A borrowed book meme or check this one out!

A book meme--what could be more fun? A meme about books. I'm borrowing this from a talented blogger/writer, Anno and since it is an open invitation, give it go yourself. I'd be interested to know your choices. . .all in the spirit of getting to know you better. So,

Four Childhood Books I've read:
1. Little Women / Louisa May Alcott
2. The Secret Garden / Frances Hodgson Burnett
3. Black Beauty / Anna Sewell
4. The Little Prince / Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Four “So-Called Classic” books read and never forgotten.

1. Les Miserables / Victor Hugo
2. Catcher in the Rye / J.D. Salinger
3. To Kill A Mockingbird / Harper Lee
4. My Antonia / Willa Cather

Four personal modern “Classic Novels”

1. Prodigal Summer / Barbara Kingsolver
2. Father Melancholy's Daughter / Gail Godwin
3. Caramello / Sandra Sisneros
4. Fugitive Pieces / Anne Michaels

Four authors I've read again and again

1. Daphne Du Maurier
2. Chaim Potok
3. Anne Tyler
4. Oscar Hijuelos

Four authors &/or books I'll never read again...ever

1. Tobacco Road / Erkskine Caldwell
2. Bonfire of the Vanities / Tom Wolfe
3. The Lovely Bones / Alice Sebold
4. Cold Mountain / Charles Frazier (just too heart wrenching)

Four books on my “To-be-read-list"
1. John Adams / David McCullough
2. The History of Love / Nicole Krauss
3. The Audacity of Hope / Barack Obama
4. When You Are Engulfed in Flames / David Sedaris

Three Fiction and one Non-Fiction I’d take to a desert island (instead of 2 each)

84, Charing Cross Road / Helene Hanff
Bird by Bird / Anne Lamott
We The Living / Ayn Rand
Carry On, Jeeves / P. G. Wodehouse

Four Book recommendations I have followed (and loved)

On Beauty / Zadie Smith
Collected Stories of Amy Hempel
Women Who Run With Wolves / Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Pride & Prejudice / Jane Austen

The last lines of one of my favorite books:

He had always been more sensitive than the people about him to the appeal of natural beauty. His unfinished studies had given form to this sensibility and even in his unhappiest moments field and sky spoke to him with a deep and powerful persuasion. But hitherto the emotion had remained in him as a silent ache, veiling with sadness the beauty that evoked it. He did not even know whether any one else in the world felt as he did, or whether he was the sole victim of this mournful privilege. Then he learned that one other spirit had trembled with the same touch of wonder. . . And there were other sensations, less definable but more exquisite, which drew them together with a shock of silent joy: the cold red of sunset behind winter hills, the flight of cloud-flocks over slopes of golden stubble, or the intensely blue shadows of hemlocks on sunlit snow. When she said to him once: "It looks just as if it was painted!" it seemed to Ethan that the art of definition could go no farther, and that words had at last been found to utter his secret soul. . .

from Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

T.G.I.F.

I was tagged last week by Donna @ Made in Heaven and since today's my birthday, it seemed like an o.k. day to talk about me. So, here goes, but be warned, it could be boring:

7 Things I Plan To Do Before I Die

1. Visit Europe
2. Learn Italian
3. Stay off insulin
4. Learn to ice skate
5. Finish my degree
6. Spoil a grandchild or two
7. Write and publish something meaningful

7 Things I Do Now

1. Take a long walk every day
2. Fiendishly fill my i-pod with music
3. Think about starting projects
4. Spar with my sweet tooth
5. Read
6. Recycle
7. Collage

7 Things I Can't Do

1. Snap with my left hand
2. Keep a straight face
3. Tolerate abuse of animals
4. Stay up late
5. Give up chocolate & coffee
6. Watch pompous political pundits
7. Remembering, umm, I don't know

7 Things That Attract Me To The Opposite Sex

1. Listens
2. Wit
3. Long hair
4. Manners
5. Intelligence
6. Must love dogs
7. Reads

7 Things That I Say Most Often

1. Keep me posted.
2. Why, soitenly!
3. Is that the best they can do!?
4. Good lord!
5. Its not my fault.
6. This day can kiss my butt.
7. Why not?

