Spinning Yellow

Inside Edition

I was tagged for a meme by my new bloggy friend from In The Fast Lane.  The Mission:

If you are a blogger you now have a mission. As soon as you read this, drop everything, grab your camera and take pictures of where you blog from. NO CLEANING!!! THEN, tag some lucky ducks and spread the love.

This is a photo of where I was at the time:

It actually doesn't look nearly as bad as it is in this photo, but I am ashamed of how messy this space is.

I really blog from here: 

The kitchen table, after everyone goes to sleep.

And just for the record, I cleaned all day and now the office looks like this:

 

Which is at least presentable but no more organized.  Sigh.

*** I must also point out that Kyla from The Journey (who I owe another meme!) gets best post title award for this meme.

I know I am supposed to tag people, but I am so bad about following through with memes that I feel guilty putting anyone on the spot.  If you feel like doing this, I'd love to see your bloggy home. 

Six Word Summary

There's a meme I've seen going around a few times now where you have to sum up your life in 6 words.  A six word memoir.  I never posted one but may have commented with an idea or two in some older posts.

Here's the first one that came to mind:

Striving for order while creating chaos

Second place finisher:

Conflicted rules-player, never reached her potential

Wow.  Those don't sound very positive, do they?  Well, you try it then.  I'd like to see what you come up with.

*** A bit of bloggy housekeeping.  I love, love, love comments (as all bloggers do) but do not always respond with an e-mail or comment back.  This NaBloPoMo thing is killing me, because I'd like to continue each post and discussion, but must move on.  I will be answering or responding to some things in separate posts, but as a rule, I will attempt to update my last post with any further thoughts (in the comment section) before I publish my next one.  This way, if you read a new post you can check the last one or two to see if there's anything you missed.  Anyway, it is day 10 of NaBloPoMo, which means I am one third of the way there.  I keep thinking I will have time to read and comment on blogs and follow twitter discussions and I just don't.  Sigh.  No.  Double sigh. 

*** Oh, wait, I am not done.  The annual BlogHer conference that was possibly going to be in Philadelphia this year is actually going to be in Chicago, July 2009.  I told my husband and he immediately said, "well, you better get your flight soon so you can get a good rate, you don't want to wait until the last minute, again."  So, I think I'll be there.  Hope you will be, too!

Questions

It is late, again, and I need to post so that I can go to bed.  I could do a rundown of my day, which was full and significant.  I want to write a post about how my children interact with each other and another post on my recurring dream where I move back into my childhood home.  But I don't think well when it gets late.  Also, I am obsessed right now with Scott's OCD issues (I know: oh, the irony) and am having trouble thinking of much else.

Last year Slouching Mom did an interview meme where, if you wanted her to, she would ask you a series of questions for you to answer on your blog.  I signed up, knowing that her questions would be thoughtful.  I never followed up (well, I did, but the post is one I could never quite wrap up sufficiently, so I didn't publish it).  Her questions were so good that I wanted to write long essays for each one.

I've decided that I will go back to her questions and hopefully answer some.  I am also asking any of you to go ahead and ask me a question in the comment section, if you care to, and I will answer it.  Anything goes, I promise to at least address any and all questions (I have no idea if this will illicit no comments or lots, I mean does anyone have something they want to know about me? Is it presumptuous to assume that they do? I'm not all that interesting, am I? I told you it was late, right?)

And I have a few random questions for you all:

In light of the fact that a new Trader Joe's will be opening near my home, I am wondering what are your favorite things to buy there? 

Do you wash recyclable containers before you put them in the bin?  Is this required?  A nice thing to do?  Or a waste of time?

What do you tell your child to do when a kid likes them at school but they don't like the kid back?  I want Scott to be kind and tolerant but I also don't feel he should be obligated to play with someone if he'd rather not.  Is that wrong?  What is the right way to handle this?  Social story, anyone?  Jordan?

Because I Am Quirky

I need to get my blogging groove back on and although I have a million half written posts (along with the many inside my head), I think I'll start with this meme, or combination of memes.  Because I think I can kick it out and hopefully get my act together.  Not that I've been lallygagging around, more like there is so much to say that I can't get one cohesive thought out without going overboard and then falling asleep because I am exhausted.

My buddy, Delilah, over at Floating in Space, tagged me with this, so here goes:

5 things found in your bag

1. Lotion (see below under quirky)

2. Sunglasses, when not being worn, because I cannot go outside without my prescription sunglasses.

3. Trident cinnamon gum

4. Jane's EpiPen

5. A tape measure

5 favorite things in your room

1. Two cow prints, one from Giverny and one from a local artist.

2. My slippers (see below under quirky)

3. A photo of Scott in his first Halloween outfit, a homemade bunny costume, because we used to call him our little bunny and one of Matt and I in Maine hiking, before we were engaged.

4. My medal from the half marathon

5. A dresser from my grandfather's house that he re-finished himself

5 things you've always wanted to do (hardest category!  Only five!)

