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when will my Judith return from war (actually, she has!)
Hi! I took an impromptu break because school was being so needy that I didn’t even have time to use blogging as an outlet, but for those who missed me: it is time to share some random facts about myself again. And you have my good friend Morgan to thank for this. We bonded over our love for everything is about me always livejournal-y type of posts and then she came across this list of 100 random questions on Tumblr, so of course we had to do it. We thought it would be fun if we picked a few for each other. You can find the full list of prompts here. I’m going to answer about 30 of them, but I’ll be using the original numbering. So, you know, if you want to know what accents I can do or when my YA life truly began, read on.
1. What is your middle name?
I actually have two. I was raised catholic and the tradition here is that you get your godparents’ names as your middle names when you’re baptised. They also modify the names based on the child’s assigned gender. So mine are Henrika (the female version of my grandpa/godfather’s name Rik, which is short for Hendrik) and Lutgart (my grandma/godmother’s name). In that order. Ellis Henrika Lutgart. Feel free to send me voice messages of you trying to pronounce that.
4. What is your zodiac sign?
Image may be NSFW.
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Geminiiiiii Image may be NSFW.
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Clik here to view. Shout-out to my Pisces people, who are the most ridiculed sign in Tumblr zodiac posts. (Stop laughing, one of them once listed me as a Hell Queen made of demon’s trickery and I’ve been a true believer ever since. An occasionally frustrated and/or insulted one, but a believer nonetheless.)
5. What is your favourite colour?
A chorus of voices from all around the cosmos: PURPLE.
Well, you’re not wrong but I’m also very partial to green, blue, and yellow. And pretty much any bright colour that isn’t orange.
12. What was your last dream about?
My actual last dream was so gross that I even creeped out Meg, so I’ll spare you. But in the one before that, I was at my grandparents’ house, and for some reason Barry Allen, Iris West, and Joe West were in their living room. We got to talking and suddenly I was like “BARRY!! We used to go to high school together!” Iris was all ???? But then I remembered Barry used to be friends with one of my best friends, so I told him and he was like “OH YEAH how’s [actual real life person’s name redacted] doing?” Me: “He’s in the army now. It’s so weird I never really noticed you at school before.” Iris: ?????? Joe was just looking back and forth and anyway that’s the story of how I finally started watching The Flash.
14. Are you psychic in any way?
I’m not but I can read people pretty well and am good at predicting how certain situations will pan out. My true witchy powers are more along the lines of getting buggy strings of wedding lights to light up just by touching the lamps. WHATEVER LUKE WHATEVER GET AWAY WITH YOUR SCIENCE TALK I WILL MAKE YOU A BELIEVER.
15. Favourite song?
All of Lemonade. And if you’re surprised by that you’ve either not listened to it yet or you’re a heathen.
17. Who would be your ideal partner?
All right, mushy stuff. I want someone who lights up when I walk into the room (and vice versa). I’m well aware I’ve been thoroughly spoiled by my parents and my OTPs because they’ve all found their favourite person, and I know this is an extremely unrealistic standard to set for myself, but I’ve been known to be naïvely optimistic like that. I want someone I can have fun with. (Laughing is very important to me in case that was still unclear after 3 years or so.) Someone who challenges me. Part of what attracted me so much to Ryke Meadows in the Addicted series is that he always has a plan. He’ll be completely fine just hanging around the house with you, but if you tell him you want to do something, he’ll have five suggestions within the minute, ranging from rock-climbing to road trips. I like that. On a completely shallow note, I’d prefer someone who’s taller than me because IT GETS LONELY UP HERE. (I have weird hang-ups I am well aware.) Now if we were to talk about what I actually need, it should probably be someone with a lot of patience because I know myself and my moods and I’m a piece of work.
22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law?
Only for really minor stuff like biking at night with a busted light and “trouble” here really means I got off with a warning. Not that driving with broken head- or taillights seems all that minor to me ever since I got my driver’s licence because you legit can’t see people at night.
