Eight habits or facts about me

[pameladean]

All right, ritaxis tagged me, and I find that I can't resist that.  However, I am not posting any rules and I am not tagging anybody else.  We will not look too closely at the idea that my main objection to the former is that it grates on my nerves to see "blog" used to mean "blog post," even though English does that sort of thing all the time -- just try and stop it.

If people who are reading this wish to post a list of eight -- or six, or eleven -- random habits of theirs or facts about themselves, please be my guest.  Drop a note in the comments and I'll come read them even if I haven't friended you.

1. I hate hot weather; it makes me ill.
2. I am a very slow person, whether one is talking of thinking, cooking, writing, or just getting around to doing things.  My mother gave me a chest of drawers from Ikea a year and a half ago, and it's still sitting in the front hall in its ickle box.  However, it will come in very  handy for the guest room while Eric is staying with us for six weeks.
3. When I was in junior high school, my favorite books were Carroll's Alice books, and my best friend and I called ourselves the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit.  I got into a lot of trouble by confiding this fact to a potential new friend and letting her be the March Hare.  It is unclear to me whether this is an early indication of polyamorous tendencies or one of the reasons I became far less chatty in general in my mid-teens.
4. I have gotten myself through a significant portion of the novel I'm writing by promising myself macaroni and soy cheese if I write five hundred words.  Fortunately, that is no longer feasible, since three helpings of mac and soy cheese a day is too much even for me.
5. I am extremely lazy.
6. Last year I planted six packets of California poppies in various parts of the garden, because Eric was going to be here for a month and I thought he would find them homelike.  None of them came up.  But I think there is a single plant coming up this year.
7. I have three partners and am very grateful to them for putting up with me.
8. I believe that brevity is the soul of wit, but elaboration is more fun.

Pamela

Comments

[redbird]

If I posted your statement 7, my partners would point out that they were not in fact "putting up with" me, and I am fairly sure your loves feel the same way about you.

[pameladean]

Most of the time, no doubt. But we all have a few foibles that sometimes come forcibly to the foreground.

P.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

1. I hate hot weather; it makes me ill.

Me too! GOD, sing it. I react really poorly to v humid v hot weather, like on the East coast -- when I was at the DC zoo once with my stepsister and her then-husband, I nearly had heatstroke. Ick.

5. I am extremely lazy.

OHyes.

8. I believe that brevity is the soul of wit, but elaboration is more fun.

I believe that too, but unfortunately (?) in front of a keyboard anyway, I am voluble as all hell. I tend to be much more silent in person!

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

Another hot-weather hater -- it makes me feel weak, headachey, nauseous.

[pameladean]

Hot and humid is particularly evil.

I'm quieter in person too. Hee.

P.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Poppies are surprisingly picky.

I love #4.:) It made me laugh (in self-identification).

[pameladean]

I've never had any luck with poppies, but having such a large batch even fail to germinate is a new low.

One is always sternly told not to self-motivat with food, but you know, it works, and I'm tired of being lectured about such things. So I get the added pleasure of thumbing my nose at a lot of busybodies pretending they care about my health.
(Not referring to any comments here, but to professional busybodies.)

P.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Ickle box? I blame Harry Potter for that word creeping into the American language.

[pameladean]

I haven't even read Harry Potter. I blame a childhood spent reading British authors.

P.

Number 7

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

I have found myself wondering if the people in established multiple relationships are the same ones who were, not just discussing, but really, really fretting about, open vs. closed relationships back in the 1970s. It seems likely, but I don't have a whole lot of data. (Not that it matters, since whatever the situation is, it's usually necessary to look at it on a case-by-case basis.)

Nate

Re: Number 7

[pameladean]

That would be pretty funny, but I suspect that I'm an outlier. Which proves the rest of your point, I see.

P.

Re: Number 7

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

For most of the '70s, I hadn't hit puberty yet. ;-)

[jinian.livejournal.com]

while Eric is staying with us for six weeks

Oh, hurray! That's happy-making to hear about.

brevity is the soul of wit, but elaboration is more fun.

This is very concise.

[pameladean]

Yes, it is happy news.

