I got this from Roo. Make sure you read hers – they’re quite wonderful.
Seven Things to Do Before I Die
1. Travel through Iran. Well, might as throw in the other countries. Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, western China, and hell – take the Trans Siberian Express while we’re at it. But if I had to choose? Travel all through Iran.
2. Have a baby
3. Publish many books
4. STOP RENTING. START OWNING. I’d like to have a house. Just a wee house. But some kind of house.
5. Find him. Well, #5 will need to come before #2 (for me anyway) but I’m doing this meme in a stream of conscious way. Oh, and along with #5 – have my dad walk me down the aisle.
6. Have a red carpet experience. Where I’m ON the red carpet, not watching from the sidelines
7. Live in Ireland for a while. Not visit. But live. In the west.
Seven Things I Cannot Do
1. Enjoy coconut, applesauce, bananas, or cake. Don’t even try, CHiPs. (Explanation for that remark here.)
2. I cannot figure skate at an Olympic level, to my intense sadness
3. I will steal one from Roo: add up a column of numbers only once, without double and triple checking my work, saying things outloud like, “carry the one”.
4. Go back in time and change my behavior on April 30, 1994 – oh, what the hell: go back in time and take a WHOLE BUNCH OF SHIT BACK throughout my whole life. Can’t erase the past.
5. I can’t roll my “r”s convincingly. I sound like a jackass when I try to speak Spanish.
6. I can’t have the body type of Heidi Klum
7. I can’t think that communism was originally a good idea – if only it hadn’t been corrupted by autocratic tyrants. Nope. Communism was a bad idea to begin with, mkay? Don’t even try, CHiPs. I’m kind of not even interested in debating it. I know it’s obnoxious but I don’t respect the intelligence of someone who thinks differently than I do on this one particular matter.
Seven Things that Attract Me to My Mate
What a rude question. I do not have a mate. Although one of roo’s answer about her mate was so touching and sweet:
Jeff decided he really should know more about theatre, so he could discuss my work intelligently. In the next week, he read my entire collection of classical plays, which I haven’t even done, despite my advanced theatre degree (shhh!). Then he found a site where he could download the entire oeuvres of Euripides and the like, and proceeded to do so. Then I woke up one morning to discover that Jeff hadn’t come to bed– he’d stayed up all night making flash cards, to teach himself Attic Greek.
GORGEOUS! Well, I got no mate. So I will change the question to Seven Things I am Looking For In a Prospective Mate. And please – every time I post something like this where I actually (horrors) say that I have PREFERENCES – some man makes a comment about how picky I am. And it immediately, like clockwork, turns into a bitter generalization: “Women just …” blah blah blah. Please just SHADDUP. Are men attracted to EVERY FEMALE? I bet not. I feel no obligation to be agnostic in my tastes in something that is so important.
That being said: I know what works with my personality, and what I’m attracted to. And here it is:
1. Compatible senses of humor. If I have to say “that was a joke” more than 3 times then it won’t work. Shared laughter is the most important thing.
2. Unselfconsciousness in just being who he is. I hate “cool”. I hate games. I love guys who maintain that kid side. Who can just PLAY – whether it’s in conversation, or laughter, or kissing me, or playing football with his friends. I hate guys who are concerned with making an effect. Who always have that outside eye on them. Ick. I love guys who throw back their heads when they laugh.
3. Someone who finds women interesting. Lots of men don’t get women, they think we’re nuts, they think we’re crazy, but they find us INTERESTING. This is good. But there are the men who want to be with women (as in: they’re straight, they want a mate, they want to have sex) and yet they find women mildly annoying at best and NEVER interesting. Ick!! I’ve met (and dated) plenty of men who LOVE women and who have no idea what is going on in our heads half the time. But they LOVE us and find us interesting. I find men interesting, even though I don’t understand them a lot of the time. I expect the same in return. This is a thing that is innate though – either you have it or you don’t.
4. Awesome hands. Hands that make gestures, hands that TALK.
5. Preferably Irish. This coloring KILLS ME: pale skin, black hair, blue eyes. You gotta have all the rest going on (in terms of personality) to KEEP me interested – if you have no sense of humor then I could not give a shit about your damn coloring – but with all the rest? It’s a devastating combo. (See Window Boy)
6. Someone who knows how to have a conversation and who knows how to tell a great story. I’m an awesome audience. But you BEST know how to talk. Tell me stories – but not stories where you always get the better of someone, or “show someone what’s what”. You know people who always tell stories where the moral is: I am great and I am right? Ew!! Irish men (in my experience) are the best at the OPPOSITE of this. Their stories are OPERAS of self-deprecation – they LOVE it when the laugh is on them – which … charming doesn’t even begin to describe it. The art of conversation is dying, my friends. Those who still have it are worth their weight in gold.
