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I’m in love with memes, even though I’m pretty terrible with passing them along. This is no exception to that rule. Which means I’ve modified the rules to suit me:

• Thank the person who gave them this award/roped them into this meme. (Thanks Bad Mummy!)
• Share 7 things about myself.
• Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who I’ve recently discovered and that I think are fantastic! I’m not very good at tagging people, so if you read this…you are tagged!

I also think it’s worth noting that seven things is really too easy. The last list I did about myself (in 2005! When I started blogging!) was 100 things. Without any further adoooo, here we go!

1. I’ve got the best boyfriend on earth. He’s the brother of a friend from Ottawa and we met at her birthday party. We started talking on the phone and the Internet and quite quickly realized that seeing each other in person quite regularly was something we wanted to do. We spent almost a year traveling between Ottawa and Toronto and then I decided that I was ready to pick up and start fresh in Toronto. And we’ve been living together ever since. I love him dearly and he doesn’t even annoy me one little bit ever.

2. I love working. I’m not a workaholic as I’m way too lazy for that. But when I have work to do that’s appreciated/that makes my brain work/that makes me feel needed I am in love! The money is of course nice, but much better is being able to communicate and collaborate and cheer each other on. And for your information, I’m on a contract right now that I LOVE TO BITS. This is big because I used to be very unhappy at work. I worked for the public service and had some very emotional and psychologically moments that affected me deeply.

3. I play World of Warcraft. In fact, I’m playing as I type this. I’ve been playing Horde since October 2006 (I think…) and I just recently started playing Alliance. I love both for different reason, but am right now really digging Alliance as it’s a whole new game. I have a level 80 druid, a level almost 80 paladin and two lowbies: a priest and a shaman. As you can tell, I love playing classes capable of healing. My favourite races to play are tauren, draenei, and night elf.  I’ve been playing Warcraft since the beginning and I love everything about it: the lore, the graphics, the everything!

4. I have gained and now lost a significant amount of weight in my 28 years on this planet. My main gain happened in university and the leadup to entering the public service. Being unceremoniously dumped added the final 20 pounds. I went to the doctor and she of course wanted me to lose weight and provided a much needed push. My little sister was also getting married and I didn’t want to be the fat sister bridesmaid. I was still a chubby sister bridesmaid, but as of the wedding I’d lost almost 50 pounds. That’s been a year now and I’ve not really made much of an effort, but thanks to changes in eating patterns my weight now starts with a two for the first time in a long time.

5. I call myself a writer these days and I’m quite happy about that. In my last list I mentioned that I wanted to call myself a writer so I’m happy to say that after five years I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that I am one! I had a bit of a rough go while I was working for the public service because I had a manager who pretty much destroyed any confidence I had about any of my skills, but since then I’ve had lots of opportunities to prove to myself and others that I can make writing happen with my fingers.

6. I love food and food related activities. I used to be an emotional eater and now I’m just an eater. And a maker. I love to make and eat things, or go out and eat things, or have someone make things for me so that I can eat them. I’m not a picky eater at all, but I’ve finally learned that I can say that I don’t prefer something and be okay with that. I’m not the biggest fan of some tofu related products (and soy can be pretty evil, more on that someday) but you deep fry it and chances are it goes in my belly. My favourite food are the wings of chickens: spicy or sweet or hot or saucy or not, I love ‘em all. And P.S. coffee rules.

7. I love my family more than anything. Perfect bookends: I started with Joe and for the finale I’ll talk about how awesome my Mom, my Dad, my little sister, and my little brother are. I have grown much closer to my family in the time that I’ve been away from Manitoba, and even more closer in the time since I was dumped. I realized then the importance of my support system and keeping it healthy. The phone and the Internet are lifelines to home and my visits are less far and few between.

Since I was just tagged in a similar meme (and wanted to prove that 7 things were just not a challenge), here is a list from 2005. I wrote it just as I was starting to make a space for herrealworld on the Internet.

