Flooded Lizard Kingdom

I'm not usually a meme-r, but a few of the questions from the year-end meme looked interesting. See Grace's blog for a full set of questions.

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?


Understood on an emotional level how some people feel threatened by their adopted child's biological parents. I can't imagine someone else having experienced my baby's first few minutes, hours, or days instead of him being with me. (I'm not saying this to judge anyone, just saying I could finally viscerally understand how it might feel.)

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

No. Yes. Kind of. A woman at work was my "pregnancy buddy" and we did bond over all the ups and downs. Her son was born about two months after ours. However, I'm not sure she and I would qualify as close. I think we're close the way a lot of men are close to the other men with whom they bond during recreational activities.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?

Full meals every day without fear, January through June. (You knew I had to sneak in something bitter about being pregnant!) On a more positive note, a pass to SXSW Interactive and enough time to see all the panels I want.

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

January 12th we moved into this house. January 28th I started to feel quite ill. March 17th I left the house for the first time since January 28th to do something other than work or go to the doctor. July 26th through 29th was BlogHer, where I spoke for the second time but was disappointed in how well I did - but it was also the first time since January 28th that I went an entire day without feeling nauseated. September 11th I had the baby. That's about it.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Tie:

For failure in actions, it would be sticking my foot in my mouth with friends and family. I bring up weight with my friends who struggle with body image. When my grandfather complains about being old, I'm fake. I say things to my sister about my mom that put my sister in the middle. Need. To. Stop.

For failure in judgment, it would be getting a four month old puppy while I was pregnant. And I desperately do not need to hear anyone else tell me they agree that it was stupid. Thanks though. I promise that I am paying for it now.

14. Where did most of your money go?

House. We have paid as much on this house as my initial student loan balance. We now own 20% of it after living in it one year.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Gardening.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

I can't think of any, which makes me sad. New music used to come into my life regularly, through mix tapes from friends or new boyfriends' CD collections. Then KGSR introduced me to a slew of new artists. Now I hate everything they play, and there are no more boyfriends or mix tapes. (I don't miss the boyfriends, in case you were wondering.)

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Having painted at least some of the rooms in our house before getting pregnant. They're all ivory, which is better than white, and I don't actually know what colors I would have wanted, but still.

32. What kept you sane?

C-Man taking care of me, and the internet.

35. Who did you miss?

Beth. My sister. Both deeply and painfully. I meant to travel in 2007, after the legislative session ended, but I couldn't except for BlogHer. So I didn't get to see them (until my sister showed up last week).

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007.

The most important things are often quite tedious.

As explained by Miss Zoot:

You go to Google and type in your name along with the phrase “last I heard he/she was” and see what you get. Find out what you’re up to these days…

So I did, and I have grouped some of the resulting scenarios into how well I could tolerate them.

Not a major disaster:

• Last I heard, she was in Palo Alto California and had a great husband
• Last I heard she was in New York and was nominated for an Oscar for a short film

Um, well, I guess it's better than a stick in the eye:

• Last I heard she was going to Ft. Sam Houston
• Last I heard, she was getting some feeling in her arm?
• Last I heard, she was in East Timor, working for the Red Cross

Someone kill me:

• Last i heard she was dating that heroin boy from Silverchair
• Last I heard she was hosting for Martha Stewart
• Last I heard she was on WWE raw

• Ben Folds Five - Kate
• Jonathan Richman - Velvet Underground
• New Model Army - Stupid Questions
• Suzanne Vega - Calypso
• Ruby - Tiny Meat
• Depeche Mode - I Feel You
• Dinah Washington - Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby? [Rae & Christian Remix]
• (skip another Ben Folds Five Song)
• (skip another Jonathan Richman Song - c'mon, you have 2,467 songs to pick from!)
• Solas - Paddy's Taylors / McFadden's Handsome Daughter / The Narrowback / Frank's Reel / Esther's Reel
• Pete Yorn - Sense
• Golden Palominos - Pure

As seen on What if no one's watching?, who got it from Going Dutch.

Instructions: Google "your first name needs" and see what the Internet thinks you need.

• bottle/can donations
• a Home (I am in this case a Siberian Husky/Border Collie)
• to take a CPR course
• to be cared for exactly as you would a real baby (I think C-Man would agree)
• to have a good reason or incentive to participate
• to do her job
• little introduction
• no more than a harsh reprimand to make [her] understand you are displeased
• someone to love
• to be scrutinised by a public inquiry
• a patient, no-nonsense owner, preferably with terrier experience, and a fenced yard
• your feedback
• surgery
• help regaining financial solvency
• a new wardrobe
• to dump Luke like yesterday!
• to look out for her sanity
• to be more active!
• to be docked 2 days at her regular rate
• to learn how to play cooperatively
• emergency treatment after playtime
• to study biology over the summer
• to think what this will do to her self-respect
• a search and rescue team

[Updated 6/14 to clarify. Change in brackets.]

So one of my friends tagged me with one of these bizarre blog meme things. I usually ignore these, but since she called me out by name it seemed rude [to ignore this one].

The instructions are this: List your six favorite songs and tag six others to do the same.

Oh please.

This makes me so glad!

My good San Antonian friend wrote me this:

Here's how it works. You select ten CDs you'd take with you to a desert island. You can take them and no others. The only stipulation is that they must come from your current CD library. Modest anthologies (two, maybe three discs) are permitted, but, say, the dozen plus discs in the complete series of the late Isaac Stern, A Life in Music, would not be.

I'm assuming self-made mixes are out, even if they are single artist compilations made across albums - which is a lot of my collection. This holds even for many of my favorite artists, because I don't tend to like everything on any of their albums. So Gomez, Dar Williams, Tom Waits, Pete Yorn, the Be Good Tanyas, Sarah Slean, Adam Ant, Ben Folds Five, Jonathan Richman, Luscious Jackson, Poe, They Might Be Giants, Solas, Greg Brown, and Ashley MacIsaac lose out because I bought their stuff, ripped it, and burned greatest hits collections for myself.

Boy does that narrow it down. Very efficient.

My 10 that could actually be purchased in stores:

• Soul Coughing - El Oso
• Cake - Comfort Eagle
• Faith No More - Introduce Yourself
• Moxy Früvous - You Will Go To The Moon (or Live Noise?)
• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Let Love In
• Battlefield Band - Home Is Where The Van Is
• Alanis Morissette - Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
• PJ Harvey - 4-Track Demos
• Sleater-Kinney - One Beat
• Liz Phair - whitechocolatespaceegg

If I could wait to leave for the desert island until after Katell Keineg's new one came out, I would replace the PJ Harvey with that.