We should have met years ago–Courtney and I graduated from the same university in the same year. I knew her name from alumni magazine columns. Courtney handled our class notes some months.

I had read her writing in publications like Self, Fast Company, People and the New York Times and wondered if it was the same Courtney. Indeed it was.

But it was only through Twitter that Courtney and I finally met in person. Thanks Twitter!

OneChicklette: Your favorite qualities in a love interest

@CourtneyBRubin: Clever, funny and thoughtful. And if he were tall I wouldn’t kick him out of bed for eating crackers, as a friend of mine used to say.

OneChicklette: Your chief characteristic (one word)

@CourtneyBRubin: Curious.

OneChicklette: What you appreciate most in your friends

@CourtneyBRubin: Sense of humor, and the ability to forgive a lot of shortcomings.

OneChicklette: Your idea of happiness

@CourtneyBRubin: Paid vacation.

OneChicklette: Your idea of misery

@CourtneyBRubin: Burpee box jumps. Also being forced to reread anything of mine that’s already been published (I always notice something I want to fix), and brunch in NYC. I also really dislike the word “brunch,” though the serious word-hater in the family is my twin sister @dianarubin, who cannot stand “breakfast” or “comfortable.” Of course I used to try to use them as often as possible.

[Editor’s note: I object to your brunch objection, and did not know you have a twin sister!]

OneChicklette: Your favorite fictional character

@CourtneyBRubin: I always come back to Ramona Quimby and Harriet M. Welsch – it’s just hard to match the enthusiasm I had for my childhood favorites. Lest it sound like I stopped reading then, Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair. I like a rebel.

OneChicklette: Your favorite thing to eat, and also to drink

@CourtneyBRubin: Anything made by one of my bestest friends @elizabethbard, author of the beautiful forthcoming memoir-with-recipes Picnic in Provence. But if you held a gun to my head and made me choose between her sausages with lentils and her husband’s strawberries and cream ice cream (not on Twitter, but here), I would tell you just to pull the trigger.

For drinks, champagne or – if I’m in London on the approximately one hot day a year there – Pimms. 

OneChicklette: Five tangible things you can’t live without

@CourtneyBRubin: Something to read, my iPhone, contact lenses, running shoes, and felt tip pens (though if it’s really important I’ve learned the hard way – which is to say, the spilling-a-drink-on-my-notebook-way — to write in less smudgeable ink or to type up immediately.)

OneChicklette: What’s the number one item on your bucket list? (question via @SaraLang)

@CourtneyBRubin: I finally learned to ski last year, which has been tops on the list for so long I’ve forgotten what else was on it.

@OneChicklette: Who do you know via social media that you’re dying to meet in real life? (this question came via @Tammy)

@CourtneyBRubin: Not sure what counts as “know”? A couple of replies? Then @Bookgirl96. I admire her fearlessness.

@OneChicklette: How many days do you think you would you go without speaking a single word, if you were being paid $100,000 a day for every consecutive day you didn’t speak? (this amazing question came via @BrianSpaeth)

@CourtneyBRubin: A friend of mine once went on a silent retreat and so dared me to go an entire day without speaking, which I did manage. (Not sure I ever collected my prize, come to think of it.) Now I work at home alone, which means if I don’t make the effort I could easily go at least a couple of days without speaking to anyone. So maybe six?

OneChicklette: via @AndiLavs What was the last kind thing you did?

@CourtneyBRubin: This morning I walked pretty far out of my way to take lost Russian tourists from Greenwich Avenue to Greenwich Street. I’ve spent more than my fair share of time nodding and smiling as people in foreign cities give me directions I realize I don’t actually understand.

OneChicklette: A question I should ask the next participant

@CourtneyBRubin: What’s the most recent thing you bought? (The craziest thing you’ve bought that you don’t regret?) What’s one phrase you overuse?

OneChicklette: Random shout out 

@CourtneyBRubin: My friend Oliver’s award-winning play The Tulip Tree just finished a run at Edinburgh Fringe, and will be having a run in London in April, should you find yourself there or want an excuse to make the trip.