Eleventy-seven Questions

A little while ago Gill from Mojo Writin (Bright Blessings) tagged me to do this eleven-tag thing.  Being the colossal procrastinator that I am, I totally forgot about it kind of pushed it aside, until today, when I saw Beth (Word Nerd Speaks) take on this tag from about eleventy bajillion people.

Since today is pretty much a lazy day for me, I figured it might be fun to actually do it.  I'm going to do both Gill's and Beth's questions (since she tagged anyone and everyone!) but I'm not going to tag anyone myself.  This tag surely won't die with me and, honestly, I'm not feeling ambitious enough to come up with people to tag :-)

Eleven Things About Me!

1. In the last couple of months, we've adopted three senior cats.  Two girls, Big Mama and Bob, and one boy, Graphite.

2. Since doing this, I've discovered that I am actually a cat person.  More specifically--a fat cat person. I fell in love with Big Mama at first sight...she weighs in at 20 pounds!!  Bob weighs about 13 pounds.  I don't know...there's something about a fat cat that makes me smile.

3. I am making split pea soup for dinner.  I am a great soup maker.  I can make a tasty soup out of just about anything.

4. I've always hated mint.  Until very recently.  Lately I've been grabbing every chocolate/mint flavored item I can get.  Weird.

5. I do not own one pair of single color socks.  All my socks are wild crazy patterns.

6. Whales are my favorite mammal.

7. I absolutely love reading to my kids. 

8. I keep my spare change in an actual piggy bank,   She's a pink pig wearing a tutu and tiara.  I call her Priscilla.

9. I love perfumes that smell like food.  My recent favorite is called Un-Birthday. It smells like candy and it is awesome.

10. I have a job interview on Friday...send me positive vibes!

11. I am nowhere near interesting enough to come up with eleven things.

Now...for Gill's questions...

1. What is the first book you remember reading as a child? I read a lot of books!  The first one that comes to mind is the Sweet Pickles series.  I used to love those!

2. Have you ever owned a fad toy--such as a tamogotchi?  When I was a kid, I had cabbage patch kids and collected garbage pail kids cards.  That counts right?

3. What was your favorite childhood game? Clue.  Hands down.  I still love playing Clue.  Second would probably be word games like Scrabble and Boggle.

4. Can your body do anything strange--such as ear wiggling?  I can do the taco tongue thing.  My toes also can spread really wide apart.  I have pretty talented toes.  When I was young, I could flip the record I was listening to and restart it all with my toes.

5. If you had to spend the rest of your life in one room, who would you take for companionship?  I can't imagine anyone would want to spend forever with just me.  That's a punishment I wouldn't want to inflict...they'd go crazy for sure.

6. Do you have a friend who knows to wipe your computer should you suddenly die? No...and I don't think there is anything on here that I would be embarrassed for anyone to see anyway.

7. What is the worst grammar pet peeve that you have?  Oh but there are sooo many!  They're/their/there...your/you're....to/two/too...I see people say that they 'half to go to the store'  that irks the crap out of me.

8. You can go back and change one life decision--would you?  Nope...I'd keep it all the same.

9. You're coming back to this world as an animal--which one?  An orca whale.

10. Would you confront someone who was doing something illegal--such as littering or cycling on the pavement--if there were signs forbidding it?  I'd probably make some sort of obnoxious passive-agressive comment in a loud-ish voice.  I'm not big on confrontations.

11. What sound can make your heart miss a beat and a smile break out unbidden?  The sound of my children laughing and playing nicely.  

Now for Beth's questions.... 

1. When did you start feeling like a grown-up? I'm not sure I've reached that point yet.  I mean...I know I am...I'm almost 40...but it sure doesn't feel like it.


2. What celebrity made your heart go pitter-patter when you were a kid/tween/teen?  First it was Corey Feldman (my sister was the Corey Haim fan) then it was Donnie Wahlberg from New Kids On The Block.


3. What song do you and your sweetie think of as “your” song? We really don't have one.  There's been a few over the years that have been more like inside jokes but no real "our song".


4. Do you consider yourself patriotic? Why or why not? I wouldn't say that I'm overly patriotic.  That being said, when blatantly anti-American comments are being made, it does make me irritable.


5. What is something you once believed, but no longer do? Santa?  Tooth Fairy?


6. Jean shorts: Just fine or a sure sign of extreme dorkiness? I think it depends on the style of jean shorts.  They aren't my style but I've seen many people pull them off nicely.


