Marmabug at My Life as “Momma” and Flea tagged me for a meme. Obviously they are very patient women since I have become very forgetful about all these obligations sitting in my drafts.

Eight Things For Which I Have A Passion For: (in no particular order)
1. Justin
2. my kids
3. my family
4. being a very useful engine…yes, I like to be busy and useful at work, makes the time go quicker
5. reading, though you’d never tell since I barely have time to read anymore
6. blogging, though maybe it should really say “commenting” because I’m much better at that
7. watching TV, sad but true
8. good wine

Eight Things I’d Like to do Before I Die:
1. go to Europe with Justin and stay in the nicest prettiest areas, drinking local wines
2. see my kids get married to wonderful people
3. rock my grandbabies to sleep
4. see my kids graduate college and get good, fulfilling jobs
5. meet Queen Elizabeth…and hopefully Prince William (joking honey!…sorta)
6. breed and raise Boston Terriers
7. learn to play cello
8. move back to either Chicago or Indy

Eight Things I Say a Lot:
1. dude! (I even say it to my baby)
2. whattup?!
3. whoa!
4. are you kidding?!?
5. No, thank-you
6. do you need to go in time-out?
7. freakin’ idiot
8. go potty, please!

Eight Books I Have Read Recently:
1. Useful Idiots by Mona Charen
2. Thunder from Jerusalem by Bodie & Brock Thoene
3. Elizabeth: A Biography of Britain’s Queen by Sarah Bradford
4. British Kings & Queens: The complete biographical encyclopedia of the kings & queens of Great Britain by Mike Ashley
5. George and Laura: Portrait of an American Marriage by Christopher Andersen
6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
7. What’s So Great About America by Dinesh D’Souza (okay, so I listened to this one…)
8. 110 People Who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken Is #37) by Bernard Goldberg

Eight Movies I Have Seen (at least) Eight Times: (I didn’t think it was fair to list kids movies…)
1. Star Wars (episode 4)
2. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
3. Oscar
4. Spaceballs
5. Goonies
6. Young Frankenstein
7. Return to Me
8. Dogma

Eight People Who Should, but are in no way obligated, Do This Meme:
1. Karen
2. Caramama
3. Madame Queen
4. Tranny Head
5. Burgh Baby’s Mom
6. AFF
7. Ummmhello
8. and uh, I’m out of ideas…

And anyone else but me think there should be eight categories?…you know, since today’s meme was brought to you by the number 8…

Since it seems I totally outdid myself on my last title, my brain is now suffering from a serious lack of catchy titles. Not that I ever suffered from an abundance of catchy titles, but, well…anyways.
I’m glad you all enjoyed my Lion Mane hair (as a friend in highschool called it…I think he was just crushin’ on me back then because I was all sorts of hotness with that hair!); I have a cousin whose hair was even BIGGER than mine, but I couldn’t find a picture of her. Next trip to Chicago may require me hunting through pics there or bribing her mom with one. Photographic evidence of her hair should be put in the Smithsonian or a time capsule. And yes, I was jealous and wanted my hair as big as hers. Don’t laugh because y’all know you wanted to have the biggest hair in your school, too. Or the best tight-rolled pants (aka peg-legged pants). Or the Z.Cavaricci pants with the most belt loops.

I did have a point…or so I thought.

Apparently my brain is suffering from a severe lack of blogging material, too.

LaskiGal tasked us with posting our prom pics.  And since I’m an over-achiever (read: goody-two-shoes) and my dance pics weren’t all that bad (since big hair had started to fall by mid-high school for me), I added a few others to showcase my daily hair in 7th-10th grades:

Top one is me and my "twin" Carin in 9th grade (we were called twins by those around us…reasons why deserve a post of their own).  Bottom one is of me and my best friend from middleschool and highschool, Heather.  We’re in 8th grade.  As you can see, I was dangerous with the hairspray.  And mousse.  And gel.  And back-combing.