7. Must. Like. Kids.
Seven Things I Say Most Often
1. No shit!
2. Are you kidding me?
3. I am completely insane.
4. Have you read this book??
5. Please don’t judge, but ….
6. What’s up?
Seven Books That I Love Oh man. This’ll be tough. Okay – so I am going with the word ‘love’. Which means my heart is involved, which is not always rational. These are the books that have captured my heart, for whatever reason – books that moved me, made me grow, changed me, what have you.
1. Charlotte’s Web
2. Diary of Anne Frank
3. The Shipping News
4. Moby Dick
5. Crime and Punishment
6. Harriet the Spy
7. Little Women
Seven Movies I Watch Over and Over Again
I will steal a quote from Roo: “Please note that this is not necessarily synonymous with My Seven Favorite Movies.”
Exactly. Here are the movies I can watch over and over and over and over again.
1. Bring It On (“Brrr – It’s cold in here! There must be some Toros in the atmosphere. I said Brrrr – it’s cold in here! There must be some Toros in the atmosphere.”)
2. Something’s Gotta Give (I have to have seen the damn thing 20 times already and it just came out last year or something like that)
3. Bringing Up Baby (“Peabody? WHAT Peabody?”)
4. GI Jane (I don’t care what anyone says. This is a genius movie. It works every time I see it. Viggo Mortenson is amazing.)
5. Center Stage (oh. my. God.)
6. African Queen (“By the authority vested in me by Kaiser William II, I pronounce you man and wife. Proceed with the execution.”)
7. Blue Crush (best movie. EVER. Never get tired of it. She’s such a horrible surfer – why has she EVER gotten that far?? It makes no sense. I don’t care. Love the film.)
Seven People I’m Curious About
I’m gonna go with alive AND dead people.
1. Marilyn Monroe
2. Josef Stalin
3. Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkle, and Leslie Van Houten (Linda Kasabian too – but not as much as the other three for obvious reasons)
4. Archie Leach
5. James Joyce
6. Thomas Jefferson
7. Lucy Maud Montgomery
Alex just did this “meme” (hate that word) as well!! Here it is. I think my favorite part is when she says “We can rarely surprise each other. In order for a surprise to work, one of us has to leave the country.”
Re #4 (the first one), if you ever want to go on a field trip sometime, I’ll show you were all the cool old school broadway people live up in Orange, where you can actually buy a home for less than, say, a used Lear jet.
hahahaha I will remember that when the time comes, Lion!!
Sheila — That’s it. If I’m ever in NY, we MUST do a “Center Stage” and “Bring It On” No Shame Viewing Party.
My favorite line from “Bring it On” is where Kirsten Dunst says (after the tryouts) something like:
“Missy’s the poo. Take a whiff.”
Weirdly, I say that all the time — changing the name Missy, of course, to whatever I think is the latest “poo.”
It’s sad and annoying. But I can’t help it!
Tracey – hahahaha Yes – NO SHAME with loving those movies. It is SUCH a date!!
Blue Crush is like Center Stage – only with surfer girls in Hawaii. I HIGHLY recommend it!
I love that you’re curious about Archie Leach. That shows that you’re a true genius, Sheila.
Archie Leach. Nice.
Alex – hahaha I was going to write Cary Grant but then I realized I know quite a bit about him – but Archie Leach? The kid, the young man, the 20 year old? Who the hell was he??
Wait, is Center Stage the one about the kids in the NYC ballet? Because that is the BEST movie EVER!!! A couple of years ago it was on some cable station for a two-month stretch, and I watched it, like, nine times. My husband would walk into the room, look at the tv, and just groan. I couldn’t get enough! Blue Crush completely rocks too. It was so unexpectedly an amazing movie. And the “Cruel Summer” remix on the soundtrack? Awesome.
Wow, can I come to your Center Stage/Blue Crush party? I’ll make margaritas and bring the blackout shades for the windows!
Sheila – yes!! All the ballerinas at the ballet! Your husband is a good man. I thankfully live alone so if I want to watch it 3 times in one weekend (I own it) then i am free to do so!!
It’s funny – all of these movies: Bring it on, blue crush, center stage – are all the same. It’s just the “sport” that is different. Same plot. LOVE IT.
I love that you own it. I think I need to own it. My Christmas list has just been updated. I also think I need to see Bring It On. Although that might plunge me into a cheerleading abyss from which I can never return. Yeah, on second thought, I know my limits. Ballet and surfing I can handle: I never acutally engaged in those activities; but a cheerleading movie … it could permanently change my personality and cause me to wear a tiny pleated skirt and carry pom poms everywhere.