7 Celebrities That I Admire

1. Jimmy Carter
2. Bono
3. Hillary Clinton
4. Paul Newman
5. Mother Teresa
6. Andrea Bocelli
7. Annie Lebovitz

7 who get to do this now
Granny Smith
Jeannelle
Marianne (by e-mail, o.k.??)
Judy
Blue
Carole
Tammy

Note to self:
Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish. —Mark Twain

I found one of these 'tests' on someone's site (see #7 above) and decided, why not? I inserted my real name, Mary Ann [which my father honestly thought he had invented by putting those two names together!] and came up with a bunch of stuff that was nowhere near who I am. . .for instance, Type A personality? What about Type L (for lazy)?! energetic, etc. etc. So I decided to submit my nickname, Noni and this is what I got. A little too eerie for me because it is about 99% right on and very much a Libra, like me.

What Noni Means

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life. You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you. At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Hope you have a beautiful autumn 48 hours!

Woman Seated in Chair / Pablo Picasso, 1915

I was tagged, quite awhile back by Beth at Beth on the Road to play along by listing six unspectacular quirks of mine. So, my tendency to over-think everything has caused me to be sorely remiss in sharing, or. . .let me put it another way: thank your lucky stars! All you have to do is visit Beth and see her great smile and the twinkle in her eye which will make reading her quirks even more of a delight. Mine, on the other hand, not so much. So, off we go:

1. I detest reading those little instruction pamphlets in twenty different languages that come with just about anything you buy that plugs into the wall. I file them away, look for the on/off switch, and I'm in business. Excuse: I can't read the fine print!

2. I leave selected, old phone messages on our answering machine for, umm, years. Excuse: I want to remember the voice of family and friends, o.k.?, especially my daughters wishing me happy mothers day or an old friend who still calls me Morticia.

3. I read newspapers and magazines from back to front. Luckily I read books from beginning to end. Excuse: I don't want to miss anything.

4. Whenever I take a daily walk I visually mark my boundaries using trees at the beginning and end of my time. Then I lovingly pat the trees when I pass. Further quirk: sometimes it turns out to be a telephone pole. Either way, I've had passersby look at me funny. What!??

5. I talk to birds and woodland creatures only when I have their attention (leftover from having kids) and have been known to stop the car and scold a squirrel that I nearly hit because he couldn't decide which side of the road to visit. Very embarrassing to my aforementioned kids.

6. When I eat cottage cheese, which is usually daily (special: two quirks in one) I mix in a couple of tablespoons of plain Greek-style yogurt.

I can't make up my mind who to tag...so I'm taking the coward's way out and leaving this open to anyone who wants to play. Come on, it'll be fun! Just remember the following and don't do what I did with nos. 4 & 5:

1. Link the person who tagged you.

2. Mention the rules on your blog.

3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.

4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.

5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

Happy Tuesday!

Unconscious Mutterings #283 and a new MeMe

For Week 283, when asked, my left brain answered my right brain:

Loneliness :: empty school yard in June
Traffic :: Benicio del Toro
Chaos :: Middle East
Burp :: Erica!
500 :: (miles) Peter, Paul & Mary
Movie :: popcorn
Coma :: diabetes
Bark :: bite
Stare :: pensive
Angelina :: my Aunt Ann
For more Monday free association fun or to join in, visit LunaNiña.

~~

My friend Blue has tagged me to play a little collage game. What fun! Nothing I like better than to make collages, you know. It goes this way:

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Type your answer to each question below, into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page of results, pick one image.
3. Copy & paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

THE QUESTIONS:
1. What is your real Christian/first name?

2. What is your favourite food - right now?

3. What school did you go to?

4. What is your favourite colour?

5. Who is your latest celebrity crush?

6. What is your favourite drink?

7. What is your dream vacation destination?

8. What is your favourite dessert?

9. What do you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. What is one word that describes you now?

12. What is your Flickr/Blog name?

and viola. . .my collage!

