Year's End

New Years Meme-age

Where did you begin 2007?
Singing Driving Down Highway 40 with a bunch of drunken revelers in my living room. I was also menaced by an o'possum.

What was your status by Valentine's Day?
What does this mean? Married for almost 2 years.

Were you in school (anytime this year)?
No

Did you have to go to the hospital?
No, thank God.

Did you have any encounters with the police?
Nope.

Where did you go on vacation?
No vacation this year. :(

What did you purchase that was over $500?
Yikes. I only spend that much on computers and cars, so nothing.

Did you know anybody who got married?
Several! Congratulations Becki and Jacob, Kim and Sam, Kirby and Erica, and Kim and Ben.

Did you know anybody who passed away?
No.

Did you move anywhere?
No. My moving days are thankfully over for a while.

What sporting events did you attend?
Blech....sports.

What concerts/shows did you go to?
WE Fest.

Describe your birthday.
I turned 30. Togaliciousness ensued.

What's the one thing you thought you would not do but did in 2007?
Wrote my first novel. Never dreamed I'd do that.

What has been your favorite moment(s)?
It's hard to name a favorite moment. Finishing Deathly Hallows, finishing the novel, celebrating my birthday, poetry readings on the porch...

Any new additions to your family?
Oscar Peterson, the yellow-bellied slider.

What was your best month?
October was pretty good. The drama of the summer had ended, I was writing, we celebrated Halloween in style...

What music will you remember 2007 by?
Depeche Mode and the Smiths ruled my iPod, with honorable mentions by these songs:
Stolen by Dashboard Confessional
Alone by Heart
Save Me by Aimee Mann
Crash by Dave Matthews

Made new friends?
Always. I thrive on friends.

Favorite night out?
Discovering THE Chocolate Cake at Circa with Thomas.

Overall, how would you rate this year?
A very spiky year. Lots of peaks and valleys.

Other than home, where did you spend most of your time?
At work, of course, with Lula's in a distant 3rd.

Change your hairstyle?
Ha. That only happens once every 3-4 years. This was not one of those years. It's maybe a little redder than usual.

How old did you turn this year?
30. Finally starting to freak about that, a little.

Do you have a New Year's resolution?
My resolution is always to have no resolutions. Whatever happens, happens.

Do anything embarrassing?
Please. This is me were talking about. I do 10 embarrassing things every day.

Buy anything new from eBay?
I love eBay. Every once in a while we have to have an intervention. This year, I mostly bought CDs for the iPod. I remember buying Cloudcuckooland by the Lightning Seeds, God Bless Satan by Mephiskapheles, Apollo 18 by They Might Be Giants...

Get married or divorced?
No.

Get arrested?
Of course not.

Be honest - did you watch American Idol?
I adore American Idol. I didn't miss an episode.

Did you get sick this year?
Inevitable when one is an elementary school teacher. But the immune system gets stronger every year.

Been snowboarding?
I don't do snow or sports.

Are you happy to see 2007 go?
Well, I'm looking forward to 2008. 8 is my lucky number.



Additional things:
My parents just left us, so we've finally completed the Christmas season. Everything went really well, and it was great to see them. Here is an update on Christmas loot:

Please check out this amazing bracelet that Thomas bought for me:


Book Lust:
For Christmas, I recieved:
Run by Ann Patchett
Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
also working on my new Early Reviewer book: Now You See Him by Eli Gottlieb

Happy New Year to everyone. Celebrate fully and safely and best wishes for the year to come.

Meme-Tastic

So, I'm stealing this meme from Gina because I like this meme and dammit I want to meme.

8 Random Things About My Wedding



1. Although Thomas and I are not beach people, and have never been to the beach together excepting the 3 times we took the dogs to the beach to cackle over how they try to dig to China, we got married on the sound at Wrightsville Beach. We rented two side-by-side beach houses and illegally had our wedding there. I freaked out the entire time that the police were going to come. No, officer. This is not my wedding. This is the family reunion we claimed on the rental forms. I would never have a wedding in a rental, particularly when I signed a special part of the lease that said I would not have a wedding here. Why am I wearing this big white dress? Because it's March! Doesn't everyone wear a big white dress in March?

