Sunday, December 16, 2007

Seven

About a hundred years ago (or maybe only a month ago), 3Carnations tagged me for that "seven things" meme. I was caught up in NaBloPoMo at the time, but in the spirit of "better late than never," let's take care of that now, shall we?

Seven random/weird/miscellaneous facts about Stefanie (you know, in addition to the 327 already buried somewhere in my archives):

  1. I have never been anywhere close to fluent in Spanish, and yet, certain Spanish phrases regularly pop into my head in response to various things. "Que ganga," I'll think, when something is particularly a bargain. "Listos?" I'll ask instead of just saying, "We ready?" Possibly the strangest, though, is how often I start an inner dialog with "El eso es..." I'm not examining the rest of my thoughts in Spanish, so I have no idea why my brain begins with, "The thing is..." in Spanish, and yet, for some reason, it often does.

  2. A few weeks ago, in my Stations of the Cross post, I mentioned playing the flute in grade school, and the woman I know as "Vermont Stefanie" left what was one of my favorite comments ever in reply. "I'd have pegged you more as an oboist, or maybe a cellist. Something more mysterious and complicated," she said. Mysterious and complicated. I love it. Again, if I were a tag line sort of girl, "I'm mysterious and complicated" would be another fine tag line for my blog. Anyway, in response to that comment, I thought I should explain exactly why I picked the flute, way back when fifth-grade me signed up for band. I had actually been leaning towards the saxophone, but since several of my friends were taking flute, that seemed like a good choice, too. So how did I pick? Well, I rode the bus to and from school every day, and I thought about carrying a saxophone case on the bus several times a week, and then thought about carrying a much smaller and less cumbersome flute case instead, and flute seemed like the obvious choice. You know, it's memories like those that make me realize I have always been the practical-to-a-fault over-thinker I am today. I didn't grow into this as an adult; even as a kid I was too sensible for my own good.

  3. Somewhere buried in the "100 Things" list I wrote ages ago is a line that says "You will never, ever hear me say 'Let's go dancing!'" This is true. I hate to dance in public. I will attempt to play along and be a good sport on occasion, particularly at weddings or when sufficient alcohol is involved, but I never feel comfortable or confident about it. At home, though? At home, when the right song comes on the radio, I love to dance. Unfortunately, the dancing I do is in no way suitable for public viewing. There is kicking and jumping and side-to-side bopping. There are many wild arm gestures. As far as I'm concerned, this is the only way dancing is fun, but I will not let anyone (except possibly--inadvertently--my across-the-street neighbors) see me do it.

  4. Much as I complain about shoveling when it snows, I actually sort of like shoveling at night. It's so dark and peaceful--the only light is from the streetlights and the only noise is the sound of my shovel scraping against the sidewalk and the similar scrapes from neighbors' shovels down the block. It's almost meditative, and though I have no interest in making time for shoveling every night (You hear that, snow? Don't go getting any ideas, OK??), as a once-in-a-while thing, it's actually sort of calming and nice.

  5. Jingle Bell Rock has long been one of my very least favorite Christmas songs, but at some point in my childhood, I must have actually liked it, because I chose it to play for the Christmas piano recital one year. Our teacher believed in the Suzuki "learn by ear" method, and she instructed us all to pick a Christmas song and learn to play it without any sheet music. Our parents and other guests at the recital were to guess what each song was. My sister won some sort of prize for stumping the audience... not because she wrote her song so poorly it was unrecognizable but because she picked a relatively obscure one--the song the Whos of Whoville sang in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

  6. As a kid I was irrationally afraid of flies. Not even the giant biting kind, but just regular tiny houseflies. My mom still enjoys telling people about the day she came running outside to my blood-curdling scream expecting to see me missing a limb or something, only to find that I was wailing only because a fly had landed on my arm. I cannot explain this; all I can say is thankfully I'm over it by now.

  7. Whenever I'm on an airplane, I order orange juice or ginger ale. Planes are typically the only place I drink either of those.

The follow-up to this meme is that I'm to tag five other people to participate, but I think most of you have probably already done this one by now. If you haven't (or if you have but want to do it again), feel free to consider yourself tagged. Leave me a note in the comments if you do it and I'll be sure to stop by to see your list!

17 comments:

Poppy said...

1. Same. Mine is, "eso si que es" (s-o-c-k-s).

2. Whenever you talk about her I think you mean me and then I realize you don't. Always confuses me. :)

3. Stef, when/if I ever visit, we'll go out to a dancing place and stand around NOT dancing.

4. I went out at about 8:30pm tonight to wipe the 10" of snow off my car and it was very... cathartic. I understand.

5. Ughhhh, almost had to sing that song ON THE RADIO in 6th grade. Luckily I moved the day before the concert. Heeeeeee.

6. My brother and I were irrationally fearful of those tiny cluster flies. We would run away batting the air. No idea why. Now I just sorta... stare at them and walk around.

7. Is it perhaps that those two drinks sit well in your stomach even when there's turbulence? I always order Coke. Always. Or nothing. But that's not out of the norm for me to do.

Sai Hijara - Ferraris said...

I love orange juice and in one oy memes, I think I mentioned about having orange juice every morning...or I get cranky...lol

steve said...

I'm right there with you on perhaps too many of these:
1 - "que bueno" is one of my favorite expressions
3 - no public dancing without a LOT of alcohol
4 - I enjoy shoveling pretty much any time of day
5 - I wrote a haiku about my JBR hatred just yesterday
7 - I only drink apple juice on airplanes

Anonymous said...

I love that you were afraid of flies. So awesome.

Jess said...

I always used to be the same way on planes with the ginger ale. I always and only drank it on planes. Now I drink Diet Coke on planes just like I do everywhere else. I don't remember why I had the ginger ale quirk.

