20-ish questions with Gary

I think I might’ve done a Q&A with Gary (Susan’s husband) before, but I can’t find it. And in any case, I probably need to get to know him better anyway, per FC’s and BostonErin’s smart comments on one of my last posts.

So, here goes…

1. How old are you? 33
2. What do you do? I work in real estate. I survey land for investors to see whether it’d be a good spot to build on, how much it’s worth, etc.
3. What would you prefer to be doing? Building the houses myself.
4. Who do you love? My wife. Though I can’t seem to figure out how to convince her of that. Speaking of my wife, my creator here can’t figure out exactly what our problem is. Is there some sort of cheating/betrayal of trust going on? I don’t think so because if there were, I think Susan’s reaction to her mother cheating would be really bad. So what could our problem be? Obviously there are lots of potential things to break up a marriage. Ours seems to be one sided—Susan is feeling the problem, I’m not. Is it something I do? Like what? Criticize her too much. Drink too much? Do I want to have a baby and she doesn’t? Or vice versa? Maybe that’s it.
5. Any regrets? I had a bit of a wild teen/early adulthood—sleeping around a lot, etc. But I don’t regret it exactly. I do regret the barbed wire tattoo ring on my arm. What was I thinking?
6. Dogs or cats? Dogs. I want the kind that can ride in my pickup with me to jobs. Maybe this is another sore point between me and Suse. She doesn’t want one.
7. What's your biggest fear? I’m not afraid of much. Though I’d hate to lose Suse.
8. What are you going to do to make sure that doesn't happen? Give her some space. She seems to need to figure this out on her own.
9. What is your favorite word?
10. What is your least favorite word? Secret
11. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Driving with the windows down, the radio turned up, a cigarette in my mouth.
12. What turns you off? Yuppies. Especially the idea that me and Suse might ever end up as them.
13. What is your favorite curse word? I like em all.
14. What sound or noise do you love? Any sort of machine noise: lawnmowers, jackhammers, cars. That’s why I love living in the city
15. What sound or noise do you hate? Quiet. I can’t think when there’s no noise.
16. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? I’d like to sail around the world.
17. What profession would you not like to do? Office work

Interesting. He is much more of a "guy-guy" than I originally assumed him to be. FC had commented before about how I should imagine what Brian would do to get more into a man's head. But this Gary couldn't be further from my Brian! I like Gary anyway. :) This will give me some good insights for when I revise those scenes below.