You can take a picture of something you see...

I've spent much of the evening playing around with blog quizzes. To me, those hold the same fascination as horoscopes - I don't put stock in them, or believe they'll be accurate, but I get a kick out of seeing whether they get anything right at all. Tonight I've learned, among other things:

1. my aura is blue (I could see that...);
2. of the Sex and the City ladies, I'm most like Carrie (which is what most people tell me anyway);
3. were I a cup of coffee, I'd be a cappucino - outgoing with strong opinions and seemingly complex, but in reality, easy to please;
4. my inner pop princess is Beyonce;
5. and if my life were a John Cusack movie, it would be High Fidelity (which is actually the most likely...).

Most of them, rather accurate. Whether it's because the questions I answered were go generic that even a monkey could live a Cusack movie, or if there's something to it, who knows. After spending far too much time doing this, there's a bigger question here for me.

Why on earth does this fascinate my idle brain so.... What is it about these little pithy quizzes that makes me sit down, embrace my mouse, and click away a few precious minutes? Is it the idea that my answers to a handful of questions will result in an answer that sums up my essence better than I've been able to do in my years on the earth? Or is it the hope that I'll learn something about myself in these pithy little answers?

This is actually something that's been on my mind a lot this week - why certain things fascinate us so, while others could pass us by entirely and we'd never be the wiser. Last week, spring made an early appearance in my corner of the world. For two days, women donned tank tops and men sported shorts. Tops went down (on cars, sillies... get your minds out of the gutter!) and wind ruffled hairdos across the south.

One of those days, I had my windows rolled down and decided to pop in a mix CD I made a few months ago. It starts off with a good tempo - Lionel Hampton to Train "Get to Me" to Coldplay - but from there, it takes a turn I never really noticed before. Alicia Keys, Eva Cassidy, Sarah McLachlan, Bruce Springsteen, Jackopierce, Norah Jones, Van Morrisson...I was obviously in a piano and guitar mood when I made this mix.

Piano...acoustic guitar...violin. Three of the sexiest instruments out there. Not so much in their shapes (especially pianos) but in their sounds. I can't even describe it, but there's just something about the tone of a string, resonating in the wood that I find to be a plaintive call to my own heart and emotions. Whether it's a slow ballad on the piano or a lone note drawn out on a violin, or the not-so-polished sounds of a guitar, there's something in each of those sounds that resonates within me. Something that can draw me into music like nothing else.

But what is it? Why can small things like that, or a web quiz, or the flicker of a candle's flame draw me in so easily and send my mind pondering so many things, but the bigger picture - the day to day, the things that I need to think about, can not seem to elbow their way in when I need them to? Random questions.

Random questions are over for now...time to go to bed.