This was of course before I was unceremoniously dumped. And I find #20 HILARIOUS as it shows that I didn’t even like him enough then to put him in a list other than to feel guilty about not including him sooner. #28 is also funny, but honestly I fell in lust to a mixed CD. I can’t even say that I was kissed for the first time to a mixed CD. I had to kiss him. All he said was that I had nice knuckles. And #74, ugh. Everytime I think of that camera I get mad. I didn’t get it for him for his birthday (which means I lied in this list!), I got it for him as a gift to “please love me” after he left the first time. That’s right, after he left the first time. I haven’t told you about that? Don’t worry I will sometime.

Don’t tell Clawdia and Pawylanna about #57.

Originally Posted April 30, 2005

1. She loves lists.
2. She also loves categories and order, some say its because she’s a Virgo.
3. Born in the year of the Rooster, and true to her sign, she sometimes thinks very highly of herself.
4. She likes all of the good things that horoscopes say, and worries that the bad parts are true.
5. She worries too much, but is now worried that she’ll have nothing to worry about because she’s done school.
6. But then she remembers that she can worry about finding a real job.
7. She is irritated by spelling and grammar mistakes, but has a hard time finding them in her own work.
8. She loves playing video games, especially when she can dress her characters up in pretty outfits.
9. She really doesn’t appreciate gore and violence for the sake of gore and violence, whether it be in movies, video games or anywhere else.
10. She likes the fact that this list kind of captures her mood at the moment it’s being written.
11. She knows that once she hits 100 on this list, she’ll want to add more.
12. She likes collecting things, especially things on the Internet.
13. She knows that sounds kind of strange right now, but hopes that it’ll be better understood later.
14. She hopes that you’re not too irritated about reading this list in the third person.
15. She misses her laptop, but it’s never been the same since the time she broke it while overseas.
16. She loves travelling, but hasn’t had the money to go very many exciting places.
17. She hates travelling alone, because there is no one to take pictures with her or of her.
18. Her favourite part of London was the tour of Parliament, go figure.
19. She’s also been to the United Nations Headquarters, though it was a long time ago and she doesn’t really remember it that well.
20. She’s in love, and feels a little guilty that this is the first time she’s mentioned the boyfriend.
21. She loves Canadian Beef, and so should you.
22. Unless you’re a vegetarian, in which case you should love Canadian Beef Farmers.
23. She loves sticky notes, especially ones that are multi-coloured.
24. She wants to be a writer, but worries she can’t write very well.
25. She’s a quarter of the way to 100, and she’s just getting started.
26. She has a hard time making mixed CDs because she takes too long to decide what songs should go on them.
27. It’s also because she likes coloured CDs or CDs that look like records, and doesn’t want to ruin them just in case she doesn’t like the CD.
28. She fell in love to a mixed CD.
29. She wonders if people will think it’s strange that she refers to a mixed CD like she would refer to a mixed tape.
30. She doesn’t mind it when people download music, or anything else for that matter.
31. She thinks if things were more affordable, people would be more likely to buy them.
32. She thinks that if people made more money, they’d have more money to buy things.
33. She thinks if corporations thought about people rather than money, they’d make more money because people would make more money to buy things.
34. She’s kind of a crazy lefty, but in a cowboy conservative sort of way.
35. She wishes she were more of a cowgirl.
36. She’s a budding feminist, who learned this past year she’s been a feminist her whole life.
37. When she gets married, she’s going to hyphenate.
38. She’s kind of embarrassed to admit that when she’s lazy, she’ll wear a sheet around the house.
39. She’s not afraid to admit that wearing a sheet can be very comfortable.
40. She’s a bit afraid to admit that she may or may not be wearing a sheet right now.
41. She’s an awfully bad liar.
42. She loves eating, and is coming to understand that she’d rather eat healthy than not.
43. She often finds fast food and corner store snacks to be too greasy and actually not very appetizing.
44. She walked into a McDonald’s the other day and didn’t think it smelled very good in there.
