Here is the prompt from over at RevGalBlogPals:

Advent blessings to you!
Our Friday Five today is taken from a small lucite box of questions called “Table Topics” that someone gave me.   They are supposed to be discussion starters at all of the dinner parties one gives.   I think some of them are fun, so here they are:

1. In what era would you most like to have grown up, and what would be your occupation?
Had I grown up in almost any other era than my own,  my opportunities as a woman would have been limited, certainly in terms of occupation.  So I am thankful to have been born when I was and am thankful for the women who were born in previous eras and who prepared the way for me.
I know it didn’t end well for any of these women, but I studied a lot of 17th and 18th Century English and French History. So maybe my occupation could have been witch? Ladies Maid? Courtesan? Model for Delacroix? So many choices.

Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix

2. What fashion trend you followed was very cool then but now looks ridiculous?
As a child of the 80’s, this is going to be difficult to narrow down. Thankfully, few pictures from that era are digitized, so you’ll have to use your imagination. But we can talk about perms. Trying to make my stick-straight hair curly was an exercise in futility and bad taste.
I also wore a silver lame´ dress to prom with a large bow on the shoulder.

This captures both bad hair and bad clothing

3.  If you could work as an assistant to anyone for a year who would you choose?
Let’s be clear–I would make an awful assistant to anyone because I am way too bossy. But, if I could choose, I’m trying to focus on writing–being more disciplined, writing more, writing better, etc–so I will volunteer to be an assistant for Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize winning author and native Idahoan. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled.

4. What did you get in most trouble for when you were young?
Other than being willfull and defiant? My room was always a mess, but I suspect it was my strong personality in a house full of very nice people that caused the most trouble.

5.  What are the redeeming qualities of the person you most dislike? 
I don’t honestly keep a list of people I most dislike, so it is difficult to come up with a candidate. But the person who has been the most difficult for me to be around lately does have a big heart and all of the chaos from them originates from good intentions and wanting to be helpful.