Random Dozen, December 2nd

1. Which Wizard of Oz character are you most like? 

Dorothy.  Most definitely.  I live in a windswept and tornado-prone prairie. I have chickens and a little foofoo dog (though her name is Brigid, and she's a Bichon, not a terrier). I'm on my way somewhere mysterious, but wonderful, and I always have a ragtag group of "helpers" following me around.    And it may not have been my fairy Godmother that told me, but I know that there is "no place like home," and that it's all about the shoes.

2. When you're deciding what you're going to wear each morning, which item do you select first? Why?

 I decide whether it's a "skirt day" or a "jeans day," depending upon how much strenuous and/or outdoor work I need to do.  Then I decide whether I need long sleeves or short sleeves or a sweater.  Then I determine which one of those I wear dependent upon how fat I feel that morning.  Then I choose socks to match. 

3. What kind of animal do you think the world could live without? 

Mosquitoes.  What possible good do they do, I ask you?  Frogs and bats have plenty of flies to get them by without mosquitoes.  Nothing and nobody else wants or needs them.  They exist only to drive us nuts.  In fact, the only use I can think of for mosquitoes is to get souls out of purgatory by offering up the itchy bites.  (Which, I guess is a pretty good use, now that I'm thinking about it...)

4. How many Christmas trees are in your home?
We haven't put them up yet.  But, by the time we're all done, there will be at least nine or ten -- all around our Nativity Scene.

5. Would you prefer to be emotionless if it mean you didn't have to feel a heartbreak?
No.  I'm all about emotion and heartbreak.  The flipside of heartbreak is joy; the flipside of tears is tenderness.  Our Lord opened the gates of Heaven with heartbreak.

6. Do you ever experience holiday let-down or depression?
Never.  We don't celebrate Christmas until Christmas Day and the twelve days after that, which bring us to the Epiphany.  So, none of us is sick of Christmas when Jesus' birthday actually gets here.  Half the fun of Advent is the expectation of all the fun stuff we get to do together between Christmas and New Years!  And, then, when all that fun is over, we get out the gardening catalogues.

7. Do you like Michael Jackson's music?

Now, that is an interesting question.  I think of Michael Jackson as a very sorry little man, and I pray for the repose of his soul. But, his music?  So many years have passed since I'd really listened to any of his music, that my first instinct a few weeks ago would have been to say, "Eww."  But, I have to be honest.  Since so much of his music is being aired these days, I've caught myself singing and tapping my feet to it.  I was a teeny-bopper and young adult during his greatest fame, so I know all the words to his hits.  And, actually.  Some of them are pretty durn good.  If you were around when "Thriller" came out, you can't help but like it, I think. (Unless you're more high-brow than I am, anyways...)

8. Why is it that we never judge people who have their teeth fixed for cosmetic reasons, but every other cosmetic procedure has a stigma?
Well, first of all, I would think that many people are "put off" because of the incredible expense incurred when these surgeries are performed.  Money most of us need for just getting by.  And, seriously, now. Much of the surgeries done out there  don't just suggest vanity; they define it. It seems that having our noses fixed or our wrinkles smoothed is tampering with God's work. And most of us have our hands full just perfecting our inner selves, without obsessing about our noses or our figures. But having our teeth straightened seems more like fixing an accident of nature.Our smiles are so important!  They're our introduction to the world -- and we're often (rightly or not) judged by them.   And your dentist (and especially your orthodontist) will tell you that crooked teeth affect your bite, which can cause alignment problems, headaches, and tmj.

9. Enjoy horseback riding?

I really do enjoy horseback riding, though we've never owned a horse.  Dan and I went to a horse riding camp for our nineteenth anniversary, so we could decide whether or not we wanted to invest in horses for the family.  We loved the horses, and both of us caught on to riding with no trouble -- but we didn't enjoy the whole experience enough to justify the expense of it all.  Oh, my word, are horses expensive!  Saddles (Oh, my gosh!  Check out some prices here!), tack, ferrier bills, vet bills, high quality hay...  Expensive.  Maybe someday if the economy improves and we hit the jackpot, we'll invest in horses.  But, for right now, all our animals are specifically useful -- for protection, or for the table. 

10. Shoes--practical or stylish?
Both, if possible.  But, if it has to be one or the other, in my middle age, I always go for comfort.

11. What was the name of your first pet? Feel free to post a pic.

My first pet was a black cat named Rascal.  I got to pick him out of a litter for my tenth birthday, and I got to name him, but after that, he and I had very little to do with one another.  Rascal was an aloof, marauding-the-neighborhood kind of cat that had very little use for a silly ten-year-old girl.

12. What percentage of your Christmas shopping is done?
I'd say I was between 1/2 and 3/4 done.  But, I'm going out today to do some shopping and hope to get almost all the way there.  I hate having the shopping hanging over my head in the last weeks of Advent!

 

 

 

For more answers to this week's Random Dozen, check in on Linda at Second Cup of Coffee