2. I bought my dress on ebay. Several months before Thomas even proposed to me, I thought it might be nice to look at wedding dresses on ebay because, hey, you never know, and plus I am totally an insane stalker type who insists that you marry me immediately. I saw my dress and it was exactly the dress in my mind and only cost 200 dollars. I agonized for several days about whether I should just buy the dress and keep it in a box in the closet just in case. Then sanity won out and I stopped obessessing over the perfect dress for my imaginary wedding. But the day he proposed? Yeah, I bought that bitch.

3. My friend Michelle, who is awesome, and who arranged all 300 of the gerber daisies that I bought online, brought a fishing pole and some squid so that she could fish off the pier the day before our wedding. When she was done, she wrapped up the remaining squid and stored it under the railing of the deck where we all forgot about it until two days later when we tracked that horrible smell to its source.



4. I had my bride-zilla moment when my mother in law tried to have the cake delivery guy set up the cake on a table that was not the motherfucking cake table. Because I had a motherfucking cake table and that was NOT it. Still embarrassed. Sorry, Linda. And thank you to Kasey who listened to me seethe and never once pointed out that it was totally ridiculous.

5. My best friend Kasey flew in from Maine to be in our wedding, and her husband Andrew pressed the buttons for our music, because Thomas had done so for their wedding 6 months earlier, even though she didn't know him at all then. But I guess that's more about her wedding than mine. Kasey was a godsend, of course. She always is. But she helped me string the gazebo with 8 hundred thousand pieces of ribbon that barely show in the pictures.

6. We walked down the aisle to Depeche Mode's "Somebody." We walked back up the aisle to Tony Bennet's "The Best is Yet to Come." This is totally indicative of Thomas's and my completely different taste in music, and yet, it was lovely.



7. My friend Mary married us, which was very cool. We had our ceremony in a gazebo at the end of a tiny pier, so all our guests were on land and could barely hear us. Mary was having trouble projecting, so I whispered to her to just talk like we were at the bar on a Saturday night. When she upped the volume, her voice got very flat and she delivered some very lovely sentiments about Thomas and me in a very loud and affectless voice that made me giggle until I nearly cried. I giggled through our entire ceremony. Mary did a wonderful job. I'd ask her to do it again in a second.

8. Our wedding favors were fake mustaches. Thomas and I collect them. We really wanted a vintage photo booth with a box of costumes that people could put on, but that would have cost more than our entire wedding, so we went with a polaroid and fake mustaches. I was peeling them off every available surface for days. My friend Jennifer put one between the legs of a very fancy ballerina sculpture. Yeah, I had to peel that off in front of my dad.




Bonus:
For our honeymoon, Thomas and I just stayed on in the house we'd rented for the wedding. It was very convenient because then he could still drive into town for order day at the store, and we could invite tons of people over all week to hang at the beach and help us eat all the food. The day after our wedding, after we'd finally gotten everyone to leave, we sat down to watch VH1, because we have no cable at home and were feeling sadly behind on I love the 80s. We snuggled up together on the couch and settled in when suddenly the power went out. Thomas got up to look out the window and see if the other houses on the street had power, which they did. Suddenly we heard the elevator (the house had an elevator) coming up. We both panicked like no two people have ever panicked before. Thomas ordered me to get a knife, but I couldn't find one in the dark. I'd heard horror stories about the sites of weddings getting robbed for the presents and I was seriously in a condition.

There was no one in the elevator, of course. It just returned to its home floor when the power went out. A call to the power company confirmed that the whole street was out--what we were seeing were the houses across the sound. We still laugh at ourselves about that.

Thanks to Gina for the help with getting through NaBloPoMo--check out her side project at Teeny Manolo.

Teeth are Important

I'm on vacation!

5 days off...starting....now! Bring on the wine.

I just got back from a very pleasant walk with my friend, Good Lauren, with whom I've been carrying on an extremely amusing conversation regarding the "Ten Fictional Characters I Would Totally Make Out With...." meme. She suggested Pa Ingalls. I burst her bubble by insinuating that I'm not sure Pa Ingalls had a full set of teeth. Though I appreciate that he rules.

