I’ve been earning my doctorate in HGTV this month and it’s called VINTAGE, people.  ”Old school” makes old seem cooler and “vintage” makes old school seem chic.  My postage stamp size house built pre-”I want an open floor plan”  I just bought?  VINTAGE.  My style sense?  VINTAGE 90′s.

I was asked by Dana from Kiss My List to write all about myself in lists of five which apparently is “old school blogging.”  I am intrigued by this since I didn’t blog when making lists like this was The Thing.  I like it though.  I made a list about myself for an award I received a few months ago and Carisa Miller told me I didn’t explain enough so this time I’ll tell more about myself since I’m sure all of you are sitting at home just dying to know anything and everything about ME.

Before I start listing things about myself, I just want all of you to know that I enjoy reading Dana’s work.   Her writing is clear and focused and it has an easy style to it.  It’s just good. Please visit her blog if you haven’t met her yet and Carisa’s too since I dragged her into this.  Well, I dragged her into it and she has a gorgeous blog that you should see.

OK.

Five things I am passionate about in order of serious to frivolous:

1.  I have an endless amount of care for educating students living in poverty and other high risk situations.  I will argue someone into the ground about this topic if I hear them being racist, ignorant, or close-minded about it.  Into. The. Ground.

2.  Myself.  I’m not the sturdiest person emotionally and it only took me about 30 years to figure that one out.  Like Oprah says “Everyone needs to make sure they pluck their eyebrows and find time to read a good book every once in a while or else they’ll look and feel like the troll who lives under Dora’s bridge.”  So I’m learning to pluck the metaphorical eyebrows.  My blog is one huge way I do this.

3.  My family.   Oh, I know.  I put them third!  How dare I do that?  Calm down.

4.  Common decency and understanding

5.  I care a lot about Panera not grilling the lettuce on my sandwich.  If you like, you can read more about that here.  Oops, you can’t because I decided to transfer my blog from blogger to wordpress a month ago and I really messed it up.

Five things I would like to do before I die

1.  I don’t want to die.

2.  See my children grow up to lead happy and successful lives.  Within 20 minutes of where I live.

3.  Write well.  Like really well.  I’ve always hated it when people said “I’d be happy if I reached/changed whatever’ed ONE ____________”  because no.  When I taught, I wanted to throw chewed pencils at people who said their life would be worth it if they could make a difference in the life of ONE child.  It’s not just one.  Never make a life’s worth of effort for one whatever.  So I would like to write a whole bunch of really awesome pieces.  They don’t have to be famous, I just want them to be GOOD.

4.  Travel far and wide with my loved ones.

5.  Have enough money to go to Target and not get guilt-tripped about it.

Five things I say a lot

1.  Mmm-hmmm

2.  Like

3.  Alright

4.  Oh, snap (that’s not a joke)

5.  Girrrrllllll (also not a joke)

Five things I’ve read lately

1.  Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz.  Yes, it’s the one that was turned into a movie with Tina Fey.  I didn’t get to the movie in time so I read the book.

2.  In progress- Parenting Without Borders by Christine Gross-Loh  There is a group of writers who are discussing this book right now and their discussion convinced me to pick it up.  Click here to see the discussion.  It’s called Around the World in Six Weeks.

3.  In progress- The Engagements by J Courtney Sullivan I read a review from Great New Books and it convinced me to pick up a copy.

4.  In progress- Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris.  I’m listening to the audiobook on my long drives back and forth from where I will live very soon and where I’m at now.  His books are perfection and listening to him read his books is sublime.

5* This doesn’t count because I read it so very long ago but One Hundred Years of Solitude is my absolute favorite book ever.  EVER.  My son’s middle name came from this book.  When I was straddling twenty, I read and reread JD Salinger’s book called Nine Stories.  In it is a story called “For Esme- with Love and Squalor.”  My daughter would have been named Esme because of that perfectly amazing story but sadly, I got a cat when I was 20 and the cat grabbed the name first.  And then the Twilight series happened and I couldn’t stomach having people ask me if Esme was short for Renesmee.

Five favorite movies

1.  Royal Tenenbaums

2.  Breathless (Yes, the original one.  I’m a Snob.)

3.  Mary Poppins

4.  The Day After Tomorrow (This is an inside joke with myself.  No one gets my joke or why this is possibly the best movie ever.)

5.  ANY movie with Daniel Day Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep, or Marion Cotillard.  ANY spy movie.  I think everyone has a subgenre that they just die over and I’m pretty sure it’s telling about your personality.  My husband loves gambling movies.  My sister loves movies about the mob.  My dad loves movies with over the top carnage a la Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Five places I would love to travel

1.  Colombia

2.  Indonesia

3.  Australia

4.  Southern Africa

5.  To the past and future.  To meet my grandmother.  To see my children’s children’s children.

Thanks for reading all about me.  Please visit those sites I pointed out.  They’re worth it.

OK, and if you would like to participate, please click on this button, it’s so pretty!