Thursday, April 7, 2011

ABCs of Sparkling

When my blog turned 100, I gave you 100 Things that Make Me Sparkle. A lot of you have told me that you read it and have a much better picture of who I am and who I am not.

Now that my blog is 200, I have been wondering what marvelous thing I should do to celebrate. Thanks to PBJdreamer, I now bring you:

THE ABCs OF MISS SPARKLING.

A.   Age:  36 right now.  We'll see what I think of 37.

B.  Bed size: Queen, Sleep By Number.  Truly the best thing I've slept on.  Yes, it's expensive.  And yes, you're sleeping on what is basically an air mattress.  But, having the ability to make each side what the person sleeping on it really wants- priceless.  Being able to move around and not jiggle the bed- amazing.  It's weird, I have the most stark taste when it comes to the bed.  I only want duvet covers, so I can wash them regularly.  No bedspreads or quilts for me. 



C.  Chore you dislike: filling and emptying the dishwasher.  Seriously, I would rather wash the dishes by hand.  Or possibly lick them clean.

D. Dogs: love them.  When I was a little kid, we had Peeps.  She was a Golden Retriever who lived at the car wash, outside, in a dog house.  She once got hit by the mailman and broke her leg, so she had to spend some time in the house.  She really didn't like being cooped up.

Then we got Jake.  We went to the SPCA and came home with him.  He was a mix, probably Beagle and Huskie, they said.  What my mother was thinking, bringing home a Beagle's bark with a Huskie's craziness, I'll never know.  He was so cute.  And had an ear that flopped.  And no discipline.  We didn't keep him long.  He was too much for us to handle.

And those, my friends, are all of my dogs.  I want a Weimeraner.  Really badly.  I love them.  But when it's cold and miserable out, I remember how glad I am that I don't have to walk a dog and bring in filthy paws.  And when it's really hot, I remember how glad I am that I don't have to smell a hot dog.  (I hate the smell of edible hot dogs, too)

EEssential start to your day:  light, preferably sunlight!  And orange juice.  But not Tropicana anymore.  Because a lot of their juice isn't from the US.  Ahhh the dilemmas I face every day.

F. Favorite color: red, followed very closely by pink.  But I wear a lot of green and brown.

G. Gold or silver: gold, although working with lia sophia has let me see the light!

H. Height: 5'2"

I. Instruments you play(ed): piano and voice.  This is what the piano is mostly used for these days.  I have a serious problem with putting things down.  I cannot leave any space open.  I must constantly cover all empty space with stuff, thereby making it difficult to do anything because I have to move said stuff in order to get to whatever it is I am trying to do.  We just moved this piano during the great room redo a few weeks ago.  I like the piano, I like having it, I like knowing I can play it.  But it sure gets in the way.  I thought when I put it out in the middle of things I would play it all the time, but no.  It was just in the way.  And made people fantasize that when non one is around, I give these beautiful concerts.  Ok, I think I am the only one who fantasizes these things.

I didn't put up a picture of my voice, because...  Who wants to see my vocal chords?

J. Job title: judge, juror, parent, policeman, seamstress, custodian, interpreter, mover---MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER.

K. Kittens.  LOVE THEM.  WISH THEY WOULD REMAIN KITTENS.

L. Live: I don't know if this says live or live.  Yes, I am a live human.  I live near the water. In the town and the house where I grew up.  Scenes like this are a common, everyday site for us around here.  When I say water, I mean ocean.  Not lake or pond or whatever some of you people call water, when you say you have a house on the water.  I don't have a house on the water, but I can get to the Atlantic in 1.2 minutes.


M. Mom’s name: Mom.  We were never allowed to call her Ma.  And Mother just didn't cut it.  And we aren't from the south, so Mama wasn't in our vocabulary.

N. Nicknames:  For reasons I will never understand, when I was really little, this guy called me Lydia.  That has no resemblance whatsoever to my real name or to Sparkling.  I have no clue.  Today, I kind of like the name Lydia.  And even when I became an adult, I once heard him call me that.

I have an A at the end of my name but sometimes people leave it off and I get really mad because then it's not my name.  To me, it's like the difference between Mary and Marie. When I was younger, I would silently seethe, but today, I find myself correcting someone immediately, and without even meaning to.

