7 Weird and Random Facts About Moi

I had another post in mind today but on a whim I decided to do this meme instead.

I've seen this meme around forever but I don't think I've ever been tagged for it (hmmm, maybe once long ago) until Julie tagged me today. Which is probably just as well as it's a lot harder to think of 7 weird and random things about oneself than you'd think. I mean, I know that I'm made up of probably 80% weirdness but apparently one of those weirdnesses is a complete brain freeze when trying to think of them. So I took a stroll through old photos to see if it would jog my memory. Which it did. Randomly. Which was the whole point. So, in random order below, some weird things about me.


1. Old walls fascinate me. Old anything fascinates me. New, although sometimes a good, useful, and practical choice, like a new laptop or refrigerator, just doesn't have the same appeal.


2. I love rocks. I suspect I could have happily studied geology and made a career of it. But instead I just collect them, big and small, and put them in my yard or in jars in my house or along windowsills. Funny though, I'm not terribly interested in the New Age sort of rocks, I don't collect crystals for channeling power or hematite for absorbing negative energy or... well, that's about where my knowledge on that sort of thing ends. I do like to "communicate" with rocks, but I just go with what I'm drawn to and don't bother what the official name or what the purpose of a rock is supposed to be. I do have a few quartz crystals and some hematite, most of them were gifts, but I mostly just have things I find on the ground. More weirdness - I prefer them in their natural state as opposed to all tumbled and shiny.


3. I love to go to stores like Home Depot or Lowes. I like the smell of cut lumber and the tangy metal smell of hardware. I love the rows of pretty tiles and the magical stalactite department of lighting fixtures. I like to pick paint colors and rub my hands along the rolls of carpeting. I get a thrill of excitement at the possibilities of a new project and the warm fuzzies at remembering projects already completed. Hubby on the other hand, groans at the idea of new projects. So that sort of balances out my enthusiasm. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Bad in that it stops me from starting all sorts of new projects but probably good because neither of us are much in the way of finishers.


4. I'm a bibliophile. Not just "Oh yes, I like to read." I mean I could see myself reading ALL THE TIME. Well, maybe not all the time. I'd have to eat and shower occasionally. So, okay. Maybe I like other things too - like gardening and hiking and spending time with others. But I do love me a good book. And I love books on my walls. I love libraries and bookstores. I love authors. I love movie scenes about books and books about books.

One weird thing about my reading is that I read both fiction and nonfiction as a child and teenager but as a young adult I read almost 95% nonfiction. For a couple of decades. Then suddenly I started to read fiction again and read it almost exclusively for another decade. Just in the last few years have I gone back to reading more of a variety of choices. The photo is a random stack of books I bought during a visit to the library book sale last summer.


5. I love old cemeteries and churches. This is weird in itself probably. I know others love these things as well but I think we're all considered odd ducks. But what's even weirder is that although I love old churches, I don't have any desire to attend church and while I love old cemeteries, I don't have any plans to be buried in one.


6. This one is a two photo answer. And this weird fact is one that's been sloshing around in my brain a lot lately as Hubby and I are fast approaching the need to make a decision on what to do when he retires. Here it is -

I love the big city. I could see myself happily living in a neighborhood filled with coffee shops, art galleries, bakeries, restaurants and parks. I like the sounds of traffic below, the energy and buzz of people and projects all around me. It wouldn't have to be a huge city, although that would be just fine. It could be a small city, or even a small town that was really alive with tourists or a university or art so that it was never stagnant. The point would be that I would live within it, where I could walk to most anywhere I needed. But...


... I also love the rural countryside. I can see myself living far from neighbors with nothing but the sound of the birds and the wind to keep me company. I'd hear the lowing of cows from my nearest neighbor. I'd have big gardens and a tiny copse of trees where I could talk to the faeries or do ritual or just sit quietly and soak in the silence.

The only place I can't picture myself is in the suburbs. To me the suburbs are just the worst of each without the advantages of either.

For most of my life if handed the choice, which I was not as generally jobs and family and other factors made the choice for me to large degree, I would have had no problem choosing the countryside. But as I get older, I find my love for the city has caught up with my love for the country and I am truly and completely torn between the two now that I'm finally coming to a point in my life when, knock on wood, I have a choice in where I live.

Maybe I just need to write that bestseller novel, sell the movie rights for millions of dollars, and have BOTH. Good idea. That solves THAT problem.


7. Last weird fact about me, I like my tea with milk and sugar. (I have no idea why it looks like William is reaching for MY cup in the photo.) This is only a weird fact because I don't live in England where this would be a boring, normal fact. But it's weird for an American. And weirder, I like most of my tea this way - not only black tea but also green or white tea (which made Rob, one of the owners of our now defunct tea room, shudder in horror), even on occasion a spicy herb tea, turning it into a chai latte sort of concoction.

I do drink most herb teas without (although I don't drink herb teas anywhere near as much as I do black tea), as well as the tea served at a Chinese restaurant. And I drink my iced tea without milk as well. But pretty much everything else gets a spoonful of sugar and a dollop or two or three of milk.

So that's it - were those random and weird enough for you?

It's probably a good thing I don't get tagged very often because here's the part where I'm supposed to tag others and I just don't do that anymore. Folks have either been tagged already, or don't want to play, or they're friends and the ones who tagged me in the first place or I feel too weird tagging a blogger that doesn't know me that well. So, if you want to play, consider yourself tagged. And let me know and I'll add a link to you and come see what sort of weird people I hang around with these days!