Oh Claire, how did you know I have three dogs not so patiently waiting for me to finish my coffee and take them out into the bright morning sunshine, loads of laundry to start running as we have houseguests arriving for the weekend, a proposal to finish, a brochure to finish, a final grant report to finish, emails to send, an interrupted blog post I may never finish (obvs, not the most important work of the day), a class to teach and a shower to take-- all of which is to say,

Of COURSE I'll do a meme, darling. Anything to keep me from actually accomplishing something of value or job-related.

Although, this particular meme was done recently-- I'll take a second stab. For purposes of plowing through (see to-do list above), I'm just going to mirror what you listed out. I'm not known for being a copycat, but sometimes, it's the only way--allons-y.

1. I am the fourth of five children. My most treasured childhood toy once belonged to my older sibs and by the time my younger brother and I used it-- it was rather "shabby chic."* It was a wooden tower. Once painted dark green, I imagine. When I knew it, it was weathered and chipping paint. We would play with it for hours on end in the garden behind the house. It was quite large-- probably 6 or 7 feet tall when you stood it up. We mostly kept it on its side and would crawl inside or use it for a witch's cauldron/prison.

Yes, my favorite game as a child was playing "witches." Totally made-up-- we'd play for hours upon hours.

2. I have a dark red (a blue red, not an orange red) purse I bought in Paris on my last trip. It is LaMarthe and it is the best purse ever. I also recently bought a dark red trench that I adore (Theory). And, we have a dark red teapot. Oh, and I painted a side table in the living room dark red.

3. At this point, I literally have no idea what I have shared here in these rambles and who reads it and what it all means. Don't make me think about it-- or I'll go all Derrida on your ass.

4. I have never won anything, ever, at any time, for any purpose-- not a raffle, not a sweepstakes (not that I've ever entered one), not a drawing-- nada.

5. I like film okay-- but prefer plays (books being my first love, obvs). LOVE musicals and can sing the lyrics to many-- I know this means Claire may never want to be friends with me now, but maybe she can be open-minded? I won't make HER listen to them . .

6. Hard to believe anyone shows up here more than once. That is really what boggles my mind---

7. I collect rocks. And it is a pain, because they take up a lot of shelf space that might otherwise be used for books, pictures, files-- useful things. Why I have a need to bring so many rocks into the house I'll never know-- but I'm looking at a bunch of them as I type to you and there's really no explaining it.

I tag the first 7 people who read this post. (Be honest, now). Leave a comment that you done been tagged and we'll follow you back to your site to see what you've posted.

Cheers--

*HELLO-- irony here, people. The thing was splintered, covered in peeling paint, and really, not much more than an old ladder-- er, a four-sided ladder. But still, don't think my parents much worried about lead poisoning or the precious flesh of our palms. And us? We LOVED that thing.

got 2 cents?