It’s easy to ignore a meme that you get tagged for once. When you find yourself having been tagged a half dozen times though, it becomes more difficult to ignore. So I finally decided to jump on the 25 Random Things… bandwagon, though I promise that I won’t tag anyone else.
1. My grandfather taught me to drive when I was 13 or 14. If you can drive a gigantic Jeep at 13 on a dirt road in the mountains with a big ditch on your left and a creek on your right, you can drive anywhere.
2. At age 5, I learned how to drive a tractor (thanks again to my grandfather who had to attach a wooden block to the break so I could reach it). I find it strange that I was perfectly capable of changing gears when I was 5, but I can’t drive a stick-shift car now.
3. I have always had a fascination with squirrels and ducks. I have no idea why, but I could spent hours watching them interact with each other. I actually researched owning a pet duck (they even have duck diapers for indoor ducks!) but Adam wasn’t too crazy about the idea. I’m still working on the pet squirrel angle.
4. I read Jenny McCarthy’s book on pregnancy when Adam and I decided we wanted to have a baby. It scared the crap out of me as she had an unbelievable number of highly unpleasant pregnancy symptoms and side-effects. From that book, I came to think that every pregnant woman would have those same symptoms and that pregnancy would be the worst 9 months of my life. Fortunately, I’ve not found any of that to be the case. Other than being so tired now that I can barely function at work, I’ve loved being pregnant. My pregnancy advice is don’t read that crappy book!
5. While all my friends wanted cool sporty cars when they turned 16, I wanted a Volvo 240 Station Wagon.
6. I spent almost a year studying in Denmark when I was in college and it was one of the most important experiences of my life.
7. I love Bruce Springsteen. I once flew from Florida to North Carolina to see him in concert and would do it again in a heartbeat (even though I normally hate concerts). He has this incredible energy (in his music and his performance), which is even more impressive when you consider that he’s around 60 now.
8. I went to an arts high school, which was a fantastic experience. While I could have gone to the school for singing or writing, I chose to pursue writing because you have to have good posture when you sing and I was lazy. It ended up being a good choice, since singing would not have taken me nearly so far as my writing has (I wasn’t that good).
9. I’m really doing this to avoid writing my column. I told myself I was going to write five months’-worth of columns today so I could get ahead before the baby comes, and I just can’t seem to get started.
10. Adam and I got married in a small destination wedding in the Napa Valley. It was small, intimate, and the most fun ever. I’m definitely glad we did it that way since big weddings can get out of hand and become more about making other people happy than about celebrating your love for each other.
11. I was born in New Jersey and lived in the Princeton area until I was 12.
12. I’ve had a two dollar bill sitting in my wallet since shortly after I met Adam, and since really good things have happened to me ever since putting it in there, I’m convinced that my luck will disappear if I take it out. Well, I’m not convinced, but I’m not taking any chances either.
13. I really miss going to conferences and seeing my librarian friends. I didn’t realize how much I would miss it as I was getting a bit tired of travel when Adam and I decided to get pregnant. I’ll probably be at ALA Annual, though with a three-month-old in tow, I won’t be spending too much time at the conference.
14. Adam and I lived in Chicago for six months and it convinced me that I never want to live in a city (though if I had to, Chicago would probably be the only one I could tolerate).
15. I have always had this weird fascination with food gift-baskets even though no one ever bought me one. I love looking at gift basket catalogs and seeing the salamis, cheeses, crackers and sweets in perfect combinations. Adam finally got me a basket from Harry and David last year and it was awesome! I’m trying to find a subtle way to convince someone in my family to buy us this gift basket when our baby is born (I love Zingerman’s).
16. I never thought I’d get married. When I was in college, I spent a lot of time alone (by choice) and thought that I’d end up like Emily Dickinson. Unfortunately, my poetry is not nearly as good as hers. And while I still enjoy being alone, I enjoy being with Adam much more.
17. My favorite book for the past decade has been Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates and I am absolutely terrified to see the movie version. Even with a solid cast and director, I just don’t know how they could do justice to such a beautifully tragic story.
