Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Eight Things About Me

#1 I cannot tag; that is the humour of it. (to misquote Nym from Henry V)

#2 I love to see the ways my three children are like my husband, and like me. I'm fascinated and embarrassed and impressed and relieved (in different combinations at different moments) by the genetics involved.

#3 My parents' divorce was very painful for me even though I was already 17, and I spent the next few years in college and visiting them on the weekends, watching them do things they regretted even more than the divorce.

#4 My husband is really, really wonderful and he's the sole reason I'm not divorced now, probably. Or the much-bigger part of the shared credit. He's very cool and patient and generous, and his parents are still together after 60 years or so, so maybe it's genetic in his family, which is great for OUR family, then.

#5 The people I love the most are in the SCA, and the people who piss me off the most are also in the SCA, where I've been for over half my life (by the years, not by the hours).

#6 I can't swim. I can spell. I can harmonize with ease in different styles with voice or recorder. I can get words on paper (or into computers and out onto the internet) all kinds of ways, but if swimming is required, someone else has got to do it.

#7 I remember songs I've known since I was very, very young. Things I learned from my two Papaws, and stuff from Captain Kangaroo in the 50's, and songs I learned from my cousins and at church and school and playgrounds. I know dozens of traditional ballads, many with over a dozen verses, and those stay in my head. Numbers generally do not stay in my head.

#8 I was David Bowie's first American fan. This is old news to some, but will be new news to others. I was younger than Holly is now when I wrote to David Bowie and he wrote back and sent me a packet with a newspaper and some photostatic pictures of him and a full-page letter. Check it out: http://sandradodd.com/bowie

Anyone untagged by others who wants to voluntarily claim a tag from this and write eight things should leave a note here saying so, so I can go and read them, but if no one does, I will feel no worse than when I break chain letters, which I have done all my life, and have had very little bad luck of any sort. I have broken my leg twice, but never did a chain letter say "send this or you'll break your leg," so until this very moment I never thought there could be a connection... (Thought another moment; there isn't.)

8 comments:

Tracy Million Simmons said...

Not exactly a response from your tag, but I did 8 things a while back and you can read about me if you want ;-)
http://goobmom23.blogspot.com/2007/05/crazy-eight.html

Sandra Dodd said...

Oh, that was fun! I especially like "I can’t sleep without the dog at my feet. I count on her to wake me up if anything bad happens in the night. That’s why I wake up every night whenever the cat enters the room. The dog thinks the cat is bad."

And I liked the fact you had grammar and word books on your desk, and I own lots (those and others) but... doesn't your google work?

Anymore, I just use google. I can put in
that which usage
and get to pages discussing the difference between "that" and "which" (and so forth...)

Maybe another interesting thing abut me should be I've just about quit using dictionaries, except the OED which I have no online access to. Friends of mine who work at the university have slipped me an entry or two when I really needed to quote.

Madeline Rains said...

I hadn't thought about the fact that I never use the dictionary anymore since google, except to press flowers (I have a big one) and to play the game dictionary.

I am so impressed my your David Bowie fact.

I just did this too, here: www.barn-raising.blogspot.com/ I have two quotes from you that I took from your radio interview (that you did a while ago but I just found last month) on sticky notes that are attached to my lamp and to my date book. One is "keep lives so busy and so varied that learning happens all the time" which reminds me to keep life flowing and not get in a rut. Thankyou.

Sandra Dodd said...

I LOVE to play dictionary with real dictionaries!

Tracy Million Simmons said...

Well the Truss book is entertainment reading and I do google frequently. Dictionary.com is on my home page. I'll never give up my books because I can carry them to the hammock, the bed, the kitchen table... anywhere I happen to be writing. I thought a laptop might cure that, but I still prefer the variety of modes and venues ;-)

Heidi Snavley said...

Don't feel bad, I wrote eight things about me but didn't tag either. I just don't care for those chain things but I don't mind writing eight things about me:) And I really enjoyed reading eight things about you! We went to our first ren fair last week- very interesting. Tristan was ready to park himself and stay the entire weekend, he just LOVED it!

Sandra Dodd said...

http://fivefreebirds.blogspot.com/2007/06/8-things-about-me_18.html

Heidi didn't link her eight things, but there they are.

Jennifer said...

Just when I thought you couldn't get any cooler -- pow David Bowie. Very neat.