This time, I've been paired with the gorgeous, sexy, smart and intriguing ericalynn. Not only do we have a lot of interests in common, it seems that she grew up with people I went to college with -- one of whom lived across the hall from me during my freshman year. Shall we? We shall.

1. what is the first thing you do when you get up in the morning?
Well, oddly enough, at my old apartment, the first thing I did after getting out of bed was turn on my computer. When I move into my own place again, I will probably end up restarting that ritual. (Does that say how badly addicted I am to the Internet?) On any given weekday morning, I have the usual breakfast-and-morning-paper thing. I'm not a morning person and it takes me a while to wake up -- my former roommate once described the process of me stumbling out of bed and attempting to wake up as a full workout in and of itself due to the effort I have to put into achieving consciousness. On a weekend, I might just stay in bed for a little while and see what's on TV first before I crawl out into the world. 2. if you could only eat three meals for the rest of your life, what three would you choose? (going out to a restaurant is ok, you don't have to cook these meals yourself. so 'pizza at joe's' would suffice.)
Cheeseburger & fries, a gorgonzola pizza from a local pizza place here in the town I grew up in, and probably some form of breakfast food -- I've developed a recent addiction to Smacks cereal, so maybe that. I'm also a sucker for a good rack of baby back ribs (and if anyone starts singing that Chili's song, they're gonna get a good whackin' from me) as well as good sushi or Mexican food or Chinese food -- I'm Jewish, and as the line goes: "Jews know two things: suffering and where to find great Chinese food." I like variety in what I eat, I can't decide on just three things.

3. how old were you when you first learned to read?
Mom says either 2 or 3. I was apparently pretty smart when I was younger (though I don't know what happened to it), I started kindergarten at 4 as the youngest kid in class, yet I could already read, write and count to 100.

4. you have just been reincarnated. what have you come back as?
Hugh Hefner.

5. where in the world would you like to travel to the most that you haven't been to yet?
Italy and Australia. I'd love to take a month for each country, especially Italy. Though I once read a Car and Driver article where they road-tested a new Corvette by driving it through the Outback and all around the coastline in Australia, that sounded like the coolest trip ever -- no, not just because of the fact that it was a 'Vette.

6. what was your most embarrassing moment (whole life included, not just school years)?
That's a subjective question. What's embarrassing now looking back on it as a twentysomething may not have been embarrassing at the time. I suppose that my rather outrageous behavior trying to get some girl that I had a crush on in junior high school to like me is very high on that list even though it's a series of events and not one single thing -- I do remember cutting in on most of her dance partners during a dance though, what do you want from me? I was young. Other moment is possibly when I was in high school and was laughing so hard at what the teacher was saying that I let out a loud fart.

7. have you ever cheated on someone? why? (two parter, but hey, i'm cool, i get to ask two parters!)
No. I would be pretty destroyed if someone I really liked and was dating cheated on me, so I try to adhere to the Golden Rule when dating. If I got to the point where I was obsessed with cheating because I was so unhappy in the relationship, it's time to end the relationship.

8. have you ever been in a serious car accident?
Serious? No. I once hit a guy on a bicycle -- he cut me off and I couldn't stop in time, so my front bumper clipped his back tire and he went flying over his handlebars just before I ran over his bike's rear wheel. He had some cuts and scrapes but was otherwise okay and the only damage to my car was that I blew a signal light and had to replace a $5 lamp. Of all my fenderbenders (and I've only had 2 or 3), that was the most rattling and it took me a little while to get my confidence back while behind the wheel. But all the eyewitnesses swore up and down six ways from Sunday that it was completely his fault.

9. isshehotornot?: britney spears
I'll say hot, though I'm still trying to decide if her breasts are fake or real. They keep changing size.

10. who do you consider to be your greatest inspiration (does not have to be living, of course.)
I'm not really sure. Anyone who really wanted something and went after it to get it. My dad, for one. He decided he really wanted to be a doctor, so he & my mom left their well-paying jobs & everyone they knew to live in Mexico for 4 years so he could go to med school. I think I basically view everyone else as an inspiration, because I look at people and say to myself either "man, I respect him/her and want to be like him/her" or "man, I really have no respect for him/her and need to motivate myself so I don't end up like him/her."

And there you have it.