Making the Rounds: 25 Things

Those tagging things are making the rounds of Facebook...the kinds of things that have been on blogs for years. Like the 25 things...it made the New York Times. But wasn't it a coupla years back that bloggers were listing 100 things? So not only are people recycling memes, they're downsizing them? I think it's telling that more and more the old school media is looking to the new media for news, even NYT. I have no problem with recycling. I am just a little bothered that it's treated as if it were new. Now I'm so behind. I haven't done my 25 things...that is so 2 months ago...and now there's the lists of 3 or 4 things in response to certain questions...and that's already so 2 weeks ago. Good thing I don't try to follow trends.

This is why I don't usually blog about current events. By the time I get to that stuff, the topic is dead, cremated, and buried.

So, here I go. I'm cheating...writing from my blog, which ends up being a note in Facebook. I did begin the 25 things in Facebook when I was only 2 weeks behind, but a quirky computer thing happened and bumped me off the web page, and all was lost. You know, that magic invisible button on the laptop that closes your browser when you rest your palm there? I'm now using my desktop, and blogger automatically saves, so this won't happen again. I went to bed, and never got back to it. Hopefully it won't take me another 2 months to get to the 3 or 4 things lists.

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you. [I'm not going to tag anybody new...they've probably already been tagged, and I don't like to tag people.]

1. This list was rattling around in my head for weeks. I had at least 50 witty one-liners about me. They're all gone now. The only one I remember is my sincere worry that this isn't really random, but some FB Rorschach test that will reveal things even I don't know about myself.
2. I carry my camera everywhere. It's small enough to fit in my small purse.
3. I was about to say my first pet's name, but then I remembered hackers mine blogs for this kind of info. Maybe I shouldn't do these 25 things. Arrgh, the Rorschach thing again.
4. I like Badtz Maru. Choco Cat will do, because Bad Penguin is hard to find sometimes.
5. I refer to my husband as my sweetie out of respect for his other sweetie, and because there are people who are not allowed to marry. Plus it's just a better word, and better than SO or Significant Other, or partner, or boyfriend.
6. We briefly considered not getting married, but the equivalent legal paperwork involved in getting the same sort of rights was too daunting.
7. Damn. That wasn't random. You see how 5 followed 6. Among my plans for the 25 things was the thought that I could create them in Word or Excel, then randomize them somehow.
8. We got married in a favorite restaurant. No ceremony, just the signing of the paper, friends to witness, and a friend to officiate. Of course there was cake and champagne. It was perfect.
9. I was the first person in my family to go to college.
10. I will often tell people I Escaped Wisconsin. This is a joke that hardly anyone will get because I'm referring to a Wisconsin ad campaign from the 80s, or was it the 70s, "Escape to Wisconsin". So I often will also tell them why I said that.
11. The longest chosen relationship in my life is with my Zen teacher.
12. Buddhism has been my salvation. You probably already knew that, but I had to say it anyway.
13. In high school, I did a research paper on werewolves, not in an exploring the myths kind of way, but in an effort to find evidence kind of way. How embarrassing.
14. My sweetie is often frustrated by my inability at times to answer a question directly. I respond with the reason why the answer is yes, or no, and I think I am responding directly to the question. I also often don't finish sentences. I think this is a Wisconsin thing, as I noticed it among my relatives when I visited last. Some things you can't change.
    
15. I learned to swim in Lake Ellen, near Cascade, Wisconsin when I was 4 or 5 years old.
16. I almost drowned soon after I learned to float. This happened in my neighbor's pond, where us kids congregated, and it happened because I floated further than I thought I would. My older brother saved me. As I was jumping from the bottom, trying to reach the surface, I had a vision of the crayfish snapping at my toes, and this scared me. The neighbor whose pond it was said he thought he had frogs in his pond, and it was me! I thought he was joking and was miffed that he could joke about my almost drowning.
    
17. Years ago at Sunday lunch I would fantasize with my friends about having a planned community. If I won the lottery, I would buy a whole apartment building, convert some apartments to shared space, and people could share meals together, and building chores. My sweeties have always been more private than communal living allows for.
18. I still have Sunday lunch with my homies. At least 15 years now.
    
19. I truly fell in love the first time when I was 30. Before that, I had loved, but not with this kind of surrender. Before that, I wasn't capable of it.
20. I didn't call my mom on her birthday in January. I still haven't called her. I feel bad about that.
21. I have only been able to lose weight twice in my life. The first time, starvation diet of 200-800 calories a day and aerobics. The second time, I wasn't trying to lose weight, but I just kind of didn't feel like eating, so again it was probably 200-800 calories a day, and a lot of walking. Years of calorie counting did not help me lose weight.
    
22. I have used a buckwheat husk-filled pillow for almost 20 years. There is no better pillow.
    
23. Even if I were poor again, I would still have to make sure I bought good shoes. Cheap shoes would cripple me, and in my experience would wear out so often they would end up being just as expensive as the Eccos that I wear.
24. Once upon a time I meditated pretty much every day. Now I meditate sometimes. I haven't lost touch with that samadhi though.
25. When I was young, I was mystified at the thought of living in the city. I thought I would always live in the country. I love living in Portland, and now I can't imagine living in the country.