It's Another Two Meme Day

I was tagged by ZoesMom for this one.

Five Kind Things Meme

Here are the rules:

1. List five kind things you do for yourself.

2.List five kind things you do for your closest friend, partner or child.

3.List five kind things you have done for a stranger.

4. Have fun!

5. Tag five people.

1. Five things I do for myself
- Blog (I guess I do this for those who read my blog, too, but I’m doing it mostly for myself)
- Spend money on good food and drink (I’m cheap and am thus reluctant to spend money when it comes to just about everything but food and drink)
- Read (and the fact that I don’t do so 24-hours-a-day proves what an unselfish person I am)
- Write (well, one of the reasons I’m not reading 24-hours-a-day is because a huge hunk of time needs to be given to this as well)
- Luxuriate in hot baths (but not too often, because I know it’s a real waste of water, and I’d feel guilty, which would defeat the whole purpose of being kind to myself)

2. Five things I do for my closest friend, partner or child.
- Make tasty, healthy foods (but sometimes it’s just tasty food. I firmly believe it is possible to be too healthy, a.k.a. “boring,” and I imagine those for whom I do this wouldn’t consider it such a kindness if carrots and broccoli were all I ever served)

- Make them laugh (not always intentionally, but since “laughter is the best medicine” I don’t really care how I manage to achieve it, as long as I’m achieving it)
- Try not to hurt their feelings (not always an easy task)
- Buy them surprises just because I’m thinking of them (such things are much better than gifts on gift-giving occasions, aren’t they?)
- Let them interrupt me when I’m reading (even when I’m at the most exciting part of a novel. Now that qualifies me for sainthood, wouldn’t you say?)

3. Five things I have done for a stranger.
- Offered them gum/mints/candy on buses/planes/trains (I never thought to do this until someone once did it for me, and then I thought it was such a nice gesture, I decided to start doing it myself)
- Given them directions (and prayed I didn’t get them more confused than they already were)
- Picked up their litter (I don’t always do this with the most kind thoughts in my heart)
- Recommended books they might like to read (people probably think I’m nuts, but I’ve been known to do this in bookstores and libraries, despite my overwhelming shyness)
- Held doors open (I believe it’s polite to open doors period. I don’t care if you’re male or female. And if you’re letting a door swing shut on me, I consider you to be extremely rude)

Tagging: Bloglily, Courtney, Litlove, Stefanie, Cam, and anyone else who wants to do this one.

I got this second one from Make Tea Not War. It’s been a while since I did any sort of food meme, I think, and I loved the “open-endedness” of this one (sort of like an essay v. multiple choice test. Guess which I always preferred?). Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 food facts about yourself.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them)
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs

1. There isn’t much I don’t like to eat. In fact, I’ll try just about anything once, and the only things that I don’t particularly want to try are animals that I haven’t grown up eating (especially really cute ones like rabbits) and organ meats. The only other thing I can think of that I just really don’t like (and I mentioned this in some other food meme once) are sundried tomatoes.

2. Every day I teeter on the brink of becoming a vegetarian. It’s gotten harder and harder to justify my meat-eating habits now that I live in farm country and walk by the cows in back of our home every day. Right now, it’s Lent, so I’m not buying meat, as we give it up every Lent. I like this new term I’ve discovered: flexitarians, who basically don’t eat meat unless it’s offered to them by others (which actually is what we do during Lent. We don’t refuse meat that’s served to us by others, figuring fellowship is more important than strict rules about what we are and are not eating). If I become a full-time flexitarian, will those of you who do eat meat promise to invite me over to your houses every time you’re having hotdogs?

3. Although, occasionally I love a good dinner out at a good restaurant, especially when accompanied by good friends (and most especially when I’m somewhere like Chicago where fantastic restaurants are a dime a dozen), overall, I much prefer staying home and cooking my own meals.

4. I usurped the kitchen very early on in our marriage. Preparing food is relaxing for me, and I worry too much about what might happen if Bob did the cooking (Frito, habanero, and cheese casserole, anyone?). However, I let him cook Chinese food for us (and even for others), as he’s much better at that than I am.

5. I read cookbooks cover-to-cover and very rarely follow recipes to the tee when cooking. I do when I’m baking, because I don’t trust my own ability with chemistry. However, cooking is much more a matter of taste than chemistry, which is probably why I prefer it to baking. That’s not to say that I don’t prefer eating baked goods to cooked goods, which I often do. I’d just rather let someone else do the baking.

Tagging: same five as above (only because I'm too lazy to go back and link to others, not because I don't secretly want everyone in my blog roll to do this one, so consider yourself tagged here if you see yourself over there to the right).

Next week's meme (because you know, there has to be one): Becky's stuff in my handbag meme.