Five Things (maybe more)

So I thought I'd start out the new blogging year with what else? But a meme. And maybe a few other "lists" while I'm at it. I was tagged for the meme by my good friend Lynilu. Lyn, the rebel, changed the meme rules which were to fork out FIVE random/weird things about herself. Instead, she listed five things that she never pictured being in her future when she was 25 years old. Since my weird/random list tends to be on the longish side and include things like compulsively listing things, I thought it best to go along with her much more interesting take on the "five things" meme. So here are five things I never pictured being in my future when I was but a wee 25-year-old:

1. the mother of FOUR kids
2. DONE writing Rosetta Stones
3. STILL working for the government
4. NOT having a dog
5. And COMPLETELY churchless without apology or regret
   

You obviously don't have to do a post if you don't want to, but Boogiemum, Cubana Gringa, Aimee, Julie, Deana, Trudy... I'd love to hear your answers, even if some of you weren't 25 but a mere five years ago.

Speaking of lists. Resolutions. Resolutions. Everybody's talking about how much they hate resolutions. I like them. Actually, it goes deeper than that. I NEED them. If it weren't for the dawn of a new year, I might never emerge from this dark, dank place of complacent, apathetic, lazy, procrastinating filth. It's the only time I actually appreciate Colorado winters. You see, I NEED to breathe in the -28 degree air of 2006, 2007, 2008, whatever fresh start it happens to be, as I forgive myself for ALLLL the previous year's bad behavior -- trying to spiffy up my blog's template when I should be writing... you know, things like that. I NEED to set goals and then try like a failing Freshman to be better. DO better. AT LEAST make my house LOOK better. My two oldest kids came into the kitchen looking for snack food as I was composing my annual list on New Year's Day. When I told them what I was doing, I was kind of shocked when they asked if they could join in. So together, we created something to stick on the fridge, check off occasionally and, if we're diligent (at least through the spring), to hold each other accountable for.

Among Toni's goals:
-Read 40 books this year
-Earn enough money to sponsor a child in Africa

Among Jonah's goals:
-Take down Christmas decorations
-Practice saying Rs better

Among my goals:
-Tear down one wall of wallpaper a week (you have no idea how hard this is going to be.)
-Finish writing novel #2 (you have no idea how much HARDER this is going to be.)

So there they are, some of our loftier goals, splayed and shivering in all their nakedness for the Internet-savvy world to scrutinize.

Onto my last list. I have a lot to brag about in my life -- you know them by Allan, Antonia, Jonah, Emma, and Kyra. Those of you who visit here on a halfway regular basis probably know more about them than they'd care for you to know. So today I'm about to brag about something that doesn't poop in the potty or do cartwheels or run out to buy me a pumpkin pie after children are tucked in. Get this: I read 18 books in 2007! Which I probably haven't done since maybe sixth grade. So I want to list them because I absolutely LOVED the strange, colorful, idealistic, passionate, mysterious, risque books I read this year. Plus, I'm cool with boasting if it involves plugging great authors. And so what if one's been dead for, like, 230 years.

In order as they were read:

The Haunted Mesa, Louis L'Amour
Candide, Voltaire
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Sacred Clowns, Tony Hillerman
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd, Jim Fergus
Ahab's Wife, Sena Jeter Naslund
Cuba 15, Nancy Osa
Criss Cross, Lynne Rae Perkins
Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya
Story of O, Pauline Reage
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
The Violent Friendship of Esther Johnson, Trudy J. Morgan-Cole
Ana Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Wakefield, Andrei Codrescu
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon
Growing Great Characters from the Ground Up: A Thorough Primer for Writers of Fiction and Non-Fiction, Martha Engber

I've started others, but haven't finished them, so they'll make the 2008 list. Let's see if I can top 18. (Another lofty goal) So, yeah, 18 books. Trudy might say that boasting about reading 18 books is like boasting about brushing your teeth every third Monday. But I think about the people who never brush at all and I feel much, MUCH better inside. *grins*