Memes in the Closet with the Skeletons

Warning: Long Post Ahead!
In the past several weeks, I’ve been tagged for several memes. First off, Joni gave me the You Make Me Smile Award and tagged me for the 6 facts meme.

Thanks Joni! You’re a sweetheart, and you certainly make me smile too. ALOT! In addition, Sarah Jayne tagged me for the four things meme. (And I have this nagging feeling that someone else tagged me during the New York week, but I can’t remember…so if that’s true, I’m sorry that I’ve forgotten!) I’m going to cheat a little and combine the two memes, hoping you can find 6 facts among the 4 things!

4 jobs I’ve had:

• Kentucky Fried Chicken.
• Cheeseborough Ponds Perfume Factory assembly line – I worked on the line putting atomizers in the bottles right after the perfume had been put into the bottles. Sometimes the machines would jam up and perfume would spill on the floor – my shoes, and therefore my closet, smelled great!
• And engraver in a clock repair shop.
• A test administrator giving GED and CLEP tests.

4 films I could watch over and over:

• The Full Monty
• Top Gun
• Life is Beautiful
• Milk Money

4 TV shows I watch:

• Lost
• Two and a Half Men
• Boston Legal
• Jeopardy

4 places I have lived:

• Lancaster, California
• Huntsville, Alabama
• Hanau, Germany
• Manti, Utah

4 favorite foods:

• Kim! Don’t Look! – Mashed Potatoes.
• Prime Rib.
• MeMum’s pot roast with carrots and potatoes.
• MeMum’s three layer chocolate cake.

4 favorite colors:

• Blue
• Red
• Purple
• Everything else! What would our world be without color???

4 places I’d love to be right now:

• Scotland
• England
• Wales
• Maine

4 names I love but could/would not use for my children:

• Elizabeth
• Bronwyn
• Liam
• Return – which sounds totally goofy, but it’s a family name. The story goes that my g-g-g-grandfather (Richard) asked my g-g-g-grandmother to marry him and she said no. He moved to another town, but before he left, he told her if she changed her mind, to send him a letter. Before long, he received a note with only two words: Return Richard. So, they named their firstborn Return Richard. And he named his firstborn Return Richard. And he named his firsborn Return LaVar (my grandpa.) Grandpa hated his name and didn’t pass it on. It didn’t occur to me until my boys were older, but I really wish I’d given one of them the name Return for a middle name ‘cause I love family names (and if I’d had a usable maiden name, that would have been used too.) Anyway, my boys are probably breathing a sigh of relief now!

4 people I’d love to tag with this Meme: (I’m tagging people in my Mother’s of Two Boys Club ;-). Except, off hand, I can only think of two, so I’m extending it to mother’s of three boys. If you hate meme’s, please ignore me! ;-) )

• Sharon at RedGeraniumCottage
• Karen at MyYellowFarmhouse
• Cathy at Miss Marzie
• Karen at Rohanknitter

And speaking of Rohanknitter, she tagged me for the book meme:

Hardcover or paperback, and why? Hardcover, although the book industry is certainly making some beautiful paperbacks these days.

If I were to own a book shop , I would call it…. Hmmm, it would probably be something corny like “Once Upon a Time…”

My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is… I don’t know that I really have a “favorite” quote. But while we’re talking about books in the crafy blog world, here’s a quote that I think is funny:

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. – Albert Einstein

The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be… Wallace Stegner, Thomas Hardy, The Brontes, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Beatrix Potter, Ayn Rand…in the interest of bedtime, I think I should stop now.

If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SASsurvival guide, it would be… hmmm, how hard is this one? I think it would be something big that I would like to read but think I’ll never have time – Canterbury Tales? War and Peace???

I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that… would allow me to read in my sleep. I might actually make it through my booklist before I die!

The smell of an old book reminds me of… Hyde Brothers – the really cool used book store here in town.

If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be… gosh, that’s hard. All the heroines I’ve loved have gone through something awful and I don’t think I’d really want that??? E.g., Tess in Tess of the D’Urbervilles. For a non-tragic choice, how ‘bout Dagny in Atlas Shrugged?

The most overestimated book of all times is… ummmm, maybe One Hundred Years of Solitude, or as I fondly call it, One Hundred Years of Hell. I also completely agree with Rohanknitter about The DaVinci Code!

I hate it when a book … again, I’ll agree with Rohanknitter – I hate it when sex scenes are thrown in and they’re not relevant to the story. I’ve had a theory for about 15 years in my book group – when we’re reading a book that has sex scenes that add nothing to the story, it’s almost always written by a man! LOL

And now to tag for the book meme — my source for all things word related, Isabelle. And I’m awarding all five of the ladies I’ve tagged with the You Make Me Smile award because they do make me smile (as do all the blogs I read) and as a reward for tagging them.
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I’ve certainly said enough for now!
XOXO,
Anna

P.S. The skeletons were the pleasant surprise I found when I went downtown this weekend. Who knew they decorated for Halloween???