Top pic is my Senior Homecoming…and I went with Freshman (commence taunts).  Bottom one is me (the short bigmouth laughing her head off in the back) with my fellow band members after our induction into NHS (commence more taunting).  And yes, that is Richie Rebel behind us because even though I was in the Chicago suburbs, I apparently went to a high school in the deep south.  We shot cannon fire after every football touchdown.  Thanks to our poor football skillz, the neighborhood surrounding the school on game night rarely got rocked by cannon fire.

This is Senior Winter dance at my boyfriend’s highschool.  They had way more money than my highschool, so they could get a decent photographer with a stool and real balloons.  Like the permed hair?  It was perpetually spiral-permed from late 6th grade until sometime in college.

My Senior Prom–can’t quite tell, but my dress and dyables were a light peachy-pink.  Same dud as last photo.  Foolishly kept him around 3 more years.  Silver lining?  If I hadn’t followed this one to Ball State, who knows if I would’ve met Justin:

Very shortly after dropping the Zero, I found my Hero!  Yep, that would be Justin in the top pic with the BLONDE hair about a month after we first met and started dating.  The bottom two are from a couple months later for his Fraternity Winter dance.  As you can see, I was very lucky to find someone as nutty as me.  Our antics in formal situations didn’t end at dances, but our wedding, too.

Now that we’re into decent roll-down-the-windows weather while driving, I’ve compiled a list, in no particular order, of songs you should NOT have playing on your stereo while driving, or you may feel your right foot getting heavier and heavier, causing you to speed and risk getting a ticket. Not that I’m speaking from experience.

Ahem.

1. All My Life by the Foo Fighters
2. 25 or 6 to 4 by Chicago
3. Like a Stone by Audioslave (when they modulate up towards the end? whoa! got chills just thinking about Chris Cornell’s voice…he makes my knees quiver!)

   

4. Play that Funky Music by Wild Cherry
5. Paralyzer by Finger Eleven
6. This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race by Fall Out Boy
7. California Love by Tupac
8. Hella Good by No Doubt
9. Canned Heat by Jamiroquai
10. Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine
11. Higher Ground by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
12. Vasoline by the Stone Temple Pilots
13. Harder to Breathe by Maroon 5 (and Adam Levine makes it harder for me to breathe…whoo!  the HOTness!  And uh, actually Justin used to look a lot like this when he was younger…that might explain the attraction)

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Maybe you noticed in the past couple weeks I’ve been a real crab. Or depending on your tolerance, a whiny bitch. Whatever. I’m comfortable with myself enough to embrace my pity-parties and recognize what a pain in the tush I can be. Besides my husband who’s legally obligated to put up with me, none of you fine folks need to. But you do. And you have been this whole time that I’ve been moaning and groaning and I appreciate that a whole heckuva lot. I try not to air all my dirty laundry because my parents read this, possibly a few of my co-workers (because I’m stupid bold enough to have vanity plates), and some other friends (um, would it kill any of you to leave a comment once in a while? dang lurkers…don’t make me chase down your IPs now!). Not that I’m saying anything bad about any of them, but there are some things in your life, in your head, in your heart, that you generally need to keep to yourself. Unless you know that no one who sees you on a constant basis is going to read these deepest darkest thoughts and feelings…ah, the anonymity of the Interwebs….

Well, to make a long story short (“too late!”), while you have seen some whiny crap pouring forth, that’s actually just the more superficial stuff bugging me. But all the support, love, humor, and responses back to me (comments/emails) has really meant a LOT to me because it’s helped me deal with the stuff on the surface so that I have more strength to deal with the other deeper things. I don’t feel so spread-out, so overwhelmed, or so helpless. I truly appreciate all of you and your words of encouragement. I don’t know that I could ever put into words what it really means to me…so I’ll stick with the words I know: Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.

Speaking of bottoms:

Who’da thunk my baby could have a bigger butt and thighs than my nearly four-year old???

(photo courtesy of Justin)