrics made sense, singers actually sang and the songs were totally “dance choreographable”, even if the lyrics weren’t great.

Songs that repeat the same lyric over and over again show no creativity.

Rapping is not singing.

And twerking is not dancing.

I said what I said. Sorry not sorry.

Here are a few songs that will show you my preferred style of music:

“Forever Valentine” – Charlie Wilson

“That Magic” – India Arie

“Back In Your Arms” – Jeffrey Osbourne

“When She Dances” – Joey Scarbury

What’s your personal anthem or theme song?

Remember back in the day when Brazilian waxes were a thing?

Let’s just say that the reaction of the woman in the above gif is on point.

I’m not going to go into detail but I will say that once was more than enough.

I would never never never try this again even if someone paid me.

What’s something you’ve tried, that you’ll never, ever try again?

I keep making the mistake of thinking about things that I can’t go back in time to change.

I am self-aware enough to know that doing this is useless but every so often, I do find myself repeating this over and over until I remind myself to think about other things.

Usually I’m successful and at other times, I’m not.

It’s just how things go right?

What’s one mistake you keep repeating (and repeating)?