As for the concision, *snrch*.

P.

[thedragonweaver.livejournal.com]

Weather probably isn't hot and dry enough for your California poppies. They're like weeds around here (but certainly nicer than sticker grass.)

Random fact about me: I could gladly live in Ashland were there any obvious means of support. I saw three plays in the Elizabethan theater last weekend (The Tempest, Taming of the Shrew, and Romeo & Juliet) and I want one.

Don't know precisely what I'd do with an Elizabethan theater, mind you, but I want one nonetheless.

Second random fact about me: My time spent on a new enthusiasm before getting bored seems to run about two and a half years. See 1) webcomic*; 2) list of books read; 3) online blog of book reviews that was the years-delayed successor to #2... at least my fascinations with certain core things such as books, art, and music have never died.

Third random fact: If I were to take all of the energies expended towards my various enthusiasms and point them toward one, I'd probably be pretty good at it. Problem is, I'd probably be pretty bored with it too...

*I've always intended to get back to it. Time since last update is three years and counting...

[pameladean]

It was blisteringly hot and dry when I planted them; we were having an extended heat wave and a drought. I suspect that I didn't water them enough in the early stages.

I'm sure that if one had an Elizabethan theate handy, many uses would come to mind.

P.

[raphaela.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad to see you! I've been wondering how you are.

[pameladean]

Writing and bitching about the weather, mostly. 8-)

P.

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with #1. So far, this summer has been hard to bear. I am also quite lazy. I don't know if the two are connected, but right now it feels like it.

I was, and am, very fond of the Alice books, and was in 7th heaven when "The Annotated Alice" came out. All of a sudden, I knew there were other people who cared about something I cared about. I think I was 10 or 11.

About #4 - have you tried pasta and pesto instead? Fresh basil will be avialable any time now, and I can give you a recipe that is much less oily than the commercial ones.

[pameladean]

I'm hoping it won't be as bad as last summer. That was brutal.

Pasta and pesto is a glorious meal, but it lacks the comfort-food factor.

P.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I knew it would be interesting!

Sooo with you on heat (as I turn the fan up as another damned hot flash soaks me)

[pameladean]

At least I get some respite seven or so months of the year.

And the hot flashes -- ugh, ugh, ugh. Hot weather definitely makes them worse.

P.

tagged

[t-windling.livejournal.com]

Pamela,

I don't have a personal blog (just the Endicott Studio one), so can I post my list here?

1. I hate cold, rainy weather. And I chose to live in England. Go figure.

2. I hate answering the telephone. Phones scare me. Honest to god.

3. I burned my grandmother's kitchen down when I was an adolescent.

4. I don't like to cook. This, no doubt, has something to do with answer #3.

5. I'm a morning person. I'm like a wind-up toy that gets slower and slower as the day goes on. I seem to lose at least 10 IQ points as soon as the sun goes down.

6. The sun goes down early in the winter in England. That's when I flee to Arizona.

7. I am one-quarter Native American. I don't look it. I look German, which is what most of the rest of my heritage is. An old man once spat on me as I was crossing the Charles Bridge in Prague. When I sputtered, "What did you do that for?" he became all flustered and apologetic. "I do beg your pardon," he said in Czech-accented English. "I thought you were German."

8. My partner prances around on stages with tights and masks on for a living.

Re: tagged

[(Anonymous)]

You can post absolutely anything you like here at any time.

2. -- I hate answering the telephone too. Mostly I don't.

3. -- Eeeek. But I have to say, it's a poor thin kitchen that can't take a little adolescence.

4. -- Well, yeah.

7. -- You do kind of look it in certain lights, but the hair is wildly misleading in that regard. As for the old man, wow, most people don't feel it necessary to embody a whole history quite so thoroughly.

8. -- Yay partner!

P.

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

I planted a packet of poppies in my front garden this year, and absolutely nothing came up. On the other hand, the Oriental poppies I planted in 2005 finally bloomed this year.

I was tagged by someone else and did the eight things meme here (http://gwyneira.livejournal.com/93645.html). (And I agree that "blog" should not be used to mean "blog post", grrr.)

[pameladean]

Oh, good list.

