meme

No one tagged me.

But I saw it at Blackbird's.

11 things about me.


1. Clothes Shop: Ann Taylor LOFT, but I am now feeling like moving on. To where?

2. Furniture Shop: I wouldn't want everything to come from the same place. We've got Pottery Barn, IKEA, Cost Plus, antiques stores, an independent furnisher that's been in our town forever (if I had more money I would buy more there).

3. Sweet: The fudge they make at the Oregon Zoo is an annual treat for me (Maple and Pecan are my favorite flavors). I am also into Trader Joe's Milk Chocolate Covered Pretzels and Trader Joe's Kettle Corn. For candy, my favorite is Swedish Fish. Out to a special dinner, I love an apple or pear tart of any sort: galette, crumble, etc.
My mother-in-law thinks I have a sweet tooth. I wouldn't say so, but looking at this entry...

4. City: Quebec City, Salzburg, Venice, Pasadena California.

5. Drink: non-alcoholic - hmmm. I mostly drink water, but I also like Gatorade. Fruit Punch flavor.

6. Music: It's the only way I'm earning any money these days (albeit not much). My varied musical tastes enjoy Sirius, the satellite radio! Right now, I'm feeling like hearing some Blink-182. In high school, I was the Broadway Musicals girl. Am I aging backwards, like in that new Brad Pitt movie? (Looking in mirror.... that would be a NO.)

7. TV Series: The Amazing Race. Project Runway. How I Met Your Mother. The Office. 30 Rock. House MD. Friday Night Lights. Chuck. Top Chef.

8. Film: Ugh, these lists! Why can't I ever just pick one thing? I'll restrain myself on this one.

9. Workout: Just joined the Y. Must start going.

10. Pastries: Maple, Cinnamon, Chocolate, or Pumpkin.

11. Coffee: Can't stand it.

Four Things Meme

I've been tagged for a meme this time!

It was the Snooty Primadonna who tagged me.


Four Films I'd Watch Again:
The Spanish Prisoner
Searching for Bobby Fischer
The Bourne Identity
Sense and Sensibility


Four Places I've Lived:
House
Apartment
Condo
Dorm

(Actually, I wrote those because my original list seemed boring:
Monterey, California
Eureka, California
Orange County, California
Portland, Oregon)


Four Television Shows I Watch:
House
How I Met Your Mother
The Office
The Amazing Race


Four Things I Like to Eat:
Cheese
Chocolate
Lamb chops
Salmon


Four Places I'd Rather Be:
Stanford
On stage
A seat in the audience of a Broadway or West End show
On a boat


Four People I'm Tagging:
You
You
You
and You. (I am seriously thinking of "tagging" the four people in my family)

Six words

As seen on: pretty much my whole link list over there --->

Originally started by the ultra cool Smith Magazine. The history: Legend has it that Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Last year, SMITH Magazine re-ignited the recountre by asking our readers for their own six-word memoirs. They sent in short life stories in droves, from the bittersweet (“Cursed with cancer, blessed with friends”) and poignant (“I still make coffee for two”) to the inspirational (“Business school? Bah! Pop music? Hurrah”) and hilarious (“I like big butts, can’t lie”).

Here are the rules: 1) Write your own six word memoir; 2) Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like; 3) Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere; 4) Tag at least five more blogs with links; and 5) Don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.

OK, here's mine:

Often above average but never remarkable

Umph... urph... fighting the urge to write a bazillion-word explanation of that because I think it makes me sound conceited, which I'm really really not... grrrph... blergh.


How about:

Desiring controlled life, must give up

Many choices available, blessing and burden

If you haven't done this already and want to do it, consider yourself tagged.



Mine are more like headlines than sentences, but that's not a surprise since succinctness is not my strong suit. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever met succinctness. Is it even a word?

