A Bluestocking Knits

Ten Years Ago — August 1995, I was getting ready to go back to college, after some years’ hiatus, feeling more than a little nervous because I had decided to live on campus.  Turned out that I had a great time, and despite the little annoyances of dorm life, it was a year that I will cherish in my memory.  I was also, ten years ago, planning my wedding, to take place the following June.

Five Years Ago — August 2000, I was adjusting to life with a then-eight-month-old baby, our first child, the lovely Laura.  She was crawling by then, getting close to walking (which she would do at ten months) and talking.

One year ago — August 2004, I was feeling the utter relief of not being a temporarily-single-parent anymore, as David had just come back from his first long trip to Hong Kong, four weeks.  Since this was pre-Bluestocking, I was also doing rather a lot of genealogy, and working on my Bloomsbury Shell cushion.

Yesterday — Trying, not terribly successfully, to get over the effects of an inexplicably sleepless night.  I can say with complete certainty that I don’t function very well on two hours’ sleep.

Today — Getting ready for the relocation survey tomorrow morning; i.e. deciding how much we can carry in our luggage and what we will ship (i.e. do without for 6 to 8 weeks).  Swimming in the afternoon.

Tomorrow — Relocation survey.  Change our library books or more swimming in the afternoon?

Five Snacks I Enjoy — Pepperidge Farms Orange Milanos, scones, cashews, and I will be a bit sanctimonious here and say Granny Smith apples, although obviously my snacks tend to be more in the sweetie line.  Häagen-Dazs Tiramisu….

Five Bands/Singers Whose Songs I Know Most of the Words To — Dan Zanes, The Beatles, Split Enz, Norah Jones, The Boston Camerata (okay, not most of their lyrics, but I think rather a lot).  I must point out that this list does not include all of my favorite bands/singers — I could probably never learn all of the words to Cecilia Bartoli‘s songs, for instance, and I’ve actually owned only one Beach Boys album, to my surprise….)

Five Things I Would Do With $100,000,000 —

Buy one of these (with change left over!),

or one of these,

or better yet, this,

or start one of these,

and be sure to give at least half of that sum to charity.

Five Locations I’d Like to Run Away To — England.  Sweden and/or Norway.  England.  Italy.  England. 

Oh, alright, England, Sweden and/or Norway, Italy, Vancouver, or Northern California, the last being probably the only one that might really be in my future.

Five Bad Habits I Have —  Not finishing things I’ve started (that novel, for instance).  Putting off doing the dishes until the next day, in fact "not starting things I should be doing" might be more accurate.  Laziness.  Being sarcastic when I’ve lost my temper.  "Forgetting" things I didn’t really want to remember.

Five Things I Like Doing — Reading, knitting, cooking, gardening.  Mothering.

Five Things I Would Never Wear — Stiletto heels, fake fingernails, a thong, miniskirts, this,

Five TV Shows I Like — I don’t actually watch much television, so this is tricky; we don’t have cable, and then got out of the habit of watching network TV when the girls were little.  I must confess, though, that Laura and I were quite fond of "Supermarket Sweep" on PAX for a while.  I liked "Star Trek: Voyager" and the other new Star Trek series ("Voyager" was probably the one I managed to watch most often).  I loved the old "Masterpiece Theatre" and "Mystery!" series.  Maybe "Providence" was the last show I remembered to watch regularly.

Five Movies I Like — Hard to narrow it down to five, but "Persuasion", "Notting Hill", "The Music Man", "The Philadelphia Story", and "Shakespeare in Love" are perennial favorites.

Five Famous People I’d Like to Meet — I will change this slightly to Five Bloggers I’d Like to Have a Knitgroup With, and say Ann and Kay of Mason-Dixon Knitting (hoping they count as one, since that means I get an extra person), Siow Chin of Little Purl of the Orient (ooh, wait, I’ve met her!), Julia of Mind of Winter, Julia of Moth Heaven, and Kate of Needles on Fire.  Stephanie can’t make it because she’s still on the author circuit.  (Very hard to narrow this one down, too, obviously.  I would like to meet all of the bloggers I read regularly.  These I’ve mentioned have buttons — this is an illustrated meme, after all.)

Five Favorite Toys — My All-Clad saucepan, this laptop, our new Thomas the Tank Engine wooden train set, the indoor playground at our complex, and the air-conditioning which has made this summer bearable.

Five Biggest Joys at the Moment — Getting ready, although this expat experience has been wonderful and I’ve met some really nice people and seen really fantastic things, to go home.  The sudden blooming of my three-year-old, who has always been rather overshadowed by her precocious older sister.

The adrenaline rush I get from reading really good blogs — knitting, crafts, cooking, travel, gardening, it doesn’t really matter what subject.  These flowers, I don’t know what they are but their gardenia-like scent is heavenly,

And, of course, the ever-present delight in a little silliness —

Pholph’s Scrabble Generator My Scrabble© Score is: 21. What is your score? Get it here.