Memes - yucky to answer, fun to read

Memes - I'm not a big fan. Perhaps I resist because I hate being told what to do? Whatever the reason, I avoid them. And yet, there are long-overdue memes that I promised to answer. And since my post plans for yesterday fell through, I guess it's time to do some blomework.

#1 - Carry's from eons ago. My knitting spot, as shown in a photo from eons ago (x-mas tree), and me, sporting much longer hair. Most other people who participated in this meme showed an organized location with all the knitting tools close at hand. Mine? Yeah, my tools are scattered all over the house in little baskets. It's organized, but not close at hand. Someday I'll have a craft room...



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#2 - Marisa's from eons ago. Leave it to an exGF (#3 to be precise) to tag me with this doozy. Damn...she's making me think about things I'd rather avoid. Just for that, I'll steal some of her ideas. Italicized entries were Marisa's ideas that I'm shamelessly stealing.

Seven things to do before I die (not necessarily in order):
1. Create a community where my friends are committed to each other as family [stay tuned for an upcoming post about this topic]
2. Be a good parent and eventually a friend to my child
3. Learn to throw
4. Become a blacksmith
5. Earn a PhD in Women's/Gender Studies
6. Own a home
7. Bungy jump off a bridge

Seven things I cannot/will not do:
1. Diet
2. Dust
3. Soul-sucking work, which means many things depending on my mood
4. Work at a strip club
5. Watch A Clockwork Orange ever again, or force myself to like Stanley Kubrick's work
6. Resist the temptation to hit Rush Limbaugh should I ever encounter him in person
7. Spank my child

Seven things that attract me to my spouse:
1. Her eyebrows
2. The muscle definition on the sides of her thighs
3. Her breasts [shit, did I say that out loud? so inappropriate! must redeem myself...]
4. Her commitment to teaching in a really really tough middle school
5. Kids who are truly struggling trust her
6. Watching her snuggle with Little Man
7. She lets me go to Philly whenever I want to visit the BFF&exGF#2 (as my Mother pointed out recently)

Seven things I say most often:
1. Shit
2. No, you may not ____.
3. I'm going to count to 3 and if you don't stop _____, you're getting a time out.
4. Honey, Mommy can't hear the whining voice. You need to use your big boy voice.
5. Where's my favorite boy in the whole world? Are you my baby boy? Who's my Little Man? Mine, mine, mine...
6. [mostly at the TV] Are you f-ing kidding me?
7. Sure, whatever

Seven books I love:
1. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
2. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
3. Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson
4. Push by Sapphire
5. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
6. Hallucinating Foucault by Patricia Dunker
7. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Seven movies/series I watch over and over again (or would if I had more time)
1. Amadeus
2. Antonia's Line
3. Go Fish
4. Girl with a Pearl Earring
5. The Secret of Roan Inish
6. The L Word
7. Antiques Roadshow

Seven people I'm curious about that I'd like to join in:
You're off the hook folks. But if you'd like to participate, leave a note in the comments so I can read your answers.

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#3 - Also from Marisa . She hates me.

What were you doing 10 years ago?
I had just moved to western MA from New York City with my girlfriend (exGF#1) for my second attempt at college at a fancy pants campus. I lived on campus and spent lots of time driving to the western MA college where my girlfriend was a student. I was adjusting to life in a dorm filled with very privileged women who had way less 'life experience' than I did. Within those first few months, I met some of my best friends, participating in some incredible debauchery, and started working at the best place I've ever worked with the best people I've ever worked with.

What were you doing 1 year ago?
Parenting. Working at MIT. Preventing a divorce. Blogging. Knitting.

Five snacks I enjoy:
1. Dark chocolate, the darker the better. 80% cocoa is pure bliss.
2. Quaker chewy granola bars, peanut butter and chocolate chip flavor
3. Sliced apples and a heap of peanut butter to dip them in.
4. Cape Cod Nantucket Spice potato chips
5. Sorbet

Five songs to which I know all the lyrics
1. Blue Sky - Allman Brothers
2. Red Dirt Girl - Emmylou Harris
3. Shiny Happy People - REM
4. Both Hands - Ani DiFranco
5. Chicago - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Five things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. Buy freedom from my student loans
2. Buy a house
3. Start a college fund for Little Man
4. Start a retirement account
5. Find a 2/3-time job much closer to home

Five bad habits:
1. Being distracted by the damned internet
2. Googling every curious question that pops into my mind
3. Biting my finger nails. After 16+ years of gnawing at my fingers, I stopped in 1996. But it's back. What gives?
4. Being brutally honest
5. Not exercising

Five things I like doing:
1. Knitting
2. Dreaming and sketching things to sew, and sometimes actually sewing them.
3. Reading blogs and being inspired
4. Listening to every kind of music imagineable
5. Watching Little Man doing his "look what I did" happy dance.

Five things I would never wear, buy or get new again:
1. A new car
2. Shoes that hurt
3. A skirt
4. A dress
5. Commercial pants (hopefully)

Five favorite toys:
1. My iPod
2. My local library
3. My Little Man
4. My crafty supplies
5. My imagination

So here's the deal: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot:
from maternity to madness
cityslicker mom
a la carter
afrindiemum
An Elephant's Gestation
FemiKnitMafia

Then select five people to tag:
Nope. Not doing it.

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#4 - from Andy Grrl
The five women who inspired and influenced me the most, in no particular order:
1. My Grandmother
2. My Mother
3. Diane Welsh, a dear friend in NYC
4. Every Ex
5. The Bionic Woman

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I'm done! Yeahhhhhh... happy dance.