Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Six weird things about me

This morning, Ryane tagged me to disclose six ways in which I am weird.

This is a hard challenge -- not because I'm not weird, but mostly because it's hard to narrow it down to six peccadilloes. And also because I don't want to repeat anything I disclosed earlier.

  1. Even though I am cold all the time, I absolutely hate to put on the heat. I would rather pile on layers of clothing and walk around wrapped in a blanket. So, most days, that's what I do.

  2. I am so bad at math that, more often than not, I count on my fingers.

    Yes, I am a tax attorney.

  3. I love Christmas -- and not just the lights, the trees, and the presents. Remember though: I am, for all intents and purposes, Jewish. Yet, for some reason, I love Christmas so much so that, in high school, I used to tag along with friends to midnight mass.

    I still bake Christmas cookies (generally gingersnaps and snickerdoodles, occasionally shaped and decorated sugar cookies), and I always send Christmas cards. One year, I even made a mix CD to send out to all of my friends in lieu of a card. (My friends still, on occasion, remind me how awesome it was.)

    I really want a Christmas tree. For years, I've been trying to justify it to myself with the whole line about it really being a pagan symbol to celebrate the winter solstice, but for some reason, I can't pull the trigger. This year, I almost bought the Charlie Brown tree.

  4. I have this compulsive need to keep busy all the time. As a result, I can't just sit in front of the TV -- my hands need to be doing something.

    I think it's sort-of like how a shark will die if it stops swimming.

    So, I pick up little hobbies to keep me occupied -- like knitting, or blogging, or -- several years ago -- scrapbooking. And then, out of the blue, I'll drop it -- with no warning. So, be warned. I might eventually get bored of blogging and stop.

  5. As noted in previous posts, I tend to be obsessive about things. Not just because I catalogued my shoes, or because I arrange my clothes in the closet in color order, but how my movies and -- most importantly -- my CD's are in alphabetical order.

    At one point, I organized them by genre, but at some point, the collection got too large -- and some artists are hard to pigeonhole. Take a look at what they look like now:



    I also know that exactly five discs are not in the picture -- because they are in the CD player. They are Pet Sounds (Beach Boys), Taking the Long Way (Dixie Chicks), The Ultimate Collection (The Jackson 5), and Anthology (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) -- both discs.

    And for the record, on the bottom left are my collection of concert recordings (mostly U2, courtesy of Furthur) and on the bottom right are box sets and mix CDs. More on those at a later date.



    But the weirdest thing:


  6. I don't organize my books. At all. I just put them on the shelf.


So, I should tag other people to do this now, right?

Mad's already done it, though -- in haiku form. And I'd tag Inbal, but she never blogs anymore anyway. So, I guess I designate Justin, Scarlet, Needtsza, and Evil Spock. Oh, and anyone else who wants to do it.


13 comments:

mad said...

OMG!!! You don't organize your books?

If you want a Christmas tree, you should get a Christmas tree. But be sure to get one with that piney, outdoor smell.

DSL said...

It's probably not so weird that you love Christmas considering how many Jews in America celebrate it.

I'm the most unorganized person on earth (except possible people with hoarding disease), but I love to organize books. I would be a happier person if I were more organized but right now it involves more time than I have.

dara said...

Mad: I think I would if I had more room for them. As it is, I just squeeze them into the bookcases wherever they fit.

I dream of having enough rooms one day to have an office/library. And a media room with a big TV and surround sound.

Similarly, I dream of having enough room for a Christmas tree.

Debby: I think the weird thing is how un-cynical my love of Christmas is. I can't wait to get the orange in my stocking this year!

Organizing things makes me happy. I clean off my desk every day before I go home.

Anonymous said...

Argh! I hate these! I guess it'll make for a pretty easy blog entry. How many people do I need to tag, and how do they know they've been tagged?

dara said...

Evil Spock: Sorry! I had never been tagged before. I just tagged people that I thought would write interesting blog posts on the subject. Ryane tagged 4, so I did too. But I don't think you have to tag a set number, or even anyone, for that matter.

I think you only know that you've been tagged if you read it, or if you're told.

Miss Scarlet said...

Whatever, I LOVE to be tagged:)

And I'm the same way with the CDs vs Books. Actually, my CDs are in alpha order and my books are more in subject/theme order. One time I put my CDs in order of release date...yeah, I know.

Anonymous said...

I have you way beat in the obsessive department.

For example, I scanned every picture I took with a film camera - something like 70 rolls spanning about 10 years. I scanned every last one of them, even the ones that were bad (blurry, end of roll, etc).

Then, I set up a database and put in data for every single picture. I put in date, time, location, subject, and notes, and I categorized every single picture. This took months to finish, but it's done (and I have SEVERAL backups, using different media). Now, I can access any picture I've taken by searching, or by looking in the category, on my laptop or at home on my desktop (or, if I'm feeling really crafty, anywhere with a net connection is possible).

I keep it up with my digital camera's pictures, too, although it's quite a bit easier since I don't have to scan and because the camera puts the date/time and other information in the EXIF data. But there's still data to enter for each one.

This is just one example. When I get an idea of how to do something, I just kind of latch on to it and don't let go until it's done. :)

Anonymous said...

Hey Dara, I finished writing my meme. You'd better at least comment when it gets posted tomorrow!

dara said...

Evil Spock: I'll try. And this one wasn't so bad, right?

Ryane said...

Dara, Haha. Good list...I don't organize my CD's at all...but my books and shoes--always orderly. =-) Thanks for the tag. I will try and get to that later today when I have my iPod with me...

Anonymous said...

Hi Dara. T'wasn't bad at all, I was just giving you a hard time. Perhaps some of your acolytes will end up visiting my blog because of it!

Anonymous said...

I too am a Jew enthralled with Christmas. I just like the shiny and the pretty - what can I say?

Beakerz said...

I missed it til now. Tagged, I'm it.

I'll get on it!