Page Turning

So, I was searching for a book meme to do, as I'm feeling kind of blah today, and I found this bit of hilariousness on a blog called Whatever.

A Book Reading Meme

In response to all the "book reading memes" with which I am continually tagged, a new book reading meme:

1. Open the book you're currently reading to page 133.

2. Read the fourth line on the page.

3. Put the book back where it had been resting.

4. Tell no one of what it was you just did.

5. Think of five friends to tag with this meme.

6. Do not actually tag them. They are busy and have lives.

7. Go about your life as if nothing has happened.

8. Carry the secret of this meme to your grave.


I don't know why that cracked me up as much as it did, but I'm still rolling.

VBG tagged me not too terribly long ago on her book blog, but I don't want to do that meme because all my "most important" books have already been covered here at some point or other.

I'm currently slogging my way through Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, but to be honest, I'm not totally sure I'm going to finish it. Who knows. Also still traipsing through Good Omens, which I'm enjoying but am vaguely removed from. There's a humongous, and I mean really humongous, pile of books next to my bed, but the other night I stepped into Barnes and Noble (why? why did I do that?) and saw that there is a new Richard Russo, a new Ann Patchett, a new Alice Sebold, a new Ann Packer...I almost hyperventilated. If only there were more money, and more hours in the day...

Oh, hell, I guess I'll just do the previously scheduled book meme:

Total number of books owned: I have 530 on LibraryThing, but there are more than that, as some things are too boring to put onto LibraryThing. Probably around 600.

Last book bought: The Sword by Jean Johnson. This was my very first foray into reading a romance novel. I wanted to see what it was like, and I knew Jean's online persona, so I thought I'd give hers a try.

Last book read: Chatter by Perrin Ireland. This was my most recent early reviewer book from LibraryThing.

Five Books that Mean a Lot to You:

1. The Temple of Gold by William Goldman.

2. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

3. The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

4. The entire Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

5. The Odd Sea by Frederick Reiken.

Honorable Mentions:

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
It by Stephen King
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
What's Not to Love by Jonathan Ames

Sir Memes A Lot

Ok, so Joshua tagged me with the 7 weird things meme.

And because it's Nablopomo, I'm going to try it, even though, for God's sake people, how many more weird things about me am I going to be able to come up with?

Velocibadgergirl also tagged me with a meme that has the best title I have ever heard: Ten Literary Characters I Would Totally Make Out With If I Were Single and They Were Real But I’m Not, Single I Mean, I Am Real, But I’m Also Happily Married and Want to Stay That Way So Maybe We Should Forget This. And I so, so want to do it, but I can only come up with two, and they've already been discussed this month, so...I'm still marinating on that.

Onward.

1. I have only 24 teeth. And what big teeth they are! (All the better to eat you with, my dear). I'm minus the wisdom teeth, of course, but also 4 more because the poor orthodontist couldn't get them all to fit in my tiny, unaccomodating jaw. Please god, let my children have better luck. Turning the key in my palate spreader, growing up, was one of the worst forms of torture I have ever endured. (Side note: Joe McIntyre of the New Kids on the Block also has only 24 teeth, leading my 12 year old self to believe that we must be meant for each other. Why do I keep mentioning the New Kids on the Block lately?)

2. All together, my dogs take 12 pills a day. Between the chinese herbs for Gonzo's epilepsy, the fish oil for their skin, glucosamine for their joints and CoEnzyme-Q10 for Gertie's heart, the dogs practically need those little pill containers to keep everything organized.

3. I absolutely love new/internet words. Snark, squick, squee, blogosphere, celebutante...bring them on. Words delight me, but onomatopoeic ones tickle my heart. I'm also a fan of LOLcats and the "im in ur" phenomenon that predates them. Let's just say internet crazes in general. I once belonged to Mahir's fanclub. I also love co-opting teenspeak into my general vocabulary in an unironic way. I say BFF, Whatev and natch with some frequency. Sometimes, and you have to promise not to repeat this, I will say, "I'm outie." (I know. The shame.)

