Tuesday will be Proust day. Seems fitting.

I will tackle the next five questions:

6. What is your greatest extravagance?

Oddly, the two things that immediately spring to mind are coffee and wine. I guess that means I am a drinker.

First, coffee. I will admit it, I am a secret coffee snob. We have a standing order from Green Mountain Coffee that comes every 5-6 weeks filled with aromatic treasures like Sumatran Reserve, Guatemalan, and Costa Rica Peaberry. All of these beautiful little beans are processed through our rather fancy, schmancy grind and brew Cuisinart coffee maker. Truth be told, while I consider my coffee an extravagance it is really considerably less expensive than my old habits of paying $5 every day for a cup of coffee retail.

Okay, now wine. I love wine, red in particular. My husband is quite the oenophile and turned me on to drinking old wines, French and Italian variatels. One of the best wines I’ve ever tasted was the 1989 Chateau Mouton Rothschild we had on our honeymoon while dining in Florence, Italy. We’ve visited Bordeaux and the first growth Chateaus, sipping barrel samples of wines as magnificent as Chateau Leoville Las Cases while my husband tried to communicate with the winemaker in his high school French. We have a nice sized wine cellar in our house filled with bottles from California, Oregon, Italy, France and every region where they can take those tiny pieces of ripe fruit and turn it into something truly worth savoring.

7. What is your current state of mind?
Right now I am feeling very scattered. I am brimming with new ideas and stories. Hunting agents is very distracting to the process. Winter makes me antsy, I want sunshine and a long walk without the slush and snow for a chance to clear my head. I feel hopeful today, determined.

8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Hmmm. This one is hard. I get all tangled up in the concept of virtue, how can a virtue be overrated? If pressed for an answer I would say bravery. I appreciate the ability to meet challenges but doing it without fear? Maybe that just means you aren’t afraid of the right things. I think bravery can just be ignorance in disguise.

9. On what occasion do you lie?
In general I try not to. I value honesty, but I do fall victim to the white lies. When I can’t bear to hurt someone’s feelings, or when I don’t want to reveal my feelings.
“How are you?” someone will ask.
“Fine,” I reply, without even considering the truth.

10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
Right now I struggle with my body image in that way that all women must after having a baby. I’m carrying around extra weight, those five pounds that I can’t shake loose.