Meme Award

Zoe's Mom gave me This Award, which happens to be right up my alley, because not only am I flattered to have received An Award (even if it's an award that is very unclear. I'm not quite sure what the actual award is -- judging from the picture it seems to encompass memes, books, and eggheadedness. Still, it is an award, nonetheless, and I will take any award I can get), but it also happens to be An Award that involves a meme. I can't accept The Award without participating in the meme (gee, twist the old Queen o' Meme's arm yet again).

Here are the instructions: to accept this award, I must list 7 personality traits about myself, and I must pass this award onto 7 other blogs that deserve fine recognition for their bloggers' personalities that they share with the blogging world.

My first thought: do I have 7 personality traits that I have not already blabbed incessantly about on this blog? This happens to be my 510th post (yes, not only did I miss my 3-year blogiversary back in May, I also managed to miss my 500th-post milestone. Good thing this blog is not a human child or a husband). Answer: I think so, but please forgive me if I am repetitive.

My second thought: can I come up with 7 other bloggers who have not already been given the award? Answer: I think so, but please forgive me if I am repetitive.

So, here we go. I'm starting with the bloggers (in alphabetical order) first, because that is easier for me:

7 Bloggers' Blogs That Deserve Fine Recognition:

Bob of Lacunae Musing (Bob, I know you don't do memes, really, so you don't have to do this one, but I do think your blog deserves recognition). I love Bob's blog not only because I know him in real life (no, this is not my husband Bob, so don't get confused), but because his blog is full of passion and so varied. With any given post, you might find interesting thoughts on the publishing industry, or a review about a great book, or poignant autobiography, or beautiful photos, or samples of his piano-playing, or great commentary on the state of our economy. Really, it's terrific fun to read.

Danny of Jew Eat Yet (Danny, ditto my instructions to Bob. Besides, you are way too busy these days to mess around with memes). Danny is another real life friend, and I love his blog because it's funny and because I, who basically know nothing about pop culture, learn so much from him (a Pop Culture King, living in the heart of it all in L.A.). These days, his blog has gotten very personal as he struggles with one son who is in the NICU and one who did not live, and he is writing beautifully about the whole experience, helping friends like me who just cannot imagine living his life right now understand what it is like (and, yes, he has managed to keep his sense of humor).

Fem of Feminine Feminist. She is another real life friend, who lives way, way too far away, and I keep up with her via her blog (well, and yes, Facebook, too). She has very interesting things to say about life, feminism, and religion. She doesn't post on her blog nearly enough to satisfy me. However, if you've never read her, and you start reading her right now, you are lucky, because she is busy counting down to her 30th birthday, and is, thus, posting more frequently than usual.

Heather of The Library Ladder. I've been following Heather basically ever since I started blogging. She and I are also pen pals (sort of. We haven't been doing a very good job of writing each other lately). She's the one who encouraged me to read The Faerie Queene, which I loved through Book I and have not gotten back into since (but I will. I will! One day...) She's another voracious reader with a great sense of humor and does a great job of giving brief book reviews. I think it's cool the way she ranks books with library ladder rungs.

Ms. Make Tea of Make Tea Not War. Make Tea Not War is another blog I have been reading basically ever since I started blogging. (Funny how I can't remember how I discovered all of you. Maybe it was through your comments on my blog?) She, too, is funny and writes about all kinds of varied stuff. I love her feminist ways and her taste in music is excellent. I was devastated at one point when she announced she was ending her blog, but then, happily, she came back!

Mandarine of Wise Mandarine. He's a blogging friend who has become a real life friend. He doesn't blog in English much anymore, because he is very busy with other things (like trying to change the world while raising two young boys with his wife). However, there is plenty there, stuff to make you really think, that he's posted over the years that you can go back and read.

Nigel of Handmade Luck. I'm tempted to say how can I not love a blog that so often makes me think of XTC's "Making Plans for Nigel"? But that would be ridiculous, because of course if it were some sort of hate-filled, humorless blog, I wouldn't love it. It's not, though, and I love Nigel, because he is the master of something I am not: brevity (case in point. Has anyone noticed that I can't even do something as simple as tagging bloggers without writing treatises?). And he makes me think. Oh, and he lets me pretend I am anywhere near as smart as he is by responding to the comments I feel compelled to leave on his blog.

