Maia’s Meme

So, I got tagged for a Meme by Maia over at Other Flowers. If you don’t read her blog, you should. She and hubs are adopting a little girl (SN) from China and have an amazing homegrown son, Spike, and she’s writing screenplays for Hollywood, and used to be the moderator at Hipmama.com, and has very cool roses. Go visit. Say hello. You’ll love her writing.

She also recently sent The Bee the complete collection of Harry Potter books, which I have to admit to not reading before now. I was skeptical and pissy about HP for the past ten years. I think it stems from the fact that I used to live in Holland, Michigan, and teach at the college there, and the town–under the pervasive and perverse influence of the Dutch Reformed Church–decided to ban HP from the town library because, doncha know, magic is the work of the devil. (They also tried to ban Halloween, for similar reasons.) HP became a pawn in the debate, and I got very easily fed up with the debate…mostly because even those fighting against the warped minds of the city elders (which is the position you might think I’d be siding with) were really only a little less co-opted into that culture than the city elders themselves. Anyway, long story. But I’ve been reading HP (not yet with The Bee…she needs a few more years to graduate to books without pictures), and I’m on the fourth book, and I’m loving them. They got me through the hospital stay and stress last week. So, here goes…

Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line four, and write what it says.

“There is no path. You make the path in going.” (an Antonio Machado quote in Ordering the Storm: How to Put Together a Book of Poems)

Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What can you touch?

A case of blank CD’s. A map of the ranch. The Mount Holyoke College Alumnae Quarterly. My (broken) iPod.

What is the last thing you watched on TV?

CBS Sunday Morning…which, if you are a long-time reader of this blog, you know from another meme is what I consider the paragon of good TV. I mean, people, they played Pavarotti singing the ENTIRE Puccini aria he made famous–not just the two-second soundbite that’s been playing on every other news and entertainment cast. It made me cry.

Without looking, guess what time it is.

12:30. (It’s actually 12:56 PM)…

With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?

The three dogs snoring, out-of-unison.

When did you last step outside? What were you doing?

I have to step outside to get to my computer, to get to my office. It’s located in a different building than the main house, which ended up being one of my bigger motherhood mistakes. The video monitor doesn’t work down here, so I either have to run out here quickly at the start of one of The Bee’s naps and spend only half-an-hour checking email and (trying to) check blogs, or I have to make sure R. has monitor-duty, which is the situation right now.

Before you started this survey, what did you look at?

I read email and then checked Bloglines and read my fave blogs.

Did you dream last night?

Yes. Couldn’t tell you what. I’ve been trying to invoke a Sirius Black dream, but I don’t think it’s working.

When did you last laugh?

Oh, that’s a hard one. This hasn’t been a week real big on the laughter. I definitely smiled and maybe giggled when The Bee and I were watching gymnastics on TV this morning…she likes the flips.

What is on the walls of the room you are in?

Pink paint (“Dog’s Ear” by Behr). A pink mirrored medicine-cabinet-shelving unit that I found at a fleamarket, full of mercury-glass flamingoes; postcards of the Mexican loteria; three sacred chess pieces that a friend brought me from Mexico City; the seven round stones that R. gave me when we were dating that represent the seven directions of the Cherokee–north, south, east, west, up, down, and in; a little tree made out of rose quartz; old lead molds; a rusted pocket watch that the tractor dug up in the field here at the ranch; a 19th-c. postcard of the Engle Clock. Two large, 19th-c., empty wooden frames (I like frames, just for frames). Book shelves. A Jack Russell Terrier calendar. A sepia-toned print that my sister did of old gear parts.

Seen anything weird lately?

All the prickly-pears have fallen to the ground and are currently being carted off by red ants.

What do you think of this Meme?

At the risk of sounding like an English teacher, it has a couple “yes” or “no” questions in it, which is always a no-no if you want to pin people down.

What is the last film you saw?

I watched Legends of the Fall again on TV the other night when I couldn’t sleep. And R. and I caught most of Cars recently too, with The Bee, which we absolutely loved.

If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy?

A publishing house. A beach house. (Not the same type of “houses” at all, huh?)

Tell me something about you that I don’t know?

I like casement windows. I regularly visit a spiritual intuitive…actually, she’s a friend of mine.

If you could change one thing about the world, what would you do?

Eliminate violence–in all its myriad forms. That should pretty much cover it.

Comment to President Bush.

What a fucking waste.

Would you ever consider living abroad?

All the time.

What do you want to say to God when you get to heaven?

You’ve got your work cut out for you…oh, and, can you point me the way to Shakespeare?