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8 Things I am Passionate About:

1. My children
2. My husband
   
3. Childbirth
4. Reading
5. My religion
6. Music
7. Nature
8. Word games
   

8 Songs I Could Listen to Over and Over Again and Never Get Sick of:

1. Constellations ~ Jack Johnson
2. Santa Monica ~ Everclear
3. Blackbird ~ anyone, though my dad's version is my favorite
   
4. The Spangle-Maker ~ Cocteau Twins
   
5. Better People ~ Xavier Rudd
6. 1/1 ~ Music for Airports, Brian Eno
7. When You See a Hot Dog Flower ~ Angela Johnson
8. Follow The Prophet ~ Elizabeth Johnson
   

The Past 8 Books I Have Read:

1. The Wide Window
   
2. The Magician's Nephew
3. A Passage to India
   
4. Nights of Rain and Stars
   
5. The Host
   
6. Book of a Thousand Days
   
7. The Omnivore's Dilemma
8. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
   

8 Things I Say Often:

1. "Does that make sense?"
2. "Time for a time out!"
3. "No," usually in response to a question that begins "Do you remember...?"
4. "Too many cooks make light work!"
5. "For crying out loud!!"
   
6. "What shall we hang, the holly or ourselves?"
   
7. "When it rains, it snows."
8. "I love you too."
   

8 Things That Attract Me to a Friend:

1. Honesty
2. Wittiness
3. Haiku and limerick ability
4. Intellectual capacity
5. Level of culture
6. Openness
7. Understanding of and appreciation for grammar
   
8. A belief in mysticism, even if it is very slight
   

8 Random Things About Me:

1. I don't mind cleaning toilets, but doing the dishes drives me absolutely crazy.
2. My favorite parts of the natural world are waterfalls. My next favorite are forests.
3. I would appreciate a taco at 2 am more than just about any other thing I can think of. But I don't think my love language is food.
4. I'm frustrated by my utter inability to find someone -- anyone -- with similar tastes in music, film, and literature. Really, people. I know I'm not the weird one here.
5. My favorite word right now is "liturgy," but I have no occasion to use it.
6. I very rarely dream at night anymore. I haven't since my children are born. I'm kind of worried about that.
7. I'm still proud of that time we played Boggle, and I was doing so well that we made a rule that I could only put down five-letter words, and I still did great. That was fun, but now no one wants to play Boggle with me.
8. I dilute my chocolate ice cream with milk and mash it into a kind of thick milkshake in my bowl. I love chocolate ice cream, but I can't eat it any other way.

8 Things I Want to Do Before I Die:

1. Be in an ensemble for a musical. No starring roles, just onstage, singing with the company.
2. Go to Italy.
3. Hear Dr. Michel Odent speak in person.
4. Get a Masters degree.
5. See a bald eagle and a male kestrel in the wild.
6. Hike The Subway or The Narrows and the Havasupai trail.
   
7. Attend a doula conference.
   
8. Tune my cello without fear.
   

8 Things I Have Learned This Past Year:

1. If you aren't honest with yourself, you cannot be honest with anyone about anything.
2. I can successfully plan and pull off a huge conference event! But I don't want to do it ever again!
3. I am a pretty good doula.
4. My gut instinct/intuition is usually correct.
5. I am unusual in ways I never before suspected. I experience the world in a way that is largely unique. Most people don't have the same perspective or connections I have. I never imagined this was so.
6. The key to survival is not doing everything yourself: it's delegation.
7. Very small things, when kept bottled up, can become painful at best and insurmountable at worst.
8. You can't ever assume that you know what someone else is thinking or feeling. Always ask.
   

People I Tag:

I'd love to read your responses. If you'd like to do this fun exercise in exposure and self-indulgence, please do! Just let me know in my comments so I can read your answers.