six random things

uh oh--i finally got this post together!

last week, my dear friend jessica of sacatonjune tagged me in a "six random things about you" post-game-thing. it took me awhile, but here goes.


1) i have a soft spot for war stories.

i love oliver stone's platoon (willem dafoe does it for me!) and adore the hbo miniseries band of brothers.

one of my favorite books is hemingway's for whom the bell tolls. it was one of the first books i bought on the street when i moved to new york, along with a beautiful, old copy of anna karenina. the novel is prefaced by a poignant epigraph from a john donne poem:

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every
man is a piece of the continent, a part of the
main. If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory
were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or
of thine own were: any man's death diminishes
me, because I am involved in mankind, and
therefore never send to know for whom the bells
tolls; it tolls for thee."

i am also a big fan of tim o'brien's the things they carried. i highly recommend this book if you're interested in war literature or literary journalism, since the book was based on o'brien's own experiences. you can read some of the stories online, too: "the things they carried" and "how to tell a true war story".

2) i am mildly obsessed with flowers.

see here and here and here.

i recently tried to instate a law that guests to my apartment have to bring flowers as a gift, or a sacrifice, or a... whatever. i just wanted more flowers. it didn't really work, though. or i maybe i just wasn't enforcing my new law firmly enough.

i gaze at the flowers on this site for fun and check out their blog religiously for more flowers to look at.

on ebay, the dresses i bid on are usually floral prints:


i would say that 70% of the dresses i own have a floral print. see:


3) i have a standing relationship with the sound of music.


sometimes, i not-so-secretly go on youtube and watch clips from the movie for fun. and by sometimes i mean, today, yesterday, and the day before. like this one:


and i really, really like this one.


i recently dug up video footage of myself as a 4-year-old, dancing around in circles in front of my t.v. playing this film. i have to say, i did a pretty good rendition of "i am sixteen, you are seventeen." if i can, i'll put it up on youtube and it will be a sensation.

4) i hate lentils.

5) i think it would be really awesome if someone, as a birthday gift, let me go back to being a 5-year-old for a day. or if for one birthday, i could spend the entire day in the 50s, like in that movie peggy sue got married.

will time travel make this possible? stuff was just cooler back then. i could carry my books to school and wear cute little capri pants and dance to doo wop while drinking a soda pop at the diner after school.

but if this doesn't happen, i'll settle for being in a movie set in the 50s.

i want to be the girl in the red dress:


or i should seriously be singing this song:


6) i secretly think i'm a mermaid.

and these are my brethren:

(great song, raffi. thumbs up!)

but seriously, have you seen that movie splash with daryl hannah? that's what i'm talking about.

i mean, i'm a really good swimmer, i love swimming. i am afraid of fish because i don't want to hurt them. i didn't eat seafood for 20 years in fear of being a traitor. and, i am part virgo whose icon is...the mermaid!

try googling "real mermaid". i'm having a lot of fun with it right now. to confirm my mermaid-ness, i bought a sticker book full of mermaids today. if that doesn't say something, then i don't know what does.


i tag songsintokyo, miss lauren cerand of lux lotus, and billy (just for fun)!

The 'rules' - don't mind if you follow them or not:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag new people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.