45. This may or may not have something to do with the fact that she thinks that Super Size Me is a good movie that everyone should see.
46. She also thinks that should be more movies like Hotel Rwanda.
47. The last movie she saw was Kung Fu Hustle, and really loved the parts when the Axe Gang danced.
48. She loves kung fu movies, at least the ones that are funny.
49. She thinks that any movie with subtitles is worth seeing at least once.
50. Her favourite movie of all time is about a girl and a boy who fall in love, but can’t get together in the beginning because she thinks he’s an ass and can’t get together in the middle because because she thinks he’s dead, but end up getting together in the end.
51. She’s halfway there, and she loves it!
52. She loves dogs, and wants to get one.
53. She really doesn’t think that having a pet in an apartment will be too bad, especially if it’s going to be a small pet who grows up in an apartment and is loved from the first day.
54. She also wants to get some fish, because her father loves them and she loves the glow that the tank gives off in the dark.
55. Her grandmother also had a tank full of guppies, and she loved feeding them when she was young.
56. Her grandmother also had cats.
57. She doesn’t really like cats enough to have one of her own, but in most cases likes other people’s cats.
58. She doesn’t like people or houses that smell of cats.
59. She’s got a super sonic sense of smell.
60. One of her favourite smells is fresh cut grass.
61. Another of her favourite smells is rain.
62. She grew up on a farm.
63. She wishes she had ridden horseback more when she was growing up, but didn’t because she used to be afraid of horses.
64. Now that she’s bigger than the horse, she thinks she’d do better.
65. She wants to have an herb garden on her balcony.
66. She’s excited to be moving to a new apartment within the next month.
67. She’s worried that she won’t have the money to buy the things she’d like for the new place, especially the things that are needed.
68. She wishes she had the money to buy the things that would just be nice to have.
69. She loves coloured pens and markers.
70. She wonders if you realize that when she gets a bit stuck, she looks around her desk for inspiration.
71. She returned the last of her library books over a week ago, and her desk is very empty without them.
72. She loves taking pictures, and wished that she had a better digital camera.
73. She realizes that she needs many other things right now before she needs a new digital camera.
74. Especially since she realizes that the camcorder that she got her boyfriend for his birthday last year takes fine pictures.
75. She never wants to live beyond her means.
76. She wants to start donating money to the Red Cross when she is able.
77. She’ll rip out pages of a notebook and re-write them if she doesn’t like the way that they look.
78. One of the reasons she likes blogs so much is because they do everything very orderly, and she can make them look whatever way she wants, and then change what she wants at a moments notice.
79. She wishes she were better at making webpages.
80. She also wishes that she got to swim more, because she loves it.
81. She just remembered that there is a swimming pool in the basement of her new apartment building, which makes her quite joyous!
82. Singing Christmas carols also makes her quite joyous.
83. She enjoys singing a lot, and wishes she had the self confidence to do it more often.
84. She took voice lessons.
85. She can’t wait to get a bicycle with a basket.
86. She really tried to resist the urge to say she also wants the little streamers that come out of the handlebars.
87. She really likes any kind of popcorn, but prefers the kind that comes out of an air popper at home.
88. She talks to her mom on the phone for hours on end.
89. She loves the Beatles, and can’t pick a favourite song or album.
90. She’s got a wonderful middle name that she got from her great-grandmother.
91. She misses her family dearly.
92. She’s more afraid of her loved ones dying than she is afraid of herself dying.
93. She loves it when her feet get tanned.
94. She’s a clean freak who only cleans when she’s in the mood for it.
95. She loves taking baths, in fact she’s wanting to take one right now, but needs to finish this list.
96. She can’t remember the last book she read for fun.
97. After sitting here for a while, she thinks it was Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry.
98. But she’s not sure whether she read it this past Christmas, or the Christmas before that.
99. She has a pretty good memory.
100. But she wishes it were better, which is why she’s starting to keep a paper journal. Oh, and start this blog of course.

