Martha tagged me to tell you seven random things about myself. Okay. I don't like memes; these days I don't even feel like writing online. I feel too private! Just want to make words and pictures in my notebooks, keep them underground for seventeen years, then let them out, like the cicadas that will surely hatch this summer all over Minnesota. Billions of cicadas. Their call can be 90 decibels, I think I read? As loud as a blender.
But I like Martha; she fills my need for smart women friends, and she has excellent taste in fabric stores. So: memeing.
If pictures count, then you've got approximately 4,000 random things.
I'm stalling because I don't think there's anything interesting I can tell you.
All right. First, I'm the oldest (and only girl) of four children. Probably there are people out there who could tell you that being a first-born made me bossy, stubborn, and quick to judge. They'd be right. But so am I, most of the time. Ha!
Second: I'm Catholic and grew up with the language and images of the church; I use them a lot in my writing. But I don't think of myself as a Catholic writer, and I don't mind what faith (or not) people are (or aren't). I like having access to another specialized lexicon, just like the lexicons of textile work and printmaking. That's the public side of it, for me.
Third: I have always had a thing that if I get married, I want my hair to be long enough to put in braids around my head, which is how I used to wear it all the time in high school and college. It's only to my shoulders now, so no wedding bells anytime soon.
Fourth: I forget which hand is my right and which is my left. I didn't know right/left until high school.
Fifth: I love tiny things, miniatures, scraps. It's comforting. I can take them anywhere; they're easy to transport and they don't take up space. Little things make the best presents because they're inobtrusive.
Sixth: My third-favorite word is TURPENTINE. My second-favorite word is LEPIDOPTERA. My favorite word is YES. I have a list of words I can't stand, too. I can feel, taste, and smell words. WHISKEY has the shape and flavor of a piece of pine.
Seventh: I speak Japanese, French, English, some Spanish, a bit of Italian, and scraps of Chinese, Irish (Gaelige), and a few other languages. I credit any ability I have with languages to my parents' taking me seriously when, at four, I said I'd rather go to Spanish class than swimming or ballet.
Well, I don't want to tag anyone, mainly because the pessimist on my shoulder doubts they'd do it. But I'd be interested to hear snippets from
Molly and
Jane and
Brian (ha! he will never do it, I would put money on it). And of course, YOU, if you'd be so kind as to leave your bits and pieces in the comments?
Photos:
Just collecting things, you know how it is. Accumulation, subtraction, division. I was never so good at math.
American friends, (I almost wrote 'frieds,' which is maybe apropo?) happy Memorial Day!
(What it means is the kind of late evening with lanterns, lilac trees that have bloomed out and now are hung with shadow, the first stars; fireflies.)
(What it means is an afternoon at a redwood picnic table and the sparkling, shifting color of light through leaves, the smell of calamine lotion and its particular pink.)
(What it means is ice tea, a good novel, three hours all to yourself in a thunderstorm after heat, then two close friends for dinner and cake in the greenhouse you built out back.)
