Monday, v.2

I’m going to answer the questions in this post again. Here’s why:

• Because someone just commented on it, so I read it and got all nostalgic.
• Because it’s been almost three years.
• Because my body/mind/sternum area is freaking out and I need to typetypetype.
• Because everyone’s probably sick of me filling up their twitter feed tonight.

8 Things I Am Passionate About

1. Grady. (Shocker!)
2. Knitting, and by “knitting” I mean “everything that involves strings.” Someone recently got all in my face on youtube because I said “knitting” about a crochet project and I was like, “Eff you man.” DRAMA.
3. Journalism, kind of. I’m pretty good at phoning in passion about journalism at this point, which is part of why I recently quit working at two newspapers. (oh yeah. I was going to blog about that. maybe later.)
4. My stupid life. I tend to think my stupid life is really critically important.
5. Feminism and junk.
6. Appearances, as loathe as I am to admit it.
7. Honesty! Here’s the thing: radical honesty is hard. And so socially awkward. And also so rewarding.
8. Learning. Though it’s well established that I’m an awful student, I do really enjoy learning.

8 Things I Want to Do Before I Die

1. Have actual conversations in English with Grady. Really excited for this.
2. Fall in love with someone who loves me back.
3. See my beautiful sister Kim get married (this summer!)
4. Expand the family business. Even just a little would be great.
5. Take Grady to see all different sorts of cultures and people and places while she is young and impressionable.
6. Be genuinely happy with my body.
7. I don’t know. I’m trying to think of something career-related, but I so love my current “stick with one job for six months or so before completely changing your day-to-day” situation. I do kind of want to open my own yarn/vintage/coffee place, but that’s a pipe dream.
8. Find a body-hair-management system that works. I should do a blog post about how my body is modern cosmetics’ greatest enemy.

8 Things I Say Often

1. “No-no, Gradybelle.”
2. “Can mama change your diaper please?”
3. Swear words. All of them, often in inappropriate public places.
4. Sorry.
5. “Oooooh, Winner-binner-booga-boo-snuggle-wumps-winny-lufagus.” (Or something similar. When Winston is cuddly it melts me into a pool of tender love. A tender-love-pool.)
6. “Can mama have kisses?” (No. Mama can never have kisses.)
7. “I am the queen.” (I have no idea. This is the mantra that calms me down. It is most often said in long repetition while I bury my face in a pillow, or while I am driving.)
8. I don’t know. You tell me.

See #5 above.

8 Books I Have Read Lately/Am Reading Now

1. Just started Faultline by Sylvia Ortiz Taylor.
2. Gave up halfway through John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead.
3. The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
4. The Actor and the Target by Declan Donnelan
5. Some boring-as-hell media textbook
6. Utopia by Thomas Moore
7. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
8. Opting In by Amy Richards

8 Songs I Could Listen to Over and Over (chosen from my favorite recent downloads – so this doesn’t include my all-time favorites)

1. I’ll be Here in the Morning by Townes van Zant
2. Shout Bama Lama by The Detroit Cobras (hell, that whole album is magnificent. It may be the first non-Bowie album I’ve ever downloaded where every song gets five stars.)
3. Solitude is Bliss by Tame Impala (Grady adores this song. She always dances to it, which may be why I love it so much.)
4. Thirteen by Big Star (another magnificent album. But this song just kills me.)
5. Fly by Night by Rush (I know there are a lot of Rush-haters out there, which I just completely don’t understand.)
6. Musician Please Take Heed by God Help the Girl (iTunes says I downloaded this song about a month and a half ago, and listened to it 42 times since then. And that’s only the on-the-computer stats.)
7. Hark I Hear by the Deseret Chamber Singers. (I should hate this, but holy moly it is amazing. I have it because I wrote an article about the singers, and am so glad I did. I usually don’t love music this religious, but man. Also, I’m coming to terms with my love for a cappella/choral music. Deal with it, nerds.)
8. The Box by Johnny Flynn (Best song about homelessness ever.)

8 Things That Attract Me to My Best Friends

1. Intelligence – particularly an ability to read and write. And spell. And comprehend. And have an impressive vocabulary. I’m admittedly prejudiced against people that destroy grammar.
2. A challenge – I like my friends to be smarter than me; this is not a quality that I’ve always had, though. Especially when I was a kid, I was really intimidated by people who were smarter than me or who saw through the facade; I generally treated these people horribly. Luckily, now that’s exactly what I crave.
3. My very best friend remains my friend because we know each other so well and have excellent repartee. And, like, care about each other, I suppose.
4. Online presence. I know, it sounds lame, but I love the idea of facebook/twitter/blogs/whatever being a genuine extension of self. Especially now that I don’t get out much (Grady puts such a crimp in my social life), I depend on the internet to keep in touch with people.
5. Open-mindedness. (Ug. I hate typing/thinking “minded.”) Especially since I’m so perpendicular to the predominant culture around here.
6. Honesty! This should be the first item.
7. Common interests – babies, similar philosophy, journalism, knitting, etc.
8. Attraction. The thought of dating someone I haven’t been friends with for a while scares the pants off of me. (Wait, that is a bad metaphor. It scares my pants so that they stay on indefinitely with determination.) If I have the idea that I could possibly date someone eventually, I try to cultivate a friendship with them first. (Ugh. Gross. I just used the phrase “cultivate a friendship,” like it’s something inhuman. Sorry. I’m an ass.)

That last question made me miss a lot of people. Kind of glad this is done. But anyway, I tag YOU. Do this thing. It’s fun and I’ll leave awesome comments on your posts.

About these ads