18. Next Saturday is the anniversary of the day Adam and I had our first date. Since it’s only a week away from Valentine’s Day, we always celebrate February 7th instead. It’s probably saved us a fortune at restaurants over the years and it’s a much more meaningful date to us.
19. Adam and I are addicted to really bad television. We watch all of the trashy VH1 reality shows with washed up celebrities and the women and men who (claim to) love them. When I hear people say that TV makes you stupid, I think about how much TV I watched as a kid (and now) and how it doesn’t seem to have harmed me in any way. Still, I hope to keep my son from watching so much TV. Yes, I am a hypocrite.
20. When I was a child, I was a really picky eater. I basically lived on grilled chicken breasts (with nothing on it), spaghetti (with nothing on it), and peanut butter sandwiches (no jelly). I didn’t eat beans or fish until about sophomore year of college, which is funny, because I pretty much eat beans every day now.
21. I still do have some food hang-ups. I can’t eat shellfish because they usually look like what they were in life (I can’t eat anything that looks like what it was). I absolutely hate eggs unless they’re in cake or something. When Adam makes an omelet, I have to leave the room as the smell of eggs cooking nauseates me.
22. My brother and I used to play dress-up a lot when we were little. I have so many pictures of him in dresses and funny hats and I put one of them up on Flickr a while back. Apparently, for his birthday, his friends took him to a restaurant where he found that they’d put up a life-sized copy of that picture. Ooops!
23. I was a vegetarian for many years but was pushed back into meat-eating by a series of boyfriends. First it was just fish. Then one guy got me to eat chicken. Adam was the final straw. He took me to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and it was all over. I still won’t cook meat myself, so it’s usually a “going out” thing.
24. I’ve lived in a lot of different places, but Vermont is the first place I’ve lived where I really felt a sense of fit. At this point, I can hardly imagine living anywhere else. This is home.
25. I can’t wait to meet my son.
I love Bruce Springsteen’s music and concerts too. I wonder how many librarians there are like us that are also Bruce fanatics?
DDG in Illinois
Just like you I hate eggs unless they are in cakes or meringues. When I was about 12 I told my parents I didn’t like them anymore and have not eaten them much since. I ocassionaly eat quiche, if its very cheesy but that is about all on the savoury egg front. The smell repulses me as well.
I share the squirrel and duck fascination. My parents used to get us two baby ducks every year at Easter from a nearby hatchery, which we would raise in the back yard (suburbia) and then release at a lake in a huge, historic cemetery. I wouldn’t do that now, but I sure do have some fond and vivid memories of ducks, and can also watch them–and squirrels–for hours. One year, I used the empty duck “cage” we used to house them at night to nurse an injured flightless pigeon back to health. I love watching pigeons, too! Okay, I love all animals.
#19 Same with me and Amanda. Tool Academy!
Now you talk so much about Adam and food, and you miss going to conferences – so here’s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrzrg3LylhE
cheers,
Gunnar
hi meredith, sorry to post this here, but the comments section expired in the appropriate post.
i just called pottery barn. the return policy i got was that, yes, you would lose your original shipping charges that you already paid, which is usually 10% on items over 200 dollars. furthermore, pottery barn would charge you 13 dollars to come out to get the item, but then pottery barn would refund the entire purchase plus any taxes paid.
if, as you say, you’ve been purchasing pottery barn items for years, i don’t see why one bad experience should ruin your loyalty as a customer. surely, you cannot expect them to eat the shipping and handling on a large item you need to return for whatever reason. incidentally, for my pottery barn purchases, the shipping and handling has usually ranged anywhere between 50 and 100 dollars. no big deal, really, if you can afford to shop at pottery barn.
when my first child was born, we kept his clothes in a second hand dresser and he eventually slept (when not in bed with us) in the same crib as me and all of my cousins had when they were babies. during my son’s infancy, my wife and i kept our own clothes in rubbermaid containers. we eventually worked our way up to an ethan allen armoire.
bruce springsteen produced two pretty crappy albums during the 90’s. it’s good to see that haven’t given up on him.