Character Interview # 1 - Ivy

1. What is your name?
Ivalyn Margaret Matthews.

2. Why were you given that name?
It was my grandmothers’ (my mom’s mom was Ivalyn, my dad’s mom was Margaret)

3. Is there a nickname you’re known by? Do you prefer it?
Ivy. I hate being called Ivalyn, only my mother calls me that. Everyone else (without a huge stick up their ass) calls me Ivy

4. What is your birth date and current age?
September 23, 1982. I’m 27 years old

5. What, if anything, does your zodiac sign mean to you?
Nothing

6. What is your height, weight, and build?
I’m 5’9, I weigh about 140 pounds…build…average…I guess

7. What is your hair color and style, eye color, and skin tone?
I have brown hair and eyes, I’m kind of on the pasty side...(laughs) I do live in Seattle…my hair is long, on the curly/wavy side..

8. Do you have any scars, tattoos, piercings? What do they mean to you?
No

9. How much pride do you take in your appearance?
A lot. I like to look nice, it makes me feel more confident

10. How do you feel about your appearance? Favorite / most hated features?
I hate my eyes, they are the color of mud and just plain. I love my hair. It’s naturally curly, but not too curly..It’s perfect for me

11. What is your preferred style of clothing to wear?
I wear whatever is most comfortable. Some days it’s a pair of skinny jeans and a sweater, other days it’s a pencil skirt and ridiculously overpriced Christian Louboutins.

12. What is your preferred style of clothing for the opposite sex?
I like men to wear whatever they are comfortable in, but I won’t lie. A nice pair of jeans a black blazer and a colorful button up..To die for

13. Do you have a personal scent (perfume or cologne)? If yes, what?
Clinique Happy.

14. Who are your parents?
Rena Sophia Matthews
Nathan Grant Matthews

15. Do you have any siblings? If so, what are their names and ages?
Yes, an older sister. Her name is Victoria and she is 34.

16. Where do you currently live (town, neighborhood, locale)? Do you like it?
I live in Seattle, in the city. I love it. The city is alive with culture and personality, but it’s not too crowded like larger cities. It’s big without being impersonal

17. Did you choose to live there? If so, why? If not, why are you there?
I chose to live there. I’d gone to college in California, but came back because of a guy, but stayed because of me.

18. What sort of a home is it (castle, apartment, cardboard box)?
I live in an apartment…or a condo, depends on what you want to call it

19. With whom do you live? How do you feel about that person / people?
I live alone, just me and my plants and books and chick flicks

20. Do you have any pets?
Nope

21. What is your current job title / social station / rank?
Owner/Fabric buyer, Two Red Birds

22. How do you feel about this role?
I like it. I love my job, and my company.

23. How do you think your colleagues would describe you?
They’d say I’m a bitch but it’s only because I don’t take any crap or excuses. You were hired to do a job and you’re expected to do it. If you can’t do it then you need to find a job you can do.

24. What has been your education / training for this role?
Four years of college and a lot of trial and error. Things haven’t always been the greatest at TRB but slowly we built our reputation from the ground up.

25. What is your ultimate professional or life goal?
I’m doing it.

26. Who is your best friend? Describe them briefly.
Allie is my best friend. She’s quirky and tough, but sweet as pie too. She’s the kind of person who would do anything for you because she could.

27. Who is your biggest rival / enemy? Describe them briefly.
Myself. I tend to doubt myself, even when I know I can do it.

28. What is your greatest talent?
My ability to find things others have trouble finding.

29. What are you the most hopeless at?
Anything to do with technology. I am a technological retard

30. What are your hobbies? Why are they important to you?
I like to read. I used to sew, but not so much anymore. I like to read because it offers and escape from the real world and sometimes it’s nice to get away for a little while.

