25 things

Okay, so, months and months ago, several people tagged me for this on facebook, but I, being me, had no idea how to get to the notebook feature (or whatever it is) on facebook to respond there. Also, I needed time to come up with twenty-five things about myself (you'd think I don't spend any time with myself or something).

So, finally...

25 things:
1 i don’t like coffee but i like to have a coffeehouse i frequent.
2 someone once told me she knew i was irish because of my accent.
3 pic and i share a middle name (which i got from my aunt, for whom i’m named).
4 i don’t often eat sunflower seeds because a bag of sunflower seeds is like a challenge to me…i want to eat them all in one long sitting (also, my tongue used to peel if i ate too many sunflower seeds).
5 i went shampoo-free for five weeks this summer, but i finally gave up on it (for now, at least).
6 my favorite ben and jerry’s ice cream is s’mores (which was called marsha marsha marshmallow when i first bought it).
7 i won’t look at myself in a mirror in the dark.
8 i can’t leave goodwill without buying books (for me, for pic…).
9 my favorite cookies are the chocolate crinkles my mom makes.
10 for my latest graduation, i bought myself a giant penny press puzzle book.
11 talking on the phone makes me anxious (as does the simple ringing of the phone).
12 i am irked when i come across a blog with no easy access to archives…i detest having to scroll down and click ‘older posts’ repeatedly (which leads me to the following: when i start reading a blog, i begin with the oldest posts and work my way through the archives).
13 i spend a ridiculous amount of time online looking for houses to buy. in any area we’ve ever thought to live.
14 i like to read the harry potter books once a year. (i didn’t start reading the books until goblet of fire came out (i went back and read from the beginning) and i was hooked for life.)
15 it took me a ridiculously embasrrassingly long time to get the ‘upper lip’ joke. (‘something smells.’ ‘it’s your upper lip.’)
16 i am sad that i’ll never have enough time to read everything i want to/will want to read.
17 autumn is my favorite season and october is my favorite month.
18 my left leg is much more flexible than my right.
19 i don’t dust.
20 i refer to the crook of my elbow as a crelbow/krelbow (first time i’ve written it) and the space below my nose and above my mouth as a bnam.
21 i was nocturnal as a newborn.
22 i’ve never all-over colored my hair (i’ve done highlights/weave three times) and i don’t plan on ever coloring it at all again (but, we’ll see).
23 i read my academic reading aloud…most of the time.
24 sono un’astemia, much to the consternation of some others [i’m a tee-totaler].
25 my eyelashes are blonde on the tips (auburny-other than that).

[The list, I compiled elsewhere, which explains, again, the lack of caps.]

ah...

Yes, that's a sigh of relief. I have now posted at least once every day for August. I shall not submit any of us to another NaBloPoMo attempt for a while. (I believe I've stated something similar before....)

The first week of August was almost wholly scheduled posts, as we were traveling and I despise having to type and publish posts from Cardo's phone (it's not even an option with my phone). I got in a couple of posts at my parents' house, though. I just wanted to explain the 'blogging lite' week.

So, I'm going through a bit of a rough time here, emotionally, and sometimes writing all of this frivolous fluff kind of helps, meaning in the upcoming months I might be spewing enough words here to make everyone else as crazy as I feel or I might be a lot more silent. I've found, though, that I've come to depend on this catharsis. We'll see.

Although I might be writing less, though, doesn't mean I'll be reading any less, so please, I encourage everyone to write a big bunch. You'll be doing your part to help distract me from the dark corners ('cause that's why you write, right?).

future project

I like to daydream about oh-so-many things. One thing: sewing projects. I've started buying this Sew Stylish magazine and picking out projects I'd like to attempt. (Now, there's just that pesky little detail of me not being a sewing-person (a sew-er? nah). I need a lot more than a few days of my mom trying to teach me everything that she's learned in the last fifty-plus years. I need lots of practice before I really get something.)

Anyhow, here's one of the things I picked out from the Fall 2009 issue. Eventually, I think I'd like to try it.



(I apologize for the quality of my scan. The fabric is actually a solid.)

Given my short, not-thin stature, though, I think that I'd need to slim down that bow. If I could do it, it could be fun.

music in the morning

This has been stuck in my head all morning. No particular significance in my life right now, just stuck in my head.

[Nicely Nicely Rocking the Boat]

virtual penny for your thoughts

Dearest Interwebby People,

First off, I don't have enough actual pennies for your thoughts. Cardo and I cashed in our change recently after a couple of years of saving up. So, give me another couple of years and perhaps I'll offer actual pennies. Perhaps not.

So, I wanted to ask about something quasi-taboo and controversial: homeschooling. I say 'quasi-taboo and controversial' because I know that, often, the term brings up terrible, horrible, no good, very bad connotations, or something.

I'm not saying that I'm going into this homeschooling venture, I'm just interested in hearing more about it. I know that it'd be better to ask questions in a broader venue than here at the pond (ha! I'm hi-lar-ious! 'the pond'! I need sleep, stat), but I wanted some feedback from you all first.

Right now, I'm just wondering what your initial thoughts/reactions are? Do you have any stories to share regarding homeschooling? I don't believe that anyone I know to read this here blog has herself (I only know women to read my writing here) been homeschooled, yet I ask.

So, thoughts? Feel free to include thoughts on any other alternatives to public schooling also. It's getting close to the time that Pic will be in school full-time, so I'm starting to obsess about it...more.

Grazie mille,
v

name that parent!

Cardo doesn't have a middle name, so he only has two names total. Pic knows that I have four and often adds one of my last names to her own. It seems that she finds the number of names Cardo has to also be lacking, so she decided that he's now Spicy Cardo B.

No doubt, years of jokes can grow from this.

i can see clearly now...

No, this has nothing to do with rain or "rain" as a metaphor for life's fun difficulties. It's just that Cardo and I bought goggles today and for the first time this summer, I could see well at the pool. I didn't have to worry about my glasses getting splashed every couple of seconds. I didn't have to worry about losing a contact in the pool. I could do flipturns because I could see the wall! (Yes, my eyes are that bad.) It was something of a revelatory experience, much like how I felt after getting glasses when I was seven and realizing (or rerealizing) that trees had individual leaves and not just a mass of greenness.

Now, if only the pool-enjoying season wasn't about to end so soon. Ah, well.