The Nosy Meme

Nosy Meme 

Stolen from: Yeah Surveys via Sunday Stealing  Now your turn to steal it!

• Average hours of sleep:  Usually around 7 hours -- sometimes less -- sometimes more -- sometimes chunks of sleep separated by intermittent chunks of random wakefulness -- or vice versa -- but one thing is consistent: it's never enough!
• Last thing I googled: "Random Questions Memes!"  No, really!  Because I'm rather out of the blogger loop any more and these fun little post-makers don't just drop into my lap like they used to. But I like them; they're kinda fun! I hope maybe some of my old blog friends will pop by and pick this up to have some fun with, too.



They daybed side of the Summer Kitchen.

• One place that makes me happy: My little hideaway Summer Kitchen is my happy place when I need to get some study/work done or when I just need some s-p-a-c-e... Which, admittedly, is not very often. I can honestly say I've come to appreciate an existential approach to place-happiness in recent years.  I love being where I am right now most of the time.  And right now I'm in quiet, peaceful, rural Nebraska, snuggled near my husband in a cozy corner of the living room with the noise of the children competing with the soundtrack playing in the background. It's not where you are; it's who you're with.

•  How many blankets I sleep under: One comforter -- unless it's a below-zero night; then I dig out my "reserve" comforter and pile it on, too.
•  What I'm wearing right now: It's cold outside (a two-comforter night) -- and so it is, therefore, a tad chilly inside this drafty house, and I'm dressed somewhat like an Irish version of Nanuk of the North:  I've got on some black leggins and warm socks under a long black skirt, a green print butterfly shirt over a lace under-tee -- all under the heavy green cardigan Dominic and Michelle brought me back from Ireland a couple years ago. With a blanket on my lap.  I am definitely nice n snuggly.  Layers. It's all about layers in February in Nebraska -- in a hundred year old farm house.
•  Last book you read:  Common Mystic Prayer by Gabriel Diefenbach, OFM (But currently reading The Mystical Castle by St.Teresa of Avila and rereading The Endless Knot by Wm Biersach)
•  Favorite fictional character:   Well, because I just mentioned the Biersach books, I can't help but think of Martin Feeney, the sidekick to priest detective Fr. Baptiste first.  But another great favorite is Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird. (Who doesn't love Atticus?) But, while my mind starts running this way... really, there are so many more personal friends populating the halls of fiction in my mind! There's  Lizzy in Pride and Prejudice, Sam in the Tolkien series, Liesl in The Book Thief, Anne from Green Gables,Juliet and Dawsey from the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Amelia from the Elizabeth Peters series....  goodness, but the list goes on and on... I'd better quit here, huh?
•  Last movie I watched in the cinema: Old Fashioned (Loved it!)
• Dream vacation: A summer in the British Isles.  A whole summer.  Financed by some rich person with no strings attached.  I'd like a little cottage on the west coast of Ireland for a home base, but I'd love to see some of England and a lot of Wales, Ireland, and Scotland.
•  Dream wedding: Had it almost 28 years ago.  Small and simple -- lots of friends and family, not

  

  Dream wedding...
  Not dream pet.
  (Kidding.  Just kidding!)

  much fuss.
•  Dream pet: Have her already! A big, sweet, fuzzy St. Bernard named Penny who guards us all with the most
  amazing intuitiveness and care you can imagine.
•  Dream job: Published author, working from home.
• How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are? Probably about thirty.
• Which is worse, failing or never trying? Never trying!
• If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don’t like and like so many things we don’t do?  Simple.  We're not all by ourselves on the planet, free to do as we please without impacting others. Because we live with and love others, we have responsibilities to them that are just as or more important than our "dream" lists.  Working in peace and purposefulness under the restrictions placed on us by our duty to others and our moral obligations (which are closely united to those duties!), we're actually in position to find the truest contentment.  Selfish pleasures never lead to true happiness, but those things on our "dream" lists that we do get to do are all the sweeter because we've worked to fit them in and they haven't interfered with the more important things in our lives -- the people we love.

Now -- I tag any old body who would like to "steal" this meme to do so with my blessing!  Do please comment here, though, so I can come read your "Nosy" post.  Because, yeah...   I'm nosy that way!