The Memeback Machine: Part I

So I was looking at the links to this blog in my dashboard today, and found that I’d been tagged by bloggy-buddies for a bunch of memes that I never got around to answering. Given that Torsten is currently asleep on Papa before his last pre-bedtime feast, I can’t go far away, so I figured I’d catch up on some of these.

This one’s a combination of one from from November of last year and one from – good Lord – July, and it only gets worse from there.

Tagged from this post on Mrs. Mustard’s blog, Cheeze Whiz and Mustard, and this post on Caley’s blog, Sublime Bedlam:

What I was doing 10 years ago: Let’s see… I was 26 (damn, I’m old), and I’d been back in the U.S. for a few months after a year au pairing in Holland. I was back in college to finish up my B.S. after totally wasting a 4-year free ride years earlier. But what specifically was I doing? Studying like mad, and discovering I actually liked math. A lot. And more to the point, my annoying teachers in school were right – I was good at it. Also, I was busy lusting after all the wrong people, a lifelong hobby of mine before I met my husband, and basically ruing the fact that I’d moved back to Milwaukee, not because I hate Milwaukee, but because my parents are there and we all know you can never go home again… I think that specifically around this time 10 years ago, I had just moved into the dorms to have affordable space of my own away from the familial units, but you can’t quote me on that… So basically, I was busy being a geek, a dork, and a very bad daughter

What I was doing 5 years ago: Oooo… well, I was at Purdue in grad school. That I can say for sure. In March 2003, I would have already moved from computer science to linguistics, having taken what my pals Tom and Ben referred to as the “Golden Ejection Seat” option in the CS program (on the way to a PhD in CS at Purdue, you generally pick up an MS, and the Golden Ejection Seat refers to “ejecting” with the masters’…) to switch fields. I’d been dating my now-husband for about a year-and-a-half and was about to move in with him in our first joint apartment, since everyone was getting kicked out of the grad dorms to make room for offices, and was spending a lot of time doing syntax homework. Then again, in linguistics, everyone spends a lot of time doing syntax homework… That’s about all I remember So… still a geek and a dork.

One year ago: I’d just decided I didn’t want or need my PhD after passing my prelims, and more importantly, after a miscarriage, I’d just gotten pregnant with the baby now called Torsten I think I was also spending a great deal of time futilely pulling mallow out of the garden, but don’t quote me on that. Ah, and I played a whole lot of Oblivion. That’s my brother’s fault. Lots and lots of Oblivion. In fact, if I didn’t know it’d keep me up all night and I’d be sorry for it, I’d go play some Oblivion right now. Yup, still a geek and a dork.

Yesterday: Um… geez. I can remember what I was doing 10 years ago, but not yesterday… Mommy brain wins again!

I think… let me see. Woke up at five to smiley Torsten. Played with Mr. T until 8, doing various sit-ups, kicking of the evil musical lion, and walking all over Mama. Also, T and I had breakfast together, whereby I mean I ate and Torsten watched intently from the high chair, giving every indication that if I wasn’t going to eat that banana, it was so his. Then he went to Papa, and Mama slept for a couple of hours. The middle of the day is a blur now, but we put his new crib together, since the co-sleeper will be too small for His Royal Hugeness in a month and his parents are here with a car to transport things. Watched Olbermann, messed with my Wordpress install, slept at some point. The days, they all run together now, but I assure you, I’m still both a geek and a dork. Fortunately, I’m also Mama, which makes me cool.

5 snacks I enjoy:

In no particular order…

1. Evil chocolate Riesen (damn you, Germans!)
2. x with guacamole, where x is any edible substance
3. string cheese (I’m part Wisconsinite, donchaknow – I can sing the Ernie von Schledorn jingle to prove it! (Whodoyaknow wants to buy a car?))
4. multi-grain Kashi crackers
5. cherry tomatoes (yum!)