A few rare times, people have called me by just the first 2 letters of my name.  I used to think that was ugly because that's a boy's name.  But today, I don't really care.

Sparkling came from my original intention when I created this blog, which was to talk about jewelry and I think Sparkly had been taken. Oh, sorry, did you really think that was my name?  Actually, I know a girl named Spangle.  That really is her name. She is a very rude individual and does not live up to what I think someone with the name Spangle should be like.  No one except my aunt s-ster has ever really called me Sparkling because it's not something I say out loud.  She noticed it on my blog and thought it was funny.

O. Overseas travel:   Because I went to France my sophomore year of college, and then returned for a month in Belgium a few years ago, I have traveled around Europe:  France, England, Monaco, Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland.  It is nowhere near as glamorous as it sounds.  I was 19 and with 2 girls I didn't know very well and they had planned this great tour for our breaks, while I just thought some great plan would come to me.  Which it did by way of these two girls who let me tag along.  We stayed in hostels and cheapo deapo hotels, one of which I swear was just a house, not even a hotel.  Today, this trip would make me really annoyed but it was fine then.  And I have vivid memories, which is good, because my camera broke during part of the first break and I have no pictures for a period of that semester in Europe.

P. People you admire:  people who have their act together.  People who quietly "do it all" but don't make the rest of us miserable with their griping about how they have no time or they are so exhausted. 

Q. Quote from a movie:  I can never remember things from movies, so this is lost on me.  The things that I usually do remember are insignificant to the rest of the world, anyway.  Now, if you ask me about a song, I could go on and on about favorite lines from songs.

R. Righty or lefty: right all the way.  I am very incompetent with my left hand.  Except when playing the piano.  Which I always think is really weird.  I have little control over it in other things, but I can make it hit the right keys on a piano.

Have you ever tried to do something, like unlock a door with your non dominant hand?  Only to find that the dominant hand is trying very hard to help out?  Try it.  You'll find your dominant hand headed for the key, trying to help out.  It's very funny.

S. Siblings: two sisters, younger

T. Time you wake up: 6:30 during the week.  What a boring question.

U. Underwear: really?  Need I post MORE of this foolishness?  Unlike many women, I actually like to wear underwear.  I don't like thongs.  I like underwear that fits and this is very difficult to come by.

V. Vegetables you don’t like: asparagus.  Because.... it tastes too green.  I know this is a ridiculous statement.  I like most other vegetables.  But asparagus is one that I just hate.  You just can't dress it up or cover it in sauce for me.  The only way I will eat it is when I toss it into a tomato salad that I make and there's a vinaigrette that disguises the asparagus.  K-ster likes it, which is crazy because there aren't many vegetables that he DOES like. 

W. What makes you run late:  ?  I don't know what late is because I'm rarely late.

X. X-rays you’ve had: my hips, my teeth, I think my lungs when I was really little.  Again, no dramatic experiences to report here.

Y. Yummy food you make: desserts of any kind.  Occasionally a supper that knocks your socks off.  I love the tomato salad I mentioned above.  K-ster is pretty easy to please, so not much gets thrown away.  I've learned to make a lot of my favorites without the recipe or I've added things and I'm really happy with that.  It's nice to know I can "whip" some meals together and make them taste good without a pat recipe.  Guess that means I've made a lot of meals!  I don't do frozen dinners and rarely eat things that are packaged.  We don't eat out a lot.  So, there isn't much choice but to cook.

Z. Zoo animal favorites: the big cats.  When we were at the National Zoo, they said that there were 2 litters of lion cubs that would make their debut----after we left.  My sister has since seen them and said they are so cute.  I've seen them online and I could just sit and watch them all day long.

5 comments:

  1. Now I'm dying to figure out your real name. I thought Julia, which would be Julia but a guy's name would be Jule, like Jules and you don't really hear that name much anymore.

    Now having said that, I feel like I am pressuring you to give up your real name and I don't want you to take it that way. I just like a riddle.

    Um, carry on.

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  2. Hee hee. I almost responded by email and then realized that would have totally given it away. Wonder why you think it starts with a J?

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  3. My name is not Lily either....I just like it better than my real name!

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  4. Sometimes, it makes me laugh what extremes we go to for our online names.

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  5. Great List!

    Is it alexa?

    heee

    now I want to know too!!!

    that is all

    ReplyDelete

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