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As any of you who have tagged me know, I am the worst—THE WORST!—about doing memes. Nothing personal to any of you who have tagged me. I'm just lazy and forgetful, and unless I do the meme as soon as I know I've been tagged, it never happens. I also feel a lot of pressure to come up with witty answers, and then, when I fail to be witty, I also fail to complete the meme. 

Alas, today I shall turn over a new leaf in meme-dom. I have been tagged by BrooklynGirl! And I shall respond right now, having read her post in which I was tagged a mere ten minutes ago. Please excuse any less-than-witty responses. I'm working on that whole "perfectionism" thing.

Four Jobs I Have Held

1. Peace Corps Volunteer (English teacher)

2. Translation Project Manager

3. Editor

4. French>English Translator, Media Centre, FIFA World Cup 1998

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over

1. Lost in Translation

2. Sideways

3. March of the Penguins

4. Babe

Four Places I Have Lived

1. Portland, Oregon

2. Makokou, Gabon, Central Africa

3. Strasbourg, France

4. London, England

Four TV Shows I Like

1. American Idol

2. Grey's Anatomy

3. House, MD

4. 24

Four Favorite Foods

1. Ice cream

2. Coffee (Does that count as a food?)

3. Sushi

4. My mom's potato salad

Four Places I Would Rather Be

1. On a cruise

2. Visiting my family in Oregon

3. At the sprinkler park with Maddie and Riley

4. On one of those ridiculous, luxurious out-of-touch-with-reality safaris in Kenya or Tanzania

Four People I'm Tagging

1. You

2. You

3. You

4. You

This one has been floating around for a while, so if you have not done it and you're so inclined, go for it. Give my track record, I'm the last person to put pressure on people to do memes.

MeMe Meme

Angla at Toronto Gyopo (who, I'm happy to report, is back to the blog after taking a summer vacation) has tagged me to share eight random things about myself with you all.

Meme Rules: Once tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list 8 random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to 8 other people, visit their sites, and leave a comment letting them know they've been tagged.

1. I wear flip-flops when I shower, even at home. It's a holdover frommy Peace Corps days, when all showers were scary places when barefoot. It felt so odd not to wear them after three years of flip-flops in the shower that I just never went back to going without.

2. One year in college, I made a New Year's resolution to floss every night. I think I've missed fewer than ten nights in the 15 years since then.

3. On a related note, when I was in college, I was told by my dentist to stop brushing my teeth so much. I was wearing away my enamel. I brushed an average of five times a day back then.

4. I am a seriously not picky eater, but two things I really, really can't stand are banana chips and alfalfa sprouts. If there is one sprout in my salad or on my sandwich, the whole thing tastes like dirt to me.

5. No matter how tired I am, I have to read for a few minutes before I go to sleep or I won't sleep well. Sometimes, I'll be exhausted an skip this step, and it never works out for me.

6. I don't intend to have any more children. But I would really love to be pregnant again. I adored being pregnant. I even jokingly told my RE that I'd consider being a surrogate. He looked me right in the eye and said, "Do not joke about that because I will call you." I think I'm too old, though, and I know there's no guarantee that I'd have an easy pregnancy again. I guess the real point of this drivel is that I'd love to be pregnant again, but for a number of reasons, I just don't see that happening.

7. I love my life and my friends in Boston, but only two places in the world have ever felt like home to me: Portland, OR (where I grew up) , and Monterey, CA (where I went to grad school).

8. In the week or so after my wedding, when John and I were home, but he still didn't have his diagnosis, I clearly remember thinking, "What's going to happen? This kind of happiness is not sustainable." And I guess it wasn't. I just didn't expect to find out so soon.

I feel like I'm a little late to the party on this meme, so I'm not going to tag anyone. But if you want to do it, step right up.

Rockin'?

Many moons ago, Halfmama dubbed me a Rockin' Blogger. (Someone else gave me the nod, too, and I can't remember who it was because as my last post indicated, I'm crazy like a fox. Remind me who you were and I will link to you here!) That Halfmama is very, very kind to me. I don't feel so rockin' these days. Well, actually, I do feel pretty rockin' on many days, but I feel that way just for getting through the day. Seems like I should do more than that to be truly rockin', but why don't I just shut up now and say, "Thank you, Halfmama! You make a girl feel gooooood!"

As a token of my rockin'-ness, I am to offer up five random thoughts on feminism. Here goes nothin':

1. I get sick of people saying to me, "Oh, you have boy/girl twins, it's a perfect way to study nature/nurture and gender differences since you are raising them in exactly the same way!" OK, maybe, yeah. But I don't think it's an excuse to label the differences between Maddie and Riley as gender-based. Two is a really small sample, people! Just because Maddie happens to be more verbal does not mean that girls are more verbal as a whole! Just because Maddie likes to give Elmo a bottle and Riley likes to throw Elmo on the ground and stomp on him does not mean that girls like to be little mommies and boys don't know how to show the love. (So that's not really about feminism, but it's about gender equality/inequality, and that will have to do.)

2. I think my husband was more of a feminist than me. As he always said, "I'm a counselor. I'm practically a chick!" He was very sensitive to gender issues. I hope I can pass the same awareness on to my kids.

3. When I lived in Africa, I worked on a project that involved getting some books printed in Gabon's capital city, Libreville. I had to find a printer that was willing to print the books at a reduced cost. How did I accomplish this? I left my (male) Gabonese counterpart at the office, got very dressed up, wore a low-cut shirt, and used my feminine wiles. No, no, no, I didn't sleep my way into a deal or anything, but I did charm my way into a deal on the printing costs with a bunch of sleazy men. Shameful? Maybe. But I can tell you right now that my colleague would not have gotten such a good deal, and I would never have gotten the deal I got by playing hardball. Not sure what all that means, but it was an interesting exercise.

