7-7-7 meme

Julia Broadbooks tagged me for a meme and I thought it was kind of fun:

1. Go to page 77 of your current MS 
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines – sentences or paragraphs – and post them as they’re written. No cheating.
4. Tag 7 authors
5. Let them know


Here's mine:
But everyone that day noticed the birds.
As the mothers drove their children to school and the shopkeepers rolled up the gates on Main Street, they saw them. Even the most jaded and unobservant among them could not help but marvel at the way that the large oak in the town square shimmered with feathers brighter than the tender buds of leaves.
The tree came alive, shifting and swirling in the windless day as each of the tiny bodies fought for dominance on the branches above. As people paused to take in the strange and wondrous sight, the day slowed until it stopped. 

My Life in Six Words

I'm long overdue to finish a Meme from academama, but it's taken me a while to come up with one. I actually really love this meme- it's from a story that Hemingway once wrote a six-word short story: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." So here's mine-

"I'm still figuring it all out."

See, I always thought I knew what I was doing. I was going to be a lawyer, get married in my late twenties, finish the PhD in 5 years, want more than one child. And then life happens. And continues to happen. I decided law wasn't for me, got married years younger than I ever thought I would, have taken far more than 5 years finishing this PhD, and waffle about having any more kids. In the next year, I have huge changes to navigate. I'll be done with my degree and may or may not have a job. We'll have to decide where to move, where to settle, which jobs to pursue, if and when we want number 2. I have a lot of figuring to do. The thing is, I have finally reached the point where I understand that the changes aren't going to stop--that there's no finish line to cross that signals my life is as it should be. And I love that.


I don't feel like tagging anyone in particular, but if you want to play along- here are the rules:

1. Write your own six-word memoir

2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you like

3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere

4. Tag five more blogs with links

5. Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play along

7 Weird and Random Facts

I love these meme things, even if I don't have the foggiest idea why they're called memes. But MGM tagged me, so off I go- 7 weird and random facts about moi.

1. I used to love peanut butter and balogna sandwiches when I was a kid. It all started with butter and balogna (because that makes more sense), and then one day someone threw on some peanut butter. I haven't had these in years, mostly because I can't really stomach balogna any more, but man did I crave them when I was pregnant.
2. I made so many cookies for my wedding, that we had boxes left over. It was supposed to be this big Italian shindig, so we needed a great big cookie table. I baked for almost a month, and every time I'd deliver another couple boxes (we're talking file-size boxes) to my mom's house, she'd look at them and say, "it seems like a lot, but there's really not much there." So I kept on baking and baking and baking. And damn- they were gooood. There were just way to many of them-- that with the 12 cakes, and our guests had a serious sugar buzz going all throughout the night.
3. I hate things jumping out at me-- seriously, I still can't even think about going through a haunted house. At Universal Studios, I closed my eyes or looked at the floor when the stupid anamatronic slow-moving shark appeared on the ride. Hate it-- makes me nervous just thinking about it.
4. I used to dance-- tap and ballet mostly. When I was little I was convinced I was a ballerina and I dreamed of being a Rockette or a star on Broadway. Needless to say, I can't sing at all.
5. I have this fantasy about someday opening a bead and breakfast somewhere. I don't really like housekeeping or anything, but I think it would be fun to always entertain people.
6. I'm absolutely terrible in social situations-- I get panicky when I think about having to attend departmental events or meet and greet type things. I'm find in front of people-- public speaking isn't the problem, but I get nauseous even thinking about going to a reception at a conference when small talk will be necessary. I hate small talk- I'm not at all good at small talk. Even with people I know and like. I feel awkward and anxious trying to keep a small-talk- based conversation going.
   
7. I love driving-- love it love it love it. At least I did back when I owned a little red camaro. That's long gone now, and I find that since I've been pregnant, I tend to automatically get into the passenger's seat even though half the time J's timid and polite driving drives me batty.

So there you do, 7 random, but not overly weird (apparently I'm surprisingly normal) things about me. I'm tagging the yellow dart, DS, mommy prof, and anyone else who wants to play.

More (kind of) mindless fun!

Mommy/prof tagged me for this meme, and I figure if an almost tenured prof. has time to meme, than who am I to argue?? Although I'm still not sure about this

First, the rules:
There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is...".Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:

You can leave them exactly as is.
You can delete any one question.
You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question.
For instance, you could change "The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is..." to "The best time travel novel in Westerns is...", or "The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is...", or "The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is...".
You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is...".
You must have at least one question in your set, or you've gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you're not viable.
Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions. Finally, pass it along to any number of your fellow bloggers. Remember, though, your success as a Darwinian replicator is going to be measured by the propagation of your variants, which is going to be a function of both the interest your well-honed questions generate and the number of successful attempts at reproducing them.