You are fortunate that I have never left a message on your answering machine. I am so ridiculous leaving messages. Here's a real recap of one I left last week:

"Hi, Helen, it's Barbra. I was just calling because I was thinking about that sauteed shrimp and mushroom dish you made when we were at your house for dinner last week? I think you said it was pretty simple and I was wondering if you could give me the recipe. My brother and his wife are here and we are going to ... oh, blah blah blah you don't need to know all the details but basically I am making a lot of dinners and need a new idea and I do have some shrimp and mushrooms in the refrigerator. So, what do you do? Do you sautee them with some wine or just some olive oil? Do you use any seasoning? I'm here at home and I should be here all afternoon since Mrs. Wagner is bringing Big Girl home from school today. Sometimes she can't because her daughter has Brownies but it turns out that they're not meeting today so she'll be dropping her off and I don't have to go anywhere this afternoon. So give me a call when you can and let me know just what I need to put in the pan with the shrimp and mushrooms. Uh, is that everything? Was there anything else I needed to talk to you about as well? Hmmmmm... let me think.... No, I can't thing of anything else right now but I'm sure something will come to me as soon as I hang up the phone. Maybe when you call back with the recipe I'll have remembered it. Okay, talk to you later bye."

(I always say the goodbye sentence really fast because I am so embarrassed that the message is so long and somehow I think this will redeem me.)

Ugh. I am not exaggerating about that message! I really do leave messages just like that. I need to take a class or something. The worst thing of all about that message is that it turns out that her husband was the one who listened to it! {{Mortified}} Because when she called back, she said, "Chris told me you needed a recipe from me?"

That Movie Meme

Only one of the quotes was unsolved! Bonus #3 is from "A Mighty Wind." It's part of the sublime faux-documentary trifecta "Waiting for Guffman" (community theater), "Best in Show" (dog shows), and "A Mighty Wind" (folk music) by Christopher Guest and his troupe. These movies are chock full of great quotes. The music in "A Mighty Wind" is so funny that we own the soundtrack and enjoy it often.

I was musing in the car today about whether you could do this meme with song lyrics. I think Badger would be the one to try it out, don't you?

I wan't going to do this, because I clearly don't have enough readers (yet?), but I've just been having so much fun with it at everyone else's place that I decided to go ahead and find some quotes!

Rules, no googling, yada yada yada.

Here we go! Some quotes from a few of my favorite movies:


#1: Snappy snapped this one up! It's "Good Will Hunting." I love this movie, and particularly this part!
Every day I come by your house and I pick you up. And we go out. We have a few drinks, and a few laughs, and it's great. But you know what the best part of my day is? For about ten seconds, from when I pull up to the curb and when I get to your door, cause I think, maybe I'll get up there and I'll knock on the door and you won't be there. No goodbye. No see you later. No nothing. You just left. I don't know much, but I know that.

#2: secrethandshake and I like the same movies! For now, I'll just put her down for "Dead Poets Society," but she figured out lots more too!
N: So what are you going to do? Charlie?
C: Damn it Neil, the name is Nuwanda.
OR ALSO...
Excrement! That's what I think of Mr. J. Evans Pritchard! We're not laying pipe! We're talking about poetry. How can you describe poetry like American Bandstand? "I like Byron, I give him a 42 but I can't dance to it!"

#3: I couldn't believe this one sat here so long. I know this movie by heart. Erin (who stopped by from Jen's place) knows it's "Say Anything." Yes, I am another woman in love with John Cusack. But I love him more than you do.
She's gone. She gave me a pen. I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen.
OR ALSO...
Hey my brother, can I borrow a copy of your "Hey Soul Classics"?
J-Man: No, my brother, you have to go buy your own.
OR ALSO... AGAIN
I got a question. If you guys know so much about women, how come you're here at like the Gas 'n' Sip on a Saturday night completely alone drinking beers with no women anywhere?
J: By choice, man.

#4: Jen of Jenontheedge and Eco Women: Protectors of the Planet! knows that this is what Harry says to Sally on New Year's Eve at the end of "When Harry Met Sally." The last sentence is just perfect.
I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

#5: MomBabe, if "Singin' in the Rain" is your favorite movie, you might just be my new best friend! I think it is one of the best movies ever made, despite that weird long "Gotta Dance" section near the end...
By the way, MomBabe has the prettiest blogs! I obviously need her help with design and decor... Fleeting Moments and The Bingham Diaries
She can't act, she can't sing, she can't dance. A triple threat.

#6: Blackbird and secrethandshake got "Hairspray." This is from the 2007 musical version, which is a new favorite of the *WHOLE* family.
First the hair, now this?
But, all the kids are battin' up their hair now, hon.
You're no help.
It's ratting, daddy. And our first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy does it!
I don't believe that.
What do you mean you don't believe that? How else would it look that way?
I believe that it is naturally stiff.