I still can't drive, and meant to put that down, but I got sidetracked.

P.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I am very late catching up with this, but count me as another resounding "yes" on No. 1 (last night was our first truly too-warm night of the year, and I slept fretfully and inadequately...) And also a "yay!" for Eric's impending visit.

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, yes, we are well into the "sleep, or thrift?" period, where we can turn on a window air conditioner (no central air, and even when we can afford it there will be weird problems witih installation because this is rental housing dating from the 19-teens, and the spacing of the studs is non-standard) and run up the electric bill, or suffer. Yargh.

Eric has been here for a week, and while I am often quite confused, things are settling down. It's quite lovely.

P.

Laziness

[(Anonymous)]

Jane Yolen here.

I find it hard to believe that anyone who has written as many beautiful, deep books as you have can possibly consider herself lazy.

Writers in repose are still writing.

Jane

Re: Laziness

[pameladean]

*gulp* Thank you. I will have to contemplate this seriously.

P.

[damashita.livejournal.com]

Well, hello. :) i just did the 8 things... and i added you to my friends list (if you don't mind... if you do let me know).

As for your 8...

1) same with me... so i live in the Pacific Northwest... and the summers the past few years getting in the 90's and even breaking 100*F make me cranky and miserable and a general b*#ch to be around. And they say climate change is a fantasy. Ha!

4) Oh... do you have a good recipe? We aren't quite totally vegan as a household yet, but my 9 year old went vegan a few months ago (he'd been reading about factory farming and went vegan overnight) - and i would love to find a good, tasty, vegan mac & cheese recipe. i have just gone w/o for the past 8 years, and i miss it.

[pameladean]

No, of course I don't mind. My posts are pretty sporadic, though.

I looked at your list. I hate talking on the telephone -- I'm surprised I didn't list that, really -- but I too am a poor housekeeper.

My macaroni and soy cheese recipe is a veganized and somewhat defatted version of James Beard's recipe. He includes a drop or two of hot sauce; I put in a teaspoon, and also some cumin and powdered mustard. But you could leave those out if the kids have sensitive tongues. They make the soy cheese taste more like actual cheese, though.

I'll see if I can find the recipe. But really, all you need to do is substitute olive or canola oil for butter, soy milk or creamer or a mixture for milk or cream, and soy cheese for cheese, plus the seasonings mentioned. I also use whole-wheat macaroni; I can hardly tell the difference, except that eating the finished product doesn't put me to sleep. And I use whole-wheat breadcrumbs, either homemade or commercial -- there's a brand of panko breadcrumbs that works nicely.

The soy cheese I use is not strictly vegan -- it has casein in it so it will melt properly. I keep meaning to try a really vegan cheese, but I haven't gotten around to it.

P.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

....Hey, are you guys all right up there?

[ladyjaguar.livejournal.com]

Hello, Pamela. Karen Rhodes here. Glad all are safe; what a terrible thing.

I hope you don't mind that I've added you to my friends list.

On to more mundane, silly, inane, and nonsensical stuff -- I suppose I could confess to 8 things about myself in which nobody with a grain of sense would be interested! (grin)

1. I don't stick with any one thing terribly long (except my husband). In my lifetime, I've been a librarian, a secretary, a registered nurse, an enlisted person and later an officer in the United States Coast Guard, and am now a genealogist.

2. I tend toward indolence (I almost wrote "insolence." That, too.)

3. I don't like baths. I prefer showers.

4. I agree with you about hot weather -- and I live in Florida!

5. At the age of 60, I've gone back to college.

6. I don't hold with organized religion.

7. When I was in junior high school, I didn't read much. When I got into senior high, my favorite books were science fiction.

8. I prefer classical music.

There. Now you have my permission to yawn.

[comrade-cat.livejournal.com]

1. I hate heat & humidity halso.

2. I get embarrassed a lot.

3. I have more favourite authors than most people have books.

4. I like to write essays.

5. I had wonderful conversations with furniture.

6. I don't like long fingernails.

7. I have 3 cats & am very grateful to them for putting up with me.

8. Two of my favourite books are The Face in the Frost & The Dubious Hills.