I'm Official! (or, Meme-Cherry Popped)

I have always considered Memes an unnecessary expenditure of words. A clogging of the virtual airwaves. Kind of like chain letters for the blogging set.

However. I got tagged for one today. And I cannot deny that I am flattered. Let me revise: I am downright stoked (yes, I grew up in California in the eighties; yes this entitles me to use that word). I feel as if I've been granted the official stamp of blogger approval. And by none other than DaMomma -- only, oh, the wittiest sharpest most-read blogger I personally know.

Pride be damned. Principles, too. Here are the rules:

1) Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

2) Share five random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.

3) Share the five top places on your "want to see or want to see again" list.

4) Tag a minimum of five random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment in their blog.

Whee! Let's do it.

1) I was tagged by Motherhood Is Not for Wimps (aka, DaMomma).

2) Five Random/Weird Facts About Me.

1. I am, inexplicably, a stellar map-reader. Plop me down in a foreign city, thrust a map in my hand, and I will get where I need to go. Rarely a wrong turn. By foot or public transport. Mostly I trump the navigational skills of my companions. Even the males. Which warms the cockles of my (feminist) soul.
2. Cumin makes me gag. It ruins any food I bite into. I cannot inhale the scents of an Indian restaurant without losing my appetite.
3. When I was on Isla Mujeres eight years ago, I sunburned my upper lip. It's been redder than the rest of me ever since.
4. I shop all organic. And I devour aspartame. Like it's going out of style.   
5. I cannot get through a day without swatting silverware off a table, falling on flat sidewalk, or dribbling loose change from my pockets. Most recently, I flooded a hotel bathroom. The water puddled out into the hall, soaking through my boyfriend's Nikes. "It was that crazy showerhead," I protested, "spraying in all directions." Never mind that he had showered two day's running without incident. It took five towels to sop it all up.

3) Five Top Places I Want to See or See Again:

1. Barcelona (specifically, the beach, in the exact same spot I was sitting three short days ago)
2. Cambodia
3. Uruguay (My cousin just spent two weeks there. "We rode horseback for hours at a time," she told me, "and never saw a soul.")
4. India (if only I could overcome #2, above)
5. Lisbon (I have one word for you: Mosaics)

4) Tag Five Friends: I am shaving this down to four. So sue me, I am out of the blogging loop here in Berlin.* 

1. Daring Young Mom
2. The Lovely Ride
3. Notes From the Trenches
4. My Topography

*Wait, does that screw the whole thing up? And bring me nine years' bad luck, plus a curse upon my cat?

Comments

[Julie]

I doubt that you're cursed. That's only for dorky memes. This one is cool. I like that I've known you for 14 years and the random facts were all new.

And, mmmmm! Barcelona. With your beloved. Niiiiice.

(My response will be up tomorrow.)

[Lilan]

Wow, that is cool that every fact was new. I cannot wait to read yours, my dear

[Marianne]

Hi Lilan! I haven't commented in a while...this post reminds me of the time I studied abroad in Spain and after staying a week in a teeny dorm with a teeeeny shower, the cleaning lady decided to leave a mop in my room for me to clean up the flooding. But I'd gladly go back to that in a second!