5 things I would do if I had $100 Million:

1. Immediately convert it all to Euros, because I think the dollar is nowhere near done tanking
2. Stick it in savings somewhere stable
3. Live off the interest for the rest of my life in an undisclosed country
4. Never work again
5. See #4

5 Things You Would Do If You Were a Millionaire

Since this is considerably less money, I guess I can be more specific…

1. Pay off my student loans
2. Take a nice vacation with my family
3. Hire a German-speaking au pair so I didn’t have to speak German at home when I’m tired
4. Move into an energy-efficient house
5. Take my time job-hunting after Torsten’s older, if there were any money left

5 places I would run away to:

1. Amsterdam (at least until global warming gets Holland *sniff*), my favorite city anywhere
2. New Zealand
3. Melbourne, Australia (hey, it seemed a nice enough city)
4. Germany (hey, I can run away there legally as long as I’m not running from the evil husband )
5. Iceland, but only so I can say “Jeg heiti Utgarða-Loki!” (“My name is Utgarða-Loki!” – FYI, Utgarda-Loki is a giant who tricked my personal favorite god, Thor, into participating in a bunch of tests he can’t pass (like drinking an entire drinking horn which just happens to be connected to the sea)). I will say this at the airport and have people look at me like I’m on crack, and it will be good. This isn’t any different from normal – people always look at me like I’m on crack – but this time I’ll know why. Also, it’s the only way I can currently conceivably imagine using any Old Norse I recall in a present-day context.

5 TV shows I like:

I don’t watch enough TV to answer this question, to be honest, but…

1. Countdown with Keith Olbermann
2. The Daily Show
3. The Colbert Report
4. The 4400 (we’ve been watching this on DVD, only to find out it got cancelled. Boo!!!)
5. Battlestar Galactica (also watching from time-to-time on DVD – praise Netflix!)

5 things I hate doing:

1. Talking on the phone. Seriously. I hate hate hate it.
2. Doing dishes
3. Cleaning my study
4. Not cleaning my study
5. Talking politics with someone who assumes I agree with them when I don’t

5 biggest joys of the moment:

1. Torsten! Torsten, Torsten, Torsten. He could qualify for all five if it wouldn’t be cheating.
2. My wonderful evil husband, Christian, who is a fantastic partner and papa!
3. Sleep, glorious, sleep! Maybe that should be #1, but I’m not getting enough of it for it to rank higher.
4. My wonderful, wonderful friends.
5. The fantastic weather in Denver right now, which is tied for 5th place with the Peek-A-Boo Elmo playtime gym, which has the dubious distinction of allowing me to both use the bathroom in peace and finish half a cup of coffee from time to time.

5 Songs That You Know All The Lyrics To:

I could probably name dozens and dozens, so this is off the top of my head and will probably be partly related to popular songs I sing to the baby…

1. You Can Close Your Eyes – James Taylor
2. The Boxer – Simon and Garfunkel (also, the related and very naughty version my roommate and I made up in college which I will not name here for propriety’s sake)
3. Any Duran Duran song from before, say, 1986. Seriously. So sad…
4. The Remedy – Jason Mraz (chosen just to show that I’m not so old that I haven’t listened to the radio since 1990…)
5. Boogie in Your Butt – Eddie Murphy (I memorized this one in 6th grade and have never, ever forgotten it)

5 Bad Habits:

1. Constantly planning for hypothetical possibilities
2. Biting my nails – there’s nothing to see there
3. Obsessing over things I get irritated by
4. Not putting stuff away right away and then having it be piled up somewhere weeks later
5. Being a perfectionist when it’s totally unnecessary

5 Things You Like To Do:

1. Write in a coffeehouse without having to get home by a certain time
2. Play games/watch movies with good friends over a beer or three
3. Snuggle
4. Make music. Unfortunately, I haven’t seriously picked up an instrument in nearly 20 years. Must… get… back to it.
5. Travel to cool places

5 Things You Would Never Wear Again:

1. The bridesmaid’s dress I wore for my friend Julie’s wedding – she referred to me as “that blue thing” while they were taking pictures
2. Anything I wore in college. I think I really believed people couldn’t see me.
3. Cheap shoes. Blisters suck.
4. All of those clothes my mom sewed and made me wear, in spite of me telling her kids would make fun of me. They did, you know, and yes, I am an ungrateful prat.
5. A revealing swimsuit. Don’t want to blind anyone.

5 Favorite Toys:

1. I agree with Mrs. Mustard: Lego! I had the stupid discount “Loc-Blocs”, which sucked and broke
2. The wooden Fisher-Price Little People. None of this stupid plastic crap.
3. Those cool wooden trains and tracks. I never got any of that cool stuff – too expensive.
4. Hopping balls. Those freaking rocked.
5. The Sit-n-Spin. Round and round until ya puke!

Ok, so even though this is late, I’ll tag, hmmm… Karen, Aspen, Bewilde, Autographedcat, Jennifer, and Aiela!