Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Ten (only semi-) Interesting Things


Patti passed this on to me, and since Patti's been hanging around this blog for YEARS, I figured I owed it to her to not let it die on my watch.

(I will say, because I always have to add some sort of parenthetical comment, that the misspelling, even as purposed as it presumably is, bothers me. Putting a grammatically incorrect badge on my blog?? Oh the horror!)

Okay - on the the requirements. I'm suppose to list ten interesting things about myself. Seriously?? Ten?? Who came up with this idea? And if you are so Kreativ, you should have chosen a more Kreativ number, like say 11. Or seven. A prime number. Something not as cliche and even as ten. That is SO not Kreativ.

Okay, here we go.

1. All the canned goods in my pantry are facing perfectly evenly face out, labels aligned. My boxes also are all faced a certain way. It feels very "Sleeping with the Enemy" but if I don't keep them that way, I feel all itchy. I also straighten the towels so they are even.

2. I like the smell of skunks.

3. I am stupidly awkward about talking about my writing. If people ask about my published book, I blush, I mumble, I manage to say something wishy-washy about it and then switch the subject. I suspect I will never be good at marketing myself.

4. I am obsessive. About most things. Except cleaning the house. For instance, when I began reading Raymond Carver's short story collection, I had to find out everything I could about him. I spent two entire days online reading his biographies, his interviews, his poetry, people's blogs about him, his famous quotes, his tombstone.

5. If I read historical fiction, I end up reading more research about the time period than there are pages in the actual book. Possibly this goes along with #4.

6. When I write an update on Facebook, I sometimes think, "If I die, this will be the last thing I post here, and for years it will hang around as a reminder to people that this is what I was doing or thinking, and this is what they will remember about me." Sometimes I change what I wrote because of that.

7. One of my very most favorite things to do is to watch my son play percussion in band. When I was a kid, I got the feeling that all of the adults were just there because they had to be there. But I really want to be there. I would not rather be anywhere else. And I am totally and utterly amazed at him.

8. I can run 8 miles in an hour on an elliptical but can't run one mile on a treadmill without stopping and gasping for breath. This baffles me.

9. I dance in my kitchen while I am cooking or doing dishes. I dance with my kids before they go to bed. I cannot, for the life of me, dance outside my home. It's like I completely freeze, I have no rhythm, and am totally self-conscious. In the words of Dudley from Wild Hogs, "The music moves me, but it moves me ugly."

10. I think about putting a surveillance camera over our kitchen table to tape our dinners. We eat as a family every night, and we do much more laughing than eating. The stories, the jokes, the songs.... I wish I could capture that, to play over and over when the kids are grown and gone. It is one of my favorite times of day. (and it helps that all of my kids love vegetables!)

So there you have it.

I'm supposed to pass this on, so here's a few of the many bloggers that I love.

Heidi the Hick
Holly Bowne
Laurel Garver
Cindy Wilson
Jessie Oliveros

11 comments:

  1. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to post an update on facebook again. Oh, the pressure.

    I would love to have a surveillance camera in our house to capture all the great moments as my kids grow up and then some one splice and cut them then add music, so I can see my life as a musical montage.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1. I too, have a "sleeping with the enemy" feel to my pantry. It's just HAPPY that way.
    2. I think they stink, but part of me sort of gets that.
    3.I'm SLOWLY getting better - mostly because Mike introduces me to everyone as his author wife, lol. It's still so WEIRD.
    4. I get obsessive, too. I jump in w/ both feet into everything I find interesting.
    5. uhhh.... I USED to before kids. Now it hurts my brain, and I know that I'll love it again someday, but not now.
    6. I will now be self-conscious every time I update my fbook status...
    7. LOVE to watch my kids doing things they love
    8. I HEAR ya, lol. Uses different muscles... I'm opposite btw. I can do several miles on the street or a treadmill, but just an elliptical the other day and it KILLS me.
    9. Yep. MUST HAVE MUSIC TO WORK IN KITCHEN. Can't have music and not DANCE, lol
    10. We eat as a family most nights. I want to video reading to my kids at night, they say the craziest things, and we have a blast.

    WOW. I KNOW you didn't need all that, but I TOTALLY get everything you talked about. We really do have to find a way to get together one of these days...

    ReplyDelete
  3. I loved all these. And I'm obsessive about lots of things, but not about a clean house! Unless I'm in the mood...when we first moved into our new (rental) house, I cleaned like mad and everything had to be "just so." We've been in there nearly a year and yeah, that cleaning attitude did not last.

    ReplyDelete
  4. How fun to learn more about you. Skunks, though? Hmm...:) My pantry is all nice and organized, too. Sometimes I open it just to look at how nice and organized it is, then wish the rest of my house could look like that. Thanks for the award!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Too funny! I can run a mile on the treadmill, but get me on pavement? Pul-ease! It gets ugly. Really ugly. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey! My name's on here!! Thanks!

    And I was laughing our loud at some of your ten things. My cans are all in neat rows with the labels facing front as well! I differ however in that I will dance anywhere, any time and ESPECIALLY if I'm standing in a boring grocery line beside one of my kids. (BOY, do they get annoyed with me!)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'll do it! But not today because I just blew two hours on the internet and I have got to get outside!!!!

    I totally agree about the school band. I love watching my kids perform. I think they're brilliant.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Re: #6. I'm so glad I didn't die after my FB post: "Only 4 more days to Monday..." That would've been embarrassing.

    You earn permanent points from me for quoting Wild Hogs :)

    I'd love to videotape our meals too. There is a lot of talking and not so much eating. I think my daughter has so many ideas running through her head she can't keep them from spilling out.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm quite obsessive myself. The towels must be folded and lined up just so. And I cannot let go of a problem until I've figured it out. I feel really strange when I tell people I'm writing a book. Dunno why.

    ReplyDelete
  10. #2 and #6 surprise me. Love the smell of skunks? I run hiding when I do. And I never thought that my last words might be there on Facebook. Hmmm.
    You answered these like a writer. Detailed and fun!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great, Heidi, now I'm going to have that same thought every time I post on facebook or twitter. UGH!

    I have one question...How did you find out you liked the smell of skunks?

    ReplyDelete