I'VE BEEN TAGGED!!!!

My friend Denise (http://theresalwaysroomforonemore.blogspot.com/) thought it would be funny to TAG me, so now it is my duty to pass on the homework to seven other people -- I appologize in advance if you have been tagged already! Eventually I think we'll all have been tagged, since the blogging world is not that big.
:-)

Here are the rules:

1. I am in love with a dog. And it's not one of ours. Don't get me wrong, I love our dogs, despite the mud and them knocking me around once in a while, but there is a dog named Eragon and he is the most beautiful dog in the world. My friend Janie is his human mama and she is the cruel one who is not breeding this perfect specimen of canine... the beautiful Eragon....

He is a prince!! Is he NOT a prince????

He is a golden retriever, even though I met his mama on my Labrador list. Eragon is one of our honorary Labradors!


:-)



2. I want to be Angelina Jolie. No, not because she is drop-dead gorgeous or has a million beautiful children compared to my mere half-million. It's because she is loaded with money and does not have to do dishes. I hate doing dishes. I used to not mind so much, but now I seriously hate it. I feel like I am married to the kitchen. I am pretty darn sure Angelina doesn't spend hours a day, every day of her *freakin* life shoving food and dishes around, pots and pans, dirty dishes, dirty table, a million water cups, pulling paper towels out of the dogs' mouths.... It makes me crazy. The only thing that is saving me right now is that our new kitchen is huge and has a lot of counter space, and I really *really* like how it looks when it is clean, so I keep cleaning until it looks like this:




3. I guess I have to go for "random" things, since I don't know what would be considered weird... but I spent a year in the Philippines as an exchange student when I was 16. When I was there, it was all sort of a strange dream, when I got back, Illinois then seemed like the strange dream... I was really irked because Southern Illinois had no easy public transportation (jeepneys ROCK!) to get around in and because once again I had to care about what I was wearing and put make-up on before leaving the house.

In The Philippines, you can't wear make-up because it's so *freakin* hot, it all slides off of your face. And as for clothes, it's a tropical island!! It's this strange combination of Hawaii and Mexico... totally laid-back, everyone spoke English, and all the girls wore "island wear" which was simple cotton skirts with any kind of pattern and a t-shirt, and flip-flops. They didn't have to match. In fact, they usually didn't match. I wore a uniform to school, and then changed into the casual island outfit after school. NICE!!! Living somewhere where I had a gardenia bush growing (AND BLOOMING!) under my window, lying in bed at night listening to the wind rustling the bamboo, and watching farmers working in their rice paddies every morning when I walked to school (on these paths one-person wide that ran through the rice paddies) are just some of my memories from there. The people were beyond wonderful. I could go on with that forever, but I think it's funny that 25 years later I still remember quite a bit of Tagalog... "guapong lalaki" is cute boy, "magandang babae" is beautiful girl, and my personal favorite -- "nakakatamad" means boring!! ha ha ha ha.... my friends (my "barkada") used that one a lot describing many of our classes.
:-)

4. My favorite cat is the tuxedo. No, it's not a breed, but a color trait found in many breeds, but has become such a popular one that now it doesn't take much for two black and white cats to produce a litter of tuxedos. My first three kitties as an adult, Moosie, Max and Madeleine, were all tuxedos... and now we have Jack. I don't know what it is about their DNA, but these are some *smart* cats. I would come home from college and Moosie would tell me all about her day. She had one meow for "more food" and another for "more water" - it was crazy.

5. I am glad that Charley and I, for whatever reason, were unable to get pregnant. Because had we done it the old-fashioned way, we would not have the children in our lives that we do now. Emily Rose would not be here. Mary Pearl would not be here. And Nathan Jade Jin Pei would not be coming home soon. We would have other kids, and while I don't know what they would have been like, I really, really like the fact that we were united with these children already in the world -- they needed parents and we were parents needing kids. People have told me they could never adopt because they want "their own" kids. It's just not like that. Trust me, just because you are related to someone by blood doesn't mean everything is perfect -- I am related by blood to my father and he left when I was 4.

6. I can whistle three different ways, roll my tongue, and I played the violin for 6 years while I was growing up.

7. I have a bachelor's degree in Conservation of Forest Resources from the University of Washington in Seattle, but I have 189 undergraduate credits -- wayyyyy more than you need for one degree. My almost-second-degree is English Literature.
I needed two more classes to get a double major... two more classes in a foreign language.

Let me repeat that -- I needed more foreign language credits in order to get my English degree.
foreign language.... to get English degree..... hmmm.......

So I took the forestry degree and ran with it, graduated, and moved to the end of the earth with Charley. Since then I have split my jobs between food service (espresso, deli) and being a reporter. (Notice how far my forestry degree went... nowhere!!! ) Now I am a mom and planning my next career once Mary Pearl is going to school full-time... Fall of 2010... not that I am counting down the years, months, days....


Okay.... now I have to tag people!!!!!
(rubbing hands together....)


I tag:

Marie -- my wonderful quilt-maker!!!!
http://mycrazyreallife.blogspot.com/

Leah!!!! http://leah-lcphotography.blogspot.com/

Angie!!! http://harwoodclan.blogspot.com/

Carla!!! http://eightisenoughfornow.blogspot.com/

Sally!!!! http://brysonmakes8.blogspot.com/

Alison!!!!! http://untilournexttriptochina.blogspot.com/

and Regina!!!! http://nogreaterjoys.blogspot.com/

Oh my gosh... and the homework isn't over. I need to go let them all know they've been tagged!

:-)
Cynthia