Sunday, March 30, 2008

Monday Memes Part I

Hey, I told you I was a navel-gazer! I was tagged by the Ex-Ex-Patriate's Kitchen (I know, excellent name, right? excellent writing and ideas, too) with a meme so here's a random Q&A 'bout MamaBird:

Ten Years Ago
Ten years ago I was a new teacher working on a masters degree in education at UC Berkeley. I was newly married, and a few months shy of acquiring our beloved furry friend, Xerxes. Living in Oakland, in a sweet, sunlit cottage with a trumpet vine we had to battle to keep off the roof, jasmine crawling over all our railings, sweet peas rampant on the walls, and a dim sum bakery with sticky rice-banana leaf and black bean paste buns within striking distance.

What's On My To-Do List
Getting my baby a passport and my five year old ballet slippers. Filing all the papers that have accumulated in my life since this baby was born. Reading 17,000 books and blogs. Finding the elusive balance between work and parenting. Figuring out how to force myself to find the time to exercise. Starting seedlings for the garden. Sending a care package to some tiny penpal friends we've made. Calling my grandmother. Coordinating the DC Cares visit to my kid's elementary school. Figuring out how to donate a high chair to the victims of the Mt. Pleasant fire. Making edible playdough, and basic muffin/pancake mix. Baking bread. Learning to sew on a machine. Seeing an old friend who's in town. Trying to assemble my composter that composted the directions on how to assemble the composter.

If I Became A Billionaire
Money is freedom, in my book. I would create incredibly interesting, challenging, part-time and flex-time jobs for parents that tapped into the reserve of talent chafing at the bit to tackle important issues but wishing to focus on their families to boot. I would pay top dollar and harness some brilliant consultants to make sure the project would sustain itself *and* provide equitable returns for all participants. Then I'd hire someone to help me assemble my composter.

Three Bad Habits

  1. Bad guesstimator. For instance, when I took my daughter to a gymnastics birthday party today, I brought not one, not two, but three books to read in ninety minutes. I am a fast reader. Not that fast. Also? I like to chatter. Pages read? Zero.
  2. Avid reader. To the point of neglecting ah, how do I put this? The domestic sphere.
  3. Overthinker. I live very much in my Head, lots in my Heart, could stand to live more in the Actual World Right Now.

Five Jobs I Have Had
  1. Stamper out of plastic feet for an orthotics company (think heavy machinery and thumbs without feeling for many months).
  2. Database manager/info systems manager for a social services agency
  3. Public speaker for The United Way
  4. Produce prepper at health food store
  5. Tutor for Upward Bound

Five Things About Me
  1. Orangatuan-armed
  2. Anchovy-loving
  3. Herringbone-braiding
  4. Pile-making
  5. Single eyebrow raiser
I'm going to pass the baton to Mommies Think Too, our partner blog for the Little People Care Package Swap. We are so excited to mail our package and get yours, too!



P.S. My belly? In my dreams. Photo courtesy of Imaspy at SXC.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, I enjoyed meeting you Friday night but wish we'd gotten to talk more!

Fun meme!

Anonymous said...

Great meme....hey, I did wonder about the tummy...glad you cleared that up! :)

katydidnot said...

isn't regular play-doh edible? my kindergartener thinks it is.

that is one long to do list. you go.

Sarita said...

Yeah I agree with Katy - your to-do list is out of control. Looks similar to the to-do lists that pass through my brain but don't actually get written down!

This was a fun little peek into your life :)

Kristin said...

Great to meet you on Friday (from the non-blogger of the group)! I totally would have thought that was your tummy if you didn't tell the Internets it wasn't.

JessTrev said...

ToddlerPlanet - likewise, loved talking to you about the evil Disney empire and hope to get to hang out more with you soon

Lynn - full disclosure ;)

Katydidnot - my toddler thinks all art supplies are edible.

Sarita/KDN - see also the guesstimating bad habit, you will note that my to do list for today will take several weeks if not a month to accomplish!

Kristin - so good to meet you Friday night! do tell when your book gets published...

ExpatChef said...

Loved your answers. You can say so much with so few words! Glad you stumbled into my kitchen! The cottage sounds amazing, I love dim sum. These memes are great, but it makes me wish you were close enough to go have coffee/wine now.

Spokane Southie said...

Hey, cool meme. I think I will post my answers tomorrow or does it have to be done on a monday? I can relate to what you said about living in your head--I do that a lot. It is part of why I started blogging so I could get some of my thoughts out. I also like what you would do with a billion dollars. I have looked for part-time, fulfilling work that I could do while still mainly focusing on my kids and it is nearly impossible!