31. What, if anything, do you do to keep fit and healthy?
I watch what I eat…most of the time

32. How would you spend an unexpected day off?
Probably at the bookstore or a cafe

33. What sort of vehicle / transportation do you rely on?
Jaguar XK

34. What is your favorite food, drink, musical artist, song, and movie / play?
Favorite food: Chinese food
Drink: White chocolate mocha espresso
Musical Artist: She & Him
Song: Take It Back – She & Him
Movie: Message in a Bottle
Play: Rent

35. Do you belong to a religious group? How important is it to you?
No

36. What is your favorite or most dreaded holiday? Why?
Any that requires I spend time with my family. I don’t get along with my mother or my sister so it’s always uneasy being around them

37. Is your family currently close? Are they a source of support or stress?
No. My sister and my mother are close, I’m close-ish with my dad, but not especially close.

38. Have you ever been abused? If so, how? How do you feel about it now?
No

39. How deeply does your job / social role define you as a person?
I don’t think it does, some might say that it does, but I disagree.

40. Do you have strong political leanings or affiliations?
No

41. Whom would you contact first to share good news?
Allie. She’s my best friend and she would always be excited to hear my good news.

42. What is your relationship status at the start of the story?
I was single at the beginning of my story.

43. Describe your past relationships. How many? Who? Why did they end?
I had a lot of past relationships. A lot of them weren’t really important, they were just brief flings. My last long term relationship was with Rex. We dated for five years. I met him at an art show. A friend of a friend of a clients (or something like that) invited Allie to a show, and she asked me along. He was beautiful, standing there with a delicate glass of champagne in his hand, his dark curly hair sat disheveled on his head. Then he turned and smiled at me. I felt like a family of butterflies had just hatched in my stomach, then he walked over to me and asked me if I’d like to have a drink with him. It was all downhill from there until five years later he broke up with me because our relationship was old, and the stripper, tulip – or daisy – was more interesting.

44. How do you think your exes would describe you?
I think each one would describe me differently because I knew them all at different points of my life. If you asked Rex to describe me he might say that I was fun and knew who to have a good time, but that as the years went by I didn’t want to go out as much as I used to, that my life changed and I started to mature.

45. How do you feel about money?
I think money isn’t important. Necessary yes, but important no. I make a lot of money so it’s easy to say okay yeah, of course, she’d say that but it’s seriously not true.

46. Do you have any irrational fears / phobias?
No

47. What is your worst habit / vice?
I like chick flicks probably way more than any person should

48. How would you treat yourself if you came down with the flu?
Stay in bed, lots of fluids and rest..

49. What is your most cherished possession?
I have a stuffed bear, gray in color, whose name is Corduroy. My dad gave him to me when I was just a little girl. I took him everywhere with me, even to college, and I still have him, in a box in my closet.

50. Are you shy or social? How do you feel about attending parties?
I’m pretty social. I can handle an occasional party, but I don’t like to party.

51. How do you feel about being the center of attention?
I don’t have a problem with it, circumstances permitting, but I don’t need to be the center of attention, I’m perfectly content living in the limelight.

52. What makes you blush?
(Chuckles to self) talking about sex…or affection or anything that is embarrassing or uncomfortable.

53. Have you undergone any dramatic physical transformations in your life?
No

54. How do you feel, generally, about the opposite sex?
Men are somewhat bizarre, it’s hard to find a good man, but when you do, you gotta hang on to him.

55. How do you feel about romance at the start of the story?
I was a little jaded I think, I was mad that Rex left me for someone younger, or prettier or chestier…I knew there was someone out there for me I just felt like I’d never find him…

56. How do you feel about sex at the start of the story?
I felt seriously undersexed, which is funny because talking about sex embarrasses me…and it’s funny because my story starts with Allie and I perusing the ‘net for vibrators.

57. How do you feel about children? Do you have / want to have your own?
I love kids, I don’t have any but I definitely want some

58. What do you dislike most about your life? What is missing?
I don’t think I dislike anything about my life…its pleasant and comfortable. I think what was missing was Jude…after I met him, he sort of completed the picture…if I had to say I disliked anything it would be the fact that he is leaving.