Now, for the best part! I hereby bestow this fun on a few more people so we can get to know each other better and pass around the love. No pressure, just if you feel like it, when you get to it**:

Inland Empire Girl @ Gathering Around the Table where the conversation is always lively, the writing superb and the photos, well, they'll knock your socks off!

Tammy @ Queen Size Funny Bone where you'll laugh and cry, sometimes all in one post.

Donna whose blog is Made in Heaven--and it is! She will welcome you and send you away with a hug.

Granny Smith @ Granny Smith who will impress & dazzle you, and make your heart sing!

And remember

**Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.

Sam Keen

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!

One thing's for sure, Mother Nature can kick some butt! This is what we here in the Twin Cities woke up to after a full day of snow yesterday proving that tired old saw about March and its animal personae!

It is the ability to take a joke, not make one, that proves you have a sense of humor.

Max Eastman

In the spirit of this silly day, I found something fun to add to my life. I saw this on the talented GreenishLady's lovely blog, who got it from Ell at Pomegranate Tiger who got it from Joy's Updates, who got it from Chris who, in turn, got it from someone else.

It's called:
Answers in Pictures - an Experiment


Here's how it works:

1. Go to http://www.photobucket.com/
2 . Answer the questions below
3. Type your answers into the Photobucket “search” box
4. Use only the first page of results to choose your picture
5. Insert the pictures and questions into your Blog



. . .then link back to me, et al. so we can see what you came up with. Remember, today is for having fun!



Who is your favourite band/artist?


Chicago's own WILCO


What is your favourite movie?
(only one?)

Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious


What kind of pet do you have?


Where do you live?

Where do you work?

What do you look like?

Yup! That's me.

What kind of car do you drive?

(Erica's Honda--just until June)

What is your favourite TV show?

it's a tie

What is your favourite candy?

Describe youself.

What is your name?

Me, Me, Me, me, me, me

For me, good fortune usually comes tandem and today is no exception. First, after that gorgeous lunar elipse last night, the sun came out and has been shining all day. Secondly I was tagged and I'm it.
I got this meme from Marcy who writes with wit and wisdom at My Quilting & Other Stuff, who was tagged by InlandEmpireGirl from Gathering Around the Table, also wise and wonderful.

This meme asked me to share six non-important things/habits/quirks about myself. Then I'm to tag six random people at the end of my post by linking to their blogs. Then you let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

No, wait this could be interesting.

1. Whenever I rip out coupons or pictures from magazines, I'm compelled to get scissors to cut off the ragged edges. I can't help myself.

2. I can't decide if I should add this here or at the end. Or maybe I shouldn't at all. I can never make up my mind and it drives me and everyone who knows me c.r.a.z.y. Imagine menus, yarn, colors, dessert trays, coin tosses, etc. Its not so much perfectionism--or is it, I don't know. Actually, there's so much in the world, I just don't wanna miss anything!

3. Everyday I eat cottage cheese mixed with plain Nancy's yogurt. . .just for fun.

4. I want everyone to play nice, get along. I'm pretty sure that it is best if things are done my way, and I can argue the point until the cows come home.

5. I lose sleep at night because of the damage that we've already done to our planet. In the day I hug trees whenever no one is watching and assure them that its going to be o.k. It is, isn't it?

6. Now that I'm a grownup I take full advantage of enjoying offbeat humor by reading some of my favorite comic strips: Rhymes With Orange, Get Fuzzy, Non Sequitur, Mutts, Brevity, Ballard Street and my newest fave Zippy the Pinhead. . .that one took a little getting used to.
My obsession came about in the Nixon years when the Little King in Wizard of Id began to resemble the president.

See, now wasn't that a cheeky cheery meme?

And now I am tagging Julie my Celtic neighbor where I always feel most welcome
my pal, the other Marianne, when she's feeling better
Mrs Nesbitt photographer extraordinnaire
Judy from Spokane
the marathon Running Knitter
and Granny Smith where you'll make a new friend in a virtual minute.

Feel free to play along with this meme. Just follow the rules above and remember to link to the person that tagged you and play nice!

So, on your mark, get set, GO!