High Five Me-Me

I stole (or should I say stoled, because it drives my son nuts when I do) a Me-Me. I stole it because a) it looked like it would be fun to fill out and b) because I didn't feel like watching the Olympics and c) because I didn't have enough energy to actually get up and do anything useful. I was following blog links - I think it went something like this: Red Shoe Ramblings (who I actually know) to la vie en rose...a sweet life (who I don't know (I don't think) but read regularly from Deb's blog) to mad organica (who I don't know at all but who may be one of my new best friends because her blog is funny and sweet and she apparently talks/writes even more then me, thus making me appear to be demure and quiet in comparison). Knowing what a small world, thus, small world wide web, we live on, I suppose I could have waited to be tagged. But.... nyah. I'm not that patient.

High Five Tag

What Were You Doing Ten Years Ago?

Ten years ago this month I was moving into this very house. We'd moved up to Susanville on the new year, and had been living in a motel "apartment" unit while we waited for escrow to close. My mom and stepdad were up here too, living in their RV in the yard, and helping do some major repairs and remodels on the house. William was only four years old and upon being informed that he was old enough to go to kindergarten in the fall, had responded "Mom, I'm not going to school. So just DROP it, okay!" Amazingly enough, he still hasn't gone to school, although he's decided to give it a try this coming autumn. I had just had a difficult midtrimester miscarriage (who I think was a girl and who I named "Rose") and we were only about six months out of losing custody of Josh and Noel (my stepkids), so I still spend a lot of time feeling frustrated and angry about the unfairness of it all. Joe and Sam were going back to public school after a semester of homeschooling in the wild. And we were all enjoying our very first truly snowy winter as a family.

What Were You Doing One Year Ago?

Funny, that's harder to recall then what I was doing ten years ago. I had just finished up a helluva busy year the year before that, a year I had thought was going to finally be "reclaim my personal time" year. Instead it had been chock full of family obligations, both difficult and joyous. Since it was a snowy winter, I was spending two days a week up at the local ski resort while William snowboarded, sitting in the lodge or on warmer days, on the deck, and knitting myself a wool Gryffindor scarf. I was no doubt in or about to fall into a deep sadness as the anniversary of the last day I was ever to see Joshua loomed.

I'm not sure how these first two questions apply to a High FIVE Me-Me, but I still like them. However, they should have been "What were you doing five years ago?" and "What were you doing five hours ago?" Right? Wouldn' that make more sense? Hmmm, now that I've postulated these revised questions, what WAS I doing five years and five hours ago?

Five years ago Joe was about to graduate from high school. I still had three kids at home, Noel was being wild and giving us sleepless nights and gray hairs, and only Joshua was in college yet and we thought he was soooo old. (ha!) I spent enormous amounts of time driving to and from and sitting on bleachers at children's football, soccer, and baseball games. I was still really involved in my local quilt guild and the local homeschool group. I think we had just gotten cable for the first time and I had finally been able to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I was trying to watch years and years of re-runs to catch up.

Five hours ago I was sitting across the table from William at Black Bear Diner, telling the waitress that my chicken dinner was so dry that it was inedible. The waitress was trying to get me to make a decision on a new meal, William accused me of not hearing the last three things he'd said (which was true), and a friend I hadn't seen in ages had just walked in to the restaurant and came over for a hug and hello.

Five Snacks You Enjoy
*Starbuck lattes
*popcorn with margarita lime salt on it, or alternately, sprinkled with nutritional yeast
*refrigerator dough cookies, just barely baked - I enjoy them but try to avoid buying or eating them
*recently, tangerines
*this is hard, I'm not much of a snack person. I'm more of a good food person, so let's go with reheated "leftovers"


Five Songs To Which You Know The Lyrics
* Popular - from the Wicked soundtrack "Popular, you're gonna be pop-u-lar...." or really, any song off the sounddtrack
* ditto - anything off the Buffy "Once More with Feeling" soundtrack
* All Star by Smash Mouth. "Hey now, you're all all star, get the game on, go play!..."
* I bet I could do all of American Pie by Don McLean - probably most popular radio songs of the 70's - one has way more time to memorize lyrics as a teen
* The Star Spangled Banner


Five Things You Would Do If You Were a Millionaire (that you can't do now)
* hire staff - a housekeeper, cook, secretary....
* move to the country, eat a lot of peaches.... someplace big enough and private enough that I wouldn't have to hear or see other people
* travel more
* give generously to anyone who could help dig out the weeds and shrubs in Washington D.C.
* buy my husband a sports car

Five Bad Habits
*procrastinating
*spending more time worrying about things then getting them done
*eating "just one more snack" before bed (sometimes several times)
*doing things in the reverse order of importance or priority
*being scattered instead of focused
*(yes, I know, this is six) not going to bed when my body first tells me to

Five Favorite Things in My Home (things - not people or pets)
*my books
*my agates
*my photographs
*my witch dolls
*my dad's coffee mug

The person before me took a different tack with this question, and mentioned specific items, which I only did with my last choice. It was too hard to name specific items as I probably have about five things in each room that I'd single out as special, for assorted reasons. There was no way to mention JUST five. Although, it's interesting to think that I might be able to single out five, or even ten things in each room, leading to the even more interesting question - why do I have/keep the twenty or fifty or hundred more things beyond those that I do not single out as more significant then everything else?

I did focus on sentimental items. I could have gone a different route, more along the lines of five favorite things I USE in my house - then I probably would have listed my computer, my tea pot, my digital camera, my CD player, my sewing machine..... all those things that it would be hard to live without on a more practical level.

I was going to add a few more questions, just for the fun of it, but I've been sitting here trying to come up with something for about ten minutes now and discovering that it's not as easy as it sounds. Every question that springs to mind either seems lame (like, duh, everyone would answer it the same), or too personal, or just a waste of time. As if answering these things at all is a productive use of time? Hah. Who said everything one does should be productive. Did you read the things I listed under "bad habits"?

So, last but not least, I need to tag, well, the obvious number is FIVE people. So, if she hasn't done it yet, Deb. Deirdre, just cuz I know she hates these things. My mom, cuz that's fun to read. Rachel, if she's got the time and if her shoulder is up to it, cuz I know she likes to blog. One more....hmmm, who will be my victim.... y'know, it seems if I'm pretty certain someone reads my blog, I don't think they themselves have one. And folks who do blog, don't know which people read mine? Okay, someone, pick yourself. Be my fifth. Surprise me. And, let me know so I can come read your answers.