Random

1. I have seven pairs of reading glasses. I use only five of them regularly, as two older pairs are +1.00, and I now need +1.25 to read small print clearly. I keep one pair in my car, one on my desk at work, and one pair in my purse; the others are scattered around our house, depending on where I put them down when I’m done with them. Often, several pair end up in the same place. My current favorite pair has bright blue and lime green frames.

2. I don’t have a middle name. My parents figured that my first and last names were long enough. The combination was too long for quite a few of those one-letter-in-each-box forms I had to fill out as a child. I could have acquired a middle name by taking Paul’s last name when we married, but I’d had my name for almost 38 years by then, and felt rather attached to it.

3. I love children’s books, particularly picture books. While I love a good story and evocative writing, what I’m looking for in a picture book is gorgeous illustrations. I have a small collections of picture books, several of which were presents from my mother (and not when I was a child).

4. I’ll take chamber music over a symphony (almost) any day. Sometimes a wall of sound is wonderful, but in general, I prefer performances by a few musicians, be they instrumentalists or singers, to those by large groups. I like to hear every voice or instrument individually.

5. I am a fan of adverbs. You know, those words that often end in -ly, that modify verbs. I’m saddened by the loss of adverbs in much of the English that I hear spoken. EDIT: I am a fan of the proper use of adverbs. “Slowly” is an adverb; “slow” is not. (It’s an adjective. Use it to modify a noun.) I am saddened by how often I hear adjectives used where adverbs belong: “He walked slow” rather than “He walked slowly.” Paul and I yell “-ly” at the people on TV a lot. Sadly, the TV people do not learn.

6. I love brussels sprouts. If you are fond of the sprouts, I need say no more. If you’re not, nothing I might say is likely to change your mind about them. OK, one thing. Brussels sprouts need a good shock of cold weather to become sweet and nutty. Get some fresh, local sprouts after the first cold snap, and you might find that you love them, too.

7. I do not decorate for Christmas, or play Christmas music, before December 1. I love Christmas decorations and music, but for me, the Christmas season doesn’t start until December. Some years the first Sunday in Advent falls in November; that has always seemed somehow wrong to me. Of course, the twelve days of Christmas extend the season into January by six days, but that’s the limit for decorations. That said, we are getting our tree this weekend!

Why this post? It’s a meme. Here’s the scoop:

1. Link to the person that who tagged you and post the rules on your blog. Within days of each other, two people tagged me with variants of this meme: Grace Notes and Jennifer
2. Share 7 random and/or weird things about yourself. Done.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. Too tired to do this tonight. Help yourself to some meme if you want.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. Hey, if you tag yourself and let me know, I’ll come comment on your post.