Getting Personal is an email Q&A with a local personality. Here, Melissa Merli chats with Champaign resident Joi Hoffsommer, who teaches theater and film classes at Parkland College. The actress also teaches the Alexander Technique. Getting Personal appears first in print, in Sunday editions of The News-Gazette. Coming in the Oct. 9 newspaper: .Meg Dickinson chats with Dan Ditchfield, 37, of Urbana, Central Illinois Business Magazine’s Forty under 40 Man of the Year.

What time do you typically get up? What do you do the first hour of the morning?

Between 6 and 6:30 a.m. Because he is the reason I am up at 6 or before, I put the dog out, then make coffee, make lunch for my teenager to take to school, usually wait my turn for our one and only bathroom and get ready for work.

What did you have for lunch today? Where? With whom?

Pasta with spinach sauted in garlic. The pasta was prepackaged, but the spinach was fresh. At home. The dog.

What is your best high school memory?

Sitting out on the south steps of the school talking forever with my best friend, James.

Tell me about your favorite pair of shoes.

Right now? Olive green Lands End trekkers.

What does a perfect Sunday afternoon include?

If the weather is great, a walk. Ideally through Turkey Run State Park with friends.

Was there one book you read as a child that you still cherish? Own? Read?

When I was 12, I read 'Jane Eyre.' I now have it on my eReader. I just read it again last spring break.

Where on earth are you dying to go? Why?

Tuscany. The same high school friend, James, was there a couple of summers ago and wrote long, lyrical emails to me about this small village he stayed in.

Tell me about your favorite pet.

Nicky, the miniature schnauzer. He's our one and only right now. He's a great little guy and my special pal.

Have you discovered as you matured that you are becoming like one of your parents? Which one and how?

I sure am. More and more like Mom. I started realizing it after I had kids and her words would come out of my mouth. Fortunately, most of them are things I don't regret saying. She's a pretty good mom.

What would you order for your last meal?

There are so many, but, tonight, really great mole chicken enchiladas with guacamole salad. Ice-cold sangria. Dark chocolate flourless cake with fresh raspberries and a cup of great coffee with real cream.

What can you not live without?

Friends.

Whom do you have on your iPod?

Current fav is Elsinore. Also love Alison Krauss.

What's the happiest memory of your life?

There are three. Holding each of my three boys after they were born.

If you could host a dinner party with any three living people in the world, whom would you invite?

Hillary Clinton, Mel White and Dame Judith Dench.

What's the best advice you've ever been given?

It's OK to have a bad day, and don't forget to apologize after you've had one.

What's your best piece of advice?

Look for what is admirable and fascinating in others. I have to take this advice, not just give it.

What was your first job, and how much did you make an hour?

Besides working in the fields on my parents'  farm, my first real paying job was at a plastics factory one summer, the eight-hour graveyard shift, stuffing a variety of 10 plastic combs into bags and putting them on a conveyor belt. Minimum wage, whatever that was back then. Working in the fields was like a vacation after that.

What was a pivotal decision in your career, and how did you arrive at that decision?

I had planned on living in a larger city where I could find acting work. When my husband got a job at the UI, I had to come to terms with staying here in Champaign-Urbana indefinitely. I decided to try to make a place for myself. Carve out a niche if I could. It's taken most of my adult life so far, but I feel I've finally done something like that.

Do you have a bad habit? What is it?

When I read, I can't stop. I don't do anything else. I have to limit myself to only picking up a book when I am away on vacation or have several days off in a row. Otherwise, nothing else gets done.

How do you handle a stressful situation?

I try to breathe deeply. I try to remember that it's probably not all about me. I try to think before I speak. Wouldn't it be nice if I could always remember these things?