7. Has an infomercial ever prompted you to make a purchase? If so, what did you buy? Nope, I can't say that I have bought anything. 


8. What snack do you have hidden in the back of the cupboard/fridge? Nothing especially decadent today.  I do have snap peas and salsa.  Healthy and tasty!


9. What book or movie seemed to speak to the masses, but didn’t do much for you? Fifty Shades of Grey.  It's just so badly written. I feel like it has an underlying message that risque sex practices and abuse/trauma are always linked.  That seems like a bad message to me.  And I honestly don't know how she got away with using "he smelled like Christian" that many times to describe his scent.  Ummmm....hello?  We can't really smell him...you have to do better than that!


10. What do you wear to bed?  Four days a week, I sleep at work.  I just wear whatever I put on to go to work that day.  At home, it's usually shorts and a t-shirt or some similar combination.


11. Is there a story of you as a child that your parents told so many times that it became part of your history? Something cute or funny you said or did, maybe? Care to share?  I can't really think of anything.  Maybe I was a pretty boring child ;-)

Here's to 80's crushes, Lame Concerts, and NOT Being Especially Deep (GBE2 #54 Topic: Self)

Without music, life would be a mistake.
Friedrich Nietzsche

One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.
Bob Marley

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
Henry David Thoreau

There have a lot of awesomely deep posts for this week's GBE2 topic of "self".  The bad thing for me, this week anyway, is that I am not in a very deep thinking frame of mind.

 

I was watching videos on YouTube earlier and I noticed that there is a "music tag" going around.  I thought that doing this tag would be a lighthearted way to cover this topic and show you guys a little more of mySELF.  

 

1.  Who is your favorite band/singer?

Bands and singers fall into two different categories for me.  My all time favorite singer is Madonna.  My two favorite bands are Weezer and (The) Gossip.

 

2.  Is there a music artist that you admire makeup and/or fashion-wise?

I could say Madonna again but that would just get us off to a really boring start!  I could say Lady Gaga but that would just be like me saying Madonna again anyway.  So I'm going to say Nicki Minaj and Beth Ditto.  

 

3.  What was your first concert experience?

I wish I had a really cool or really rocking story for you here.  But sadly, my first concert experience was The Dirty Dancing Tour.  Followed by many other lame concerts that I thought were cool at the time.  I haven't been to a concert in almost twenty years.  The last one that I saw was Boyz II Men and Babyface when I was 19 (I think).

 

4.  What is your 'guilty pleasure' singer or band?

Britney Spears.  Sad...I know.  But I love danceable music and most of the time she satisfies that for me.

 

5.  Can you play any instruments?

Yes!  Well...I used to.  I played the flute from fourth grade until my junior year of high school.  I also could play small snippets of music on a keyboard.  I'm not very musically gifted, but hey...it's something!

 

6.  Have you ever sang/danced/performed in front of an audience?

I performed in a plethora of school concerts both in the band and the chorus (I swear they will let any kid in, because...trust me...no one wants to hear me sing!)  I competed in two prepared speech contests in high school as well--and won second place in the regional competition.  Okay, so it was second place out of the two whole people who showed up...but I still got a trophy!  Also, my high school boyfriend/first husband and I won first place in our school's lip sync contest.  But as an adult, I have not performed anything for anyone.

 

7. What is your favorite song or a song with significant meaning?

Seriously?  A whole blog could be written about that!  I have too many songs that have special meanings.  I have whole playlists devoted to different feelings and meanings.  My "official" favorite songs are:  'Into the Groove' by Madonna and 'Buddy Holly' by Weezer.  I consider them to be my favorites because they always bring a smile to my face and make me feel happy.

 

8.  Is there a genre of music that you don't like?

Yep.  I've said it before and I'll say it again.  I do not like country music.  There are precious few exceptions to this rule for me.  I could probably count the number of country songs I like on my hands and have fingers left over.

 

9.  Who was your first musician crush?

I can remember this like it was yesterday!  I had bought a New Kids on the Block cassette (cassette!!! Damn, I'm old!!) almost a year prior to this moment.  I didn't really like it and I gave the tape to my sister.  It was summer vacation.  I was 13.  I was in my bedroom watching MTV and the video for "Hangin' Tough' came on.  And there was Donnie Wahlberg looking so hot in his leather jacket and ripped jeans.  It was love at first sight and I just had to get that cassette back from my sister!  We, like so many tweens in the late 80's, became die hard fans.  Good thing she liked Joey or we'd have been fighting!  

