Seven things

15 December 2007, 9:56 am by Giggles
Categories: Meme

Several weeks ago, The Book Guardian tagged me to write about seven things you might not know about me. Someone else might have tagged me too, but I can’t remember. I don’t know what people do and don’t know about me though. So I’m going to write about seven strange things about me. You might know some of them, you might not.

1. I do not stay in motels. I will stay in hotels, inns, suites, lodges, all other forms of sleeping situations. But I will not stay in motels. And there are reasons for that too. And those reasons are completely logical for me. As I tell others, I’m not that kind of woman.

2. I do not listen to Christmas music on the radio. I love Christmas music. I’ll put it on at different times throughout the year. But I do not want to hear it on the radio. Two radio stations here start to play it far far far too early. One starts on Halloween, the other the day after Halloween. My problem with Christmas music on the radio is that so many of the songs are stupid bad covers of songs. Plus, I think most of the people singing Christmas songs on the radio are hypocrites for doing it compared to songs they sing the rest of the year. I listen to Christmas music, but it must be my choice to do it.

3. I’m absolutely terrified of moths. They will get me. I know they will. They are ugly and they fly like they are drunk. And if there is any way possible, I will not be within 50 feet of a moth.

4. I lettered in computer science in high school. Yes, I’m that big of a geek.

5. I love packing tape. Love love love love it. My parents gave me three rolls for Christmas or my birthday once and I was so happy.

6. I love socks. I’m not sure what it is with them. But I like socks. I like fun socks. I like wearing my sports socks. I even think my toes are the kind that look good in toe socks. And then there’s the whole joke about knocking socks off with some of my friends. That just adds to the appeal of socks. My feet are almost always cold too, so socks come in handy.

7. Cheerios is my favorite breakfast cereal. And I can tell the difference between the name brand and the knock-offs. I also must remove all Cheerio dust before I will eat them. They must be dust free.

2 Shared thoughts

Picking glasses

12 December 2007, 7:58 pm by Giggles
Categories: Random

It’s time for new glasses. I know these pictures aren’t the greatest. But this is what you get when you have a woman who’s had too much coffee take pictures with a camera phone. The top two are plastic frames and the bottom two are wire frames. The shapes are slightly different. So I’m trying to decide which shape I like best with my head shape.

So, give me your opinions. Giving your opinion in no means binds me to agree with it. But go ahead and try me anyway.

9 Shared thoughts

Science marches on

10 December 2007, 10:00 am by Giggles
Categories: Learn Something, Random

This is my favorite science article for the day: Is hotness an inherited trait?

I enjoyed it for several reasons. The first is that someone actually got paid to time how long it takes fruit flies to have sex. The second is that the article actually used the word “score” to describe having sex. And third, that one of the scientists being interviewed said his son is out of luck if hotness is inherited with humans.

I guess this is what scientists do when they get bored.

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In familiar territory

9 December 2007, 9:34 pm by Giggles
Categories: Musings

I know my surroundings. I can walk around my house in complete darkness and maybe once every three or four months I might stub my toe on something. My house does not have to be completely picked up. There can be a bag here or a project there on the floor and I will be able to walk completely around it, or over it, as the case may be. It’s not that I can see in the dark, it’s that I know my surroundings that well. I’ve been able to do that for as long as I can remember, even when I wasn’t the only one leaving stuff on the floor. I have a pretty good spacial sense that way.

It’s similar with my car. I know my car. I know how it feels. I know how it sounds. I know how it accelerates and breaks and turns. I know exactly what it can and cannot do.

If I’m some place that isn’t familiar, or driving some other car, it’s a completely different story. This has been brought to my attention in both cases recently. Even if I know the floor plan of the building and where I am at in relation to that plan, if it is not a place I spend a lot of time in, I’m completely frozen in the dark. I can’t move without turning on the light because I know I’ll walk into a wall or something. I recently was some place like that and I ended up having to just stand against a wall while the person I was with went to turn on the light.42D

I’ve also been driving a car that is not my own recently. The fuel system on my car started to go out on Friday. I could tell just from the feel of it that something wasn’t right with it, even before it stalled on my way home from work. Rather than going home I decided to see if it could make it all the way to the mechanic’s. He decided it wasn’t safe to drive and gave me a loaner car for the weekend till he could have more time to look at my car on Monday. I know how to drive a car. I actually think of myself as quite good at it, but this isn’t a car I’m familiar with. I imagine it’s like getting a brand new dance partner. You both know the steps, but it takes some time to get them in sync with each other.

Extending this to be a metaphor for life, my life right now is very familiar to me. I know where everything is. I know how it reacts when I do different things. I understand its speed and breaks. I know where the turns are. I know the floor plan. I know where there might be obstacles I’d have to go around or over. This life works for me.