1. Stop procrastinating

2. Get a liberal arts degree

3. Read fast

4. Be a guest on Oprah.  Not for a makeover, although that'd be cool, or for some horrific reason, but because I had something really enlightening and original to share.

5. Own an old, Victorian house on a lake in New England with a wrap around porch and a dock.

5 things you are currently into

1. Running

2. My kids - their schools, their activities, their social lives

3. Reading blogs

4. Trying to figure out what I want to do next with my life

5. Getting organized

 

And since I am not going to tag anyone, I'll add my fifth thing as:

5 quirky things about you (which is actually another meme entirely, see Kristen's attempt at not being quirky)

1. I don't like anything carbonated, except beer. (turns out this is a sensory thing, no surprise!) I could actually do an entire post on all my food related quirks... and sensory related....

2. I put lotion on my hands after I wash them.  Every time.  I wash my hands a lot.

3. I prefer to write with a sharpened number 2, Ticonderoga pencil over any other writing utensil.

4. My comforter and sheet must line up exactly at the top or I can't sleep.

5. I can't read today's newspaper if I haven't read yesterday's yet.

I asked my husband what comes to mind when I say I'm quirky and he said that I like to wear slippers inside, always, even when it is hot.  Good point, honey.

And I'd like to do this meme that Jordan did ages ago (no, not the one she tagged me for, which I started and didn't finish, sigh), but, alas, I am falling asleep again.

Meme's the Word

I have been tagged by my cyber-buddy, Kristen, at From Here to There and Back, for a meme about 7 things.  Although I have some other memes that I am supposed to do, I am tackling this one first because a) it is easier than the others and b) I also got tagged by my new bloggy friend, March Day who wrote her post here.  So I am employing the FIFO (first in, first out) method, instead of LIFO (last in, first out) which is usually the more recommended way of doing things.

I am supposed to share 7 facts about myself, then tag 7 people.  OK, talking about myself shouldn't be a problem, but finding 7 people to tag, that haven't been tagged yet?  No way.  But first the oh-so-interesting things about me (and I am tempted to just recycle information from this post, but will refrain as I have already put it out there):

1. I was a Business Logistics major in college which means I learned about manufacturing and transportation.  At its best, it was a fascinating world of how things like m&ms are made; at its worst, it was becoming knowledgeable in different kinds of trucks and freight codes.  All classes in my major started with the course code "b-log", pronounced "bee log".  Which begs for a post (as my friend tac, who also studied this, pointed out) called "from b-log to blogging".  You were wondering how I knew about FIFO and LIFO, weren't you?
2. I used to collect cow things.  It is not important, really, how this started, but I was doing it before other people were (I swear) and it had nothing to do with it being popular.  I have cow paintings, puzzles, dishes, clothes, a road sign (which was confiscated in college by the dorm police), everything, including enough ornaments to cover a whole Christmas tree.  My husband does not care too much for this collection and I have stopped feeding it (although I still enjoy taking out all those ornaments each year!).
3. When I was 11 years old I was chosen to participate in a cool program called CISV (Children's International Summer Villages).  I traveled to Egypt for a whole month without my family and stayed in a camp with children from countries all over the world.
4. I never wanted to have my ears pierced but gave in before my sister's wedding (so I could wear the earrings like everyone else).  My ear holes have closed up 2 times since then and have had to be re-pierced.  I don't think I will do it a third time even though I have beautiful diamond earring studs to wear in them (wedding present from my husband).
5. I am the least domestic of my siblings, not able to cook, sew, iron, garden or clean very well.  Ironically, I spend the most time home doing those kinds of activities of the three of us.
6. I was not one of those girls who wanted to have a baby and I was the worst babysitter, evah.  When my mom started the day care school I was in high school and it never occurred to me that I could work there.  I used to make fun of my sorority sisters who were early childhood or elementary education majors because their courses seemed so easy.  What I wouldn't give now to have a background in education and a teaching certificate.  Who's laughing now?
7. I have dated several guys with last names of famous authors or ones that sound very close.

Random enough?  I could go on...  Oh, you've had enough?

Alright, then I tag (and I really think everyone has already been tagged so I am checking blogs and hoping I get lucky!):

Delilah at Floating in Space (who was tagged, but I just had to include her, my best blogging pal!)

Jordan at The Wonderwheel - did you do this already?

Niksmom - once again, pardon me if you've already done this or have been tagged by someone else (ok, I just saw you tagged elsewhere, but I am leaving you here because you haven't done this yet, have you?  OK, it is getting late...).

Jenn at I Serve the Queens

A Mommy with an Attitude

Julie at Using My Words

Since so many people seem to have done this already, I am going to play with the rules and ask my reader friends who don't have blogs to chime in, so I add (and if you don't want to because I know some of you are kind of private people, no, not you, Laura, but others, I do not mind if you choose not to participate, just please still come here and read from time to time!):

Laura, tac, Dee, Cyndi, and anyone else who wants to.

You can leave your 7 things here in the comments or e-mail to me (yeah, that's a good idea, then I can make another post out of this!  Or you could share some crazy thing about me, I could always delete it if I want to).

Looking forward to reading about you!