 

Bonus:  My current musician crush (and has been for the last ten years...so it's doubtful I'm de-crushing anytime soon) is Justin Timberlake.

 

Which leads me to the last question...

 

10.  Put your music player on shuffle.  What's the first song that pops up?

'Lovestoned (I Think She Knows)' by Justin Timberlake       

 

            

 

 

Random Questions on a Lazy Saturday Morning

I have no school this morning! *happy dance* 

Clinicals are on break for a few weeks.  I do have one class later this afternoon, but it's only for ninety minutes.  I'm pretty psyched about my mini 'vacation'.

But....I'm not used to having so much free time on my hands on a Saturday.....

Then I saw that over at  Word Nerd Speaks (my favorite blog), readers were invited to answer some random questions.  Score!  Now I have something to do as I laze about this morning :)

1.  Using what's in your fridge right now, what sort of meal would you be able to make for guests knocking on your door this very minute?
I'd like to believe that anybody that's coming for a visit would have the courtesy to call first--so I could be better prepared for them.  But if I did have to throw a meal together for these rude no-callers...it would probably be pasta and salad.  I have plenty of pasta in my pantry, ingredients to put together some "semi-homemade" sauce, and some random salad veggies in my fridge.  Oh, and I also have a bag of shredded mozzarella--we could have baked ziti.

2.  What is something about yourself that you hope will change but probably never will?
I would love to be more organized.  I envy people who have systems and special tricks to keep things in order.  I admire how neat and polished things look when everything is in it's own place.  I've tried--I really have!  I bought containers, folders--whatever I thought was necessary to get my spaces in shape.  It starts off well enough but in no time at all I'm back to the chaos. 

3.  What is something about yourself that you hope will never change?
I don't feel my age at all.  I don't know if it's that I'm "young at heart" or I'm in some sort of denial.  I might be about to hop on the expressway to the big 4-0...but I honestly feel like I'm barely coming up on thirty.  I can't help but think that this mindset will be helpful as the numbers keep rising.  A positive outlook keeps you young, right???

4.  Do you usually send serious or funny greeting cards and why?
I prefer funny greeting cards.  Of course, I'd never send a funny card to someone who is gravely ill or has just lost a loved one, but overall I think funny is the way to go.  However, I normally don't send funny cards to my mother.  If you knew my mom, you'd understand.  I really don't think that she would appreciate my sense of humor--at all.  I laugh at the same things twelve year old boys do.  She has the sense of humor of the 72-year old that she's about to be.  I always send very thoughtful and sentimental cards to her.

5.  Bird watching, shell gathering, or star-gazing--your choice for whiling away the hours?
What?  No option for the internet?  Come on now, that's how my hours are whiled away!  Well that and books, TV, and makeup.  Birds do not interest me (although I do like to listen to them sing in the morning while I'm still in bed).  There are no beaches here and, seriously, the beach is OUTDOORS...IN NATURE.  Nature isn't really my thing.  Plus, I'm so pale that I'd get burned out there faster than you could say shell-gathering.  Star-gazing it is! 

6.  Do you double or triple-check things?  If so, what?
Only one thing I can think of.  My car keys.  I have a 'fear' of locking my keys in the car.  I will check my purse and pants pockets at least three times before I'll lock the car doors. 

7.  What's your favorite place for people watching?
I want to say everywhere.  I am a notorious people-watcher.  What they're doing....what they're wearing...how they're behaving....you name it, I want to observe it.  But, if I had to pick a favorite it would be a tie between a restaurant and the checkout line at the grocery store.  Why?  Because I think the types of food people choose can say tons about them.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.I'm really glad that I've started blogging again.  I know that I don't blog (on either of my blogs) with enough regularity, but I really enjoy it and I feel very fortunate that people actually stop by and read what I've written.  I may not have a ton of followers, but just to know that what I do here is appreciated (even the smallest little bit) really makes my day!  Oh and I checked my stats for the first time... and was surprised to learn that more people are reading than following.  So to those readers who are in hiding....come on make a girls day even brighter....click the follow button! 

Have a great weekend everybody and if you're bored like me this morning...take a stab at these questions!