4. I will dress up for any insane costume party you throw at me. In fact, the first work-party that Thomas brought me to when we were first dating was a pimp and ho party. So I met all of the people Thomas works with while dressed as a hooker. No way to make a better impression than that! I actually have a picture, but it's so hideous that I think I should save it for my next humiliation extravaganza. Thomas and I are throwing an ugly sweater party for New Years and I can. not. wait.

5. I own only one pair of blue jeans that I just wash over and over and over. Or else wear until they are practically standing up on their own. I don't know why. Cheapness, I guess, or the horror of trying on jeans when you carry all your weight in your waist but have slim, athletic legs...I don't know.

6. Cats hate me. I don't know if it's that they sense that I'm afraid of them, or what, but all cats pretend to like me at first and then bite the shit out of me. Or maybe it's that I'm such a dog person that I don't know how to touch cats properly. But yeah, they're always all about me until the hissing and scratching and biting begins.

7. I am obsessed with Threadless. I bought myself 10 t-shirts for my birthday and I pretty much don't wear anything else anymore. My favorites of the ones I own are: Haikus are easy, Loch Ness Imposter, Defend the Kingdom, and Shakespeare Hates Your Emo Poems.

Ok, now I just really want to link to all my threadless shirts so you will all know how hilarious and well dressed I am with my 500 t-shirts and one pair of jeans.

Tagging just seems circular lately. So if you want the meme, take it.

They Love Me in Thailand

Courtesy of my friend, Jennifer:

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Thomas and Meg!

1. In their entire life, Thomas and Meg will produce only a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.
2. Medieval knights put the skin of Thomas and Meg on their sword handles to improve the grip!
3. Marie Antoinette never said 'let them eat cake' - this is a mistranslation of 'let them eat Thomas and Meg'.
4. Thomas and Meg can only be destroyed by intense heat, and is impermeable even to acid.
5. Baskin Robbins once made Thomas and Meg flavoured ice cream.
6. It took Thomas and Meg 22 years to build the Taj Mahal.
7. Thomas and Meg can sleep for three and a half years.
8. Thomas and Meg can squeeze their entire body through a hole the size of their beak!
9. The porpoise is second to Thomas and Meg as the most intelligent animal on the planet.
10. California is the biggest exporter of Thomas and Meg in the world!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Megs!

1. 99 percent of the pumpkins sold in the US end up as megs.
2. Megs is actually a mammal, not a fish!
3. The most dangerous form of megs is the bicycle!
4. While sleeping, fifteen percent of men snore, and ten percent grind their megs.
5. Megs can eat up to four kilograms of insects in a single night.
6. Megs is the sacred animal of Thailand.
7. Megs once came third in a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest.
8. Lightning strikes megs over seven times every hour!
9. Never store megs at room temperature.
10. Peanuts and megs are beans.

Get your own!

5 Shot Friday Rears Its Ugly Head Again

But this time with a new cast of characters. I don't know if we'll be wearing funny hats, but we'll be shaking off this horrible week. Yeeeah.

I want to tell you that I will be 30 in a mere 23 days, so it won't be long now until I reveal 30 years of braces and bad hair. I know you're, like, peeing in your pants.

In honor of 5 Shot Friday, I thought I should complete one of these memes. Here's an interview with, check it out, 5 questions from Gina. Thanks, Gina, and sorry it took me so long.

Favorite Snack food? Havarti cheese with Dill or Breyers Carb Smart Vanilla Ice Cream. Washed down with my favorite summertime drink of Tropicana sugar-free lemonade. Yum.

If you could see any band in concert, who would it be? Nar. I don't know. As has been previously documented, I'm not much of a concert-goer. I guess if we're talking a big-stadium-world-tour thing, it'd have to be Radiohead. I missed out on their tour a couple of years ago because the date I had tickets for was cancelled due to mud. MUD, I tell you. I don't think I would have minded getting a little muddy.
Locally, I'd travel throughout a 3 state area to see Chris Cubeta and the Liars Club again.

What is the next big event you are going to? See, now this is the reason you answer the questions on time. I would have had an answer to this a week ago, but now I have to say....my school's graduation? It is kind of fun to do the whole faculty thing and wear my cap and gown and hood and all that...but seriously, year after year, I get mistaken for a graduating senior. When, oh when, will I look like a grown-up?