Would that really be so weird, though?
I’m so glad you did this tag!
First off, I have to stop checking your blog before going to work, so I’ll have to keep this short:
1. When you get a house in the West of Ireland, can I come visit? (It’s so beautiful there. Plus, Irish accents make me weak in the knees.)
2. My cousins and I were all about Larry Wilcox. I actually experience a little schadenfreude seeing Erik Estrada selling time shares in Florida.
3. Did you see the Cary Grant documentary on Thirteen a few months ago? It was pretty interesting.
Now if I was just single, 20 years younger… :)
“Does he have to say ‘poopy’?”
David N – argh – what is that quote from? I’m racking my brains …
I can’t believe I didn’t instantly get the Cary Grant thing – this is SHEILA I’m reading here – but for a moment, when I read “Archie Leach” I was like “why in the WORLD is Red curious about the John Cleese character from A Fish Called Wanda?!? Funny, but fascinating? Interesting? Ummm….”
I totally forgot that that was the name of that character – I love that!! A little inside joke there.
Wait! Wait! It’s ‘Groundhog Day’!
“We are talking about a man, aren’t we?”
And I would totally marry Bill Murray (ahem, if I weren’t married already…)
I think you’re right about Groundhog Day, roo – that sounds familiar.
lol, Yes, Groundhog Day. One of my favorites. Even have the theartre bill mounted although it’s in storage somewhere in Indiana at the moment.
Thought of it when reading your list. “uh huh, uh huh… I’m so close here”
Hey Red – have you ever seen Drumline?
It also applies the exact same Sports Movie Formula to an atypical sport (actually, it’s even more specific – it follows the College Sports Movie Formula). The final drumline square-off is absolutely stunning – watching at home, I actually regretted not seeing it in the theatre.
George – no, I never saw it – sounds great!! I will put it on the list. I LOVE that formula – it really really works for me. I guess GI Jane is another version of the same story, too, if you think about it.
Funny. In those movies, romances are secondary to being EXCELLENT at whatever it is you choose to do.
Let me know when you’re hopping the Trans Siberain Rail, I’d love to tag along, if you wouldn’t mind, I could carry your bags. I’ve been fascinated with that region ever since reading your country studies (posted on your old blog) of all the Stans. Spent just a few minutes in some of them, only added fuel to my fire. Am I rambling? Sorry. Good luck with the remaining 7s.
“Siberian” even. I think I mixed this egg nog a little too strong.
Hook – hahahahaha
I LOVE it when people tell me they actually read all that old country stuff I wrote. That’s how I met CW – one of my favorite blog-buddies – it strangely means so much to me when I hear that people have read that stuff.
Let’s go to Siberia!! Oh man, I so want to do that.
Hey, they were great reads, if I failed to say it before, thanks for posting them. My bags are packed (but you’ll have to catch me before my next middle east trip ;)
Oh my god, a Bring It On/Center Stage party? Can I travel to NYC?!
I love the part where they are at the dance studio and “break it down” to that Red Hot Chili Peppers song, and the end where they twirl the main girl and pull her costume off to show one that’s a different color underneath.
*Sigh* I need to go buy that movie.
Oh and Archie Leach? I was wondering why you wanted to know more about the “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” guy. Whoops.
Jen – whoo-hoo, join the party! We might need to add Drumline to the lineup – but for now it’s Bring it on, Blue Crush, and Center Stage.
I get goose bumps every time I see that dance studio scene you mention – I’ve actually taken classes there – hahaha – it’s called Broadway Dance – and it’s JUST like that. Or it was – I believe it may have closed, sadly. Just a chaotic great place – Crazy, with amazing dancers, like a family. Very intimidating, too, because I’m not a dancer – but it doesn’t matter. You just stand in the back and do your moves, and try not to cramp anyone else’s style. I know it’s goofy but that scene just GETS me – I love the teacher! – and the joy of the whole scene!
Right … the costume and makeup design of that last big production number is so STUPID – like: when did she have to change not only her ballet shoes but also her lipstick color??
BUT IT DOESN’T MATTER! It works! I looooove it.
I love the poor anorexic girl. She’s great.
I need to see the movie NOW come to think of it.
Ooh, definitely add Drumline. I LOVED the ending. And, it has the same girl that’s in Center Stage. The smartass one- Zoe Saldana.
Red, I think you have one of the only blogs I’ve read where commenters flirt with the writer. (ahem, David N.)
I’m very impressed.
Flirt?? Me?? Never!!
What never??? No never!
What never?? Well… Hardly ever.. :)
heh heh Keep sending me books like the one you just sent me and I might flirt back! Although I’m a horrible flirt. Warning. Sagittarians are awful at flirting. We like to get right to the point.