Mundanity
Scrivener April 21st, 2008
Billie tagged me for this meme of the mundane a while back. I’ve been really sucking on responding to meme prompts, though I’ve got some half-written drafts saved in my dashboard. I’ll try to post the 6-word memoir thingie tomorrow, now that it’s totally run its course and no one’s interested anymore.
Favorite laundry detergent:
- Kirkland, the Costco brand, because it’s the cheapest.
Favorite item used for an unintended purpose:
- I’ve got an old messenger bag I used when I was a grad student that holds my “in case of emergency” kit in the car: it’s especially nice because in my case, I have defined “emergency” more in terms of “oh crap I’m stuck here by the side of the road ( or in this waiting room …, or whatever) with the kids, so now what?” so the compartments for holding office supplies are useful. It’s got notebooks and pens, a couple of bottles of water, and some of whatever kind of snacks made sense to me when I packed it. And then whatever else I could fit in the bag for more general-purpose emergency response: some rope, a rain poncho, a wind-up flashlight, that kind of thing.
- Oh, and another thing that was handy just today. When I got rid of the kids’ car seats, I kept the anchor straps that had come with them. They worked beautifully today as a tie-down for the trunk while I was transporting some bookcases I got at a friend’s moving sale, a real bargain.
Favorite way to buy music:
- I could make the standard joke–”buy music? whah?”– and it’s true that I get my share of music by downloading it from the music blogs or from friends (and recently, as preview singles or even whole albums sent by some record companies, which is pretty cool), but I have an account at eMusic so I purchase 30 songs per month. Frankly, these days there are months where the only new music I get is from my eMusic donwloads. Ok, that’s not quite true. But I’m in a stage that seems to be more about synthesizing what I’ve got than acquiring new stuff, if that makes sense.
How clean is your car?
- Pretty clean, if you mean the interior. Now, if I’d done this meme a couple of days ago, it would have been a different answer, but I cleaned out the car in order to transport those bookshelves. The exterior is filthy, but we’re in the midst of a drought, you might have heard, so I’m not concerned with washing my car. Frankly, washing the car was never an activity I was too assiduous about back when we had water anyway.
How clean is your apartment/house/room?
- Middling clean. It was very clean only a week ago but now it’s kind of in that stage of clutteredness where you can tell that it was recently clean, but that I really am not maintaining its clean state like I might.
How clean is your office?
- Much, much cleaner than it was a week ago, too. I’ve been organizing and cleaning in there when I can and now I’ve got new bookshelves to go in there and plans to turn that into a much more functional space.
Favorite weekly free time:
- In the evening, just after the kids fall asleep.
Is there a word, phrase, or gesture that is identifiably yours?
- I’ve been told that my defining gesture is a shrug, and that might be true, though I’m not certain that I can claim ownership of shrugging.
Most effective medicine for one (or more) of your ailments:
- Conversation.
A favorite thing you try to sell/push/encourage your friends to try:
- Music. Not sure which band I push more: Wilco, The National, The Mountain Goats, or Andrew Bird.
Favorite new (or new-to-you) thing: