Thursday, June 11, 2009

A meme in two parts, Part 1

So. Yeah. It seems I've got nothing. Those who can, do. Those who can't, steal. Actually, lifting a meme from Monkey is hardly stealing. The point of a meme is to repeat it. (Seriously, it is pretty much the definition.) But calling it stealing makes me feel much edgier than I actually am, and considering the riskiest thing I have done this week was to eat salad dressing that expired 16 months ago, I have to take my rebel victories where I can.

So then. A meme. Here we go.

What is your current obsession?
The not-very-interesting and yet oft-talked-about Big Dig in my front yard. Actually, that is a lie. If I were truly obsessed with that landscaping project, I would be taking the initiative to research plants and plans myself, rather than simply slogging through the manual labor and relying on my pal Angela to do the design work and idea-ing. So I guess that leaves me with Facebook? I would hardly call that an obsession, however, as such a treasure trove of absurdity fully warrants frequent mention! Consider the most recent evidence...

OK, here is where I was going to tell you three brief Facebook stories. True to my usual form, however, these brief stories ballooned into a post in and of themself, so I shall table those for another day. Or possibly not post them at all. Perhaps my current obsession is simply blogging about Facebook, as it seems to come up in far more posts than I intend or would like. Maybe my current obsession is worrying about which things I've blogged about too often, as recently I scanned some recent entries and realized I had mentioned the same friend in somewhere around five out of seven consecutive posts, and I worried that either A) the Internet would think I have only one friend, or B) all of the other friends who I DO HAVE (really!) would grow jealous that they are not mentioned as often. Does generally absurdity and overanalysis count as an obsession? Maybe I should just move on to the next question...

What is your weirdest obsession?
I played a card game with my friends' daughter on that recent camping trip, and it reminded me that I'm a little bit obsessive about a neat and tidy discard pile. I can't be the only one who compulsively straightens the cards every time someone carelessly tosses a card haphazardly askew atop the deck, though, right? And besides that, I rarely play cards, so if that is a bizarre obsession, it's not one that comes up too often. So instead, I guess I'll go with my need to look under my bed every night before I can climb into it.

I don't even know what I'm looking for; if someone were hiding under my bed, the half-credit self defense class I took in college surely didn't equip me physically or emotionally to deal with it. Besides that, there are plenty of other nooks and crannies in my house where a potential intruder might hide until I'm asleep, and I don't check all of those... I'll admit that I used to, in my old apartment, however. It was like a checklist I had to complete each night when I got home. When I moved into this house, I quickly decided it was simply too time-consuming to search my entire home for imaginary burglars and rapists every single day. I must have kept the under-bed check as some sort of strange compromise. As a sidenote, if any of you ever do decide to break and enter at my place, I guess I've just told you where is and is not a good place to hide.

What are you wearing today?
What am I wearing, or what was I wearing? To work, I wore a navy blue, ruffle-sleeved t-shirt, one of my four pairs of identical Mossimo jeans, and the red Madden Girl platform wedges that continually infuriate me with their simultaneous shoddy workmanship and impossible cuteness. Damn you, Steve Madden; there is no reconciling the two!

That was several hours ago, however. By now, I have switched to a pair of striped pajama pants (source: Target, obviously) and the t-shirt that I proudly earned after downing ten* murky blue-green Delusions at The Grand Illusion in Eau Claire, a bar of which I have many fond memories but which according to my friend Google, still has no web page of its own. (What the heck, GI? Were you not informed that it is currently 2009, and the Internet, as it turns out, is NOT just a fad?)

---------------------------------------------
* NOT all in the same night. They implemented a handy coupon/ticket system wherein you collected a card each time you purchased said drink and finally, one happy day, you could walk in with your stack of ten turquoise cards and walk out with a t-shirt featuring a sunglass-wearing Uncle Sam and the tagline "We want YOU to be Deluded!" (Message on the back: "The few, the proud, the deluded.") Ah, college.
---------------------------------------------

What's for dinner?
I had myself a lovely salad of butter lettuce with chicken, raspberries, pecans, blue cheese, and the aforementioned 16-months-expired dressing. It was a raspberry Cabernet vinaigrette. I'm still alive. So far. If you don't hear from me again, kindly direct the emergency personnel to the condiment shelf in my fridge for the possible source of my demise.

What would you eat for your last meal?
I just misread this as "What DID you eat for your last meal" and I was all set to direct you right back to the lovely salad I just described (which might actually BE my last meal, if 16-months-expired dressing turns out to be something worth worrying about). Since that was NOT, in fact, what the question was asking, however, I will go with a fantastically carb-heavy, nutrient-light combination of mac & cheese, pizza, and mashed potatoes, followed by a brownie and a slice of chocolate chip cheesecake for dessert. And red wine, of course. Obviously red wine.