I’ve been feeling bad about not posting much. Especially since I have a bunch of older content that I’ve been waiting like crazy to share with you all. So I made a promise to myself that I’d sit down and schedule some posts sometime this weekend, as well as write a new one on my thoughts on Mental Health Camp Toronto, an event that happened yesterday that I wasn’t able to attend in person but watched from afar on Twitter. I also plan on doing laundry, taking measurements so I can build my new bed, taking measurements for my bathroom for the lighting installation I’m doing and reorganizing the kitchen. You can bet your booties that I’m going to be blogging about all of these things, but I can’t make any promises about when any of them will get done.

Especially since my eyes are bothering me and I don’t know why.

So here is another older post. I did a search in posts for “dumped” and realized that this would make a great addition to the “On being dumped” series I did. So over the next few days you can hear my story. And today (since re-organizing the kitchen is on the list of things to do) you can hear about how I cleaned my microwave (and the way I’ve cleaned it ever since).

Originally posted: October 28, 2008

I’ve not been posting much.  But I’ve been thinking about posting a lot, which I think should count for something.

I’ve been thinking a lot about why I blog.  Lots of people thinking blogging is crazy.  Lots of people think that the internet is a scary place where I shouldn’t put personal information.  Goodness knows, someone might read this in 20 years when I’m Prime Minister and learn about all the crazy things I’ve done.  Like: clean my microwave.

I’m too lazy to look up any previous posts I’ve made on the matter, but one of my “things” is the fact that I’m ashamed of a dirty house.  There are probably many reasons for this, but the most important reason is that when my house is messy, I am sad.  Not because my house is messy, but because the cleanliness of my house is a barometer for my mental health, and dirty means down in the dumps.

Which is why cleaning the microwave warrants a blog post.

My microwave has been dirty for longer than I care to admit.  It has smelled like microwave popcorn (sometimes I wonder if I should have just spent money on an air popper, instead of a beautiful LG microwave popcorn machine) and had a little chunk of paper towel stuck to its turney-table-thingy for what seems like forever.  But today after heating up my pizza I decided that I was going to use a bit of cleaning knowledge that I’d learned from goodness knows where, and clean it.

So I put a bowl full of water in it, and turned it on for five minutes.  I then forgot about it for 20 (I was eating pizza!), but then remembered it again.  I turned it on for another five minutes, this time remembering to go and rescue it after it beeped.

Inside, everything was steamy and lovely.  And with the assistance of no cleaning product whatsoever, I was able to wipe the inside free of all of the dirt with a paper towel.  And it looked gorgeous.  And I felt better.

I’m having a particularly hard time at the moment.  Money is always a bit of an issue, more so around the time when I have to pay rent and student loans.  You would think perhaps I’d change the dates so I didn’t have to pay both at the same time, but that hasn’t as of yet happened.  Even though my iPhone brings me immense joy, I worry that I shouldn’t have bought it and instead have paid down the credit card to ensure that I’d have enough room to book a plane ticket home for the holidays.  I have to remind myself that the iPhone was purchased with “me” money, and I have to stop spending that on rent or I’m going to go even more bonkers than I already am.  And I truly love my iPhone.

It’s also hard because we’re transitioning to the season and the time when I was rather unceremoniously dumped.  I’ve not talked about this much, and I’m not sure how much I’m going to talk about it other than to say that though I’d not hoped for a parade, the decency of a goodbye might have at least respected the fact that the relationship had lasted almost seven years.  Smells bring back a lot of memories, and right now the cool crisp smell of winter coming reminds me terribly of the weeks I spent curled in a ball wishing for any life but the one I was living.

This will only be magnified by the anniversary date and magnified again by the holiday season.  The hardest part is that my love of snow and Christmas and all things magical and wintry has been tainted by the fact that it’s associated with a time in my life I’ve been doing my best to forget.

It’s times like today (even when the first glorious snowflakes are floating down to earth) that I have to celebrate the small victories, no matter how trivial they might seem.

I cleaned my microwave.