23. Have you ever met any celebrities?
TONS but this is Belgium so how many of them will you really know and be impressed with. My favourite celebrity run-in was when I was in New York two years ago and my sister and I turn the corner and suddenly there’s TIM GUNN (who’s surprisingly tiny irl?) right in front of us. And we weren’t cool about it at all. But we freaked out at a distance because he was already being crowded by a bunch of people who wanted his picture. He was really nice about it too. Anyway, Tim Gunn is the best.
35. Have you ever tried archery?
I’m sad I can’t find pictures of this now but I was around 17 and on a family vacation in the Cotswolds, and we went to this mediaeval tournament (I want to say in Bath?) and one of the things you could do there was shoot a bow and arrow. One of my brothers really got into archery after that and even joined a club.
37. Favourite swear word?
I’m not that creative, so damn, shit, and fuck will have to do. (Shit is the one I’m most likely to use in both languages.)
39. Do you have any scars?
I have a bunch of tiny scars all over my body from times I’ve nicked or scraped myself during summer camps. I also have a series of white dots all over my upper body because I was that kid that kept scratching their chickenpox. My most noticeable scar is the one on my right shin right below my knee, which is a souvenir from the knee surgery I had three years ago. Apparently I also have the kind of skin that doesn’t scar “prettily” so that one’s purplish and kind of bulgy, but that’s never really bothered me.
41. Are you a good liar?
I can be, but I don’t do it often. Kid/teen me used to lie all the time but now I don’t really see the point in it anymore.
43. Can you do any accents other than your own?
Oh man. I can’t in English because my personal fabrication of an accent always slips through. I also find it really funny that people almost always assume I’m from the French-speaking part of Belgium when they hear me speak English. I blame the way I over-pronounce my Rs, though that’s actually a very Flemish thing to do because we have rolling Rs. As for Dutch, I’m from a more central region in Flanders, but I can somewhat mimic the accents from the eastern (Limburg) and western (West-Flanders) regions. They have rather distinct sounds. But in general, the only two I really have are just the way I pronounce Dutch and English.
52. Favourite food?
My grandma’s tomato soup. My dad’s spaghetti. My mom’s chicken mozzarella. My ex’s aunt’s macaroni. (Not to worry, she has a deli, so the most important relationship there is still intact.)
55. Most used phrase?
[Character] is the (new) light of my life.
59. Do you suck or bite lollipops?
YEAH OKAY. Just look at how blatantly Morgan wants me to say things she can oo-er later. Well, it depends on the lollipop. (Oh god.) Because with most of them, I always try to be a decent person and suck them first (I hate this), but it gets annoying after a while because they just stay in your mouth for so long (jfc) so then I usually start biting them. HOWEVER there’s one brand of lollipops I have no problem sucking (help me) but they’re the exception. Exceptional Lollipops. Not Like Other Lollipops.
60. Do you talk to yourself?
Hahahaha, all the time. IN ALL FAIRNESS, I still have to practice my English pronunciation regularly and whenever I have to give an oral presentation I act it out quite a few times beforehand too, which often comes with a lot of random tangents and “goddammit Ellis”s. I also tend to read my writing aloud to check if it sounds natural and comprehensible. That’s usually when I can spot awkward sentence structures and such. But to actually answer the question: I do that thing inside my head where I picture myself being interviewed (often there’s a second person in the chair next to me which ???? I want to make everything a group effort it seems) and that’s how I often think through my opinions on things.
64. Are you a gossip?
Yeah, I am. I talk a lot in general. HOWEVER, I want to clarify this because people tend to tell me a lot (I’m serious. It’s happened so often this year that I just asked someone in my class what’s up and I got their entire life story in return and I just sat there kind of shell-shocked), and I’m pretty good at sensing which things are serious/completely off-limits/they struggle with the most, and those are things I would never tell someone else, especially not for the sake of gossip. I also can’t do that thing my parents often do, where they discuss every single person on our street so to say, because it just makes me feel gross and I always get annoyed when that’s what dinner conversation turns into. So, I’m a responsible gossip? Sort of?