Now, the tough part:

7 of My Personality Traits

1. I just realized today, while doing one of my stints as a volunteer at my local library, that, despite the fact I am not good with alphabetization (I was the kid in school who when we had to alphabetize lists, would look at a word that began with "L" and have to go, "A, B, C...J, K, L" in order to figure out where to place it), I am nevertheless pretty compulsive about wanting things to be in order. For instance, I don't like the fact that the "Easy Reader" books at our library are merely shelved under the first letter of the author's last name and have to keep myself from truly alphabetizing them, so that "Miller" falls on the shelf after "Martin." (Truth be told, if you watch me, you might catch me arranging them thus. I just can't help myself.) If I discover a new author, I like to read his/her books in order of publication (I don't always do so, but I would always like to do so). Give me a list of numbers, and my instinct is to arrange them either in ascending or descending order.

2. I am a "rainy day" person. I get cranky during long periods of drought (which we are beginning to enter here in Lancaster County where it hasn't rained for three weeks). Rain does not prevent me from doing such things as taking a walk -- as a matter of fact, I love a good walk in the rain -- and I am happy when rain gives me an excuse to stay indoors (which is where I generally really want to be anyway. Preferably curled up with a book somewhere). It isn't that I don't like sunshine, and I do love to lie in a hammock outdoors and read, or to hike up to the top of a mountain on a cloudless day and to be able to see all the vistas below, but I just love rain (give me a thunderstorm, and that's even better).

3. Having said that about the rain, I do not like weather that is inappropriate for the time of year. June is not supposed to be cold, so when it is, I am unhappy. Likewise, February is not supposed to be warm, so I do not rejoice the way others do when the temperature hits 65 or so right around my birthday. If it's not 65 or so in May, though, I will notice and curse the gods. Warm Thanksgivings and Christmases are horribly depressing. And I absolutely despise 32 degree-downpours in January, when everyone knows that should be a good blizzard and not rain. I won't complain too much about it to you, though, because:

4. Despite the fact that it seems like I'm weather-obsessed today, I actually get annoyed by people who complain too much about the weather. There is absolutely nothing we can do about it on any given day, so, please, just dress appropriately, and quit whining to me about it. It isn't like I have no clue that it's 100 degrees in the shade or that the parking lot is like a skating rink (well, unless I'm inside with my nose buried in a book, which is where you should be on such days).

5. I love water. I love every sort of body of water, from small streams, to wide rivers, to oceans, to ponds, to lakes. Combine water with mountains, and, well, that's heaven to me (which is why I love Acadia National Park so much). I like to wade; I like to swim; I like to sit on banks and look at water; I like to be on boats; and, of course, I like to scuba dive. (Hmmm...I guess there is a connection between this trait and trait #2.) Sometimes I wonder if this means I'm less highly-evolved than those humans I know who are afraid of water or who don't seem to be as drawn to it as I am.

6. I love creepy, crawly creatures (I also love alliteration) that most people don't like. I don't necessarily want to have them crawl on me (depending on what they are), but I love to watch them. When hiking, I'm always on the lookout for snakes. I've been known to stand and watch a giant slug make its slow way along a path, fascinated by it and what it's doing. I'm the sort who lifts up rocks to see what's underneath, who picks up lizards, praying mantises, daddy long legs, and toads to study (or pet, in the case of lizards and toads) them (and then worries that I've interrupted them from whatever they were doing and tries to remember exactly where I found them, so I can put them back down and let them continue on their way. I mean, imagine if you were busy walking out to your mailbox to collect a package from Powell's that had just arrived, and some huge being suddenly came along, picked you up, and put you three miles down the road).

7. I'm the sort who is sitting here wondering, "Have I already blogged all about all these things at some point?" "Are people going to remember?" "Is this the most boring, repetitive meme I've ever done?" "Am I going to hurt someone's feelings, someone who, say, has just written ten blog posts whining about weather that I haven't got around to reading yet or someone whose blog I did not award?" (Honestly, though, I don't associate any of you, my lovely blogging companions, with whining about weather, and I would give everyone I read this award if I didn't find linking to be such a pain in the ass -- oh, that's another trait of mine, I guess.)