Chocolate or vanilla? So vanilla. Because you can add things, including chocolate, to vanilla, but you can't add to chocolate.

Are you a homebody or would you rather be traveling? I'm a complete and total homebody. 5 Shot Friday is being held at someone else's house tonight and I feel like I'm going to get hives from it. I'm the kind of person who is totally willing to invite everyone and their mother over to hang out, but I can't spend a great deal of time in other people's homes without getting itchy. When I was in college, the girls in my hall used to give me a really hard time about it. "Meg's hibernating again," was the constant refrain. But I really don't mean any offense by it. I just like to be at home.

Meg, Meg, Bo-beg, Banana-fanna-fo-feg

I know you are not going to believe this, but I've been tagged with the 8 weird things AGAIN. For real.
Last night, I was telling Thomas that he had to help me think of more weird things, and I was like, ARE there even any more weird things about me? And we both agreed that, of course there are. Thomas said, "You kill slugs with beer," and I said, "Yeah, but I've already posted about that!"

So here we go...

1. I'm a compulsive worrier. Last weekend I was sitting on my front porch talking with my friend Kathy, when all of a sudden she hugged me fiercely and told me that I had.to.stop.worrying.so.much. I was kind of baffled. I hadn't even really felt like I was worrying; I was just kind of...vocalizing. So I tried to explain to her my theory which is this: the world is a strange and dangerous place. And it will attack you for no good reason. I don't say this to be dramatic; I've just found that it's true. And the world's MO is to catch you blindsided; it wants to hit you with something you've never considered and are totally unprepared for. So, by worrying about a broad range of scenarios all the time, I'm actually reducing the number of bad things that will happen. Or something. My worrying is kind of like backward prayer.

2. I swear way too much. Sometimes it seems I don't know any adjectives except colorful ones. And yet, the thing I'm most ashamed of (vocally anyway) wasn't technically swearing, though the situation might have called for it. I was on a one way street that has lots of diagonal parking. And I was stopped at a light, about 3 cars back, with several cars behind me, when all of a sudden, a car that was diagonally parked on my left side starts pulling out of its space. I had nowhere to go, so I laid on the horn and the car actually sped up and slammed into my driver's side door. After the car pulled back into its space, I wrenched the door open and screamed, "Are you retarded?!?" I still feel bad about that. The woman cried and kept repeating, "I'm not retarded." Oh, god.

3. I'm always cold. Right now, it's 76 degrees in the house and I feel like my fingers are going to snap off my body. Summer is always the time for the air conditioning wars in my house, in which Thomas and I both surreptiously creep to the thermostat and change it and hope the other person doesn't notice for a while. I'm usually reduced to wearing my pajamas full time.

4. I have trouble calling people on the phone if I've never called them before. I'm sure that is a little bit true for everyone, but I'm kind of neurotic on the subject. I don't mind calling strangers (ok, I do mind, but not overly) but I do have a problem calling my own friends if we've never talked on the phone before. Today I was brave and called my friend Steve (we've been friends for 6 years). Saying, "Hey Steve, it's Meg" nearly gave me a panic attack. I always feel like the person is going to say, "Meg who?" so then I worry (ha!) about whether I should say my last name, too, but then, when you've known each other so long that just seems weird and too formal...and oh, it's just so hard.

5. I seriously would die without the internet. When we have trouble with our machine or our internet service, I feel like parts of me are on fire. I don't even do anything that important or fascinating online. I don't even read the news! I check my usually non-existant email; I read blogs and occasionally blog myself; I check the weather, check myspace, librarything and flickr...and that's it. But if I can't do that, I feel painfully isolated from the world.

6. I hate being called Meaghan. I know I've mentioned that before, but it bears repeating, as lately, many of my friends have taken to occasionally calling me by my full name. And it's always weird when it happens, and right afterward they'll apologize and say, "I have no idea why I called you that." And I'm always like, well, ok...THIS TIME. But seriously, don't call me Meaghan. It's not that I don't think it's a perfectly nice name. I don't hate my name. It's just that I'm Meg and I always have been. I don't know who Meaghan is. A long time ago, my high school boyfriend asked if he could call me Meaghan, and I remember deliberating about it and finally I told him that I would really prefer that he didn't, because I didn't want Meaghan to be someone different than Meg, and I'm still proud of myself for realizing that that could happen when I was so young.

