The 7 things I would never tell my mother – NOT!

Mom is in the middle with her mod friends!I have four “serious” blog posts half edited and I haven’t found the focus to complete them. So why not veer wildly…

Elana tagged me with an ever twisting blog meme “7 Things You Would Never Tell Your Mother.” I say twisted, because Yvonne DiVita  author of Dickless Marketing and the Lipsticking Blog already twisted the meme once.
Uh, well, what if your mother reads your blog? I think my mom has at least peeked at mine. Talk about social media and boundary hopping. Elana, I’m going to twist the meme again, and try and think of others to tag who have their moms as readers. Then we’ll find out if they ARE reading.

Here is the original:  The 7 Things I Would Never Tell My Mother Meme

Here is my twist: 7 Things You Want to Tell Your Mother in a Subtle Way via Your Blog

  1. My job really isn’t overthrowing small countries. Despite what my sons say at dinner time. But I do get to work with people in many countries – this year I was face to face in 7 countries and online with people from about 12 more.
  2. I do have an offline social life. I actually just went out for coffee today with a new colleague interested in online learning. And yeah, I met her online. But she lives within 20 miles. Doesn’t that count?
  3. I do get dressed for work, just not every day. While I was in Germany last month I got dressed for 8 whole days. Yes, now I’m back to warm yoga pants, sweaters and fleece. And woolly socks. It is cold in Seattle this week.
  4. My chocolate addiction is about quality, not quantity. (It is really Larry who eats the quantity in this family. Right, Larry? Naw, I don’t think you read my blog. Do ya?)
  5. My drive to contribute to the world comes from you, Mom. You were a volunteer as long as I can remember. Now I see you volunteering later in your life, and I notice how much it energizes you and keeps you young. I hope to always follow in your generous footsteps.
  6. My ability to cook a good meal comes from you. When I was younger, you were always experimenting. You come from good cooking genes from Grammy B, and added your own California flare. I remember my friends, when we moved to Pennsylvania, always thought your West Coast cooking was quite exotic!
  7. I think you are brave moving to Seattle. I appreciate that this move is as much for us, your kids, as it is for you and dad to have less house responsibility and more time to engage with life. No more house to clean. But moving here to Seattle, because we want you near one of your three kids, is a big leap. I promise, it will be a great one and all of us are standing by to make sure that happens.

Happy Holidays – send a message out to your mom on your blog. See if she reads it. And as for tagging, let’s see:

  • Jory – Because I know your mom reads your blog!
  • Bev – I know your mom has passed away, but since she was really a blogger before her time, maybe she can still get the RSS feed in heaven (or wherever you believe her spirit resides)
  • Ashley – because you are really good at expressing love online
  • Steve – I don’t know if your mom is alive (this makes this picking a bit difficult, eh) but I expect you might say something very insightful. How’s that for pressure?
  • Jim – to see how far you will stray in your blog focus these days. 🙂

Rachel Smith tags me – 5 more things

Five Things, or Late to the Party But Hey There’s Still Beer « Ninmah Meets World

Beer? Did someone say beer? In the spirit of appeasing my twitter friends, here are five more, for Rachel. It was learning she loved to weld that made me give in. I am not sure I am going to tag anyone else. How about a variation. If you want to be tagged, leave a comment and consider yourself tagged.

1. My first job in Seattle was in a cookie factory, alternately stacking cookies for packaging or decorating holiday cookies. I lasted a week. My problems? 1. I was too tall for the assembly line and it was killing my body. 2. I worked too fast and the rest of the crew was getting pretty ticked with me.

2. I once had a role in a musical where I was on stage for most of the show but said nor sang anything. Any guesses? (hint: it was a male role. I also played a ghost for one scene. I’m a sucker for character roles.)

3. I don’t like black licorice.

4. I had my first bliss of nature in a stand of deciduous trees, loosing there autumnal beauty upon my head. I danced.

5. I have no tattoos. But I’ve thought about it!

8 Things You Don’t Know About Me

Dave Snowden tagged me over on Cognitive Edge with the “8 things you don’t know about me” meme. (Dave, thanks for the compliment of interesting-even-when-we-disagree – I feel the same about you!) I was so gobsmacked that Dave did these memes, that I’m responding, even though I often take a pass.

Like Dave, it is hard to think of things that many of you don’t know about me, especially those who have hung in as readers over the past 3.5 years of blogging. It is a revelatory medium. But heck, here it goes:

First, the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules
2. List EIGHT random facts about yourself
3. Tag EIGHT people at the end of your post and list their names
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged

Hmmm…

1. I was an exchange student for a year in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1974-75 (I still have some residual Portuguese in my brain.
2. I was in many musical theatre productions from high school through college, most often the colorful, character roles (alto, and yes, I used to tap dance too!). I had one romantic lead, but she was a feisty one (Barbera in “The Apple Tree.”)
3. I played guitar (fingerpick style) and sang in a bluegrass band in North Carolina for a number of years, mostly for beer, branch water and food.
4. I am a recovering Catholic.
5. I dislike black licorice.
6. I have a bit of fear of heights.
7. I need time for my “closet introvert” (despite the fact that I can be very extroverted, but I suspect a lot of that is learned behavior.)
8. I wanted to design and build an underwater city at one point and that led me to majoring in marine botany in university.

So who shall I torture with a tag? How about some people I don’t link to often. A little exposure can be lovely!

1. Michelle Laurie (budding blogger!)
2. Michael Clarke (international development blogger)
3. Honoria Starbuck (look at her art!)
4. Janet Ginsberg (read her germtales!)
5. Gabriela Avram (community of practice blogger)
6. Steve Dale (CoPs, community and public sector work)
7. Caren Levine (new community blogger)
8. Dave Burke (a coder blogger)

We’ll see who follows their vanity feeds and see’s the tag!

Photo by LinBow