...and the Friday Five! For others who are interested, the Friday Five link is found in my sidebar, under the heading "Places to Wander"

If you...

1. ...owned a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?

Oh, I've dreamed about this one for years and years. Ever since I was 18 and sauteed my first chicken breast in olive oil and garlic with a touch of red pepper flakes and served it over angel hair and spinach. I did that all in a small dorm room in an electric fry pan, being watched over by a good friend who said "Annie, you're so smart - if you can read, you can cook!" He couldn't eat the food served by the college (it made him sick) so he picked up a cookbook and went to town.

Ah, I digress as I am wont to do. Stream of consciousness and all that. I would serve comfort food - middle American and Italian. We'd have your pot roast and chicken and dumplings on the menu right next to your lasagne, hearty spaghetti (handmade) and meatballs... baked tomato risotto, and traditional risotto milanese on Monday nights... as a side to Chicken Parmigiana.

...and maybe there would be the occasional surprise special of my enchiladas or lemon chicken just for a little flair to break the monotony...

There would be the soups and maybe one or two salads. Drinks of the soda and non-soda variety of course... I don't know about a liquor license, but I'd probably have to have one since I would be using wines in a variety of creative sauces.

And, of course, there is the desserts. Oh my, the desserts that I would have soooo much fun with. It's so hard deciding whether or not I'd take a comfy diner route or attempt to hit a more upscale clientele... and whether to stay as owner/manager, or take a chef's role. After all, there are so many interesting roles in the professional kitchen - saucier, patisserie, sous chef (yes, good ones don't always get scut work and often create some spectacular things), or executive chef... *sigh*

2. ...owned a small store, what kind of merchandise would you sell?

It would have to be a stitching store. No doubt or question about it, and I'd carry all the lines that I love - fabrics and threads alike. DMC and Anchor would also be in evidence, as well as hand dyed fabrics and threads. Dragon designs would prevail, but there would also be the customary little things that people love - Just Nan, Lizzie*Kate, and Sweetheart Tree...

Comfy armchairs and long tables, good lighting. Stitchers would always be welcome to have a sit and stay awhile. I'm tempted to state that I'd be a bit like my favorite store Needle in a Haystack, but I know I'd be different. Sure, I'd have a kitchenette area built in for tea and snacks, and maybe a small area for children (if I could get a space that's big and profitable enough) but I would probably be carrying a lot of things that they don't, and thus, the differentiation. And location... I'd stay in my current location, which is about an hour's drive away from them.

3. ...wrote a book, what genre would it be?

Since I've already started writing two books over the years, this one's an easy one. Psychological thriller. I love messing with readers' minds, as well as my own. More thrill than police procedural, and told from three viewpoints rather seamlessly - the victim, the investigator, and the evil presence.

Once you get a hang of how to switch viewpoint of people who are in the same room, it's very easy (and dizzy sometimes) to switch between them all. I have about two chapters written of each, and full outlines of the rest of the story (except, sadly, the endings). I even have snippets of conversations that should occur in the story in a couple of different files.

The unfortunate part is that they're all in my laptop, and I don't know if that puppy is still working. I'll need to get it on my home network and boot it up one last time to transfer everything of worth onto my desktop computer. I would sure hate to lose that .wav file of A saying "hi mommy".

I don't know that I'll ever go back and finish them - there's an awful lot of research that would need to be done, and there's children to be raised, a house to be cleaned, work to be done, stitching to be fondled and enjoyed - it would probably be about 5 years before I could have something that would resemble a first full draft. *sigh* I'm happy to dream about it though.

4. ...ran a school, what would you teach?

The usuals - reading, writing, arithmetic, history, science... and the not-so-usuals: stitching, crafting, ceramics, cartooning, singing (all forms), and music. Not special afterschool type classes like my kids have at their school, but an actual class as part of the curriculum.

Unconventional? Yes. Unrealistic? Perhaps. But you asked.

5. ...recorded an album, what kind of music would be on it?

Ooooh. That's a hard one. I like so many different types of music, and I like singing them all. Vocal challenges are right up my alley, and I'll work and work on something so that I get the cadence of it just right before I work my vocal tones into that. I'd have to say it would be a rather eclectic collection of at least two a capella songs, some Chicgo-style rock (horn based), and maybe a touch of country crossover rock (a la early Eagles)

Of course, that's a moot point since no one really likes my singing voice anymore except me and B, and therefore I'd never get a deal. That and despite my light voice I can't sing soprano without hurting something in my throat. Comes from having a choral instructor in high school who decided I was a hidden soprano, though I am clearly an alto voice. I couldn't sing for a year after her classes because my throat hurt too much.

Thankfully, despite her, I never lost the love of singing.

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So, that's the Friday Five for this week... I don't always do the Five, because I'm not always entranced with the questions, so sometimes you'll get these short essays and other times you'll get a full on discourse based on one of the questions (like the Saturday morning cartoon question of a couple of weeks ago). Either way, I hope you enjoyed today's efforts.

Have a great weekend!