But soon I’ll be frozen in the dark again. I’m packing up everything and moving to a completely different life. I’m not going to know how it handles. I’m not going to know where the walls are. I’m sure I’ll run into them once or twice. I won’t know where the light switches are, and there won’t exactly be someone there who can go turn the lights on for me while I stand against the wall.

And while I’m starting to feel disconnected from my familiar territory, it still does not quite seem real that I’ll be leaving it. I’m sure that within a year I’ll have a good grasp on where things are in the new place and I’ll stop stubbing my toe eventually. I guess this is how we grow.

My friend Elena had this taped to her closet door when we were roommates once:

When we walk to the edge of all the light we have, and we take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen – there will be something solid for us to stand on, or we will be taught to fly.

I’m at the edge. It will be exciting to see what’s next.

1 Shared thought

Blargh

6 December 2007, 11:26 pm by Giggles
Categories: Health, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting, Random

I have a case of the blarghs right now. My apartment feels so cluttered and tight right now. I have boxes for moving out. I have boxes of Christmas decorations out. I have fabric for Christmas presents out. I have laundry to be washed in the door of the laundry room. I have laundry that’s been washed and is now drying hanging in the kitchen and every doorway. And to top it off my head is very cluttered with mucus. Metaphorically my head is also cluttered with thoughts.

Maybe I should finish the laundry, get the decorations out, pack, and finish the Christmas presents to organize my house. And then maybe I should blog some more to organize my thoughts.

But not tonight. Tonight I want to go eat another doughnut.

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15 hours in a car

30 November 2007, 11:32 pm by Giggles
Categories: Random

I’d forgotten what desert storms are like. Holy sheets of water batman!

I’m tired. In fact, I’m so tired that it hurts. But I’m blogging and then I’m going to fall asleep right here on the keyboard.

ggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

2 Shared thoughts

What does it say about you?

29 November 2007, 10:47 pm by Giggles
Categories: Books, Exercise, Folks, Musings, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

My last semester at BYU I took a folklore class. I have participated in the final for that class almost every semester since. The professor was my mission mom in Brasil and for part of the final the class meets at her house and then goes to her neighbor’s and tours their place. Her neighbor is one of the curators of the LDS Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake, and their house is a bit of a museum itself.

What is interesting is that even though the tour of their home is practically the same every time, I get something different out of it each time. One thing that he mentions that I have thought about is he asks the students what their home says about them. What does where you live say about who you are? As I came home from the fabric store with a bag of fabric yet again tonight, I decided that’s what I wanted to blog about today.

When you first walk into my place, it would be pretty obvious that I sew. There is always a blanket on the wall over a bookcase full of bins of fabric. There is an over flowing bucket of blankets next to the couch. There is a sewing machine. And right now there are a few random boxes and several bags of fabric also in various corners of the front room. I sew. But apparently not fast enough if there’s still all that fabric.

Another thing that I hope is obvious when you walk in my door, is that I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I have a picture of Christ on the wall right in front of the door and a wooden plaque I had carved in Brasil of Christ with the children over the couch. There is also a copy of The Family: A Proclamation to the World and The Living Christ that are framed over the couch, as well as a photo of the Winter Quarter’s Temple which I took myself. When I first moved into my apartment, the Elder’s quorum president stopped by to introduce himself and tell me when church was. It was only after he’d said all that, that he asked if I was a member, saying that he’d just assumed as much from my pictures. I’m glad people can assume that by walking through my door.

It might not be quite as obvious at first, but people would know that I’m a photographer. There is only one picture hanging on the wall in my living room that I didn’t take, and my brother took that one. There are 13 photos on the walls in my living room all together. I like to think, why pay to put someone else’s art work on my walls when I can put up my own.

There are 12 flutes on my wall too from various places around the world. Maybe that says I like music, or that I travel (my brother travels, he got them for me). I’m not quite sure on what that says yet.

I have two bookcases in my front room that are overflowing with books. I like to read. If you look closely, one is Church books and the other is children’s book, with almost an entire shelf for Harry Potter books.

I also like elephants. I counted once and I think there are almost 20 in my front room alone.

You would also know that I live in my apartment because it would practically never be completely clean. There would probably be a blanket in a pile on or near the couch because I’m cold a lot and like to wrap up in blankets (it’s a good thing I make so many). There’s probably exercise clothes in a stack from when I went running.

It’s interesting to think about what my place says about me and who I am. I hope my home is a truthful statement to my personality and character.

I will be attending the final again next week. I wonder what I will get from it this time.

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