Interview with Marye Audet

1. Tell us a little about yourself. I am a SAHM of eight kids.Two are grown and away. Marc and I have been married 27 years and people literally still assume we are newlyweds. We have been in the process of trying to restore a turn of the century house for 5 years. It is 4300 square feet of potential. It had been abandoned and was a major mess. It still has a long way to go, but someday it will be beautiful. I love to cook, spend time with the kids, work with the horses, paint and craft and many other things. I was a Czechoslovakian linguist in the military, even holding a top secret clearance, studied French for 8 years, and enjoy languages and linguistics very much. I make lots of spelling mistakes, not because of my bad spelling but because of my awful typing! My head goes much too fast for my hands. :) I am (obviously) very concerned about environmental issues, social issues, and self sufficiency. I like to say that this garners me the most schizophrenic award because I am also uber-conservative and the two don't usually mesh in the same room, let alone the same person. Marc says that is what makes me interesting...and challenging...my kids say it is what makes me weird. I think that it is what makes me balanced, intriguing, fascinating, and unpredictable.
2. What brought you to HubPages? The desire to do more writing. I have several homeschooling/foodie/homesteading blogs..and even a Bible Study blog where I teach, but I didn't have anywhere where I could write serious articles about the things I was most concerned about.
3. What do you like Hubbing on, with respect to topics? I like environmental and homesteading issues the best. I like for people to really think about how they are living and decide if that is what they really want. Life is short. Our choices need to be creme de la creme. I think of my job as encouraging people to eat the whipped cream off the top of the desserts and leave the less engaging parts behind. By making definite, purposeful choices we move on toward our futures with strength and purpose rather than drifting. Analyzing our lives, lifestyles, basic beliefs is an important part of learning to choose only the best and most interesting.
4. What has been your best Hub so far (in your opinion)? Why? One of the least popular, Veteran's Health Care & Benefits. I like it because it tells what it really is like to deal with the VA on a regular basis. The frustrations, the red tape, the lack of staffing. Illegal aliens in our area have access to much better healthcare and quicker health care than my husband who is a disabled vet. Many people don't think about that. I also like it because it has ideas for making a difference, as well as a challenge to spend some time at the closest VA hospital observing and talking to the people there. I believe each of us has a responsibility to make a difference in someone's life.
5. What is your favorite Hub by another Hubber? Why? I love the one by CGull8m about Beethoven helping crops grow. It is off the wall information like that that makes Hubpages what it is—a place where you find some of the most unique information anywhere.
6. What is one nice thing about HubPages (the site) that many might not know? It is community. I was surprised that it was more than just a bunch of writers sitting around writing but that each took the time to get to know the others, to encourage, and to joke with. That is what makes it work, I think.
7. Name one thing you learned about from another Hubber's Hub that you didn't know about before. HA! I learned that I need to get a larger size thigh high stocking so it would go a bit higher for a leaner look to my leg..Thanks Isabella! Made all the difference.
8. What kind of Hubber do you typically join the Fan Club of? Why? Someone that deals with home/family issues. Because I believe that a nation is only as strong as the families within it. I like to think about how to make myself a better wife and mother.
9. If you could impart one piece of advice to a new Hubber, what would that be? Use spell check?
10. Tell us something that we'd never guess about you—surprise us! Gosh..I have told you all everything..I am pretty boring. I am ambidexterous (more so when I was younger) and used to be able to write with both hands at the same time. I can't do that anymore but I can still mirror-write as well as I can write regularly. When I was in high school I was a bit of a rebel, and one of my teachers really made me mad on an issue of ethics (my down fall, I can't stand unethical anything) and I wrote an entire term paper in mirror writing. Of course he couldn't read it and gave me a failing grade. My dad went up to the school and dealt with the principal, and had me hold the paper up to the mirror to show the principal that I had indeed written my term paper,and that it was 20 pages of backwards written perfection. When the principal argued that it couldn't be read, my father read it aloud. When the principal argued that it was written backwards I pointed out that the syllabus never said it couldn't be. I got an A+