4. I wish I was comfortable enough as a woman and as myself to not shave my legs. But man, I am a hairy girl and in the summer when I wear skirts I just can't stand how it looks not to shave.

5. Ultimately, I don't put much stock in gender differences. They should just not be a factor in things like career choices and how people are treated in the workplace. Of course, they are, but they shouldn't be. It just shouldn't be so hard. Why can't we all just get along?! Heh.

BONUS SIXTH ITEM!

6. It bugs the crap out of me that professional orchestras are still very male-dominated even though my own involvement in youth music programs leads me to believe that women are equally if not predominately represented at the amateur level. There are lots of professional flute players who are male, but not so many guys who play flute in high-school band or orchestra. What's going on? Is it the competitive nature of professional music that for some reason weeds out women? I find it curious, and troubling. How many female conductors do you see? Not many. And female composers? They are out there, but they are not getting the commissions that men are. I fail to think this is because their music sucks.

I will pass the Rockin' Blogger badge on to the following: Rachel at Kitchen Fire, OTRgirl at Sojournering, Emmie at Better Make It a Double, Lisa at A Letter to My Children, and Buddha Girl at Buddha Girl's World. If you have the time and inclination, share your thoughts. No matter what you say, you ROCK.

Books, Books, Books

Angela tagged me for this meme over a week ago. Evidently these are the top 100 books as voted by the public. I'm all about wasting time at work today, so here goes. Books I've read are in bold. Books I've never heard of are in itals. My comments in brackets.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) [It's really embarrassing that I haven't read this.]
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) [I was a huge Anne fan in late grade school. I've always wanted to visit PEI because of these books.]
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) [My favorite of Irving's books. I read a lot of Irving in Peace Corps and while I enjoy his writing, I found that he wrote the same story with the same characters every time. Owen Meany was a bit different.]
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible [It's true, I have never read the Bible. Shameful.]
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She's Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver) [I loved this book. Kingsolver nailed the Africa experience.]
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolsoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davies)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones' Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. Tigana (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard's First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje) [Although I have heard of the author.]
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum) [I tried to read this. I failed. Love the movie, though. Or is it just that I love Matt Damon?]
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield) [Well, I started it. Never finished.]
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Not bad, if I do say so myself. What should I read next?

If you're feeling like a meme, consider yourself tagged.

Meme: The Year in Review

I've seen this meme at a few other sites and have found the results so interesting that I thought I'd tag myself. Here is the year in review using the first line of the first post of each month:

January
Resolutions 2006: #1. KILL CANCER

February
Went to visit friends with boy/girl twins over the weekend.

March
About three weeks ago, GH and I were laying in bed, talking about cancer and how much we hate it, and our conversation took this turn:
ME: I'm so tired of waking up in the middle of the night to cry.
GH: You do that too? I thought I was the only one who did that.

April
The in-laws have been taken to the airport.

May
Saw the twins yesterday.

June
The twins are scheduled to arrive on 22 June, the first day of the astrological sign of (drumroll please . . . ) CANCER.

July
Life with newborns is all about firsts

August
We've got the documentation we need for Canada, so we're out the door this morning.

September
I'm here! I'm alive! We survived Florida!

October
My mom came to visit for a week.

November
I'm a day late (and thus, I suppose, a dollar short) to officially register for NaBloPoMo, but I've made a personal commitment to posting every day for the month of November.

December
Hello, Monday that fits all Monday-related stereotypes.

Pretty accurate reflection of my year. Cancer, twins, travel, and visitors! That about sums it up.

Giving Thanks

Before I get to my real post, a quick Happy Birthday to Maddie and Riley who turn five months old today. Hooray, little ones!

I was tagged by Rachel over at Kitchen Fire with a Thanksgiving-appropriate meme.

It was fun to think both of these lists through. I could have added more things to both lists, but here's what came out first:

10 Shallow Things I'm Grateful For
1. Getting out of work early today so that I can rendez-vous with GH and go to the movies before we have to pick the twins up from day care
2. Trader Joe's Candy Cane Joe Joe cookies
3. The phone in the supply closet where I pump three times a day
4. Fleece pants, fleece tops, fleece blankets, fleece in general
5. The heated seats in my Forester
6. Decaf coffee
7. Blockbuster.com--I love renting TV shows on DVD
8. Football and baseball seasons (Go Blue! Go Pats! Go Colts! [I love Peyton Manning] Go Sox!)
9. Being able to eat whatever I want and not gain weight while I'm breastfeeding the twins
10. Dim sum at China Pearl on Sunday mornings

10 Things I'm Genuinely Grateful For
1. Every day my husband is alive
2. My marriage--I never expected that being married would be so amazing
3. My children
4. The good relationship I have with my parents and extended family and the love and respect we show each other even during very trying times
5. My health
6. The amazing health insurance that GH, the twins, and I have
7. Having enough money to pay our bills every month without stressing out about it
8. The connections I've made through blogging
9. The love and support I give to and receive from my friends
10. All of the incredible things I've been able to do with my life up until now--go to college, live overseas, join the Peace Corps, go to graduate school, live all over the US, get married, buy a house, have children. Many people never get to do one of those things, let alone all of them. And who knows what the future will bring?

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Wishing you peace and love.