72. Are you scared of the dark?
Absolutely. I hate being home alone at night (let alone sleeping alone) and I’m very glad I have friends who even offer to walk with me when it’s late (say 3-5 AM) and I have to walk a few blocks. It’s gotten better the past few years though but the dark is usually when the “what if” horror scenarios start coming out.
74. Are you ticklish?
I try really hard not to show it because I’m stubborn like that. I fail every time.
79. Who was your first real crush?
Ha. I was in my final year of primary school (so, around 11?) and really liked this one friend. I told him, but he was into someone else, and the next day I get this note from his younger brother asking me if I wanted to get with him instead. That’s when my YA life officially began.
80. How many piercings do you have?
Zero. I was going to say something along the lines of “no holes except for” and then thought better of it.
83. How fast can you run?
Considering the shoes I usually wear, not very. I’ve always been more of a long distance runner than a fast runner because with long distance I’m just powered by a general refusal to not look like I can’t handle it. This is one of the reasons I miss high school gym class because my school was OBSESSED with running, which was obviously the worst at the time, but also caused me to be in much better physical condition than I am now.
87. Do you keep a journal?
I keep a reading journal! Well, I have a notebook with a few 2016 TBR lists and I was supposed to use it to keep track of my reading (+ thoughts) this year, but then life happened. I do keep the notes on my phone, so maybe transferring them will be a summer project. I can’t do a real journal, though. I’ve tried a few times when I was younger and every single time I quit within the week because I couldn’t handle how embarrassingly emo a person I actually am.
89. Do you like your age?
I’ve only been testing it out for a few days, but yeah, so far I like 24. DON’T LAUGH but I still think it all sounds very mature and grown-up and, surprisingly, that doesn’t really freak me out at the moment. (At. the. moment.) I’m also at a point in my life where I’m much more comfortable with myself, so that helps. I’ve figured out a lot about myself this year and while I still have moments when I can get really down or ridiculously insecure, I generally like who I am. So, it’s been a good year.
90. What makes you angry?
1. People who treat my friends like shit. That actually pisses me off so much more than when you’re being shitty to me and there’s a 0% chance I’ll be nice to you if you do this.
2. People with superiority complexes. Sort of related: people who act like they don’t care or like they’re above it all because (they think) it makes them look cool.
3. People who feel perfectly qualified to tell you who you are, especially because they’re almost always wrong about it too.
4. In all honesty? Weather above 25° C/75° F, probably. I’m terrible in heat (har har har).
91. Do you like your own name?
Yup. I like the way it looks. I like the way it sounds. I like the way I write it. And I especially like it when people’s phones autocorrect it to ELLIS because of all the emotional compromising I tend to do. It’s a good name.
97. Were your ancestors royalty?
Does village/farmer royalty count because in that case maybe. If not: hahahahahhaha.
99. What is the colour of your bedspread?
Currently fuchsia but I really should change my sheets so I’m going with the shades-of-blue-and-green-stripes one next.
Tagged:
- JUDITH. She wanted to join in on this post, but it was already so long because I’m me, sooooo she gets an entire grilling session of her own :D :D
- Sana @ Artsy Musings of a Bibliophile
- Dani & Jessie @ Ageless Pages Reviews
- Meg @ Cuddlebuggery
- Gillian @ Writer of Wrongs
- Lisa @ anabelsbrother
- Legit everyone who feels like casually oversharing. And PLEASE link me when you do because I love this.
If you’re tagged, you can choose to either answer the same questions I did or pick minimum 15 of the following questions: 1, 4, 6, 9, 12, 13, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 38 (this one’s very important), 40 (same), 42, 43, 50, 54, 57, 61, 63, 68, 75, 79, 81, 86 (no ulterior motives, I swear), 91, 94, 95. I’ll save you the scroll-up, so here’s the full list again.