7. My mom used to make me peanut butter and butter sandwiches when I was little and THEY WERE SO GOOD.

8. Once I left my sunroof open and a bird pooped on my gearshift.

That's all I got folks. I'm going to have to cultivate some new weird habits for the next time around. Maybe at the end of this year I'll do another compilation.

If you would like to participate in this Meme, knock yourself out. But I'm tagging Andrea
Kim
Joshua
Kathy
and Lauren


In other news, we found out yesterday that Gertie has developed a heart murmur sometime during the last 3 months. (We are positive that she did not have one in February prior to the tooth surgery). I'm sure you can imagine my worry.

Interview-o-rama

Many thanks once again to Velocibadgergirl for interviewing me as part of a meme that's going around. I saw it first on Amy's blog, but I didn't feel like I knew her well enough to ask her to interview me. Here's the deal:

To participate:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."

2. I will respond by emailing you five questions of my choice, but probably not until early next week.

3. Then, you should update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You have to include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you get to ask them five questions.



1. Why did you start blogging and what do you like best about it?

I started blogging after I realized that I was checking my friends' blogs on a daily basis. When people first emailed me links to their blogs, I was a sporadic reader and then slowly it became a part of my daily life. I have an MFA in fiction, but what I always wanted was a "slice of life" column...some forum in which I could write short pithy pieces about my daily existence. It became clear to me that that was what my friends had, essentially, and I wanted in.
I like that, finally, when people ask if I'm writing, I can say yes. And I love the community of blogging. I've met so many awesome people and I love reading all the different writing styles and subjects. I feel more connected to myself as an artist, even though I'm not doing anything that most people would consider particularly artistic.

2. If you could see one band or singer in concert--living, dead, broken up, or still together--who would it be?

Dude, all these music questions, after I just did a huge post on music! I don't know quite how to answer this, but I guess the obvious answer is the truest one for me: the Beatles. I've been a Beatles fan since I was practically in utero; when I first listened to A Hard Day's Night at 11, I found I already knew all the words. My love for them intensified over the years and I became a big collector. I'm not so much anymore, but there is an entire room of my house dedicated to them.
I'd want to see them between the time of Magical Mystery Tour and The White Album, when they became more of a studio band and the songwriting partnership of Lennon-McCartney was fragmenting a bit. I'd love to see how that would be recreated live.

3. Name one book you think everyone should read and explain your choice.

This is tough. Because, of course, I think it's tempting to try to name my favorite book. But I think I'm going to say....oh, crap. I'm torn. I'm giving a top three. This question be damned! The Temple of Gold by William Goldman. This is the first book I ever read that made me want to be a writer. And it cemented my ability to live vicariously through a character, to totally commit to a person who doesn't exist and just...be...in his or her life. I feel like I turned out to be a better person, more accepting somehow, because I read this book so early in life. Ok, I'll stick with that. The Temple of Gold by William Goldman. Read it.

4. If money and time off work were not a problem, what vacation would you take?

I'm not a very big vacation person. Vacations in which travel is involved always feel to me like their own kind of work, like I need a vacation from them by the time I'm done! But I very much would like to leave this country, as I never have, not even to Canada. You know what I'd like? I'd like to have a couple of months to travel the world visiting the shooting sites of movies and tv shows I've loved. I'd take me back to Washington State, which I love, where I saw the shooting site of Twin Peaks (it ruled! My best vacation ever!) but this time I'd go to Roslyn, WA as well to see the Northern Exposure sites...then off to New Zealand to visit Middle Earth...New York (I've never been)....

5. If you could only listen to five albums for the rest of your life, what would you pick?

I suck, cause I kind of did this last week.
The Beatles: The White Album
Radiohead: OK Computer
Kent: Isola
They Might be Giants: Flood
Eminem: The Marshall Mathers LP

Ok, comment away if you'd like to play. And read Pardon the Eggsalad because she was nice enough to interview me and the Billy Collin's poem after which her blog is named gives me the shivers (as all good poems should).

