Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Eight Things

I got tagged by Melissa over at New Girl on Post to do the Eight Things Meme that has been floating about the blogosphere. Thanks for the tag, Melissa, this was fun!

8 Things I Look Forward To...
#1.) Going mad along with other crazed women some time in mid August when the ceremony is over and or falling on my face while trying to run toward Keith.
#2.) No longer tasting at the back of my mouth nasty ooze from gums that are, I hope and pray, healing up.
#3.) Stuffing my face with crispy foods-it's amazing just how many foods are crispy. Grilled cheese is, and bacon. Chocolate chip cookies, even.
#4.) The end of May. (I know. I should appreciate May while May is here and I do. I love May. But I will love it more in retrospect, I'm sure.)
#5.) Reading the rest of "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood, as this is a marvelous book and not at all about vanity as I had thought at the very beginning.
#6.) The unspecified date in the future when I will actually clean out the car.
#7.) Temperatures in the upper eighties. Mmmm. Heat.
#8.) Driving along somewhere in mid America, listening to the radio and feeling the wind on my face and knowing that we will stop for dinner somewhere soon and then find a place to camp and sleep in the bed of the truck, squashed together on the air mattress with the stars and the dark canopy of leaves above.

8 Things I Did Yesterday
#1.) Balanced on the edge of the curb at Village Inn while talking on the cell phone with Keith and telling him I missed his sweaty shirts. Ahh, the sweaty shirts! The damp cotton, the warmth, the smell of him.
#2.) Watched my brother and his young son from across the booth, amazed at how alike they are.
#3.) Sat on the lawn and weeded with my mom. (My lawn appears to be growing lettuces.)
#4.) Watched "Antiques Roadshow" with Mom and laughing uproariously at the feedback session at the end.
#5.) Watched the Rockies white with snow come rising crisp and sharp over the high, sloping edge of a green hill.
#6.) Discussed the meaning of Robert Frost's poem "A Prayer for Spring" with dear, resident poet Jack and laughing so much that my mouth hurt for hours afterward.
#7.) Kissed my dogs several hundred times and talked the worst kind of baby talk to them.
#8.) Stayed awake hour after hour after hour imagining the moment of meeting Keith and that night and the next day and the week later and then back to the moment of meeting him, and so on and so forth and suddenly it was five am and I hadn't slept at all.

8 Things I Love
#1.) Waking up in the morning with sunlight pouring in through the white, wooden blinds, knowing I will pad about lazily in bare feet, coffee in hand, watering my plants and blinking in the sun.
#2.) The fact that I don't call or write my best friends for weeks (and sometimes months!) and they remain, still, my best friends.
#3.) My dog Lynn's ability to read my mind.
#4.) The slowly gathering numbness of narcotics. Mmmm, Vicodin.
#5.) Hearing the cell phone ring and seeing "keith?" on the display.
#6.) The fact that I can surround myself with music at the touch of a button, at anytime, day or night. What luxury. Seriously. In what other age did people have this luxury?
#7.) The warm comfort of hugging my mom. She is most huggable.
#8.) Sleeping with the window open and hearing bird song at three am.

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
#1.) Fly
#2.) Wish magically for a gallon of milk and have it appear without having to go fetch it from the grocery store.
#3.) Play the piano brilliantly.
#4.) Buy a plane ticket to Iraq, sneak into the back of a van, infiltrate Keith's FOB in the early morning hours and crawl into his sleeping bag with him. This wish has many different variations; it all ends the same way.
#5.) Sew darling little summer frocks.
#6.) Actually sit down and write the next damn chapter in my long neglected novel.
#7.) Speak ten languages fluently and work as a translater at the U.N., with a sophisticated flat in NY with a view of the park and wear understated, classic outfits to work with shoes that cost more than my car insurance and drink French martinis. (Next life? And Keith can be my sexy CIA agent husband from the Midwest, still with long eye lashes and drawling voice, copper colored hair and a taste for whiskey.)
#8.) Get pregnant in the first three months after Keith gets home, in order to give birth before his next deployment. But I'll take whatever comes.

8 Shows I watch:
#1.) Extreme Home Makeover. Watch out for this show; be prepared to bawl your eyes out.
#2.) The World News with Charles Gibson; mostly because when he says "Good night, and I hope you had a good day," I really believe that he does hope that and am flattered.
#3.) Dancing with the Stars, though it annoyed me that the fans don't allow the judges to criticize anyone. It's a competition, people. And I think Shawn Johnson is so cute.
#4.) That slightly corny Sherlock Holmes show on PBS.
#5.) Ummm.....I don't watch that much TV. I used to watch Celebrity Apprentice until Clint Black became maniacal and the tension got too much to handle.
#6.) Sometimes I watch Judge Judy on rainy or otherwise depressing afternoons, but invariably the shows makes it more depressing (how can people make those kind of choices, live those kind of lives?) and I end up turning it off.
#7.) The local news, affectionately nick named "Mistakes Are Us" that daily includes such entertainment as "wrong sound clip," "not turning the camera away from the poor newscasters," "wrong video clip," and "no picture at all," which is a particularly exciting one.
#8.) Oprah, if I can remember to turn it on at the right time.

I'm not going to tag anyone but I actually enjoyed doing this meme a lot, and would love to read others!

8 comments:

d.a.r. said...

Cute list!! I have to be careful with Extreme Makeover Home Edition. I bawl my eyes out every time!

rebecca said...

Haha, Mistakes R Us.

I very much enjoyed reading your list! Your writing is phenomenal. I know I've said that before, but you always take me away! :)

I feel like I had a comment or agreement for each of your "things." I LOVE your speak 10 languages fluently wish. That, my friend, is a GOOD one!

said...

Oh my goodness. I loved this list. I remember much of those same moments... sitting on a curb and talking to a soldier in Iraq. Fantasizing about moments when he would be back home. Fantasizing about surprising him in Iraq with a visit... (and realizing that it would stress him out more than please him!)

I love this. Thank you for sharing!

New Girl on Post said...

I'm continually amazed at your ability to describe simple things so eloquently. I loved reading this!

jlc said...

Yay for ANTIQUES!! :D


And the image of you laughing with your mom puts a smile on my face.

Glad you guys were able to chat and have drinks outside the other day too!

jlc said...

Ok we are the SAME person in #7 ---- wanna rent that flat with me?? :)

AND sorry but I have to comment again... you totally switched around my reading dog's mind method. Haha and loved it!

New Girl on Post said...

I've already taken a percocet and it's doing NOTHING for my pain.

Looks like I'll be back at the dentist tomorrow demanding they take it out. I simply cannot handle this amount of pain for the next three weeks.

Libby@CookingWithLibby said...

Mine is finished! Better late then never...lol.