#7: Blackbird and secrethandshake also know this one from "Shakespeare in Love." A beautiful quote.
I will have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love. Love above all. No... not the artful postures of love, not playful and poetical games of love for the amusement of an evening, but love that... over-throws life. Unbiddable, ungovernable - like a riot in the heart, and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture. Love - like there has never been in a play.

#8: Poppy Buxom, good one! It's from "Clueless," my favorite adaptation of Jane Austen's "Emma." She even identified the teacher as Wallace Shawn (also seen in another of my favorites, "The Princess Bride").
So like, right now for example. The Haitians need to come to America. But some people are all, "What about the strain on our resources?" Well it's like when I had this garden party for my father's birthday, right? I put R.S.V.P. 'cause it was a sit-down dinner. But some people came that like did not R.S.V.P. I was like totally buggin'. I had to haul ass to the kitchen, redistribute the food, and squish in extra place settings. But by the end of the day it was, like, the more the merrier. And so if the government could just get to the kitchen, rearrange some things, we could certainly party with the Haitians. And in conclusion may I please remind you it does not say R.S.V.P. on the Statue of Liberty. Thank you very much.

#9: Erin and I must be the same age. Because she knows this one, too! It's from "Swingers." The funniest part is when they are playing the NHL videogame, because I watched The Hubby and his roommate play this game all through senior year of college! Takes me back every time!
They're gonna give daddy the Rainman suite, you dig that?
Do you think we'll get there by midnight?
Baby, we're going to be up five hundy by midnight!
Yeeeeaaaaahhhhhh!
Vegas baby! Vegas!
Vegas!

#10: Guider got "Strictly Ballroom!" This is a hilarious Aussie film (redundant, right?) that I have loved for a long time -- and now, if you've gotten into the Dance shows on TV, it's even more fun to watch!
Look, a beginner has no right to approach an Open Amateur.
Yeah, well an Open Amateur has no right to dance non-Federation steps, but you did, didn't you?
But that's different.
*How* is it different? You're just like the rest of them! You think you're different, but you're not, because you're just, you're just really scared! You're really scared to give someone new a go, because you think, you know, they might just be better than you are! Well, you're just pathetic, and you're gutless. You're a gutless wonder! Vivir con miedo, es como vivir a medias!


BONUS ROUND!:

Bonus #1: Tuvaluans K and Oldest (hi, guys!) know that this is from "Back to the Future." In fact, it is the very last line.
Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads.

Bonus #2: Elizabeth M. knows these classic lines from "This Is Spinal Tap." Seriously, folks, see it (again). Awesome. Someday I will have to write a post about the time I saw Spinal Tap play live at the Warfield in San Francisco. So Meta!!!
It's like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black.
OR ALSO...
It's very pretty.
Yeah, I've been fooling around with it for a few months.
It's a bit of a departure from what you normally play.
It's part of a trilogy, a musical trilogy I'm working on in D minor which is the saddest of all keys, I find. People weep instantly when they hear it, and I don't know why.
It's very nice.
You know, just simple lines intertwining, you know, very much like - I'm really influenced by Mozart and Bach, and it's sort of in between those, really. It's like a Mach piece, really. It's sort of...
What do you call this?
Well, this piece is called "Lick My Love Pump".

Bonus #3:
And they had no hole in the center of the record.
It would teeter crazily on the little spindle.
No, you had to provide it yourself. They were still good records. Good product.
If you punched a hole in them, you'd have a good time.

Bonus #4: Blackbird and secrethandshake have good taste in movies, like this one: "School of Rock." Ladies, we should get together for movie night!
Look the first thing you do when you start a band is talk about your influences. That's how you figure out what kind of band you want to be. So who do you like? Blondie?
Christina Aguilera
Who? No. Come on. What? You, Shortstop.
Puff Daddy
Wrong. Billy?
Liza Minnelli?
OR ALSO...
Katie, what was that thing you were playing today, the big thing?
Cello.
Ok. This is a bass guitar. And it's the exact same thing but instead of playing it like this you tip it on the side... cello, you got a bass.