This week – a holiday weekend in Canada (Happy Canada Day!) and in the United States (Happy 4th!) – Stasha has given us an easy list: ten questions. If you’re looking for a friendly place to hang out, stop by the yeahwrite hangout grid: I’m guest hosting the front porch conversation over there this week, so come keep me company.
1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 23, and find line 4. What is it? From Father’s Day, by Buzz Bissinger, a brilliant and brave account of a father’s cross-country trip with his son Zachary, who suffered brain damage at birth. It’s an amazing book: “In previous lives, we had obviously both appeared in Waiting for Godot. And perhaps written it.”
2. How many times a day do you say Hi? Er…lately? Not very many because I spend most of the day inside staring at my computer. I say hello A LOT to my keyboard. Occasionally to Husband; sometimes to my children. There are a few “salaams” here and there, but not a lot of “hi.” Hmm.
3. Have you ever worn a uniform? Black pants, white shirt: the uniform of waiters everywhere. Sometimes with an apron, sometimes with a stupid-ass bowtie, always with black shoes. A hideous pink-and-brown polyester apron over my white shirt when I worked behind the counter at a fudge store in Mackinac Island one summer. Thank god I was fired and the apron had to be returned. I thought about burning the apron but it was made of polyester and probably would’ve just melted into a pink vomiticious puddle.
4. What do you think about the most? kidshusbandwritingworkbookmotherfamilyweatherheatlosetenpounds
5. How many keys are on your keyring? Three: house, office, Husband’s office. There is a separate ring with a car key and a house key, which Husband and I pass back and forth, depending on who is driving where on a given day.
6. What was the last thing you bought? Some really lightweight trousers that zip off into shorts. Not my usual style but am getting ready for our Rather Significant Trip next week. More on that later.
7. Are you growing anything these days? I have one small pot of basil on the windowsill. I wish I had a yard, or even a place to put some big pots with more herbs. I miss my big terrace in New York, where by this point in the summer, I would have killed several tomato plants, any number of herbs, and several flats worth of petunias. The morning glories thrived, and the sunroses. Everything else got crisped.
8. What is under your bed? Husband’s shoes. Dust. The upside of moving around the world? You shed a lot of crap, including most of what had lived (for decades) under the bed. Of course, much of that crap is in our storage facility, waiting for us to return. If there should be a fire in a storage facility in Westchester sometime late next year, it wasn’t me.
9. What is most important in life? Well, happiness. Health. Imagination. Work that matters. (And within “happiness” I include those people who bring me joy: Husband, kids, family, friends.). Tom Lux has a great poem about work and love, and loving work: “A Horatian Notion.”
10. What is the strangest word you used this week? Pilgarlic. (Liam asked me for some of my favorite words, and this one is near the top. Cress Delahanty, a book I adored when I was growing up, makes a fantastic list of words, and some of them I adopted as my own).
What would your answers be to the questions on this list?
OK I’m dying to know about the Rather Significant Trip!
Also, I have similar pants. They’re pretty awesome for outdoor stuff. And yes, I did unzip it into shorts during the day.
actually, i’m kind of looking forward to the unzipping! my husband got a similar pair. it’s going to be embarrassing – next thing you know, we’ll be wearing matching track suits. sheesh!
I love your whole list, but I think #4 is my favorite. That’s how I think things, all at once! And your descriptions of your work uniforms made me giggle! Great list!
isn’t that the way? my brain just runs it all together – thinking about doctor’s appointments and do we have bread and what about that post i wanted to write – it’s all simultaneous. maybe that’s why i have trouble getting things done? : )
Funny answers–love your snapshot of city life. So different from mine:)
Yes to all things in number 4! 😀
I think about lose40pounds way too much. I am sure if I do something about it instead of thinking it would help…
Cannot wait to see where you are off to!
hey, thinking burns calories too! (at least, that’s what I keep telling myself…)
I would be interested to see what sort of things we would shed, if given the opportunity to move abroad. It’s so easy to accumulate CRAP!
I’m checking out Yeah Write Hangout grid now.
it IS funny, that sorting process. and clearly i did mine with half a brain, which is why I brought refrigerator magnets to Abu Dhabi but left behind my all-time favorite frying pan. WTF?
Only you, really, can make a mundane list of things into something non cliched and interesting.
Such genius…
(hmmm…or is it made interesting b/c I’m interested in you?)
Discuss amongst yourselves.
oh hugs hugs hugs. i’ve often wondered what wonderful things YOU would do with these listicles, empress… (uh, yep, that’s a hint).
great word and I had to look it up so thanks for improving my vocabulary.
That is a really good thing about moving a lot, I’ve been able to get rid of a lot of stuff that way as well. Why do waiters always have some horrible vest they have to wear? Glad that time is over!
I have a black skirt that I love…and a white shirt, and every now and then I forget and decide to wear them together, and then I have flashbacks! (And change my clothes). Ugh
Your answers brought me smiles. So much to relate to within your witty answers. (killing flora, the jumble of what we think about, the excess of ‘stuff’ in our lives) Fun post, well told.
In France you can’t say hello to the same person twice in the same day. So I say hello less than I do in the States.
Of all the book quotes I’ve read, yours makes me want to read it the most! I’m looking for it on iTunes now!
it’s a great book – hard to read in some places, because the father/author is so brutally honest about his feelings having to do with his son. but it’s well worth the read…
Did you really shed the crap if it is waiting in a shed? You’re welcome for my existential musings.
If it makes you feel any better, my basil is a little wilty between the heat and the Japanese beetles, but I did have my first eggplant out of my garden today.
Want to know about the trip!
Ellen
Enjoyable list. Great jumpstarts to writing. I’m always looking for quick ways to get started.
join the listicle! every monday, there’s a new suggestion; it’s a great prompt and a fun way to read blogs you might otherwise have missed.