Anonymous said...

I love your reason for picking the flute, that was my exact reason also.

robbin

Anonymous said...

I don't think there is anything wrong with being practical! My sister wanted to play the bass, but my mom did not want to haul that around. They compromised, and my sister got a cello.

lizgwiz said...

I always knew I would play the flute, because my mother played bass clarinet and hated lugging it around. She wanted me to be one of the flute players she was jealous of. I ruined it later, though, by also taking up the bassoon. (Big-ass heavy thing!)

I always order tomato juice on planes.

Anonymous said...

Like Poppy, I know the S-O-C-K-S trick from the tapes they used to advertise on the radio. Also, your plane thing reminds me of my dad, who always drinks tomato juice on flights (and only on flights) because he was convinced long ago that it's the only beverage they give you in a large sized can.

VermontRockies said...

1. My entire Spanish vocabulary came from watching Sesame Street. I now find myself needing to learn considerably more than Grover ever taught me. (See #2.)

2. VermontStefanie is now NewMexicoStefanie! We move two humans, three cats, two dogs, five horses and everything we own across country in the midst of all those snowstorms a couple weeks ago. Because we're fun that way, you know. And yeah, I need to learn some serious Spanish. Have any suggestions for good language books or tapes?

Also, your grade school self was a LOT smarter than mine. Mine said, "Hmmmm...French horn? What the hell is a French horn? It sounds foreign and exotic, and if I have never heard of it my friends will CERTAINLY never have heard of it, and they will all think I am clever and exotic." And then I spent six years carting a French horn 1.85 miles to school and back several times a week, because you had to live TWO miles from school to get a bus pass, and I did not qualify. Yup. January in Duluth, Minnesota, I'm hauling my French horn to school at 6:45AM in a little red wagon I modified with snow tired and a seat belt for the instrument and my bookbag. I was cool.

3. I'm with y'all in this closet dancing club. Dancing is do be done behind closed curtains and with no witnesses, and even then it preferably involves copious amounts of liquor. Is there any other way?

4. Yup. Hand washing the dishes or folding (or even ironing!) laundry is also a zen kind of experience for me.

5. Your sister rocks. She sounds like someone who would play the French horn simply because it was obscure! :) And JBR makes my ears bleed. The only holiday song possibly worse than JBR is "Suzy Snowflake", and thankfully that one doesn't get much airplay.

6. Ummm...I got nothin'. I did go through a phase where I refused to eat any food that wasn't white (or perhaps beige) for an entire year, but I think fear of houseflies trumps dining bigotry.

7. I do the same thing on planes, but with a different drink - club soda. I don't think I've EVER had a straight club soda on terra firma.

L Sass said...

I played the trumpet in school and I so wish I'd had the foresight to realize it would be a big pain to carry to and fro!

Also, I had no idea "airplane only" drinks were so common! Mine is tomato juice!

Kim said...

I used to play cello. Surprised? It's probably because I'm neither mysterious or complicated. I was always jealous of flautists, mostly because I wanted to be called a flautist.

Stefanie said...

Poppy--
1. Mi Espanol es muy mal. "That if that is"?? I don't get it.
2. I know! But apparently she moved now, so you can be the only Vermont Stefanie, OK? :-)

Mariposa--So clearly it's not just a plane drink for you, then, huh? :-)

Steve--You enjoy shoveling, and yet you don't miss anything about Minnesota. Give it time; you'll miss the seasons eventually.

NPW--Just imagine if I'd realized how scary BIRDS could be back then!

Jess--I don't know how I started on ginger ale on planes either. Maybe because I wasn't sure if I liked it and trying it on a plane seemed safer than buying a whole case that I wasn't going to drink? Who knows.

Robbin--Really? Good thing not everyone had that logic. An all-flute band would be pretty boring.

R--(Can I still comment back to you as R?) So a bass was too big, but a cello was OK? Do they make miniature cellos that I don't know about??

Liz--I order tomato juice only with vodka and bloody mary seasonings. :-)

Noelle--I have never heard this S-O-C-K-S trick. I'm still not exactly sure what it translates to.

NewMexicoStefanie--You moved?? Hope you're happy in your new place. I agree hand-washing dishes has sort of the same calming effect. It's probably because you can't really do anything else while you're doing it, so you're forced to just stand there quietly with your thoughts. We should all do that for at least a few minutes a day, right? (But I'm still not giving up my dishwasher!)

L Sass--Another airplane tomato juice drinker?? Weird!

Kim--I don't think anyone ever called me a flautist. I think they save the grown-up, impressive-sounding descriptors for flute players who are older than 13.

Anonymous said...

I totally get the fly thing. I am still upset if flies are around. Their filthiness, their ugly eyes- whatever they do with their front legs. I abhor them!

Aaron said...

I feel exactly the same way about dancing (again: are we related?) and I get no end of grief for this. Which, whatever; I feel like I'm doing the world a favor here.

Michelle | Bleeding Espresso said...

I'm pretty sure my flute decision had a lot to do with the carrying to and fro factor as well. And, interestingly, my friends split up equally between the trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, and flute. We almost started our own band you know.

Hey, you wanna do a virtual recital next year (after I find another flute)...obviously Jingle Bell Rock would be the featured selection :)

Stefanie said...

Monkey--I didn't even know about the stuff they did with their front legs when I was a kid, and they terrified me anyway. Yech.

Aaron--Exactly. No one wants to see me dance. That is all.

Sognatrice--I had no idea there were so many of us (overly practical ten-year-olds, that is). I don't remember a single note on the flute, but I might be able to relearn Jingle Bell Rock on the piano by next year if you'd like.