One Word Meme

I got this meme from Protégé. You’re supposed to respond to these questions with one word only. I only had one that was difficult to answer with one word.

1 - Where is your cell phone? — purse
2 - Where is your significant other? — shrug
3 - Your hair color? — browny-red (reddy-brown??)
4 - Your mother? — talented
5 - Your father? — smart
6 - Your favorite thing? — laughing
7 - Your dream last night? — odd
8 - Your dream/goal? — fulfillment
9 - The room you’re in? — quiet
10- Your hobby? — collaging
11- Your fear? — Alzheimers
12- Where do you want to be in 6 years? — safe
13- Where were you last night? — home
14- What you’re not? — thin
15- One of your wish-list items? — love
16- Where you grew up? — Virginia
17- The last thing you did? — brushed teeth (impossible to one-word it)
18- What are you wearing? — sweater
19- Your TV? — resting
20- Your pet? — swimming
21- Your computer? — busy
22- Your mood? — blah
23- Missing someone? — sure
24- Your car? — Lola
25- Something you’re not wearing? — make-up
26- Favorite store? — Target
27- Your summer? — sticky
28- Love someone? — sure
29- Your favorite color? — blue
30- When is the last time you laughed? — earlier
31- Last time you cried? — November

Book meme (or An Impossible Task)

“There is one thing on which we are agreed: There are too many books in the world to read in a single lifetime; you have to draw the line somewhere.” – The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield

Books as torture? I don’t think so, but this meme is and it involves books. How do you narrow down 4 books to recommend to people in the following categories? If you’re the kind of person whose mother used to say would read a gum wrapper over and over and over if that’s all she could get her hands on, recommending only 4 books is nigh on impossible, especially in no more than 30 words. But, I’ll give it a shot.

Fiction – Gosh, where to begin? I’m tempted to choose Tale of Two Cities or Pride and Prejudice because they’re my two favorite books of all time. But let’s be honest, if you haven’t already read them, you probably wouldn’t just on my recommendation.

• The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield- It’s very mysterious. I couldn’t even fathom the answer to the mystery until it was revealed. Jane Eyre is a theme throughout and it kind of reminds me of it.

Autobiography – I would choose The Color of Water by James McBride, but my friend Diane chose that one. I read a biography of Marie Curie which was pretty good, but my choice is:

• Change Me Into Zeus’s Daughter by Barbara Robinette Moss – A young woman growing up impoverished in the South, her face malformed due to poor nutrition and lack of medical care, wishes to look like Zeus’s daughter Aphrodite.

Non-Fiction – This one is easy.

• Manhunt The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson – A fascinating, detailed, and action-packed story of the plot to kill Lincoln, Johnson, and Seward and the manhunt that took place afterwards.

Any Genre – An oldie, but a goodie. I’ve read it about 5 (or more) times. Forget the movie, the book is so much better.

• The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger – He is a master storyteller. It’s totally engrossing and compelling. Although you know what happens, you can’t help but hope it ends differently.

Meme

Diane tagged me for a Meme. Shouldn’t take too much to come up with 7 random/weird things about me. (Shut up, Diane)

1 - I was the best dodgeball player in any school I ever went to. I was always the last one standing and a lot of times gym class would end before anyone could hit me.

2 - I almost got paddled in 7th grade because a teacher caught this boy Randall and me fighting. He was picking on two of my friends pretty badly and I wasn’t going to stand for it. The teacher walked in on me standing in front of Randall's desk, pointing my finger in his face and telling him to back off. We were taken to the Principal’s office and told to choose our paddles from a scarily large selection hanging from a peg board on the wall. I managed not to cry when I pointed to one of the larger models. I had always been told by the other kids in school not to choose the smaller ones or the ones with the holes in them because they hurt a lot more. Luckily, they let me go back to class with just a warning that time since it was my first offense. I did get my hand hit with a ruler (HARD!) in 4th grade because I called the substitute teacher a bad name. I didn’t mean to. What do you expect when you go into a class with a bunch of 9 and 10 year olds and your name is Mrs. Funk? Come on!

3 - I have a birthmark that looks like the United States.

4 - It’s hard to believe for most people that know me, but I’m really incredibly shy. I’m not as bad as I was when I was younger, but meeting new people is still a source of daily stress for me.

5 - I used to keep a notebook where I would write down all the statistics (points, rebounds, assists, fouls) for UNC basketball players as I was watching the games. This was before the internet, so it wasn’t as simple as just going online to find out stuff. The covers all had to be Carolina Blue, naturally, and I would draw little tarheels all over them. Somewhere in a landfill there exist some notebooks with game by game stats for Michael Jordon, Sam Perkins, Brad Daugherty, Steve Hale, Jeff Lebo and Kenny Smith written in a teenaged girl’s hand. You can’t go to heaven in a little red canoe ‘cause God’s favorite color is Carolina Blue.

6 - Unless I’m carrying a lot of stuff, I have a hard time just walking up staircases. I must run or else I end up tripping.

7 - I find ironing relaxing.