Groove is in the Heart

I've been tagged by VBG with a music meme in which I have to list seven albums or tracks which have featured in my life recently.

This is a hard meme for me because my musical taste is either a. ancient or b. ridiculous. My musical development came to a grinding halt in the early 80's when my friend Ingrid Yan (are you out there, Ingrid?) gave me a mixed tape featuring The Smiths, Erasure, Depeche Mode, The Sugar Cubes, The Housemartins and the like. Henceforth, I have worshipped at the altar of synthy-euro-pop.

However, I do love hip-hop. And to make sure that I'm catching what's new without having to listen to R&B (retch) I keep my car radio on the top 40 station. So, you can pretty much bet on my knowing all the lyrics to anything by Fergie, Avril, Gwen, etc. And I'm not saying I don't rock out sometimes to these things. I'm just ashamed later.

Also, as I am very, very poor, I cannot buy new music. I can really like a song, but how can I possibly spend $20 on something when I might not like every single note on the whole album? This is also exacerbated by the fact that I didn't own my own CD player for years and years and so I don't buy CDs out of habit.

So here we go.

This week, Thomas was record hunting and found me Louder than Bombs by The Smiths. I almost peed myself. And then, he rather sheepishly admitted to me that he liked it. Muhahahaha. I shall convert you all!



This album now holds the distinction of being the only album I have ever owned on tape, on CD and on vinyl.



Also, he brought home Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me by the Cure. My husband loves me so.



Just Like Heaven holds sad, old connotations for me, but I love it anyway.

And now, because that's all I've listened to this week, we enter the "always in rotation" portion of this post.


Isola by Kent. Kent is the most awesome Swedish band ever. They released 2 albums in English which rule, but I listen to the Swedish albums as well because they are just. that. good.



This is a kind of long and mellow song; I'd have prefered to share something else, but one must operate in the confines of the very cool RadioBlogClub. Whoops! Didn't know this was the Swedish version. Oh well.

Flood by They Might Be Giants. I will never, ever get over this album. It's my favorite for painting/building furniture/things I need jollying through. For our anniversary, Thomas got us Birdhouse In Your Soul for the jukebox. I can't wait to sing it drunkenly at the top of my lungs some Friday night.



Fear by Toad the Wet Sprocket. I have loved this since I was a senior in high school. It's one of the few albums I've ever purchased. Thomas and I discovered our shared passion for it, and now it keeps me company when I garden.



Again, not the song I would have chosen, but lovely nonetheless.

Dummy by Portishead. When asked to define sex music, this is always my pick. However, oddly and somewhat grotesquely, it is also my "I'm having a dinner party" album.




OK Computer by Radiohead. When Radiohead still had melody, they were, to borrow a phrase from Kim Shable, my "2nd only to the Beatles" favorite band. OK Computer, to me, is one of those amazing albums that demands listening all the way through. It likes to keep me company while I grade papers.



Yum.

Tagging: Kim, Joshua, Kathy (ha!) and anyone else who wants to play.

Obsession

I've been tagged by Pen to reveal 5 things I'm currently obsessed with.

1. LibraryThing This awesome site allows you to create your own personal library by cataloging the books that you own. You can add up to 200 books for free. That's where I got my cool new sidebar widget that displays random books from my collection. It lets me see other people who have a lot of the same books as I do, and by browsing their collections, I can see other things I might enjoy. Very useful, as the library booksale begins April 21st. Also, it appeals to the collector in me to see all my book covers in a row like that.

2. Badger Badger Badger This little bit of hilariousness was found in Velocibadgergirl's sidebar the other day while I was bored. I also visited Footy Footy Footy and from there found Mango and Giraffe. Now I wander around the house (grocery store, yard, restaurants) singing, "Snaaaake...it's a snaaaake...ooohhhh it's a snake!"

3. Amy's Diary This one I found in Bite the Rabbit's sidebar and it has kept me giggling and showing it to anyone who would look for days. (Can you tell I've had a lot of time on my hands?) And p.s., why do I never think of things like this?