59. What would you like your life to look like in twenty years?
I’d like to be married and have some kids, you know, settle down somewhere quiet, maybe away from the city

60. What crisis are you facing at the start of the story?
Well, at the start of the story I’m dealing with Rex, who just broke up with me, and the fact that I’m 27 and single. Then I meet Jude who’s getting ready to go to Iraq for a year…

61. What makes this crisis such a challenge for you in particular?
Well, at 27, most women are ready to start thinking about settling down, but for me, the person I wanted to settle down with just left me. Then I meet this incredible man who literally sweeps me off my feet and he’s going to a war zone. It’s incredibly unpredictable. I could fall in love with him, and he could die…

62. How would you define ‘power’?
I define power as the ability to make an intelligent decision. I have to have the knowledge to make the right decisions and being able to do that gives me power.

63. Do you consider yourself a moral / ethical person?
Yes. I always try to do what is right, not just for me, but for everyone my decisions will affect.

64. What would you never do, no matter the price?
Murder. Steal, rape, pillage, kidnap.

65. What do you believe happens when you die?
I think your soul just kind of floats away. I think you see what will happen to all those that you love and then you just…drift away..

66. What makes your stomach turn?
Ugh, those nasty reality shows where people eat nasty stuff, child molesters, and people who kill simply because they can.

67. What makes your blood boil?
Ignorance. Everyone is afforded the same chances in their lives, some people reject those chances, and others make something out of nothing. I can’t stand to hear someone who complains about life when they’ve done nothing to make their lives better.

68. How would you behave when cornered / bullied?
I stand my ground.

69. Who has hurt you the worst in your life, and how?
My mother, we’ve never seen eye to eye and it hurts because she always expects me to walk in her shoes but she refuses to try to walk in mine.

70. Have you forgiven them? Could you ever?
No. I hope one day I can.

71. Who have you hurt the worst?
I don’t know. No one I think, but if I have hurt someone, they’ve never told me.

72. What is your biggest character defect?
I’m wary. I want to be happy, but I feel as if maybe I don’t deserve it. I have trouble being happy

73. How hard is it to for you admit when you’re wrong?
It’s hard. I hate being wrong and I work hard to ensure that I’m not

74. What was your first impression of the hero(ine)?
Oh la la. He was like a candy bar for the eyes. Then I got to know him and he was like chocolate for my soul. I thought maybe he was just another guy, here for a time then off to do whatever.

75. How accurate was this first impression?
Oh, I was wrong. He was more than just some guy.

76. What revelation surprised you most about him/her?
That he was a marine

77. What would you most like to change about him/her?
That he’s a marine

78. What makes him/her the best possible partner for you?
The fact that he not only listens to me, but he hears me. He sees the real me. And he knows things that not many people pick up on. We can sit in silence and be comfortable, and he’s easy to be around.

79. What makes him/her the worst possible partner for you?
The fact that he’s going to go away for a year. And the fact that he lives across the country. Distance and time is going to make this the hardest part for us.

80. What do you most agree on?
Nothing and everything which is odd, but we have our own ideas and beliefs and they are so different that there the same.

81. What do you doubt you could ever agree on?
Hmm…I don’t know.

82. What has he/she changed your mind about since you met?
Everything…

83. What song reminds you of him/her?
Sweater Song by Hedley

84. How would you define the word ‘love’?
The ability to be consumed by a feeling so deep that it swallows you whole and it makes you unable to think about anything other than that person..

85. Why should the reader care about your story?
I’m a women, women feel insecure or successful and they feel loved and in love, we feel wanted and desired and we all know that sex isn’t like it is in the movies, its awkward and fun and its messy and we don’t all make cheesy porno faces and come every single time. My story could be your story or your friend’s story. It’s real and its life….it’s something that could happen to anyone.