What's the last thing you bought?
The makings for the aforementioned raspberry and blue cheese salad, along with various other grocery items. Obviously I did not buy dressing, however. Also, I promise the expired dressing will not make an appearance in every remaining question in this post.

What are you listening to right now?
I was listening to The Current, but then they played a Laurie Anderson song that was far too distractingly annoying to peacefully serve as background music, and I had to complain loudly to my radio and then shut it off. Now I am listening to nothing but the taps on my keyboard and the clicking of the unusually noisy lamp timer that I rarely use and should really just unplug by now.

What do you think of the person who tagged you?
Well, she didn't actually tag me, but I think Monkey is smart and witty and delightful, and I long for the day that I manage to escape my family over a holiday weekend and enjoy a drink or three with the Rural Zorro instead. By my estimates based on her vague hints as to her whereabouts, the Monkey homestead is approximately an hour away from my parents' house, and given that there seems to be a blizzard or an ice storm every time I go home, this could be tricky to arrange. Is Christmas or Thanksgiving ever scheduled in August? No? Well, I guess we can always rely on global warming to facilitate this plan. (A bonus to catastrophic climate change! Drinks with Monkey! Hurrah!)


Oh MY but this is a long meme. Is anybody going to keep reading if I keep typing here? Besides that, wasn't I supposed to be in bed two hours ago already, after being out entirely too late for a Wednesday at the Bob Schneider show last night? The answers to those questions are "likely no" and "oof; YES," respectively. How about I split this here and give myself blog material on TWO days instead of just one? Sounds like a plan to me. To be continued, then...

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Well I did read to the bottom, although I got distracted mid-way checking to see who was on facebook chat (my current obsession?). Oh and I took a break at the beginning to look up the definition of "meme".
What did we do before Wikipedia and we were to lazy to walk to lounge to get the dictionary???
Looking forward to part 2, if dressing wasn't fatal!

steve said...

I have so damn much stuff to post, yet seemingly no time to post it. When you're done with this meme and the Facebook posts, can I give you my stuff? You seem to be exponentially more productive with this blog thing than I am.

3carnations said...

I also read it as "what DID you eat for your last meal?" I thought "Didn't we just cover that?"

Anonymous said...

I am about an hour away from your parents- but I am of the sturdy Midwestern variety and have all-wheel drive on the Suburu, so any time your are game, I will be there!

-R- said...

Do not tease me with Facebook stories like that!

It looks to me like your current obsession is your expired salad dressing.

Jess said...

My mother always straightened the discard pile like that, and I guess I learned something from watching her because now I do it too. We are both awesome.

Alice said...

i have consumed a lot of expired food products. makes you stronger! ;-)

i am so not a neat-discard-pile-r. i like the weird satisfaction instead of taking a huge messy pile of cards and tapping all the sides in and turning the long cards sideways over and over until you HAVE a nice new neat deck.

am weird.

lizgwiz said...

I wouldn't worry about an expired vinaigrette. I mean...it's vinegar. What's it going to do...turn into wine? ;)

Courtney said...

Whew. When you started talking about Facebook stories, I thought you were going to brag to the world about how you demolished me at Scrabble.

Now I just did it for you. Crap.

flurrious said...

Salad dressing is one of those items that I suspect no one ever finishes. Most people seem to have at least one half-used bottle moldering in the fridge. Still, sixteen months is a long time. If you didn't get sick or die from it or anything, you should check to see if you have other superpowers.

Stefanie said...

Sue--Facebook chat is one part of Facebook I am NOT obsessed with. Well, that and Mafia Wars, which everyone else seems to be terribly into.

Steve--I love how you think one to two posts a week qualifies as "exponentially more productive."

3Cs--I know, right??

Monkey--I am a sturdy Midwesterner, but I lack the all-wheel drive Suburu. Still, we will have to make this happen sometime when I'm on that side of the state!

R--Good point.

Jess--And I am awesome too? Yay. :-)

Alice--I don't know that the expired dressing made me stronger, but it didn't kill me. So... hurrah.

Liz--You know, when I smelled it trying to decide if I could still use it, I thought it smelled a little like wine... And then I remembered it's a CABERNET vinaigrette. Dur.

Courtney--Eh. You win some, you lose some. My advice? Don't ever play with Lara. She is a formidable competitor.

Flurrious--Well, I *have* noticed I can see through walls now. Maybe if I finish the bottle, I'll be able to fly as well.

NGS said...

The Current. It hurts my ears.

That is all.

Stefanie said...

NGS--What? ALL the time? I don't follow.

Poppy said...

It makes me laugh that you answer meme questions as if they were essay questions on an exam. :)

Lara said...

Oh, Stefanie, I love you.

Also, I am weirdly compulsive about the discard pile, too. And your salad sounds delicious, but your last meal sounds even more delicious (except I would sub out the chocolate chip cheesecake in favor of ice cream).