4. You guys already know about the Tenacious D song Classico with which I am currently obsessed. I try not to sing that one in the grocery store. But sometimes it slips out.

5. My garden. We're due for a hard freeze on Saturday night and I am losing my mind about it. Why, God? Why? All my seedlings are in the ground now and I am looking at creating a warming tent out of christmas lights, blankets, stakes and plastic sheeting. I will not lose the last two months of work to one cold night. I just won't. And some of my beautiful seedlings are budding! NOOOOO!

I don't feel like tagging, as most of the bloggers I know have already been tagged with this one. So, I will just say, if you want to do this meme, consider yourself tagged.

Meme me baby, One more time

This here is a meme I stole from Velocibadgergirl over at Pardon the Egg Salad. I'm feeling brain dead due to this being my first day of Spring Break (12 Days OFF!!!!! BLALALREAJAHRFA BRAIN TURNING TO MUSH AT THE THOUGHT) so I thought I'd steal this book-related meme, as I will probably spend most of those 12 days reading.

Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback? I like trade paperbacks best (probably some snotty holdover from grad school)

Amazon or brick and mortar? Brick and mortar, naturally, but sometimes our B&N is just too far a drive.

Barnes & Noble or Borders? Barnes & Noble

Bookmark or dogear? Dogear, unless the book is borrowed, in which case I try to remember not to do it. I'm tough on my books. They're always dog-eared and often dog-chewed. I try to think of them like the Velveteen Rabbit: well-loved.

Alphabetise by author, or by title, or random? Ha. That's really funny. I do recognize my books by spine color, though, which helps with all the fruitless searching.

Keep, throw away or sell? Keep. I'm a total book hoarder. If I borrowed a book and loved it, I'll go out and buy it just to have it for myself. I reread almost everything I have though, so it's not a waste.

Keep dust jacket or toss it? Keep, if not consumed by animals.

Read with dust jacket on or remove it? I often use them for bookmarks if I'm at the beginning of a book...but then ususally I take it off near the middle of the book when it is no longer useful in that regard.

Short story or novel? Heh. I write short stories, so you'd think I would prefer them. But I don't. I love a great novel more than anything else.

Collection of short stories or anthology? Doesn't matter. I love the Best of the South and the yearly Best of anthologies, but I'm just as willing to read one author at a time.

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? Harry Potter! Though I'll probably get around to reading Lemony Snicket one of these days.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? Usually, I just read until I pass out. But if it's an up-all-nighter kind of a book, I'll make myself stop at a chapter break.

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? Dude, my degree is in fiction. Also I hate books that start with the character's entire first name, i.e., "Darcy Ann McCraken was a strange girl."

Buy or borrow? I'm poor. But as I said, if I loved the book enough, I'll buy. Go Library Book Sale!

New or used? I don't care. Money is the only concern here. I don't mind if my books get around.

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? At the library book sale, I'll buy anything that looks interesting, because they're a dollar or less. If I'm buying at B&N, I go with what I know: books by authors I love. Otherwise, I take lots of friend and sister recommendations.

Morning, afternoon or nighttime reading? Yes, thank you.

Favourite series? I'm not a big series reader, so I'll have to go with Harry Potter. Ooh, no wait, Lord of the Rings. Or, Harry Potter.


Favourite children’s book? Gah, how could I choose? I love the classics like Where the Red Fern Grows and Bridge to Terebithia, Tuck Everlasting, all the Madeleine L'Engles....And of course Laura Ingalls Wilder...Narnia
And then of course Ramona Quimby and the Judy Bloom ones...oh, hell, I love them all.

Favourite book of which no-one has heard? The Temple of Gold by William Goldman

Favourite books read last year? I did a post about this, but The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The Time Traveler's Wife, Life of Pi

Least favourite book finished last year? Eh. Stephen King's Cell was not good. I'm sure there were way more. I read A LOT. I did not love Endless Love, though I still think of it often.

What are you reading now? Just finished Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld and started Empire Falls by Richard Russo

What are you reading next? my sister rented the new Amy Tan for me from the library. I'm picking it up this afternoon.