So, without further ado:
My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Pharyngula.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Metamagician and the Hellfire Club.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Flying Trilobite.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is A Blog Around the Clock.
My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Primate Diaries.
My great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Thus Spake Zuska.
My great-great-great-great-grandparent is a k8, a cat, a mission.
My great-great-great-grandparent is Monkeygirl.
My great-great grandparent is DancingFish.
My great- grandparent is Dr. Brazen Hussy.
My grandparent is Addy
My parent is mommy/prof

The best television series in SciFi is: Heros
The best cult movie in comedy is: Austin Powers
The best high-fat food in Italian cooking is: Fettuccine Alfredo
The best recent movie in comedy is: Knocked Up
The best romantic movie in comedy is: French Kiss

I tag: MGM, C..., Yellow Dart-- and whoever else can figure this out ;)

4 Things Meme

I've been tagged by MGM over at Diss, Dat, and Diapers for this 4 things meme. Here goes-

4 Jobs I've had:

1. Server-bitch at country club- Made me hate the yupperclass. I have a name...see? On this here little name tag.
   
2. Cashier at Target- actually was my dream job as a little girl. I wanted to make the scanner beep.
3. Bridal Consultant- best and worst job I ever had. I made the best friends I've ever had working there, but DAMN- women go certifiable when they get a silly little rock on their finger.
   
4. Grad student/University peon

4 Places I've lived:

1. Akron- the armpit of Ohio. But I would kill right now for some Luigi's baked rigatoni and a tossed salad with cheese.
2. Urbino- The tiny medieval town where Raphael Sanzio was born. Beautiful beyond words with the most wonderful piazza, them most wonderful little restaurants, and the most wonderful gelato.
   
3. Happy Valley- Beautiful views, dangerously good ice cream, and that stupid movie about the talking kangaroo playing in every single movie theater on multiple screens for three weeks.
   
4. Middle of the Prairie- Flat, corn...did I mention flat? But strangely enough, it's growing on me. Not the corn, just the place.

4 Favorite Foods:

1. Chocolate-- pretty much any kind in any form, but I love dark, rich semisweet or bittersweet chocolate.
2. Luigi's Baked Rigatoni and tossed salad with cheese. It's the one place I MUST eat at in Akron. Every single time we go back, we make a pilgrimage.
3. Gelato- Not ice cream, not custard, not sherbet. You can only get real gelato in Italy, despite what the places around town seem to think. It only works in Italy, because their entire food production system is different--things tend to be much fresher, locally grown, and generally more delicious.
4. Who am I kidding? I can't really even begin to narrow this down to 4.

4 Places I'd Rather Be:

1. Italy- God I love that country. I love the language and the food and the people and the whole piazza thing and the siestas and, did I mention the food? love it, love it, LOVE IT.
2. Florida- on the Gulf Coast a little south of Clearwater. It's beautiful and relaxing.
3. DC- Hands down my favorite US city. I spent lots of time visiting when J lived there for a while and I love the whole vibe. It feels so international and looks so much like Europe.
4. Tahiti- My one dream vacation. You get to stay in these little huts over the crystal clear water and the pictures look so amazingly serene.

4 Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:

1. French Kiss-- classic romantic comedy that's so good even J has watched it at least 3 times with me. (2 of those were at his suggestion)
2. The English Patient--I don't watch it that often, but when I do I love it more each time. It's the one movie that does justice to the book it's based on.
3. White Christmas- every year, without fail, this is a must-see. J and I even watched it once in July when Little Man was up all night and nothing else was on.
4. I love old musicals. I blame my mother for this, but the fact is that I'm hooked on all of those 1950s and 1960s musical blockbusters-- Oklahoma, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Singin' in the Rain. The one exception is The Sound of Music.
   

4 TV Shows I Like to Watch

1. How I Met Your Mother
2. House- but I haven't had a chance to see it in a while
3. CSI Miami- David Caruso is so deliciously creepy--and cheesey- he overplays everything and it's hysterical to watch.
4. Oprah- There's just something compelling and hilarious about a woman who can say, "Isn't it better to start off poor" when she owns half of the world.

4 Websites I view Daily

1. Please see "Fellow Travelers"
2. Perez Hilton-- I've gotta keep up with the young-ins' culture somehow. Or at least that's what I tell myself.
3. My "virtual paper"- ever since junior high, I read the comics every morning. So now, since our local paper sucks, I read For Better or For Worse, Funky Winkerbean, Rhymes with Orange, Zits, Dear Abbey, and Ask Amy online every morning before I start anything else.
   
4. NY Times

4 Computers I've owned

1. My current Dell that needs more Rem or Ram or something in it
2. My IBM thinkpad laptop from 1999-- I still have it and it still runs. Kind of.
   
3. Acer Desktop-- the thing crashed constantly
4. some very old thing from the 1980s with an orange and black screen that I inherited from my uncle's law school days

4 people to tag-

1. The Yellow Dart
2. Big Dan
3. and whoever else wants to do this